Custom domain email or Gmail?

hello@mycompany.com says "we're real, we're here to stay, you can trust this invoice."

A Gmail address says "we're two people in a garage" — which is sometimes exactly the charm you want, especially early, when authenticity beats polish.

But it also gets flagged by spam filters, gets ignored in sales threads, and quietly undermines you the first time someone's procurement team asks for your company details.

It's six dollars a month. I know it's six dollars a month. And yet I've put it off for months because switching means updating every signature, every login, every calendar invite.

At what point did you decide it was non-negotiable? And when you switched, did people actually reply differently — or was it all in your head like I suspect it is in mine?