7 Top Options Compared for 2023

Consider this summary table highlighting the most important details:

The benefits of working with a quality email hosting provider:

• Full control over your email – Having an email server and your website server separate gives you complete control over your email. When was the last time you were just about to change a crappy web host but stopped the move when you remembered you’d have to migrate your email as well? Yes, email can be a pain when handled badly.
• Less chance of ending up in the spam folder – When you’re on a generic web server, someone else getting penalized for spam can result in your emails getting penalized too. Hiring a third party host to maintain an individual email server for your business allows you to avoid this issue entirely.
• No unnecessary configuration – You can get the previous two benefits by setting up your own server, but it requires a lot of technical know-how and a complicated process. Working with a third-party email hosting service takes all of the technical work out of your hands and allows you to stay focused on more important aspects of your business.

Now onto the list:

1. Google Workspace (G Suite)

👉 Cloud-based systems – Create, edit and store everything you need in the cloud.

In short, Google Workspace (G Suite) is a simple but powerful cloud-based suite with excellent email hosting and a variety of other business tools.

Pricing 💵

Google Workspace (G Suite) offers four plans: the Business Starter plan at $6/user/month, the Business Standard plan at $12/user/month, the Business Plus plan at $18/user/month and an enterprise plan for custom needs.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the features in the Business Starter plan:

• Custom email addresses
• Unlimited group emails
• 25MB email attachments
• 99.9% guaranteed uptime for email
• Video and voice conferencing
• Secure internal messaging
• Shared calendars
• The ability to create Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations
• 30GB of cloud storage, shared between the team
• 24/7 customer support
• Security and administrative tools
• Alert Center for G Suite

Higher level plans give you access to features like bigger cloud storage, security features, and SmartSearch.

Who Google Workspace (G Suite) is best for 😃

Google Workspace (G Suite) is ideal for organizations that want an easy-to-use cloud based email solution. However, all of Google Workspace’s (G Suite) functionality exists within a web browser. Many of the tools will allow you to continue working offline, but may not save properly. If you want to be able to save your work offline, you should consider other options.

You may also be interested in:

2. Zoho Mail

Pricing 💵

If your company has fewer than five employees you can get free email hosting for custom domain (single-domain only) through Zoho. If you have more than five employees and you only want to use Zoho Mail, you can buy the annual Mail Lite plan for $1/user/month. For access to more Zoho tools, there are two other email hosting solutions priced on an annual billing basis: the Standard Zoho Workplace plan at $3/user/month or the Premium plan at $4/user/month.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with the features available in the Mail Lite plan:

• 250MB email attachments
• 5GB of storage
• Email hosting for multiple domains
• Email recall
• Tasks, Notes, and Bookmarks
• eWidget
• Free mobile apps
• SecurePass email
• Fully functional business calendars, complete with appointment scheduling and sharing options
• 24/7 technical support for all paid plans

Who Zoho Mail is best for 😃

Zoho Mail is the best cheap email hosting provider for solopreneurs and other business owners who want free email hosting with only essential features, or only want to pay a small amount for the features that are absolutely necessary to their businesses.

3. Microsoft 365 Business Premium

👉 Advanced collaboration tools – Share documents directly instead of through attachments so everyone can work on the same version of the document. Full versioning is included so you can revert to a previous iteration of the document if needed.

👉 Access to new versions of programs when they come out – As a subscription owner, you will automatically get access to new versions of the Office software as they come out, with no additional licensing fees.

Microsoft 365 is a powerful software-based suite filled with tools that can simplify many aspects of your business. You can even do much of your work offline. However, the primary storage system is cloud-based, so you might not be able to access certain files while working offline.

Pricing 💵

Microsoft 365 Business Basic will cost you $6/user/month. This will give you access to the web and mobile versions of all Microsoft Office apps, 1TB of cloud storage, and email hosting.

Features 🏗️

The Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan gives you access to:

• Email hosting with 50GB mailbox and custom email domain address
• Easy creation and deletion of email addresses
• 20MB maximum attachment size
• Access to web and mobile versions of the following applications: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plus Access and Publisher for PC only
• 50GB of storage per user
• Automatically synced with the Exchange app for access across devices
• Shared calendars
• Custom script creation
• 1TB of cloud storage
• Chat-based workspace to connect your teams with Microsoft Teams
• 24/7 phone and web support

Who Microsoft 365 is best for 😃

Microsoft 365 for Business is ideal for businesses that want a variety of powerful business tools they can use online and off. The fact that the whole Office package is included can be a huge benefit.

4. GreatMail

GreatMail doesn’t offer any fancy extras, but they do provide everything you need to manage business emails for a group.

Pricing 💵

GreatMail’s Standard plan comes at a rate of $99.95 annually ($8.33/month). This gives you 8 inboxes. You can expand by paying $1/user/month for each additional email account.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the Standard plan:

• Complete compatibility with a wide variety of email clients including Outlook, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird
• Management of multiple domains from one account
• No size limit on attachments
• Configure your inbox to automatically save emails to an existing cloud storage account or directly to your computer
• Automatic configuration of all mailboxes
• SSL and TSL encryption
• State of the art antivirus and spam filtering technology

The Gold plan also includes enhanced calendar and contacts synchronization.

Who GreatMail is best for 😃

GreatMail is an ideal tool for medium-to-large businesses that want to provide basic email compatibilities to a wide variety of employees without spending a fortune. The 8 mailbox minimum makes it an impractical option for smaller businesses.

5. GMX

Pricing 💵

GMX is a free email hosting provider. There are no paid plans.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on just the GMX features related to email.

• 65GB storage
• Attachments up to 50MB
• Up to 10 alias emails
• Mail Collector to organize all of your email, including email in non-GMX accounts, in one inbox
• MailCheck browser extension so you never miss an email

Who GMX is best for 😃

GMX is an ideal choice for solopreneurs who don’t have much of a budget but still want access to professional email.

6. SiteGround

Pricing 💵

SiteGround offers three plans: the StartUp plan at $2.99/month, the GrowBig plan at $4.99/month, and the GoGeek plan at $7.99/month.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the email-specific features attached to the StartUp plan. You can take a close look at SiteGround’s other features here:

• Custom email address
• 2000MB inbox
• 50MB attachment limit
• Up to 400 emails sent per hour
• Up to 40 recipients per email
• Up to 20 emails received per minute
• Undelivered mail retry after 24 hours
• SpamExperts is enabled by default on all servers

Who SiteGround is best for 😃

If you don’t have a website yet or you’re looking to switch to a new website host, SiteGround is an excellent option for you. If you’re happy with your current web host or you want an email hosting service specifically to make collaboration easier, you’ll want to consider another tool from this list.

7. A2 Hosting

👉 Automated backups – Your emails will automatically be backed up.

Pricing 💵

You can get shared hosting starting at $2.99/month, WordPress hosting starting at $11.99/month, TURBO BOOST hosting for $6.99/month, or TURBO MAX hosting for $14.99/month. However, these prices will increase upon renewal. For more information, check out their list of hosting plans.

Features 🏗️

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the features related to email hosting. Check out their complete list of hosting plans for more information:

• Unlimited custom email addresses
• 50MB file attachment limit
• State of the art spam protection
• Choice of webmail software, with three options built in + compatibility with many more
• Email forwarders
• Auto-responders

Who A2 Hosting is best for 😃

Similarly to SiteGround, A2 Hosting is a great choice if you’re looking for a place to not only host your business email but your website as well. The all-in-one solution makes managing your tools easier.

What to look for in an email hosting provider

The features you’ll require from your email hosting provider will vary based on the industry you’re in, but there are some features that most businesses should look for:

• Custom domain use with no added fees – This means the host allows you to create email addresses using your business’s official domain name.
• Emails separate by domain – On some shared setups, if you set emails like [email protected] and [email protected], those emails might lead to the same inbox, since they share the same username. This is not ideal. You want to be able to set separate emails for different domain names.
• Significant mailbox storage – You and your employees need lots of room to archive communications with clients and other important business documents. Look for an email host that offers at least 2GB of storage per user.
• 24/7 customer support – You should be able to get technical support from your email host at any time of day or night.
• Security filters – These features will keep your business email free of spam, viruses, and other security threats.
• Email delivery guarantees – You don’t want to end up with emails that get nowhere. You need guarantees.
• File sending capability – An email that allows you to send files of at least up to 25MB can make it easier to share large work files. Some email hosting providers also provide advanced file sharing for even bigger documents.
• Ease of use – You want to invest in a system that makes it easy to create new accounts and manage email accounts associated with your business. The best email hosting providers also offer easy-to-use interfaces for individual accounts. These often come with organizational tools that help you manage different types of business communications.
• Uptime – Any time your network goes down is a time your business is losing money. Look for an email hosting provider that guarantees 99.9% uptime and offers patches so you don’t have to maintain your own system.
• Continuous improvements – The world of email marketing is always changing. The capabilities of email design and the potential for quality user experiences grow exponentially every year. The best email hosting providers are also working to grow and improve on a continuous basis. Consider both the frequency of updates and the types of updates an email host has invested in recently.

Final thoughts on these best email hosting providers

Every company has different needs, so it’s important to consider the functionality your team truly needs as you explore the best email hosting providers. All of the options on this list are great, but they work for different kinds of businesses:

Above all else, remember that the best email host is the one you enjoy working with. Don’t be afraid to experiment with multiple options before settling on a long-term solution.

Layout, presentation, and editing by Karol K.

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a commission. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no additional cost on your part.