The honest answer is: technically yes, but it usually isn't worth it.
There are email hosting providers that charge a one-off fee or very low monthly rates — sometimes as little as a pound or two per month. There are also ways to set up a domain email that forwards to a free inbox. So paying a proper monthly subscription for email can be avoided.
But here's what that typically costs you.
The deliverability problem
I've seen the downside of cheap email hosting firsthand. A client switched to a budget provider to avoid the monthly cost. Their emails were being blocked — specifically flagged by Mailgun's filtering systems. They had no idea. Emails they'd sent simply weren't arriving, and they only found out when they followed up with people who had no memory of the original message.
This is the real risk. Cheap email hosting often shares infrastructure — specifically, IP addresses — with other senders. If those senders have poor reputations, the whole IP block can get flagged. Your legitimate emails get caught in the same filter, even when you've done nothing wrong.
There's no warning. Your emails appear to send successfully. They just never arrive.
What you're actually paying for with a proper provider
Microsoft 365 starts from around £5–6 per user per month. You get strong deliverability, built-in spam and security protection, and the full Microsoft suite — Word, Excel, Teams, OneDrive.
You're not just paying for an email address. You're paying for a platform whose entire reputation depends on your emails landing. That's worth more than the few pounds you'd save with a budget provider.
The NC Digital option
We set up professional business email from £10 per month, including the full setup and configuration. Find out exactly what's included.
Read more about how much a professional email address costs or see what's included in Microsoft 365 for small businesses.