How to Use Switchweb for Email Only While Hosting on Wix, Squarespace or Lovable

If your website already lives on Wix, Squarespace, Lovable or a similar platform, you don’t need to buy email through them too. A growing number of new Switchweb customers keep their website exactly where it is and switch only their email over to us, taking advantage of our low-cost, generous mailboxes on UK servers. This guide walks through why so many people do this, and exactly how to set it up without touching your existing website.

Why separate your website and your email?

Website builders like Wix and Squarespace are popular for what they do: drag-and-drop design, templates and a simple publishing workflow. Email, however, is usually an afterthought bolted on through a Google Workspace reseller arrangement, and it’s priced accordingly. Lovable, meanwhile, is built for creating and deploying web apps and doesn’t offer any email hosting at all, so anyone building a site there has to look elsewhere for a professional inbox regardless.

Splitting the two isn’t a compromise. Your domain’s DNS settings allow website traffic and email traffic to be handled by two completely different providers at the same time, with no conflict and no visible change for your visitors. You keep your site builder for what it’s good at, and you get proper email hosting, at a fraction of the price, from a provider that specialises in it.

The benefits of using Switchweb for email only

Lower cost, whether you need one mailbox or twenty

Wix and Squarespace both sell email through Google Workspace, priced per mailbox, typically from around £5 to £7 a month, per person, once discounts end. A team of five is looking at £300 to £400 a year just for email, on top of whatever the website plan costs.

Switchweb’s Lite email package starts from £29 a year and includes two mailboxes on your domain, each with its own generous 10GB of storage, ideal if you just need you@yourdomain.com and info@yourdomain.com. If your team is bigger, or you want to add mailboxes freely as you grow, the Enterprise+ package gives you unlimited mailboxes on your domain from £69 a year, still typically far cheaper overall than paying per mailbox through a Google Workspace reseller plan once you get beyond two or three people. For the full breakdown of plans and mailbox allowances, see our guide to unlimited email hosting.

Generous, flexible mailboxes

Every mailbox includes 10GB of storage as standard, with the option to add more in 10GB blocks if anyone needs it. Depending on your package, you can create as many mailboxes as your business needs, add new starters, retire old ones, or set up shared inboxes like info@ or sales@, all through your own control panel without needing to raise a support ticket with your website builder.

You’re not locked in

If you ever decide to move your website away from Wix, Squarespace or Lovable, your email stays exactly where it is. Because it’s already hosted separately, there’s nothing to migrate and nothing to disrupt. Compare that to email tied directly into your website builder, where changing platforms can mean changing your email provider too, often at an inconvenient moment.

UK-based hosting and support

Switchweb’s mailboxes are hosted on UK servers, with support handled by a UK-based team rather than routed through a reseller relationship. If something needs sorting, you’re speaking to the people who actually run the mail servers.

Full email features, not just an inbox

Every account includes IMAP, POP3 and SMTP access, so it works with Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or any mobile mail app. Calendar and contact syncing is built in through CalDAV and CardDAV, along with spam and virus filtering, forwarding, autoresponders and webmail access from any browser. Existing mailboxes can be brought across using our in-house email migration tool, so switching over doesn’t mean losing your history.

Cost comparison at a glance

Prices for third-party services change over time, so it’s always worth checking current rates directly with the provider before comparing. If you also want to weigh business email hosting against Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 more broadly, including collaboration features like Docs and Teams, see our comparison guide.

How to move your email to Switchweb, step by step

The process below assumes your website will stay exactly where it is. You’re only changing where your email is handled.

1. Create a Switchweb account and purchase a package

Sign up for a Switchweb account and choose an email hosting package, Lite if two mailboxes will cover you, or Enterprise+ if you want unlimited mailboxes on your domain. (All our Switchweb website hosting plans can be used as email only).

2. Create your mailboxes in the Switchweb control panel

Once your account is active, log in to the control panel and create a mailbox for each address you need, such as you@yourdomain.com or info@yourdomain.com. Set passwords, storage allowances and any forwarding rules at this stage.

3. Migrate your existing email, if you need to

If you already have mailboxes with another provider, this step is optional but recommended. Switchweb’s email migration tool copies your existing messages, folders and, where supported, contacts and calendars across, so nothing gets lost in the switch.

4. Change your domain’s nameservers to Switchweb

Nameservers control which company manages your domain’s DNS settings. Pointing them to Switchweb gives you access to our DNS zone editor, where the changes in the next step are made. This step doesn’t move your website; it simply hands DNS management over to us. If you’re not sure what nameservers do, our guide to nameservers covers it in plain English.

4b. OR change DNS records to point to Switchweb

Make sure you set the MX record, DMARC, DKIM and SPF records.

5. Set your DNS records to point your website back to your existing provider

With your nameservers now managed by Switchweb, you’ll add MX records pointing to Switchweb (so your email works) and then add the A, CNAME or other records your website builder specifies, so your website traffic continues to go to Wix, Squarespace, Lovable or wherever it’s hosted. Each platform publishes the exact records it needs; your Switchweb welcome email and control panel will guide you through entering them. If DNS is new territory, our beginner’s guide to DNS explains how the different record types work.

Will this affect my website or my SEO?

No, provided the records for your website are entered correctly in step five. Your website continues to be served from Wix, Squarespace or Lovable exactly as before; only the mail-related records change. There’s normally a short window while DNS changes propagate, typically a few hours, during which it’s sensible to avoid making other changes to your domain. Search engines don’t rank based on where your email is hosted, so there’s no SEO downside to making this switch.

Do I need to be technical to do this?

Not particularly. The mailbox creation and migration steps are handled entirely through the Switchweb control panel with no technical knowledge required. The DNS step is the only part that involves copying and pasting a few records, and our support team is on hand if you’d rather have a second pair of eyes on it before you save any changes.

Get started

If you’re paying per mailbox through your website builder and it’s starting to add up, moving your email to Switchweb is usually a same-day job with no disruption to your site. Take a look at our email hosting plans to find the right package, or get in touch if you’d like a hand planning the switch.

Related reading

• Unlimited Email Hosting: the full picture on Switchweb’s mailbox allowances and pricing beyond the Wix, Squarespace and Lovable comparison above.
• Business Email Hosting vs Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365: a broader comparison, useful if collaboration tools like Docs or Teams are also part of your decision.