The 6 Email Hosting Providers for Small Business in 2024: Free & Paid + Cashback

What is email hosting?

Email hosting is a service that runs email servers and provides email service for individuals and businesses. It allows users to send and receive emails using their custom domain based email accounts. The email hosting service provides secure access to your saved data, and further provides anti-spam and anti-virus filters.

What are the advantages of using an email hosting service over running personal email servers?

Managing your own email servers and securing them from spam and DDOS attacks is difficult and time-consuming. When you set up your domain with an email host, they take care of these complex tasks, once the initial set up is done. With the extensive customization options, delegating the email host to run your domain email will help you focus on your business rather than running around servers.

For many email users, paid hosting is wholly unnecessary, but what about when you have important documents like bills, invoices, client contacts or any other pieces of sensitive information stored on your email account? Additionally, can you afford to lose subscribers, customers, etc. by having a clumsy and unprofessional generic email like your.business@gmail.com over your own domain such as info@your.business.com?

In addition to the professionalism that having your own domain in your email provides, it’s advised to consider upgrading to email hosting instead of putting your data in the hands of a free email service. Businesses pay for this service so that if something goes wrong, someone is there to help.

What Should You Look for When Choosing an Email Hosting Provider?

Pay attention to size limits first and foremost. Make sure the inbox and attachment limits can accommodate the activity your business requires, and that available mailboxes suit the size of your company and the employees who will be needing their own email. Spam and virus filters are important especially if you’ll be receiving attachments from a wide range of sources. If it’s your first time using an email hosting service, or if you’re not too tech-savvy, it’s a good idea to use a provider with a responsive support team. There are the six great providers:

1, Google Workspace

Best for collaborative teams that want user-friendly tools at the best value.

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is a collection of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools developed by Google. And it comes with a custom email for your business. You will get a Gmail connected with your business email address and other familiar tools (Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more) all built with trusted Google security and best-in-class search technology.
Whether you are just starting your own business or already a small enterprise, Google Workspace is ready to fit your needs, including security tools, compliance features, multiple cloud storage options, and advanced meeting capabilities.
While it is not the lowest-cost option, Google Workspace is the best email service provider for small businesses because of its overall reliability, available productivity tools, best-in-class security practices, and ease of integration with other products.

1), Pros:

• Fully customized - Google Workspace can be tailored to your organization's exact needs. From creating an email domain that corresponds to the name of your organization, to setting up specific applications and access security so that only the right people can access your information.
  

• Fast - With Google Workspace you can quickly access your Documents, Calendar, Gmail and Google Meet from within the same platform. It is easy to share, plan, coordinate and create with colleagues and/or customers.
  

• Scalable - Online storage space can be tailored to your organization's needs. Through the central management console you can easily create groups, and add and/or remove users.

• Anywhere - Whether you operate from the Netherlands or internationally, Google Workspace works at any time, from any location and with any device (computer, phone and tablet). In addition, Google offers 24/7 help and support for Google Workspace users.

2), Cons

• Not the cheapest Email Service

• Does not include bulk email cleanup tools

##Visit Google Workspace

3), Pricing

Google Workspace plans start as low as $6 per user per month for Business Starter, $12 per user per month for Business Standard, and $18 per user per month for Business Plus. Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus plans can be purchased for a maximum of 300 users. There is no minimum or maximum user limit for Enterprise plans.

The first 14 days are free.              

2, Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail is a leading professional email provider offers a suite of personal productivity tools, advanced analytics, and integration with third-party apps. Want to enjoy an encrypted, secure, and add-free hosting? If you’re looking for a free and secure email hosting service, Zoho is best that boasts an excellent range of security features and customisation tools that are ideal for work emails.

Managing business communication is seamless as the Zoho Mail app can be downloaded in your Android or iOS devices. Interestingly, you can also add social media flavors directly to your mailbox using Streams and tag teams, comment, share files, and manage tasks easily.

1), Pros

• Zoho provides a user-friendly plan packed with the right features, and most importantly, for the right price.
  

• Small businesses and individual users can take advantage of Zoho Mail's free forever plan.

• Zoho Mail’s Free plan supports up to 5 users in an organization.

• Built-in marketing and analytics tools.

2), Cons

• Small storage and attachment limit included with the free and low-cost plans.

• The free plan does not integrate with Gmail.

##Visit Zoho Mail

3), Pricing

Zoho Mail is the only option on the list to offer a free plan that supports up to five users, and it’s widely regarded as one of the best ways to get a free business email address.

Zoho Mail’s Free plan supports up to 5 users in an organization. However, when a 6th person joins in/ is added, you need to purchase 6 paid licenses i.e., your entire organization has to move to a paid plan, to continue using our service.

Paid plans range in price from $1 per user, per month (billed annually) to $8 per user, per month and include additional features like multiple domain hosting, email forwarding, and system integration.

Mail Only plans (Mail Lite and Mail Premium) are already available at a discounted price. If you're a non-profit or a charitable organization, they have special pricing for you.

15-day free trial for Mail Premium plan.

3, Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the largest website hosting providers that also offers email hosting.

Bluehost employs experts that are well versed in helping you begin your website and email hosting in a safe and reliable environment. If you don’t count their most basic plan which is still great for beginners, BlueHost Web & Email hosting gives you the features that most users feel are essential without any limitations.

Bluehost's price may not be the lowest but they do offer good Website + Email hosting products and services at a very competitive price point. Moreover, their hosting plans include FREE email hosting accounts as well.

If you are a small business with a small headcount and don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on email accounts, then consider this. From EIG-owned Bluehost comes an exclusive business email package for TechRadar readers where you get unlimited email accounts and email storage for as little as $2.75 when paying for three years; that’s a mere $99 for the duration of the term.

For a start, while you get POP3 and IMAP4 plus 24/7 support, this is more of a barebone solution. You get to choose between three webmail applications (the equivalent of Outlook.com or Gmail.com); Horde, Roundcube or Squirrelmail.

You can of course configure an email client like Mail for Windows 10 or Mozilla Thunderbird to read your emails offline. Creating a new email address is a doddle thanks to an easy user interface.

10, Pros

• Enjoy free advertising offers from Google, Bing and other leading sites to help grow your business.

• Free business email hosting with low-cost web hosting plans.

• Free domain name with web hosting plans.

• Get unlimited business email addresses as low as $5.45/month.

2), Cons

• Cannot get email hosting without web hosting.

• Short-term plans are not available.

• Advertised prices reflect a long-term contract.

##Visit Bluehost

3), Pricing (get up to $25 Cash Back on BlueHost)

Bluehost Email hosting comes free of cost with their hosting plans which easily allows you to create a number of Email accounts for your website or blog! Bluehost also offers Paid Email hosting plans which costs $2.99 per license monthly if you wish to enjoy even more advanced email features powered by Microsoft 365 email solution.

4, Hover

Hover is a domain name registrar. Alongside domain services, they offer email packages as well that you can use to create an email address for use with your domain name.
Hover email works with the email app you already use. You can setup to send and receive email on Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird on your computer and any of the popular apps on your iOS or Android phone or tablet. Webmail is also there for you when you need to access your mail from any current web browser.
Hover provides low-cost email hosting, that makes it a good option for small businesses.

1), Pros

• Unbeatable price, at less than $2 per month, most popular mailbox is a no-brainer solution for business owners.

• Ultra-low-cost, high storage plans.

• Have their own secure methods to confirm the email address associated with your account.
  

• Access via email you already use, such as Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird.

2), Cons

• Monthly plans are not available.

• Doesn’t include extras like a free domain or data processors.

##Visit Hover

3), Pricing

Hover offers three different mail packages—mail forwards package, small mailbox package, and big mailbox package. Those who don’t need a large amount of storage, but want the cheapest possible email provider, may find Zoho Mail to be a better option, whereas Hover is by far a better choice for those who need high storage limits at an affordable price.

Forward Only: Get a custom email address on your own domain at a super low price. if you’re the kind of person who can’t live without the Gmail interface, or you want to keep using the email address you’ve had “forever”, Forward Only is for you. For just $5/year (less than pennies a day), you can create an email address at your own domain.

Small Mailbox: It’s actually anything but small. With 10GB of mailbox storage, running out of space is not a concern for all but the biggest email users. For $20/year per mailbox, you’ll get a full mailbox that you can use on the web (with brand new webmail), on the desktop email app of your choice and with the mail app built in to your mobile device (Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone and more). Your mailbox stays in sync everywhere thanks to standards-compliant IMAP, included with every mailbox.

Big Mailbox: More storage than you’ll ever need and then some. Forget gigabytes…Big Mailbox gives you a full terabyte mailbox for just $29/year per mailbox. Along with the big storage upgrade, you also enjoy shared calendaring and file storage. Like Small Mailbox, it works on the web, desktop and on the go. Never ever worry about running out of storage.

5, Dreamhost

Dreamhost offers standalone email hosting among the range of different packages that this established web hosting services provider offers. DreamHost is known for its reliable service that also offers low-cost business email hosting.

Dreamhost's email hosting offers 25GB of storage by default, with the ability to sync emails between desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, there's an ad-free webmail software platform included.

Another key feature is a smart anti-spam filter, which ensures the filtering of spam messages, but also viruses, malware, and phishing attacks. The filter is adaptive to emerging threats, ensuring that you remain protected.

1), Pros

• Affordable Email Plans.

• Pricing is relatively inexpensive, and depends on whether you wish to pay on a monthly basis or commit to annual payments. Monthly plans cost just $1.99 a month, while a yearly commitment reduces this to the equivalent of $1.67 a month.

• DreamHost offers free inbound spam filtering that automatically adapts to emerging threats, keeping your inbox safe from spam, viruses, and phishing attacks.

2), Cons

• Doesn’t come with extras like word processing tools.

• Doesn’t come with a free domain.

##Visit DreamHost

3), Pricing

DreamHost offers one straightforward email hosting plan, which comes with 25GB of storage and costs $1.99 per month with month-to-month billing, or $1.67 per month with annual billing. This makes it a very affordable way to get business email, and unlike other providers such as Bluehost, which offers email hosting within its web hosting plans, with DreamHost you can just purchase email hosting without web hosting.

6, Microsoft 365

Best for small businesses that require the ability to regularly edit and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with people outside the organization.

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft’s custom email solution for your small business. If your employees rely on Microsoft Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to do their work, the best option for your email hosting is probably Microsoft 365's Business Premium plan.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium bundles all of the features you need from a hosted email service—email sending and receiving, custom domain addresses, and spam and data loss prevention—along with the Office apps your employees use daily at work. With a single subscription, you get hosted email and web, desktop, and mobile access to Microsoft's Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Skype, and OneNote apps.

Email hosting with an Microsoft 365 subscription is provided through Microsoft Exchange, which is also available as a standalone subscription if you don't need all of the add-on apps. And both the lowest-price standalone Exchange plan and Microsoft 365 Business Premium give each of your users up to 50GB of mailbox storage.

Unlike Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 has no monthly plans, and you have to commit to a yearly plan. It works on your local computer (requires one-time software installation) as well as on your web browser. So if you’re a Windows user and familiar with how Microsoft office works, then it is recommended to go with Microsoft 365 for your small business. You can create a team of up to 250 users for your business.

##Microsoft 365

Pricing (get up to 6% Cash Back on Microsoft Store)

• Microsoft 365 Basic: $6 per user, per month; includes cloud storage, OneDrive, and web and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

• Microsoft 365 Apps: $10 per user, per month; includes Office apps across devices and cloud file storage

• Microsoft 365 Standard: $15 per user, per month; adds business email, online meetings, and chat

• Free trial: 30 days (Standard and Premium plans only)

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