Small businesses do not want to spend a lot of money on email hosting. They don’t need thousands of email accounts, and they don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars just on email hosting.
Cloudways Rackspace is an excellent choice for a dependable email hosting solution that is great for small enterprises. Prices begin at $1 per user each month, and it checks all the boxes. However, there are alternative solutions on the market, including large brands like Google Workspace and Zoho Mail.
What Is Email Hosting and Why Should You Use It?
An email hosting provider operates an email server. Sign up for an email hosting provider to obtain an email hosting server. To utilise an email service, all you need is a domain name. To manage, transmit, and maintain your email accounts, you can use an email hosting server. Most major e-commerce companies use in-house email servers to ensure that emails are delivered on time. On the other hand, small businesses use email hosting services from companies like Google, Zoho, Rackspace, and many more.
Most website hosting firms have recently begun to offer email hosting servers as an add-on to their standard services such as shared, dedicated, and cloud hosting. One of them is Cloudways. It provides managed cloud hosting services as well as a Rackspace email hosting solution.
Email Hosting Options for Small Businesses
There are several sorts of email hosting options, each fulfilling a certain function. Let’s see what kind of email hosting service is suitable for your company.
A shared hosting provider provides this form of email service. Due to email server limits, you cannot use it to send and receive mass emails.
2. Third-Party Email Hosting
The majority of online businesses opt to employ third-party email hosting services. These are scalable, user-friendly email servers with great support. Keep in mind that you will have to pay for email hosting separately. As a result, the cost will be more than if you obtained shared web hosting with an email service.
3. Self-hosted email servers
These are complicated, strong email servers that need technical competence on the part of the team in charge of these servers. These servers are dependable, and you can easily send, receive, and store emails.
Why Should Email Be Hosted on a Separate Server?
Many experts advise against hosting email on the same server that hosts your company website’s web files (and database). Many firms regard a separate email server as an “unavoidable” business expense and hence host the email on the same server. When calamity hits and the server is down for whatever reason, the firm is unable to email the providers since the email system is also down.
Hosting email is a horrible idea from a technological standpoint. Web hosting and email hosting are two very separate components that demand very different resources. Hosting both on the same server could cause them to compete for resources, which would slow down the performance of both apps.
Finally, there is the difficult issue of assistance. The provider’s support staff may know how to fix problems with web hosting, but they may not know how to fix problems with email hosting.
IMAP vs. POP3 vs. SMTP-Email Protocol Comparison
Let’s look at the differences in email-sending protocols. The following protocols are required to send emails:
1. IMAP
It’s known as the Internet Access Message Protocol. It is in charge of obtaining and handling email messages on the server. You cannot send emails using the IMAP protocol. You may instead use it to receive email messages and store them on the server.
2. SMTP
The SMTP protocol is an abbreviation for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is the industry-standard protocol for email transmission. You may use SMTP to send email messages, relay them, or forward them to other mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook or Gmail. When sending emails, you can use the SMTP server to handle the transfer.
3. POP3
POP3 is an email protocol that allows you to receive email and download it to your server. It provides the same functionality as the IMAP protocol, but it does not save email messages on the server. Instead, it downloads them from the email server and deletes the server copy.
IMAP, on the other hand, keeps the email message on the email server and synchronises it across numerous devices.
Is it better to use POP3 or IMAP?
It is up to you how you wish to receive emails. Most email service providers support both functions. However, it is preferable to utilise the IMAP protocol since your emails will remain on the server and you will be able to view them at any time. If you use the POP3 email protocol, all of your emails will be downloaded to your computer and you won’t be able to read them.
Cloudways Users Prefer Email Hosting Services
We ran a survey to determine what form of email hosting service works best for organisations all around the world. The outcomes were not as expected.
How Can Cloudways Assist You With Email Hosting?
Cloudways provides email hosting and administration as an add-on. This addon retrieves email inboxes from the Rackspace email hosting provider. It includes everything you need to set up an email server for any website. The service is quick, reliable, and accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You receive both SMTP and IMAP protocols with the Cloudways Rackspace email hosting service add-on.
You may also use the Gmail SMTP add-on in conjunction with Cloudways to send 99 emails every day via automatic SMTP delivery. You may use the service to add several SMTP accounts, such as your Mandrill account, Mailgun account, AuthSMTP account, or another custom SMTPs. You may learn about the activation procedure for the Gmail SMTP service here. It is entirely painless.
Because Cloudways is a reliable and fast hosting company, you get the following email hosting add-ons:
Uptime is guaranteed.
- Privacy and Security
- Installation is simple.
- Round-the-Clock Assistance
- Environment Protection
- Best Small Business Email Hosting
11 Best Email hosting services in 2022
Check out our selection of the top email hosting services for small businesses to help you with your email marketing.
#1. Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail is a business email service that competes with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office 365. It has nearly the same capabilities, such as hosted emails, an office suite, and other business tools. The mail service provided by Zoho is available in both free and premium versions. The free service includes basic capabilities, including a web-based client for sending and receiving emails. You cannot set up a business account or receive a custom domain service with the free version. The commercial edition of the Zoho mail service, on the other hand, allows you to simply set up a custom domain name for your emails. It also supports POP/IMAP and email forwarding. A third-party app can be used to check your email. Zoho Mail is a cheap choice for new enterprises, with Mail Lite starting at $12 per year for 5GB of email storage. Higher Zoho Mail subscriptions provide 30GB of storage per user, as well as tools like Zoho Docs online storage and Zoho Office Suite.
#2. Office 365 Outlook
If you are a Microsoft customer, Microsoft Office Suite 365 is your best option. The Office 365 package includes all the important tools such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition, you will receive Office 365 Business Premium for your email hosting account. A custom domain name is required for the service. The Office 365 Business Premium plan includes 50GB of storage space and an email address with a custom domain name. Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, and Publisher (for PC only) are included in the Office 365 Outlook edition to boost your productivity. You will also receive a 1 TB OneDrive cloud storage account to keep your data safe. Outlook for Office 365 costs $72 per year.
#3. Google Workspace
Google Workspace is first on our list. We’re all familiar with how Gmail works. Consider Google Workspace to be a more advanced, sophisticated, and feature-rich version of Gmail. Google Workspace is a collection of Google cloud-based applications that can help you simplify a variety of chores. Calendar, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Meet, and more features are included.
With over a billion active users, it is one of the most popular email services available. Furthermore, you may use a variety of third-party applications on Google Workspace to boost your productivity at no additional cost. Keep in mind that Google Workspace is not free, and you will need to pay a small price to use Google Workspace products. Prices for the Business Starter plan start at $6 per user per month and may go up to $18 per user per month for the Business Plus version. With the Business Starter package, each user receives 30GB of storage space shared across Google products such as Gmail, Drive, Photos, and Docs. There is also a 14-day free trial available.
#4. Cloudways Rackspace Email Hosting
Rackspace provides small enterprises with business-class email hosting. It is ideal for consumers searching for dependable email servers to conduct their email campaigns. For email hosting, Rackspace employs Outlook and the Rackspace email service. Prices for both services may differ.
The nicest part about Rackspace is that it can be used in conjunction with your Cloudways-managed hosting solution. Rackspace provides email filtering solutions to keep your mailbox free of spam and garbage. Furthermore, Rackspace promises that user data will not be sold. It adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Rackspace provides 24/7/365 chat support, a ticketing system, and phone support. All Rackspace email plans include 25 GB of email storage. The most basic plan is $1 per user per month.
#5. Mailgun
Mailgun is an SMTP email service designed specifically for software engineers. Users of Cloudways like it a lot because it makes it easy to send a lot of emails at once and makes communication much better.
Mailgun, on the other hand, is not an email marketing tool; it is simply an email API. This is a transactional email service for sending, receiving, and tracking emails. It does support sending in batches, and it uses secure methods to make sure your emails are always safe.
It also has an amazing performance prediction tool that tells you which folder your email is likely to land in when it reaches the inbox of your recipient.
Mailgun is not a free tool; their most basic package is Flex, which includes three months of free email. After that initial time, you will be charged based on the number of emails you send after that. There is a trial option that allows you to send 5,000 emails each month for free. After that, you’ll only pay for what you use, with costs beginning at $0.8/1000 emails.
#6. Yandex Mail
Yandex is a Russian search engine that also offers email hosting. It is ideal for anyone who wants to set up an email hosting server with their own domain name. It is not only quick and versatile, but it is also less expensive than other service providers. A paid account will cost you as little as $3.14 per month. You can have three email accounts for your website, but if you sign up as an organisation, you can obtain 1,000 free accounts. Yandex provides unlimited free storage for all email accounts. You may also connect with Yandex Mail and Yandex. You will also receive collaborative tools such as issue tracking, wiki, calendar, forms, chat, and cloud disc. Yandex provides each customer with 10 GB of online storage space per year. It protects your inbox with anti-virus and anti-spam technology, and it has two-factor authentication (2FA) for better login security and migration.
#7. MXRoute
MXRoute is an excellent alternative for a no-frills, simple-to-use email hosting solution for your small business. It’s also quite affordable, costing only $45 a year, or $3.75 per month for unlimited email addresses and domains. A 10 GB server is provided for this price.
It also includes Webmail, IMAP, SMTP, and POP3 services for ease of use. Furthermore, there is a built-in capability for spam email screening. MXRoute gives you access to NextCloud for every email you send. NextCloud has calendars, file storage, tools for managing contacts and projects, and even photo galleries.
#8. SendGrid
SendGrid is another powerful cloud-based SMTP provider that allows customers to send emails without the need for email servers. It’s another option that Cloudways users like because it takes care of all technical problems, from infrastructure management to email scaling.
It even provides real-time analytical data and has reputation monitoring capabilities built in. SendGrid is a very trustworthy and trusted choice, with over 45,000 paying clients and 1 trillion emails delivered.
#9. FastMail
FastMail, one of the industry’s oldest email service providers, is an excellent choice for individuals seeking quality service at the same price as a basic email service provider. It supports IMAP and PGP but does not provide end-to-end encryption, making it less secure than competitors in the same market. FastMail, on the other hand, offers two-factor authentication and spam screening to keep your emails safe.
Pricing begins at $3 per user, each month. Each package also includes a 30-day free trial. There are numerous tiers to pick from.
#10. PostMark
Another popular email service provider among developers is PostMark. It is largely focused on transactional emails, and despite the fact that it does not support bulk promotional email sending, it has built a great name for itself.
This straightforward email service provider provides analytics for performance and email tracking, and its email automation function makes it a fantastic tool for small enterprises. PostMark’s pricing begins at $10 per month, which is quite pricey when compared to other service providers.
You can acquire 10,000 emails for $10. Pricing varies according to the volume of emails sent, with 5 million emails sent in a month costing up to $1,200. If you like, you can even acquire a dedicated IP address.
#11. Amazon SES
Amazon SES (Simple Email Solution) is a low-cost, highly flexible email service that can grow with your company’s demands. Amazon is no stranger to cloud-based services, and the SES fits well into their operations.
Amazon SES includes a reputation dashboard that you can use to track the effectiveness of your email campaigns and obtain more spam feedback to improve their performance. It has a slew of built-in security features, including the Sender Policy Framework and DomainKeys Identified Mail, which verify emails on both ends.
Conclusion
This leads us to the conclusion of the article. That’s all there is to know about the finest email hosting for small and medium enterprises. Email marketing is becoming an essential component of every digital organisation. If you want to grow your business, now is the time to sign up for an email hosting service. A good email hosting service will help you grow, improve customer service, and get more customers through new marketing channels.