What is Email Hosting?
Email hosting is a hosting service that is particularly specialized in the operation and hosting of emails. Like web hosting, email hosting has different types of hosting.
The three main types are:
- Shared Hosting
This is the type of email hosting offered by your web host. Just like your shared web hosting, with shared email hosting, you share the server and the IP address with hundreds or thousands of other users.
- Self Hosting
This is where you host your own emails on your own servers. With the self hosting of your emails, you have a lot of control, however, it is also the most costly option for hosting your email. You will need to have space for your servers and pay for them as well. Also, you will need to have professionals who can set up the system and maintain it.
- Third Party Hosting
With this type of hosting, you have an email hosting specialized in hosting emails only. Third party email hosting not only provides secure hosting of your email, but also comes with tools that allow you to organize your business activities. Third party hostings provide features like online meeting spaces, project management, storage, and much more.
Why You Need Email Hosting
One sure way to convey professionalism and gain the trust of your customers, is an email address with your domain name. Aside from this, email hosting offers data security, support, storage, and tools to communicate and collaborate with coworkers and customers.
What Features to Look for in an Email Hosting Service
The reasons for the kind of email hosting you need, are specific to the needs of your organization. Once you have determined what your needs are, you will have a clear understanding as to what type of email hosting you need, and what features to look for in a hosting provider. There are however, global features that you should look for such as:
- Having a custom domain
- Security
- Spam and virus filters
- Customer support
- Storage
- Business tools
Why 10Web Doesn’t Provide Email Hosting Services
We don't provide email hosting as a part of our plans. We choose to concentrate all of our resources on making 10Web the best and most cost efficient WordPress managed hosting platform in the industry.
Recommended Email Hosting Services
Though 10Web does not provide email hosting services, the two we recommend are G Suite and Zoho. Here is why.
G Suite
Created by one of the most powerful search engines and leading email hosting providers, G Suite is a suite of cloud based tools and services by Google. It includes business email hosting and a bundle of features that make organizing and running your organization a breeze. Here are some of the features G Suite offers:
- An email account with your business domain for employees
- An admin panel for managing your accounts
- A 30GB searchable Drive
- A calendar to set up meetings and events
- Google Docs
- Google Pages
- Google Slides
- Chat and video conferencing and much more.
Choose from three different plans starting from $6 a month per employee to $25 a month per employee. The G Suite features allow you to:
- Share work with teammates
- Edit and work together in real time
- Get feedback from coworkers
- Import docs and sheets to different formats
- Organize and store your work
- Search for your documentation by title or content
- Integrate with other apps
- Write your own code
- Keep up with work from anywhere in the world
- Communicate with coworkers
Also an integral part of G Suite is it’s 24/7 support and security. G Suite offers a unified platform where workflow and collaboration runs smoothly.
Given that business is surely heading towards remote more so now than ever, working remotely doesn’t always mean that internet connection is guaranteed. One of the cons of G Suite is that it is purely web based. In order to work offline, which is an option in G Suite, you will need to have downloaded the file you are working on using a Chrome browser. And because you may not know when your internet is going to be out, this may prove to be a problem. Also, the web based versions of the tools are limited. If you are used to the desktop versions, you may feel your work is being limited.
How to Configure G Suite for Your Business
Zoho
Another of our favorite email hosting providers for business, Zoho has a suite of web based tools to run your business from A to Z. Unlike G Suite, Zoho also provides tools for communication and collaboration that are customer facing as well as tools for work, organization, and collaboration within your company.
Some of the features offered by Zoho are:
- Email accounts with your domain names for employees
- Applications for collaboration and organization
- A storage drive
- Chat and video conferencing
- Document management
- Sheets
- Show for presentations
- Marketing applications
- Customer support
- Accounting, Invoice and Payment management
- Operations - Inventory and Subscription management
- Tools for HR
- Business workflow management
- Business statistics
- Custom creation of business management application
As claimed by Zoho, they are a “holistic approach to business software”. Zoho offers free business email hosting with up to 5 emails using your domain. When compared to paid plans, with the free plan you get a limited toolbox. However, if you are just starting out and need tools for communicating and collaborating only within your company, this is a perfect way to go.
At an annual rate of $30 per employee for the Zoho One plan, Zoho allows you to create and share work with employees for collaboration, create sprints and manage workflow within an agile environment. Customer facing applications will allow for smooth transactions using invoice and payment management to encourage productivity, manage your inventory, and drive sales. Measure your growth and weak spots using Business Intelligence.
It does seem a lot for a company that hosts emails. Perhaps this is true, however, we think Zoho is great for businesses that are starting out. It provides great tools to help you grow your business at a reasonable price. Some of the cons of Zoho are that it lacks customization once your business has grown. Like G Suite, Zoho too is completely web based, and if your wifi or internet is out, you're left stranded. Nevertheless, Zoho is one of the most affordable ways to propel your business forward.