9 BEST Email Hosting Services for Small Business (2023)
Email hosting is necessary to provide your small business with a professional image and brand. Along with branding, you also get more control over email accounts, receive improved security, proper scalability, and more.
Hence, it is crucial to find a good small business email hosting provider. There are several consequences to choosing a bad email hosting service. Some of the challenges that you will face are unreliable services, inadequate backup, limited storage and scalability, migration issues, poor support, and a lack of features and security.
Thus, understanding how gravely these matters can affect a business, we have carefully prepared a list of the top email hosting for small businesses. Read more…
Types of Email Hosting Service Providers
Before we move on to the list of providers, here are the types of email hosting providers:
- Web Hosting Providers: Several web hosting platforms provide email hosting services. They offer email addresses included in their plans and also might have separate services for email hosting alone. Example Hostinger, BlueHost.
- Cloud Email Hosting: This is a cloud-based hosting and offers highly scalable email hosting with several advanced features. Their suite may also include productivity tools like spreadsheets, documents, online storage etc. Example ZohoMail, Google WorkSpace
- Self-hosted platforms: These platforms offer dedicated IT resources and are recommended for tech-savvy users. In such services, you have complete control over the hosting. Example: Microsoft Exchange Server, Postfix.
A small business should ideally avoid the overheads that come with Self-hosted emao; platforms. Hence, in this guide, we will discuss only web/cloud email hosting platforms.
Best Email Hosting Services for Small Business: Top Picks!
Provider | Google workspace | Proton Mail | GoDaddy | Namecheap |
Storage | Upto 2 TB | Upto 500 GB | Upto 30 GB | Upto 75 GB |
Attachment Size | 25 MB | 25 MB | 20 MB | 55 MB |
Starting Cost | $6 per user per month. | Paid version $ 3.99 | $1.99 per user per month | $1.24 per month |
Free Plan | No, but a 14-day free trial | Yes | No | No, but has 60 days free trial. |
Reviews |
Excellent – 4.8
|
Excellent – 4.5
|
Good – 4.3
|
Good – 4.2
|
Link | Visit Google workspace | Visit Proton Mail | Visit GoDaddy | Visit Namecheap |
1) Google Workspace
Best Overall Email hosting service
Google Workspace offers the well-known Gmail application for mailing purposes, and it comes with a collection of other useful tools. You can use this WorkSpace for making calls, video calls, chatting, sharing files, holding meetings, and much more.
It lets you build a professional email address to gain customer trust. You can also build a group mailing list such as productteam@yourcompany.com and more. It is highly secure and protects all your business data, users, and devices, and it also offers primary data backup for disaster recovery.
Features :
- Integrations: You can connect with your staff and colleagues through Google chat and meet by sending an invite to Calendar. It also lets you integrate with all third-party apps with the help of Google Workspace Add-ons.
- Smart suggestions: Get smart action suggestions like grammar correction/ suggestion, smart reply, smart compose, nudges, safety notes before sending emails, and more.
- Security: It has a machine-learning model that blocks 99.9% of spam, malware, and phishing from reaching your inbox. This platform also includes automated backups for its files and emails.
- Easy migration: It lets you migrate easily from Outlook, Lotus, or Exchange with its custom tools. This migration makes sure all your messages transfer to Google Workspace as it is.
- SLA: This email hosting service has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. As service credit, they offer 3 days of extra service at the end of the term for anything less than 99.9% and higher than or equal to 99.0%. For downtime less than 99.0% and greater than or equal to 95.0%, you will get 7 days of extra service and 15 days for anything less than 95.0%.
- Customer Support: With Google Workspace, you get 24/7 phone and email support. It also includes a sales team ticket and a virtual Google Workspace guide for chatting.
- Attachment size limit: Using this email hosting, you can send a maximum of 25 MB attachments. To send anything larger, you can either compress the files using third-party apps or upload to Google Drive and send links.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Google Workspace
Plan Name | Business Starter | Business Standard | Business Plus |
---|---|---|---|
Storage | 30 GB | 2 TB | 5 TB |
Video meeting participants | 100 | 150 | 500 |
Pricing per month | $6 | $12 | $18 |
👉 Why we chose it?
Gmail is used by 1.8 billion users worldwide, thus, it is one of the most commonly used email solutions. It has a user-friendly interface making it easy even for completely tech beginner individuals. Gmail comes with full integration with the rest of the Google Workspace suite and provides free email services for small business.
2) Proton Mail
Best for keeping your conversations private
Proton Mail ensures that your data is solely owned by you. It has stringent encrypted services that keep your internet secure and all your activities private, as it runs on Swiss privacy laws.
Proton is also an open-source code that allows the global community to look for vulnerabilities. This email hosting has easy-to-use email, file storage, VPN, and Calendar, all created based on your regulations and data.
Features :
- Encrypted contacts: It uses zero-access encryption for the contacts and requires a digital signature to stop unauthorized access.
- Security: Proton lets you choose a password in its composer before you send a mail to non-proton users. It also has two-factor authentication hardware security keys and enhanced tracking protection.
- Customization: It lets you personalize your inbox entirely, you can pick out folder color, layout, themes, and dark mode. You can also create labels, subfolders, folders, and filters to keep your inbox organized.
- Multiple addresses: You can create multiple email addresses and link them back to one account. This helps you send, filter, and manage emails from any of your email addresses.
- SLA: Proton mail guarantees 99.95% or higher uptime. If the service exceeds downtime of 0.055 in a month, the company provides service credits. For uptime less than 99.5% but greater or equal to 99.0%, you get 10% of the monthly’s fee, and for anything less than 99.0%, you receive 30%.
- Attachment size limit: All the attachments of Proton mail are limited to 25 MB, if you want to share anything above 25 MB, you can send a link instead.
- Support: With proton mail, you will get a ticket and in-depth knowledge base support.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Proton Mail
Name of plan | Proton Free | Mail Plus | Proton Unlimited |
---|---|---|---|
Storage | 1 GB | 15 GB | 500 GB |
Email address | 1 free address | 10 addresses | 15 addresses |
Emails per day | 150 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Pricing monthly (billed annually) | Free | €3.99 | €9.99 |
👉 Why we chose it?
We chose Proton Mail as it is headquartered in Switzerland and is protected by rigid Swiss privacy laws. It was built by scientists who believe in transparency and peer review.
Proton mail is accessible from any device, and with one account, you can access all the required tools. It also offers a free plan that includes almost all the package offerings of its paid plans.
3) GoDaddy email
Best for getting mobile-friendly email
Godaddy provides custom emails and helps in making your business look professional. Its professional emails are mobile-friendly and easy to use. You can also sync all your email accounts across all devices that you own.
Godaddy makes promoting your business easy every time you send or receive emails, it lets you manage your folders easily and much more.
Features :
- Security: Godaddy provides industry-leading security and uses the leading virus and spam filters blocking over 300 million unwanted or dangerous emails every day. It also has end-to-end encryption, anti-phishing, and other security features.
- Backup: Snapshots of your Calendar, mailbox, and attachments are automatically saved up to 6 times in a single day. You can easily restore your mailbox, Calendar, etc., by searching emails by To, From, and Subject Lines.
- Migration: You get free email migration with the help of Godaddy experts, who will help you with the entire process with no downtime.
- Devices in sync: Godaddy’s email works with Apple Mail, Outlook, and other well-known email services, so you can keep all your devices in sync. This lets you access your emails anywhere from any device.
- SLA: This best email service for business provides 99.9% service uptime. In case they fail to keep up the guarantee, you will receive a credit of 5% of that particular month’s hosting fee.
- Attachment size limit: Godaddy has a 20 MB limit on its attachments, however, you can compress your files and share them.
- Support: Godaddy offers Live chat, phone calls, community, and extensive support guides.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of GoDaddy email
Plan Name | Individual | Team |
---|---|---|
Storage | 10 GB | 30 GB |
Mobile-friendly webmail | Yes | Yes |
Email the matches your domain | Yes | Yes |
Pricing monthly | $1.99 | $3.99 |
👉 Why we chose it?
It is one of the largest service platforms in the world and has helped 21 million entrepreneurs. This platform is non-complicated and best for beginners.
It provides high-end security and has reliable customer support. This platform also works with the email app of your choice.
4) Namecheap email
Best for sending large attachments
Namecheap provides more than 50 mailboxes and lets you create private emails for more than 20 domains. Every plan is custom-made with all the features that you require.
You can create your unique presence with its highly secure email. Namecheap is easy to use and is an ad-free email, you can try its 60-day free trial to experience all its advanced functionalities without restrictions.
Features :
- Customization: Customize Namecheap email as per your needs and match the address with your website brand for better branding.
- Accessibility: You can access your personal and professional email in the portal view. This will keep you updated with emails and new feeds instantly on any of your devices.
- Seamless control: It lets you organize your email hosting to meet your business objectives. You can sync and share calendars, appointments, and tasks with the contacts.
- Manage email flow: You can add your existing professional and personal email accounts in a centralized inbox without requiring to switch.
- Security: Get anti-spam protection, enhanced protection, and 2FA, set passwords for applications, and safeguard your main password.
- Backup: You can download and run the Namecheap Email backup tool. In this tool, you can choose the IMAP option and enter your email credentials, and back up your emails.
- SLA: Namecheap provides a 100% uptime guarantee, and for any non-scheduled downtime, they offer a one-day service cycle lengthening for every hour of downtime faced.
- Attachment size limit: It has a 55 MB attachment limit for private email services and 50 MB for cPanel email services.
- Support: With this business email hosting provider you get Knowledgebase, blogs, guru guides, how-to videos, and website ticket forms.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Namecheap email
Plan Name | Starter | Pro | Ultimate |
---|---|---|---|
Mailbox | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Storage | 5 GB | 30 GB | 75 GB |
Mobile sync support | No | Yes | Yes |
Pricing per month | $1.24 | $3.49 | $5.99 |
👉 Why we chose it?
Namecheap has highly reliable security and privacy and pledges to protect your rights as a consumer. It provides only industry premium services and products within the limits of your budget. Its highly knowledgeable support team has all the answers to your queries 24/7.
5) A2 Hosting email
Best for email hosting for small business
A2 Hosting for email hosting helps create a professional relationship and build trust with the customers. It offers easy email migration and email templates and lets you undo sent emails.
This hosting also comes with advanced spam filtering and virus protection. It supports webmail, iOS, and Android, making it easy for you to access it from any device.
Features :
- Multi-account access: Create multiple accounts with A2 Hosting and access and maintain them all in a centralized location.
- Viewed notification: You no longer have to worry if your email was opened, A2 Hosting provides notifications instantly when your email is viewed.
- Scheduling: It has a send later feature that lets you create emails and send them later, so you can take enough time to edit them if needed.
- Security: With this service, you receive HackScan, which runs 24/7/365, KernelCare, Brute Force Defence, DDoS protection, a virus scanner, and a hosting Firewall.
- Backup: A2 Hosting offers complete account backup where email backup is included. It also comes with Dropmysite, which restores each email or a bundle of emails.
- SLA: This hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but if they fail to commit to this promise, they provide a 5% service credit of that particular month’s fee.
- Attachment size limit: The maximum attachment size limit of A2 Hosting email is 50 MB. Larger attachments may slow down the server.
- Support: This provider has Live chat, a knowledge base, and email. Its highlight is its 24/7 available Guru Crew, who are highly trained professionals that can answer all your queries.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of A2 Hosting
Plan Name | Professional | Pro Plus |
---|---|---|
Storage | 10 GB | 30 GB |
Email Migration | Yes | Yes |
Pricing monthly | $1.59 | $2.59 |
Money back guarantee | Yes | Yes |
👉 Why A2 Hosting?
We chose this hosting as it has one of the fastest setups and has turbo hosting plans. The turbo plans offer limited occupancy, advanced caching, upgraded server hardware, useful add-ons, and optimized configurations.
You also get NVme memory, LiteSpeed Web Server, ESI for caching portions of your page, QUIC for faster internet connection, and more.
6) Amazon Work Mail
Best for managing corporate emails
Amazon Workmail is a managed business email solution with a calendar service and has support for mobile and desktop email client apps. It easily integrates with the existing corporate directory, monitors both the keys that encrypt your location and data, and much more.
It lets you access emails, calendars, and contacts with the help of the client application of your choice. You can choose from native Android, iOS, and Microsoft Outlook.
Features :
- Compatibility: This email hosting provider is Outlook-compatible and offers native support on Mac OS X and Windows.
- Security: Amazon Workmail has enterprise-grade security, it encrypts all your data automatically with encryption keys. It gives total control over data locality by choosing the AWS area where your data is stored, and it also scans all incoming messages for viruses.
- IMAP Protocol support: It lets you access the mail with your choice of an email client that supports IMAP Protocol. This helps Amazon Workmail integrate with IT systems and applications that rely on IMAP.
- Mobile device management: It offers security policies that you state for mobile users through the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol.
- SLA: It offers 99.9% uptime, hence if you receive anything less than 99.9% but greater than 99.0%, they are liable to provide 10% service credit. Moreover, if you face downtime less than 99.0% but greater than or equal to 95.0%, you will get 25% service credit, and for anything less than 95.0%, you shall receive 100% credit.
- Attachment size limit: This email hosting supports 25 MB size for attachments. It supports all widely used formats except .ade, .fxp, .gadget, .mam, .maq, .ins, and other lesser-known formats.
- Support: Amazon Workmail has a support center, FAQs, a Knowledge center, expert help, and a ticket form.
Pros
Cons
Pricing:
There are no commitments, contracts, or upfront fees. It only costs $4.00 per user per month, which includes mailbox storage of 50 GB.
👉 Why we chose it?
Amazon Workmail belongs to AWS (Amazon Web Services), which is one of the world’s most used services with millions of customers.
This email hosting platform manages your corporate email seamlessly and removes any need for purchasing licenses. It doesn’t come with any complicated software for installation and has no hardware to maintain.
Link: https://aws.amazon.com/workmail/
7) Microsoft Outlook
Best for unlimited email addresses
Microsoft Outlook organizes and manages your email. You can send and receive emails and use its built-in Calendar to keep up with your upcoming events and appointments.
It is a secure and smart way to stay connected with your personal and professional contacts. Microsoft Outlook can easily locate your documents, messages, and even people in its email.
Features :
- Control over data: Outlook makes you the sole in charge of your data. It provides easy-to-use tools, transparency in data collection, zero-targeted ads, and gathers information only for enhancing your experience.
- Enterprise-grade security: Get the same protection tools used for Microsoft business clients, mailbox data encryption, automatic deactivation of links deemed unsafe, ransomware detection, and recovery.
- Free Office apps access: You can use other Office apps for free, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and also chat using Skype straight from Outlook.
- Accessibility: Outlook inbox has a voice-controlled navigation for easy accessibility, it is also intuitive and supports multiple devices making it one of the best email services for business.
- Backup: Easily backup your emails in Outlook with Exchange and IMAP. These servers automatically archive all emails and makes them accessible for you anytime from anywhere.
- Attachment reminder: It will never let you send a file without an attachment by mistake. If you type an email regarding an attachment and forget to add it, it will remind you to include the file instantly.
- SLA: It offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee for its services. Microsoft provides downtime credits based on the services that were affected by the interruption.
- Attachment size limit: You can share up to 20 MB of attachments using Outlook. Anything above this size limit can be sent via Dropbox or OneDrive link.
- Support: It has a How To page for answering your queries, and it includes app support for connecting directly with the team.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Microsoft Outlook
Plan Name | Basic | Standard | Premium |
---|---|---|---|
Cloud Storage per user | 1 TB | 1 TB | 1 TB |
Security | Standard security | Standard security | Advanced security |
Cyber threat protection | No | No | Yes |
Pricing | £4.90 | £10.30 | £18.10 |
👉 Why we chose it?
Using Outlook, you can stay focused on which emails matter the most. It lets you share files from the cloud, making sure the recipient always receives the latest version.
Outlook is a part of the Microsoft Office suite, which is one of the most used groups of software. It offers world-class security, has advanced cloud services, automatic upgrades, and much more.
8) Zoho Workplace
Best for users who love multitasking
Zoho Workplace enhances your productivity by allowing you to use email, docs, calls, chat, tasks, and more from one place.
It puts privacy first, and they never sell your data to advertisers, even in its free version. Zoho also supports encryption both in transit and at rest and includes S/MIME (Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) security.
Features :
- Multitasking: It comes with a central collaboration dashboard that makes multitasking seamless. With the help of such a dashboard, you can also save time and increase productivity.
- Customization: It lets you customize the layout of your dashboard by adding app widgets, rearranging and removing them, and creating custom widgets from the existing ones.
- Notifications: You get a combined notification in one place so you can view the alerts in all applications at once. It also lets you selectively enable and disable notifications for apps.
- Backup: You can retain deleted emails from its backup portal from the employee’s accounts. It also lets you customize backup settings.
- File sharing: Share files seamlessly, as Zoho’s applications offer a single platform for storing and creating files. This makes collaboratively reviewing documents easier.
- SLA: Zoho has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, in case of scheduled downtime or planned maintenance, you will be informed about it 48 hours prior.
- Attachment size limit: The attachment size limit of Zoho is 20 MB for personal email, while paid plans support 250 MB, 500 MB, and even 1 GB.
- Support: It offers a variety of support that includes chat tickets, FAQs, ticket forms, emails, and phone calls.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Zoho Workplace
Plan Name | Standard | Professional | Mail Only |
---|---|---|---|
Mail Storage per user | 30 GB | 100 GB | NA |
Work drive storage per user | 10 GB | 100 GB | NA |
Pricing | $3 | $6 | $1 |
👉 Why we chose it?
Zoho has been profitable for over 25 years, allowing them to make better decisions that support your long-term interests. With Zoho, you get one-touch migration that lets you transfer contacts, emails, calendars, and notes instantly from other WorkSpace.
It also includes split delivery, meaning your company can move to Zoho in parts.
Link: https://www.zoho.com/en-in/workplace/
9) Bluehost
Best for collaboration requirements
Bluehost helps in connecting, collaborating, and creating with Google applications. You can access all your Google applications like Gmail, chat, docs, Meet, slides, drive, sheets, and more.
It is suitable for any team size and provides an email address that matches your domain. This platform has an easy-to-navigate control panel and a suite of productivity tools.
Features :
- Collaboration tools: With Bluehost, you can use Gmail for business purposes as it consists of 30 GB of cloud document storage and more, all powered by Google.
- Security: This email hosting is capable of removing malicious files and folders and updating plugins to the latest versions, it also lets you change and delete unused passwords and much more.
- Backup: Bluehost has a direct way to migrate emails, It lets you save emails to Hard Drive as EML, PST, EXML, and many more. You can transfer emails to different web services, and it includes advanced filters for selective backup.
- Windows compatibility: It is specifically designed for Microsoft users and supports all the latest MS Windows versions seamlessly.
- SLA: Bluehost offers 99.98% uptime and assures that most issues are solved within 15 minutes, and only in extreme cases it may take more than 15 minutes.
- Attachment size limit: This email hosting has a 50 MB attachment limit via SMTP and webmail. Although, the Bluehost team recommends sending attachment sizes up to 35 MB.
- Support: With this small business email hosting solution, you will get support like live chat and a knowledge base.
Pros
Cons
Pricing :
Here are the pricing plans of Bluehost
Plan Name | Business Starter | Business Standard | Business Plus |
---|---|---|---|
Storage | 30 GB | 2 TB | 5 TB |
Number of Video meeting participants | 100 | 150 | 250 |
Pricing Plan | $3 | $6 | $9 |
👉 Why we chose it?
It is one of the most widely used hosting solutions and has a 24/7 dedicated team who helps with all your technical needs.
Bluehost works closely with developers to enhance the performance of their resources to maintain its status as one of best email hosting services. Its team is experienced in more than 80 open-source platforms and is one of the most reliable web hosting providers.
FAQ
Best Email Hosting for Small Business: Top Picks!
Provider | Google workspace | Proton Mail | GoDaddy | Namecheap |
Storage | Upto 2 TB | Upto 500 GB | Upto 30 GB | Upto 75 GB |
Attachment Size | 25 MB | 25 MB | 20 MB | 55 MB |
Starting Cost | $6 per user per month. | Paid version $ 3.99 | $1.99 per user per month | $1.24 per month |
Free Plan | No, but a 14-day free trial | Yes | No | No, but has 60 days free trial. |
Reviews |
Excellent – 4.8
|
Excellent – 4.5
|
Good – 4.3
|
Good – 4.2
|
Link | Visit Google workspace | Visit Proton Mail | Visit GoDaddy | Visit Namecheap |
Verdict
Small businesses need email hosting to present their brand with refined professionalism. Apart from custom domain support, these email hosting services provide all the requirements for businesses, like collaboration and productivity tools, advanced communication channels, and much more.
Here are our top email hosting suggestions for small businesses from the above list:
- Google Workspace: It is one of the most popular emails hosting providers and comes with a comprehensive set of valuable tools, and has high storage.
- Proton Mail: It is feature rich and has high-end privacy and security.
- Godaddy: This is another widely known hosting provider that is highly reliable, user-friendly, and reasonably priced.