Email hosting for .ca domain

January 8, 2025 7:39 AM

I own a .ca domain that I is registered with Netfirms.ca. They offer mail through Google Workspace, but it's pretty expensive at +$100 per year and has many features I do not want or use. My .com domains emails are hosted by Pair for $20 a year. Are there other alternatives for hosting email for a .ca domain? Also, I'm not sure my phrasing is correct...

Is "email hosting" even what I should be searching for? I check my domains (mostly .coms) via a gmail interface — all in one space — that I've provided username, server, and password to. I'd like to do the same with my .ca. Thanks!

posted by dobbs to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

E-mail services that let you use your own domain don't care whether it's a .ca domain, .com domain, or .razzmatazz domain. You set up the mail-hosting details with your domain-name registrar, which admittedly can be a persnickety bit of administrivia, but it's just a recipe you need to follow.

You can go to Google and set up your own Google Workspace account if you want to; it's US$6/person/month (so not that different from what Netfirms is quoting you—they're probably saving you the trouble of the nameserver configuration mentioned above). You'll get those "services you don't need or want" whether you go through Netfirms or Google directly.

The big mail-hosting specialists that I know of are Fastmail and Protonmail; I'm currently at Fastmail (after having previously used Google Workspace) and have no real complaints.

When you have a gmail account, you can set it up to fetch mail from other accounts and to send through those other accounts (Fastmail does too, fwiw). It sounds like that's what you're doing. Unless you're using a mail service that for some reason blocks Google from doing that (Protonmail has a special focus on privacy & security, so maybe they do…? Someone else can chime in), you should be able to do that with the mail on your new domain.
posted by adamrice at 8:05 AM on January 8

+1 Fastmail.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 8:22 AM on January 8 [1 favorite]

If you're happy with pair.com and want to keep everything in one place, you should be able to transfer your domain there. Note that you do need to wait 60 days after the domain was first registered before you can transfer it.
posted by sriracha at 8:46 AM on January 8

Response by poster: E-mail services that let you use your own domain don't care whether it's a .ca domain, .com domain, or .razzmatazz domain.

Depends on the service. Pair only lets you have email on domains registered with them.

If you're happy with pair.com

Pair does not support .ca. Many registrars do not. I've already asked them.

Thanks. Will check out Fastmail!
posted by dobbs at 10:45 AM on January 8

I use Fastmail email services for several domains that are registered with Joker. There are a number of steps to configuring the MX records for spam control, but Fastmail walked me through them. They've always provided great service.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:05 AM on January 8