Email is the cheapest way of communication. Services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook don’t charge anything to use their service. Although there’s no harm in using Microsoft Outlook or Gmail for business communication, it would be great if you create a business email id and use it. For example, if a guy named Sam owns a restaurant called “Sams Restaurant”, Sam should use the email ID help@samesrestaurant.com or something_else@samsrestuarant.com for official business communication.
The reason for this is simple. Using a business email address creates customer trust and makes your business’ brand more coherent and recognizable. For instance, if Sam decides to send out a round of promo emails to promote his latest culinary creation, someone who’s been to his restaurant before will instantly recognize the sender address. If a promo mail comes from a random Gmail account, though, it’ll probably end up in their trash.
There are two ways you can create a branded email – host your own mail server or buy cheap email hosting. The 1st option requires you to install postfix + dovecot (or its alternatives) on an unmanaged virtual private server and manage it. You’ll also have to set up SSL on the server. If you go with this option, you can create as many branded email IDs as you want. You’ll only have to pay the hosting fees. The major benefit of choosing this method is that the email data resides on the server you control. The disadvantage of hosting your own email server is that you’ll have to take care of the server’s security and control spam by yourself. This is because Postfix cannot distinguish between junk and non-junk emails. You’ll also have to install a third-party email client and configure it to fetch the mails from your server and display the same. The 2nd option is the easiest way to get a business email address. There are several firms that offer email hosting service. The following ones are the best and have the cheapest plan:
Best cheap email hosting providers
Zoho Mail
Zoho is one of the cheapest email hosting service providers. The company offers 3 plans – Mail Lite, Mail Premium, and Workplace. It also offers a free plan that lets users create one business email. The Lite plan supports multiple domains and lets users create unlimited aliases. It offers 5GB storage memory and supports attachments of up to 250-megabyte size. The Lite plan is the best plan for users looking for email hosting for multiple domains. This plan costs $10/year. The Premium plan, which is priced around 2 USD supports 1GB mail attachments, white labeling, and digital signatures. The Workplace plan offers more features than the Mail Lite plan but it offers many features that businesses will find useful. Zoho Mail lets users create tasks, bookmarks, and notes. It allows you to share folders by email addresses.
Namecheap email hosting
Although the free plan of Zoho Mail lets you create an email ID for a single domain, if you don’t want to use this plan, Namecheap is a great choice for you. Well, Namecheap doesn’t have a free plan. Its Starter plan is priced around $12. With this plan, you can create a single business email address. You’ll also get access to a mailbox that can save 5GB of email data. This Namecheap email plan supports 10 aliases. It also offers 2GB storage space for files and enables you to view PowerPoint, excel, word documents online. The Pro and Ultimate plans offer 3 and 5 mailboxes respectively. They offer 30 and 75 GB storage memory. Pro plan supports full mobile synchronization. The Ultimate plan lets you see the presentations, documents, spreadsheet files online.
GoDaddy Professional Business Email
The best alternative to Namecheap private email is the GoDaddy Professional Business email service. GoDaddy offers a branded email ID and 10GB storage memory for below $1 per month. The company also offers a calendar, task manager, and contacts app to the users. The Team plan of GoDaddy offers 25GB storage memory for mails. It lets users share calendars and other stuff with team members. Godaddy, right now, is offering a 40% discount to the users of its email hosting plan.
Gandi
Gandi offers 2 free mailboxes to the users who register a domain with them or transfer a domain to them. The company offers a professional mailbox that is protected by antivirus and anti-spam filters. Gandi lets users sort and filter mails. Additional mailboxes cost 30 per month. .com domains on Gandi costs 10 to 11 USD per year. The 2 mailboxes deal is a great deal as you won’t have to spend money on email hosting service.
Siteground
Users who buy a web hosting plan from Siteground can create and manage unlimited email IDs for their domain. The hosting provider also lets users set a disk quota limit for each ID they create. Siteground is a great shared hosting company. If you have got a business site or a website that is making money, you can move your site to Siteground hosting to get a free email ID for your domain. Users who want to launch a new website can also use Siteground.
Porkbun
Porkbun is a top-class domain registrar. Users who register a domain with Porkbun enjoy 3 months of email hosting. The registrar has a single email hosting plan which costs $24/year. This plan supports 10GB storage and offers a webmail interface for reading/composing mails.
Common features of the above hosting providers
Mobile devices: You can access your emails on smartphones. Some of the firms provide dedicated mobile applications with which you can access your mail account on the phone. You don’t have to be in front of the computer or carry your laptop to access your inbox.
SMTP/IMAP/POP3: The above services support POP3, IMAP, SMTP protocols. Thus, you can use an email client of your choice to access the emails or create new ones.
Two-factor authentication: Your account is protected by 2-factor authentication. Once you activate 2FA, you’ll have to either enter the OTP generated by an application or the number sent to your phone in addition to the email address and password.
Dashboard: Setting up an email client to fetch emails from the email hosting service provider takes a few seconds. To be honest, you don’t have to waste time on this as the company offers n intuitive dashboard to manage emails. Through the dashboard, you can send or see emails. If you’re using email hosting for your web application, you can see the delivery failures, and the list of mails the application has sent to the inbox of the user.
Spam: Like Gmail, Outlook, etc, the above service providers will automatically send junk emails to the spam folder. Some of the services can automatically remove the junk mails after N days.
Final thoughts: The 5 services I have shared above offer the cheapest email hosting plans for business. Their plans are affordable and service/support is excellent.
Image source: Pixabay
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