Guide · Business email

Business email on your domain,
Google or Microsoft.

An address like info@yourbusiness.ca costs under $10 per user per month, and it changes how your quotes and invoices are received. This guide compares the two services small businesses usually compare, using Canadian prices from the vendors' own pages as of September 2026, and walks through the four DNS records that make the email actually arrive.

Published 2026-09-21 · Formory Group

The short answer.

For one to five people who mostly need email, a calendar and file storage, both work. Google Workspace Business Starter is CA$9.20 per user per month on an annual plan. Microsoft 365 Business Basic is CA$9.50 per user per month, paid yearly. Microsoft also sells email-only Exchange Online (Plan 1) at CA$5.40.

Pick the one whose apps your team already uses. If everyone lives in Word and Excel desktop apps, Microsoft makes sense. If you already use Gmail and Google Docs, Workspace will feel familiar on day one. Either way, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC; they are easy to skip and matter more than the choice of vendor.

Current Canadian prices.

Google Workspace, from Google's Canadian pricing page, prices in CAD, per user per month, before tax. With a one-year commitment: Business Starter $9.20, Business Standard $18.40, Business Plus $28.70. Month to month, the same plans are $11, $22 and $34.40. Starter includes 30 GB of pooled storage per user; Standard includes 2 TB and adds appointment booking pages and meeting recording.

Microsoft 365, from Microsoft's Canadian plans page, per user per month, paid yearly, plus tax: Business Basic $9.50 (web and mobile Office apps, 1 TB storage), Business Standard with Copilot $31.90 (adds desktop Office apps), Business Premium with Copilot $43.40. The Exchange Online page lists Plan 1, email only, at $5.40.

Both vendors run introductory discounts that change often. Compare the regular price, not the first three months.

Why a gmail.com address costs you.

Nothing stops anyone from creating a free address that looks like yours. A customer who receives a quote from torontoroofingpro@gmail.com has no way to tell it apart from a copy made by someone else. An address on your own domain is tied to a website they can visit, and only you control who can send from it.

You also cannot authenticate a free address as your business. SPF, DKIM and DMARC, described below, are records you publish on your own domain. Google's sender guidelines require every sender to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. With a free address, those decisions belong to the mail provider, not to you.

The last reason is practical. If an employee leaves, a company mailbox stays with the company. A personal Gmail they set up for the business leaves with them.

Where your email is stored.

If you handle health, legal or financial information, you may be asked where your email lives. Microsoft's data residency terms say that for a tenant provisioned in Canada, Exchange Online mailbox content is stored at rest in that geography.

Google Workspace lets admins on eligible plans choose a data region, but the options are the United States, Europe or no preference. Canada is not one of them, and Business Starter is not among the eligible editions. That does not make Workspace unlawful to use in Canada; it means you cannot promise a client their emails stay in Canada. Our guide to booking software for clinics covers what Ontario's health privacy law actually requires.

Setup, record by record.

You make these changes at whoever hosts your domain's DNS, usually the company you bought the domain from. You need access to that account, which is one more reason the domain should be registered to you.

MX records tell the internet where to deliver your mail. Google's MX instructions use a single record, smtp.google.com with priority 1, and tell you to remove old MX records; they note changes can take up to 72 hours. Microsoft's admin centre gives you your own MX value during domain setup.

SPF is one TXT record listing who may send mail for your domain. Google's SPF record is v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all. Microsoft's SPF record for Microsoft-only email is v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all. Only one SPF record is allowed per domain; two records cause SPF to fail. If your website form or invoicing tool also sends as your domain, its include goes into the same record.

DKIM adds a signature to each message. In Google Workspace you generate the key under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Authenticate email; Google recommends a 2048-bit key and the selector google, and you publish it as a TXT record at google._domainkey. Microsoft 365 uses two CNAME records, selector1 and selector2, and you then turn signing on.

DMARC tells receivers what to do when SPF and DKIM fail, and sends you reports. Google's DMARC guidance says to wait 48 hours after SPF and DKIM, then start with p=none at _dmarc.yourdomain.ca and a reporting address. Tighten the policy once the reports show all your legitimate mail passing.

The website connection.

A website contact form is a common place for authentication to break. Some website builders and form plugins send form notifications as if they came from your domain, from their own servers. If those servers are not in your SPF record, the notification lands in spam or never arrives, and you lose the enquiry without knowing it existed.

After you set up email, fill in your own contact form and check that the message arrives in the inbox, not the spam folder. Do the same after any website change. It is also worth putting the same domain address on your website, your Google Business Profile and your invoices, so a customer sees one consistent name. If you are starting from scratch, register the business name and the domain together.

Sources.

Before you ask.

How much does business email cost in Canada?

As of September 2026, Google Workspace Business Starter is CA$9.20 per user per month on an annual plan, and Microsoft 365 Business Basic is CA$9.50 per user per month paid yearly. Microsoft's email-only Exchange Online Plan 1 is CA$5.40.

Can I keep using Gmail with my own domain?

Yes, through Google Workspace. You get the Gmail interface with an address on your own domain, which is different from a free gmail.com account.

Do I need SPF, DKIM and DMARC for a small business?

Google requires every sender to Gmail accounts to have SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders to have all three. For a small business it is a handful of DNS records, and it makes your domain much harder to impersonate.

Does Google Workspace store data in Canada?

Google's data region options are the United States, Europe or no preference, on eligible plans. Microsoft stores Exchange Online mailbox content in Canada for tenants provisioned in Canada.

Your turn

Same check,
run on your site.

The check behind this page is the one we ran on every business above. Put your own address in and it will load your site on a phone screen, look at the certificate and the page age, and tell you what a visitor meets. No email, nothing stored.

Check my website free Read the full GTA report

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straight answer.

Describe the business and where it works. We come back with what we would change, what it would cost and how long it takes — or with a reason not to bother.

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Business email on your domain,Google or Microsoft.