A generic email address that ends in gmail.com, yahoo.com, or outlook.com is quite fine for personal use.
But when it comes to a business, such an email address can look unprofessional. People may not take you seriously.
Why Use a Business Email
For instance, how would you feel if I sent you newsletters from an email address like _abhinav[email protected]? It would be better if I used an email address like [email protected]. Right?
That's the importance of business email addresses. And in this post, we will discuss some of the best email hosting providers that allow you to create custom email addresses ending with your domain name.
Now some of you might be thinking, “why can't I create an email address from my web hosting control panel?” For example, cPanel allows you to create custom email addresses. Then why use an email hosting provider?
The reason is simple: if you use your web hosting account to host your emails as well, then if one goes down the other also goes down. Moreover, hosting both of them on the same server can affect performance. That's why it is recommended to Host the email on a separate provider or at least on a separate server.
1. Hover
Hover is a domain registration and email hosting provider based in Canada. Founded in 1993, its parent company is Tucows, which also owns other similar companies like Enom.
Hover's highlight is its simplicity. They focus only on domain registration and email hosting. You cannot find any other related services like web hosting or SSL certificates usually sold along with email hosting.
Hover offers three plans under email hosting:
- Small Mailbox: costs $20 per year and offers 10GB of storage
- Big Mailbox: $29 per year and 1TB of storage
- Email forwarding: allows you to forward the emails to another address, the price is $5 per year
If you are looking for plain and simple email hosting without all the bells and whistles, then Hover may be the best choice. The webmail interface also offers a pleasant user experience.
All the plans allow you to create as many email aliases as you want. You can also connect it with your favorite email client using POP or IMAP protocols.
2. Google Workspace
There won't be anyone who doesn't know about Gmail, which is available for free. Google Workspace is a premium offering that includes a suite of tools for businesses, which includes professional Gmail as well.
The difference is that instead of the email address ending with the generic gmail.com domain, you can use your own domain address.
Formerly it was known as G Suite. Workspace Gmail uses the same interface as free Gmail, but without ads. Along with that, you also get all the other familiar applications like Google Drive, calendar, docs, sheets, Meet, and so on.
Currently, Google Workspace is available under four different plans:
- Business Starter: offers 30GB of storage. Remember, the free Google account includes only 15GB of storage
- Business Standard: offers 2TB of storage
- Business Plus: 5TB storage + enhanced security
- Enterprise: the price is not available publicly
The price can vary depending on your country. When I checked from India, the price for the Business Starter plan was INR 210/month/user. And when I switched the location to the USA, the price for the same was $6/per/month per user.
If you are planning to switch away from desktop-based application suites like MS Office, then Google Workspace may be the best option. The main advantage is that it works fully on the cloud and offers powerful collaboration features. It's also great if you are looking to you take your whole team to work from the cloud.
3. GoDaddy Professional Email
Godaddy is one of the most popular domain registrars and hosting providers in the world. In addition to that, they also offer cheap email hosting services.
The prices can slightly vary based on the country from where you are accessing the site. But overall, it is quite cheaper when compared to other providers like Google Workspace and Ms 365.
With that being said, GoDaddy's pricing structure is a bit confusing. They offer five email hosting plans in two categories: Professional Email and Professional Email with MS 365.
Under Professional Email, you can find:
- Email Essentials: offers 10GB of storage and costs $1.99/month
- Email Plus: 50GB of storage, $3.99/month
- Business Professional: offers 50GB in addition to MS Office apps like Word and Excel
4. NameCheap
Namecheap is another company that people often consider as an alternative to Godaddy. They offer almost the same range of products from domain registration to web hosting, SSL certificates, and email hosting.
However, Namecheap follows less confusing pricing strategies, which set it apart from Godaddy.
There are three plans on offer:
- Starter: 5GB of email storage along with 2GB of file storage, includes one mailbox, costs $14.88/year.
- Pro: 3 mailboxes, 30GB of email storage, 15GB file storage, costs $38.88/year
- Ultimate: 5 mailboxes, 75GB mail storage, 30GB file storage, costs $68.88 /year
If you want additional mailboxes, you can add them to each plan by paying an extra charge.
The Starter and Pro plans include only email and storage-related features. While The Ultimate Plan includes additional features like spreadsheet editor, text editor, and presentation maker.
5. Dreamhost Professional Email
Be it with web hosting or email hosting, simple and straightforward pricing is the highlight of Dreamhost. They offer just one plan for hosting your professional emails, which includes 25GB of storage.
Monthly and yearly billings are available. The price is $1.99/month if you choose month-to-month billing. Or $1.67/month for yearly billing.
Being a simple service, Dreamhost offers only the essential email features like antispam, IMAP/POP for desktop and mobile sync, along a webmail interface. Nothing more.
Otherwise, if you want extra features like office applications and collaboration features, then Dreamhost also resells Google Workspace. The price is the same if you go and buy it directly from Google.
6. Zoho Mail
Zoho is another company that offers a wide range of cloud-based apps for organizations and businesses. Their suite of products ranges from CRM to social media management, collaboration tools, analytics, and much more.
In that sense, you can consider it as an alternative to Google Docs and MS Office, but much more than that. Hence it may suit well for enterprises with large teams rather than individuals.
But if you want only a single app such as Mail, then Zoho allows you to buy that individually. No need to buy the whole bundle.
Currently, there are three plans available under Zoho email:
- Mail Lite: 5GB storage, 250MB attachments, $1/user/month.
- Mail Premium: 50GB storage, 1GB attachments, white labelling, $4/month /user
- Workspace: includes cloud-based spreadsheet and word processing, $3/month
In addition to all these, there is also a Free Forever plan. But it does not include the IMAP/POP feature. So you may not be able to integrate it with your email client.
7. MS 365 Business
Microsoft 365 Business or MS 365 Business is the major rivalry to Google Workspace.
MS also offers all the office applications and professional email for businesses. But personally, I do not like the MS Office Email interface that much when compared to Gmail.
However, MS 365 has a major difference. They focus on their desktop software, be it with MS Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Whereas Google focuses on their cloud-based web apps.
MS Office tools are also more powerful when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets capabilities. For instance, you can find more templates in Word and Excel compared to Google Docs and Sheets.
MS Office offers three plans, all coming with email hosting:
- Basic: $5/month/user - only the web apps included, not the desktop apps
- Standard: $12.5/month/user, includes the desktop versions of all the office apps (50 MS Word Excel PowerPoint, etc)
- Premium: offers advanced security via MS defender for MS Office 365
All plans come with 50GB of mailbox storage.
8. Titan Email from Hostinger
Titan is another email hosting provider suitable for individuals, small entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs.
It offers all the essential features including the calendar, where you can organize meetings, set up a video call, etc. But Titan has taken care not to complicate things like Google or Microsoft. But on the flip side, it may not be the best choice for organizations and businesses with big teams.
Unlike other providers, you cannot buy email hosting directly from Titan. Instead, it is only available via their partner hosting companies, at least as of now. There are five partners: Hostinger, Hostgator, Namesilo, WordPress.com, and Rumahweb.
And when I checked for the pricing and plans on Hostinger, I could find 2 plans:
- Business Email that comes with 10GB of storage and costs $2.99/month
- Enterprise Email that offers 30GB of storage and costs $3.99/month
Titan also allows you to import your existing contacts and email messages from other providers.
Conclusion
I hope this post helped you to find a suitable email hosting provider. If you have a favorite provider that's not on this list, mention it below.
