Use of own domain name with Office 365 Home/Premium

Until a few days ago MS offered an Outlook Premium service that included support for custom domains, ...

Anyway, MS did roll Outlook Premium into Office 365 EXCEPT for the custom domain support. Very frustrating. They obviously don't get it or don't care.

They first discontinued domains from Live,

now they discontinued it from Outlook Premium.

how much faith (or hope) in them do you have left?

We can complain and think about the reasons why domains is not available but I think it has been long enough (almost 3.5 years) to say that it is not happening and we should move on using other services that will help us to achieve what we need. Move on.

Until a few days ago MS offered an Outlook Premium service that included support for custom domains, ad free email, plus a few other features (with a maximum of fiver users) So between O365 Family subscription and this service one could essentially have a setup that worked with a custom domain. I always thought that Outlook Premium would at some stage become part of Office 365. It never made sense to me that paying Office subscribers had to deal with ads in Outlook online, for example. I do still think that offering email with custom domain support (with limits; say up to 5 users) makes sense for family subscriptions. Anyway, MS did roll Outlook Premium into Office 365 EXCEPT for the custom domain support. Very frustrating. They obviously don't get it or don't care.

Among my colleagues at work and friends, there are not so many who are using family domains. I asked some of them and they say they do not care and that is important only if you are a business. They see it more of the show-off, hobby, nerd, enthusiast thing. But lets exaggerate and say that 10% of all home users do. Now compare that to the amount of business customers. MS does not even bother.

That's wrong, imho. My family uses the same email addresses since 15 years. The providers have changed a couple of times since then, our addresses stayed the same. I do not want to stick with a provider, only because I then would have to choose a new email address.

And yes, I am willing to pay some extra money for custom domain support, although it is not a big thing for Microsoft to offer it free of charge. But I am certainly not willing to pay 600€ instead of 60€ per year for private use. So it is up to Microsoft to distinguish those two offers more.

Best regards

What is that I am wrong about? Is it that there is a big market for home domains? The thing that you and I and some 1000 people are using domains for family usage does not make it a big market.

it is not a big thing for Microsoft to offer it free of charge

yes, tell that to the shareholders.

Since the domain is very important for you, I am pretty sure you will find a way of achieving what you need outside O365, especially that you have done that already a couple of times before. It is not fun but what can you do? You weight the price and features and make a choice. There are quite a few options out there.

We can complain and think about the reasons why domains is not available but I think it has been long enough (almost 3.5 years) to say that it is not happening and we should move on using other services that will help us to achieve what we need. Move on.

...it seems to me that MS might be about to loose my subscription.

Too sad.

I pick the tools that keep me productive and are cost effective. I am not too loyal to any company.

Among my colleagues at work and friends, there are not so many who are using family domains. I asked some of them and they say they do not care and that is important only if you are a business. They see it more of the show-off, hobby, nerd, enthusiast thing. But lets exaggerate and say that 10% of all home users do. Now compare that to the amount of business customers. MS does not even bother.

That's wrong, imho. My family uses the same email addresses since 15 years. The providers have changed a couple of times since then, our addresses stayed the same. I do not want to stick with a provider, only because I then would have to choose a new email address.

And yes, I am willing to pay some extra money for custom domain support, although it is not a big thing for Microsoft to offer it free of charge. But I am certainly not willing to pay 600€ instead of 60€ per year for private use. So it is up to Microsoft to distinguish those two offers more.

Best regards