Even amid the rise of social media and collaboration-based platforms, email remains the preferred method of communication for the overwhelming majority of professionals. That's why getting the best email provider is so important.
Regardless of their size, companies still use hosted email providers because it shows that the business is legit, fostering trust, and keeping their messages out of the recipients’ spam folders. Sometimes the platforms offering email hosting also provide other services, like collaboration tools and/or web hosting, making it a comprehensive solution.
To help you in your quest to find the best possible email host for your business, we have assembled a list of the 10 best services on the market.
1. Rackspace
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With over 13 years of hosted email experience, Rackspace offers a variety of packages that are suitable for different types of users. The Basic plan includes 25GB mailboxes, malware and spam filters, and can be accessed via webmail, Outlook, or even by mobile users. Each mailbox costs $2.99/user per month and you need to select at least four per order. Attachments of up to 50MB are supported. There are no long-term contracts, only the monthly ones.
Priced at $3.99 per user/month, the Plus subscription plan includes 30GB of file storage, Mobile Sync for keeping your email, calendars, and contacts synchronization with Rackspace Webmail on Android, iOS, and Windows devices.
For $6.99 per user/month, you can sign up for the Add Archiving plan, which includes everything from the Plus package, as well as unlimited storage for archived mail.
If these plans aren’t enough for you, you can try the Hosted Exchange platform at $10.99 per user/month, which includes 100GB mailboxes, scheduling assistant, resource mailboxes, public folders, and instant messaging.
The company has a 100% uptime guarantee and the expert tech support team is available 24/7 via live chat, phone, or ticket if you encounter any problems. On top of that, every new customer receives a 14-day free trial, after which the account is charged according to the chosen subscription.
2. Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail is an email hosting provider that is a part of a larger Zoho ecosystem, providing several pricing options, along with a slightly limited free plan. The free tier provides 25 mailboxes that can hold up to 5GB of data per user (up to five users are supported) and webmail-only access. The size of the attachments is limited to 25MB. You can add another 25 mailboxes if you take part in the referral program.
If this isn’t enough for you, Mail Lite plan is the way to go. At the price of only €1.00 ($1.10) per user/month, it provides email hosting for multiple domains, domain aliases for your existing domains, email routing capabilities, email and folder sharing, email recall, eWidget and developer space, IMAP/POP access in email clients, Activesync, iOS and Android apps, as well as tasks, notes, and bookmarks, shared calendars, appointment scheduling, and more.
It is followed by the Mail Premium option at €4.00 ($4.41) per user/month, with everything in Mail Lite, plus attachments up to 250MB, archival and eDiscovery policies, email backup and restoration, white labeling, S-MIME, and resource booking.
For even more options, you can switch up to one of the Zoho Workplace packages - Standard at €3.00 ($3.30) per user/month or Professional at €6.00 ($6.60) per user/month. The former provides 30GB of mail storage per users, as well as 5GB of shared WorkDrive storage, in addition to all the features from the Mail Lite, plus collaboration tool, offline access, 250MB file upload limit, file and folder sharing, external file sharing, encryption at rest, preview of 160+ file formats, mobile access, one-to-one audio and video calls, fully-featured office suite, and support for up to 50 collaborators in a document.
The Professional account comes with 100GB of mail storage per user, 10GB of WorkDrive storage per user, everything offered in the Standard package, plus larger attachments, forums, polls, engagement analytics, a bunch of features from the Mail Premium plan, and more.
All the prices above refer to yearly plans. If you run into any problems, the 24/7 email, chat, and phone support is there to assist you.
3. Fasthosts
One of the cheapest email hosting options on the market, Fasthosts has a few mailbox subscription options in its Standard Email offer. The most basic is Mail Lite that has 100MB of storage space, supports 5,000 email messages up to 10MB in size each, as well as providing autoresponder/out-of-office responses and roaming SMTP.
It is followed by the Mail Extra mailbox with 2GB of storage, support for an unlimited number of emails up to 15MB in size, as well as the autoresponder, roaming SMTP, and virus and spam filters. Both Mail Lite and Extra can only be accessed via webmail.
That said, these options are very cheap - signing up will give you five Mail Lite accounts and two Mail extra accounts for only £1.99 ($2.56) per month (for the annual option). During the first three months, you’ll only be charged £0.99 ($1.28) per month.
For more options than what is offered in the Standard Email, you may consider switching up to the Exchange Email option. It provides a 50GB mailbox, Outlook’s web app access, ActiveSync, shared calendar and contacts, public folders, as well as a free domain during the first year, at the price of £4.49 ($5.78) per month for five or more users (annual contract).
At the price of £8.99 ($11.58) per month for five or more users (annual contract), the Exchange Pro plan gives you all the features from the Exchange plan, with the exception of a 100GB storage to hold all your emails and attachments and Microsoft Outlook.
4. Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials
Microsoft Office 365 offers a bundle of handy apps for your every productivity need, including a powerful hosted email package. This package, part of the Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials, will get you a 50GB mailbox and a custom email domains address for each user, as well as support for 150MB attachments.
As an extra advantage, you’ll also be provided with access to 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage and support for online meetings and video conferencing for up to 250 users. As part of your account, you’ll be able to access web versions of Office 365 apps - Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (plus Access and Publisher for PC only).
There’s also a whole bunch of other (mainly collaboration-based) extras courtesy of Microsoft Teams. If you choose to make an annual commitment with this package, you’ll pay only $5 per user/month, which is an excellent price to value ratio.
If you need a more advanced service, you can choose between one of the Microsoft Exchange Online plans (Plan 1 and Plan 2), with Plan 1 costing $4 per user/month (annual contract), and Plan 2 at $8 per user/month (annual contract). The latter is especially appealing thanks to its features like unlimited storage, hosted voicemails, and data loss prevention capabilities.
5. Liquid Web
Liquid Web provides a hosted email service as part of its Premium Web Hosting package. The cheapest is the Standard plan, which is accompanied by 25GB of mailbox storage, POP, SMTP and IMAP access, virus and spam protection courtesy of Cloudmark technology, free user aliases, webmail chat, Outlook auto-setup, as well as support for attachments of up to 50MB in size.
Especially handy is the capability to import contacts from Gmail, Outlook, and others, speeding up the onboarding process. The base monthly cost is $10, but above that, the Standard plan only charges $1 per mailbox/month. Since you’ll be getting unlimited domains, 24/7 management, tech support, and email migrations, this is a decent deal.
This option is followed by the Plus package at $3 per mailbox/month (on top of the base charge) and ensures you get all the features from the Standard plan, plus Mobile Sync, 30GB of Cloud Drive, and capabilities for online editing of documents and spreadsheets.
If this still isn’t enough, you can get yourself the Microsoft Exchange package for an additional $10.00 per mailbox/month. This includes 100GB mailboxes, Outlook Web Access, public folders and calendars, Active Directory, free distribution lists, a control panel for easy management, and more.
6. Intermedia Exchange Email
Although Intermedia Exchange Email isn’t the cheapest option on the market, it nevertheless provides superior quality. At $7.49 per user/month, you can have access to the Microsoft Exchange, unlimited mail storage, Intermedia email protection, expert migration, Active Directory sync, HostPilot, video conferencing capabilities, 2GB of SecuriSync backup and file sharing per user, as well as 24/7/365 phone and email support.
The only catch is that you need to take at least three mailboxes, which means the cheapest option will cost you $22.47 per month if you’ve signed up for an annual subscription.
As always, more advanced options are available at extra cost. For instance, if you’re willing to pay $9.99 per user/month, you can have all the features from the basic plan plus Email Archiving. For just a dollar per user/month more, you can get the basic features with the exception of the 10GB of SecuriSync storage per user.
At $14.99 per user/month, the basic plan is accompanied by MS Office apps, while the most expensive option at $16.99 per user/month gives you basic capabilities, 10GB of SecuriSync storage, as well as email encryption and archiving.
7. A2 Hosting
Similarly to Intermedia, A2 Hosting is a website hosting company that also includes hosted email services.
Whichever of the provider’s three pricing plans you choose, you’ll get access to unlimited storage, automated backups, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP, and compatibility with a wide array of email clients, as well as software for contact forms and newsletters.
And that’s not all. The offer also includes 50MB file attachment limit, first-rate spam protection, free email forwarding for the first year, and auto-responders.
The entry-level Lite plan starts at $1.98 month (36-month billing cycle) and includes support for 25 users, followed by the Swift at $3.30 per month and Turbo $6.27 per month, both supporting an unlimited number of users. Note that these prices may increase upon renewal.
8. IceWarp Cloud
An integrated office suite similar to MS Office 365, IceWarp Cloud includes email hosting as well. Accompanied by a POP3/IMAP/SMTP server that can handle over 1,000 messages per minute at the same time, the provider’s email service is secured with an SSL/TLS encryption for various uses.
There are multiple pricing plans, beginning with the Lite option at €2.30 ($2.53) per month/user, accompanied by a measly 5GB email storage, but also online document editing, virus and spam protection, audio and video calls, email archiving, an unlimited number of users, and more.
It is followed by the Standard option at €3.50 ($3.85) per user/month which includes all the Lite features, increases storage to 100GB, and adds TeamChat and EAS mobile synchronization into the mix.
At €6.30 ($6.94) per user/month, the Professional plan increases the storage to 500GB, covers all the features from the Standard subscription, as well as adding advanced administration and API console, the IceWarp Desktop Client replacement for Outlook, and the IceWarp Desktop Office replacement for Office, as well as 24/7 support.
Whichever plan you decide on, you’ll need to have a minimum of 10 users to get it.
9. Greatmail
Greatmail is a solid email hosting solution that offers its services under the Standard and Groupware edition. The Standard edition includes basic POP3/IMAP email with outgoing services, while the Groupware option covers email service plus calendar and contacts synchronization and sharing.
If you choose the Standard monthly edition and 10GB of storage per mailbox, it will cost you $1 per mailbox/month. Do note that you must take at least 15 mailboxes if you’re signing up for the monthly plan. The price per mailbox increases to $1.50 per month if you choose the 25GB-sized mailboxes. The Standard annual edition puts the minimum to eight mailboxes and is charged $99.95 per year for eight 10GB mailboxes or $147.95 for eight 25GB mailboxes.
Choosing the Groupware monthly edition and 10GB of storage per mailbox will cost you $2.00 per mailbox/month and you have to get at least 10 mailboxes if you’re signing up for the monthly plan. The price per mailbox increases to $2.50 per month if you choose the 25GB-sized mailboxes. The Groupware annual edition allows you to have a minimum of four mailboxes and is charged $99.95 per year for four 10GB mailboxes or $123.95 for four 25GB mailboxes.
Both editions offer robust cloud security, cross-platform compatibility, mobile connectivity, and multiple domain management in one admin panel. The Groupware edition supports Exchange ActiveSync and CalDAV/CardDAV for synchronization of calendars and contacts across desktop clients, mobile devices, and webmail.
There are no limits to the attachment size and mailboxes are protected against spam and viruses with top of the range technology.
10. Namecheap
Namecheap is a provider of domain name registration and web hosting, as well as hosted email services. If you want this company to host your emails, you can choose between one of three solutions.
The Universal plan is available at only $0.99 per month ($11.88 annually) and includes one mailbox, 5GB of storage for emails, 2GB of storage for files, and web-based access to your accounts.
Next is the Business option at $2.41 per month ($28.88 annually) and will get you one mailbox, 10GB of storage for emails, 10GB of storage for files, powerful collaboration tools, as well as full mobile sync support.
The priciest but most abundant is the Business Office option at $4.16 a month ($49.88 annually) and covers one mailbox, 10GB of storage for emails, 15GB of storage for files, mobile sync support, as well as online text and spreadsheet editor.
All the plans include domain-based email, cloud drive storage, unified inbox, anti-spam protection, POP3/IMAP/Webmail access, HTML signatures, and 24/7 support. On top of that, all users get the first two months of service for free.
