Leaving Microsoft 365 for email: the three-step move
If you pay Microsoft per person mostly for email on your domain, or your old Outlook.com custom address is stuck in a plan Microsoft no longer sells, here is how to move to mailboxes you pay for once, with your old mail coming along. No shell commands, no passwords to copy.
Who this is for
| Your setup | Worth moving? |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic or Exchange Online, used almost only for email | Yes: you pay per person for something you can pay for once |
Extra seats just for info@, billing@ or support@ | Yes: addresses that are not people should not cost a seat |
| A personalised address on Microsoft 365 Personal or Family (the old Outlook.com custom domain) | Yes: Microsoft stopped new ones in 2023, and one removed cannot be added back |
| A team that lives in Teams, SharePoint, Word and Excel online | Keep Microsoft, or keep the seats that need it and move the shared addresses |
What it costs
Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $7 per user per month on an annual plan since July 2026, more if you pay month to month. FounderMail charges for the account, not for people, and has a free plan.
| Addresses | Microsoft 365 Business Basic | FounderMail |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person, 3 addresses | $7 to $21 a month | Free |
| 3 people, 6 addresses | $21 to $42 a month | $4 a month (Plus) |
| 10 people, 15 addresses | $70 to $105 a month | $12 a month (Pro) |
The range on the Microsoft side depends on whether your shared addresses are free shared mailboxes or paid seats; shared mailboxes cannot be signed in to directly over IMAP or SMTP. On FounderMail every address is a real mailbox with its own login, on every plan.
Why FounderMail
- One price for the account. Unlimited addresses on your domain, a mailbox for each person and each role.
- An inbox organised by customer. Every message from the same person, whichever address they wrote to, in one place, with assign, snooze, notes and done.
- Your old mail comes with you. The importer signs in with Microsoft and copies your folders in the background.
- Keep using Outlook if you like it. Every mailbox has IMAP and SMTP, so the Outlook app, Apple Mail and phones work as before.
The move, in three steps
- Add your domain and create your addresses. Sign up, type your domain and follow the setup screen: it shows the records to add and ticks each one green when it sees it. Create a mailbox for each address you have at Microsoft. Mail keeps arriving at Microsoft while you do this.
- Import your old mail. On each new mailbox choose Import mail from another provider, pick Outlook.com / Microsoft 365 and press Sign in with Microsoft. You sign in on Microsoft's own page and approve read access to your mail; FounderMail never sees your password. Pick the folders and how far back to go, start, and carry on working: you get an email when it is done. Calendar, Contacts and Tasks are not mail and are skipped.
- Switch over. When the setup screen says your domain is ready, replace
Microsoft's MX record (it ends in
mail.protection.outlook.com) with ours, and run the import once more a day later to catch the last messages: anything already copied is skipped. Then point your apps at the new mailboxes and cancel the seats you no longer need.
Questions people ask
My company account says an administrator must approve it.
Some organisations let only their IT admin approve apps that read mail. The import screen says so and gives you a link to send to your admin; once they approve, sign in again. If it says IMAP is switched off for your mailbox, your admin turns it on in the Exchange admin center, under Mailboxes, Email apps.
Can I keep some people on Microsoft 365?
Yes. A common setup is to keep the seats of people who need Word, Excel and Teams and move the shared addresses. One thing to know: while your domain is still added in Microsoft 365, mail sent from those remaining Microsoft users to the moved addresses can stay inside Microsoft. Ask your admin to set the domain to internal relay, or remove it from Microsoft 365 if nobody there uses it any more.
Does it work for Outlook.com and Hotmail?
Yes. Personal accounts (Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, MSN) sign in the same way. If your address is on your own domain through an old Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan, import it into a FounderMail mailbox on that domain, then move the domain's records.
What about calendar and contacts?
FounderMail is email only, so calendar, contacts and files stay where they are. Many people keep their calendar in the app they already use and move just the mail.
Is my mail safe during the import?
The import only reads; it never deletes, moves or sends anything at Microsoft. The sign-in is kept only while the import runs and is thrown away when it ends, and you can remove the approval at any time from your Microsoft account.
Start free: no card, unlimited addresses, and your Microsoft mail comes with you. Step by step for every provider: Importing mail from another provider.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Business price change of 1 July 2026, as reported by Office Watch and STMicro. Check Microsoft's own page before deciding.
- Personalised addresses on Microsoft 365 Personal and Family: Thurrott, Slipstick.