Get online
Get online
Your web address, your email, your hosting and your Google profile — each in your own name.
Account-control and Business Profile eligibility wording corrected 7 November 2026. Provider prices retain the earlier check date and must be checked before purchase.
Choose the accounts you need, keep them under your control and maintain renewals. Paid business email is optional; a Google Business Profile is optional and only for eligible businesses.
- 4 You · 100%
- Business email£5.9
Your web addressYouAbout $5 a year for .co.uk and $10.50 for .com at Cloudflare; about $52–$58 a year for .je at Spaceship or Dynadot. Prices vary by registrar — check before you buy.
The name people type to find you. Register it in your own or your business’s name and retain control of the registrar account. Registration must be renewed and remains subject to the registry’s rules, provider terms and any applicable disputes. Choose a registrar (the company that sells addresses) and search for the name you want. Buy it in your own or your business’s name, with an email address you will keep. Turn on auto-renew and two-step sign-in, keep payment and recovery details current, and check renewal notices. These reduce risk but do not guarantee that a registration cannot lapse or be suspended.
Business emailYouGoogle Workspace Business Starter is about £5.90 per person a month and Microsoft 365 Business Basic about £4.60–£5.75, on a yearly plan, before tax. Microsoft changed its prices in July 2026 — check the current figure.
An address at your own name — or, to start, any address you already have. Your mailbox holds your customers’ messages, so it is yours alone — I never need to be inside it. Choose a provider from the list above and sign up with your web address — or, to start, keep the address you already have. They ask you to prove the address is yours by adding a few records to it. Create a mailbox for each person who needs one.
Hosting, if not with meYouFrom free to about $20 a month for a site like this, depending on the provider and on whether its plan allows a business site.
Care and Care+ are optional. If you would rather run your site on a hosting account of your own, that account is yours — in your name, paid by you — and I put the site on it. Choose a provider below and sign up in your business’s name. Check the plan allows a business site: Vercel’s free Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use only. Turn on two-step sign-in, as with every account here.
Google Business ProfileYouFree.
An optional way for eligible businesses to appear on Google Maps and in local search. It is free, but eligibility and continued access depend on Google’s rules. It is not required to launch a website; online-only businesses are generally not eligible. Check Google’s eligibility rules first: businesses generally need in-person contact with customers. Skip this step if you are not eligible or do not want a profile. If eligible and useful to you, create or claim the profile with a Google account you will keep. Verify it the way Google asks — it can take a few days.
Keep going
- Build it yourself, firstThe order for founders who build their own product: the address, email, hosting and credits — before the company, before the first sale.Open
- Start a companyForm a limited company: who it needs, its office, its rules, the application — and everything that follows, in order.Open
- Sole trader or company?What each costs you in tax, what each costs to run, and the one question that usually decides it: will you keep money in the business?Open
- All of it, in orderPlan my start draws every journey you need, for your place, with your costs.Plan my start
Words in this journey:Corporate services providerLimited company