We all know that the backbone in communication mediums for every business is email or electronic mail. Even though there are newer platforms like Facebook messenger, Twitter, Instagram, and many more, many companies are still using email as their primary means to communicate. That’s why it’s very important to choose a suitable email hosting that can provide all the necessary services that a company needs. 

Free email services like Yahoo Mail, Outlook, and Gmail are the few examples of email providers that offer free hosting services – though they offer other professional hosting services with minimal charges. However, using a free email hosting service can give any business a bad reputation. Customers and subscribers tend to lose their interest from websites or businesses that use free email services. For example, it’s better to use [email protected] than [email protected] which gives a more professional vibe to a website, thus allowing you to gain trust from customers and clients. 

To give more information about email hosting, here are the three popular types of email hosting on the internet. 

Self-Hosted Email: This is a type of email hosting where website owners have their own servers. Instead of buying a premium email service from a third-party provider, it can be self-hosted which provides more control and customizability to their websites. However, there are significant disadvantages when using a self-hosted email. One such disadvantage is that the cost of servers which are more expensive rather than getting a service from a third-party provider. Also, there is a higher chance of getting your emails marked as spam.

Shared Web and Email Hosting: Web hosting providers like GoDaddy and InMotion offer their web hosting services and includes free email hosting. 

Third-Party Email Hosting: Third-Party email hosting providers like Bluehost, Fasthosts, Microsoft365, and Zoho Mail offers more features than web hosting provides. Companies or website owners can enjoy features like shared contacts and calendars, team chat, built-in video conferencing, and bigger mailbox storage. 

Here are some features that should be included before buying an email hosting service. 

  • Custom Domains: To increase the volume of subscribers or customers of a website, the domain name of an email address should be customizable. By having this feature, it will give a more professional vibe for any website owners. 
  • 24/7 Helpdesk: This is a helpful feature for website owners that don’t have the resources to hire a system administrator. There are hosting providers that offer a 24/7 technical support team that will help you to deal with any problems that you may encounter on your website. 
  • Security Features: It’s highly recommended to find an email hosting provider that offers a good built-in security application where it can scan any malicious content like spam, virus, and malware. 
  • Mailbox Storage: Getting an ample amount of mailbox storage is very important to any business that uses email as their primary communication medium. There are hosting providers that offer 2GB of storage per user which can give room for archiving old emails. 
  • Size Limits: Make sure to consider the allowed size limit when sending emails. There are providers like Bluehost and Microsoft 365 that let you send bigger emails, giving you an advantage when dealing with clients or employees. 

Comparison: Free and Paid Email Hosting

Free Email Hosting

Gmail and Yahoo mail offers free email hosting which is recommended for individuals (personal blogger) and small businesses. 

Pros:

-No contract 

-Free service.

-Can support minimal email services like sending small data emails. 

Cons:

-Since it’s free, there are advertisements that will appear when using the free service. 

-Prone to data breaching.

Paid Email Hosting

If your business uses email as it’s primary communication for transactions, it’s highly recommended to use a paid email hosting. 

Pros:

-More storage space

-Powerful antivirus and spam filters

-No advertisements

-Email authentication schemes like filtering, replication, and rerouting

-Folder and contacts management

-Can send large attachments

-Mailing, white and blacklists

-Backups/archiving

-Use of aliases, forwarders, and autoresponders

-Mail rules

Cons:

-Expensive

Today, many businesses use email to support different tasks like communicating with their customers, vendors, and team members. It’s important to review your options before buying a service that will become your website’s most-used service. Also, keep in mind to check the features that are included with your email hosting service, to ensure that everything you need will be right at your fingertips.