Creating a hosted email address is one of the first things you should do once you create your business. If you don’t, your email newsletters will probably get rejected by email clients, and your company overall will not seem professional.
There are a lot of email hosting services to choose from, and selecting the right one for your company is essential based on your needs and business goals. Below are some email hosting services you should consider for your business along with pros and cons.
Suites
G Suite / Google Workspace
Pros
I am fiercely loyal to two things: Apple and G Suite. G suite, now called Google Workplace, will always be my number one go to. It is user friendly with tremendous functionality. At $6, $12, or $25 per user per month depending on the size of your company.
G suite is the market leader in the US with a share of 59.41% as far as office suites go. In addition, because Google is so widespread, Google Workspace has great third party app integrations.
Cons
One weakness of Google Workplace is that you can only send emails with attachments up to 25MB. However, with so many cloud-based solutions, including drive but also things like wetransfer and dropbox, this is hardly a problem any longer.
Summary
I think it’s a bit of a con if you don’t use G Suite because so many companies do and it makes things more seamless. For example, I recently found out you cannot share a google drive folder with somebody and have them upload even with link sharing if they don’t have a google account, which is lame. Most companies use G Suite so this is rarely a problem, but if you’re that company that can’t use it, it is not the norm and can thus be seen as a bad thing.
It’s kind of like using iMessage. It’s not the only way, but most people use it and if you don’t you’re kind of the odd one out and can’t do all the same things. In addition, people who use iMessage kind of think they’re better than everybody. It’s more expensive for what you get, so maybe that’s why it’s considered kind of premium. That being said, unless you need super seamless simultaneous document editing, your company probably doesn’t need to pay that premium.
For a lot of companies, some of the features of G Suite may be overkill, depending on your needs, but nonetheless there is a lot of functionality to Google Workspace.
Zoho
Pros
Zoho is also ranked very highly as far as user satisfaction goes, and it is cheaper than G Suite, which can mean a lot to startups (or any company, on a large enough scale!). Based on user reviews, Gmail and Zoho are rated very similarly.
Zoho also has automation flows for productivity that connects to many other apps, and it has a collaboration like Slack called Cliq, and integrates well with social media.
Cons
Does not have much storage–starts at 5GB per user. You can upgrade for additional cost, however.
Summary
Zoho is a great alternative to Gmail that is definitely worth considering, especially if you are on a tighter budget and storage isn’t as important to you.
Office 365 / Microsoft 365
Pros
Office 365, now Microsoft 365 has a $5 per user per month plan that includes only the web-based applications. However, if your company wants to use Office (excuse me, Microsoft) 365, odds are you probably want the more powerful desktop apps. This plan is $12.50 per user per month for the standard plan that includes desktop versions of the apps.
As far as market share goes for office suites, Microsoft 365 is at 40.39%, which is less than G Suite, but still quite a large share.
One strength of O365, or should I say M365, is the large attachment file size of 150MB, whereas most other email hosts allow only 25-30MB. With cloud-based file hosting this is less of a strength than it used to be, but it can still come in handy depending on your needs.
Cons
Office 365 collaboration as far as documents and slide decks is definitely not as seamless as Google’s, but the tools are overall more comprehensive. Overall, weigh your options and what is most important to you.
Summary
Microsoft 365 is a popular choice, and if you use Microsoft's desktop apps, it is the natural choice. However, it can be a bit clunky.
Pure Email Hosting
Most businesses these days opt for integrated plans. It is convenient to have documents, calendars, and other features synced seamlessly. However, this is not a necessity and you may have reasons for wishing to select a more bare-bones email hosting client.
More bare-bones email hosting clients have minimums (while Zoho, Google Workplace, and Microsoft 365 do not), so take this into consideration based on your company’s size.
Rackspace
Pros
Rackspace is a great value at $2/user/month and 25GB storage per user. In addition, Rackspace guarantees 100% uptime, making it a leader in that respect as well.
Cons
No mobile app–I don’t see this as much of a con, but others might.
Smaller window as far as number of users; 5-200 for the regular plan.
Summary
Rackspace is a great email hosting service that provides great value. However, this price point is only for 5-200 users, so that is something to keep in mind. In addition, if having a mobile app is important to you, this is not the email host for you.
Greatmail
Pros
Greatmail’s basic plan is $1/mailbox/month and has no attachment size limit. It’s basic, but dare I say, a great deal.
Cons
As with any of these, the cons of Greatmail really depend on your company’s needs. Some aspects that may be cons are that Greatmail requires a minimum of 15 users and has no mobile or desktop app. In addition, the storage is on the lower end for their basic plan, at 10GB/user. Similarly, there is no calendar or other features, but you can upgrade to get more as well.
Summary
Greatmail is designed as a basic email hosting service for a larger team. Light on storage and features, but at $1/mailbox/month, there's room to upgrade.
IceWarp
Pros
IceWarp is cheap at $3.50/user/month for 50GB of storage per user and unlimited users. In addition, it has additional tools like a document editor, and a Windows desktop app. It also supports multiple domains, so IceWarp is an excellent choice if creating emails is a large portion of what you do.
Cons
Despite its tremendous pros and low price, IceWarp has a few cons in that there are no mobile apps and no OSX app. It also requires a minimum of 10 users, but with a strength in hosting for multiple domains, this means you will probably use it for more than 10 users very quickly.
Summary
IceWarp is a fantastic choice if you have to make emails for clients and use multiple domains. It is also cheap, has a good amount of storage, unlimited users, and additional tools such as document editors.
FastMail
Pros
FastMail is a great basic plan with 70MB attachment file size, which is quite high as far as email hosting services go.
Cons
2GB/user for storage is not a lot.
Summary
At $5/user/month, it is a great deal, but I do not think the pros of having a desktop and mobile app and 70MB attachment file size do not make it worth the additional price over $1/mailbox/month for GreatMail at 10GB storage or Rackspace at $2/user/month and 25GB storage.
BlueHost
Pros
One of the best features about BlueHost is that it has a lot of backups. Plans start at $3.95 per user per month, which is also on the cheaper end.
Cons
BlueHost is not ranked as highly as G Suite by consumers. Some negative reviews include slow servers, and it is considered a decent starter, but that is about it.
Summary
BlueHost is not a terrible option, but probably not the best option either.