7 Best Business Email Providers for Small Businesses

Getting professional email addresses on your domain is cheaper and easier than ever, but some services offer more value than others. The best business email providers have affordable prices, robust storage capacities, advanced security features, and extras like video conferencing, productivity and collaboration tools, or free domain names. We compared dozens of options to help you choose the best email provider for your business.

Based on our comparison, here are the best email providers for small businesses:

• Google Workspace: Best business email provider overall, and ideal for collaborative teams
• Bluehost: Best for small businesses wanting multiple business email accounts with high storage limits
• Microsoft 365: Top choice for those wanting advanced business email features and security
• IONOS: Cheapest business email with a free domain for startups and businesses on a budget
• Zoho Mail: Best email provider for small teams wanting free email addresses on their domain
• DreamHost: Best for businesses wanting unlimited email addresses and a free domain with web hosting
• IceWarp: Best business email provider for those wanting cheap business email hosting with team chat and video conferencing

Best Business Email Providers at a Glance

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*With annual billing
**First year pricing; renews at a higher rate

Take our quiz to find out which business email provider works best for you.

Can’t decide? Go with our top recommendation for business email: Google Workspace. It earned our top score as the best email service provider for small businesses, includes all the productivity software businesses need, and since there are no long-term contracts, trying it is risk-free.

Try Google Workspace

Let’s dive into each of the best business email providers:

Google Workspace: Best Business Email Provider Overall

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) includes Gmail for business email, a professional email on your domain, and comes packed with the productivity and collaboration tools preferred by six out of 10 U.S. businesses. Plans come with Gmail business email plus Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, Google Drive storage, advanced administrative controls, and thousands of email apps and third-party integrations for just $6 per user, per month.

While its closest rival, Microsoft 365, has comparable productivity and collaboration software, you’ll pay twice as much if you want desktop and mobile apps. For full-featured desktop software, you’ll pay $12.50 with Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace at $6 monthly, as all Google software is included from the base tier up.

The $6 per month Microsoft 365 (aka Office 365) plan requires an annual commitment, unlike Google Workspace. And in the base tier, only mobile and web-based apps are included, including for Outlook. Learn more about how Gmail business email compares to Outlook in our head-to-head comparison of Gmail vs Outlook.

Google Workspace Pricing & Plan Features

Google Workspace has a ton of amazing features that make it one of the best email providers for business, which means all of its features are pretty solid. However, here are some features to take note of:

• Top-notch collaboration and productivity tools: Aside from the ubiquitous Gmail, Google Workspace comes with a variety of advanced tools like Docs, Sheets, a shared calendar, and video conferencing. It’s an excellent choice for teams that need to collaborate on tasks.
• Inclusive solutions: Google Workspace is easily one of the best business email service providers as its plans come with multiple tools today’s small businesses need. This includes real-time communication tools for chatting, messaging, and video conferencing, as well as software needed for business correspondence, planning, operations, sales, marketing, and more.
• High storage limits: Gmail’s starting plan has 30GB per user, which is already more than enough storage for the average person. You can easily upgrade to 2TB to 5TB per user by purchasing their more premium plans. This makes Gmail one of the top providers in terms of storage.

Our Expert Opinion

Google Workspace’s plans that include Gmail for business email start at $6 a month. These feature-rich plans are very affordable, especially as they also come with industry-leading collaboration and productivity apps. Shared docs, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, and video conferencing make it the best email provider for just about any small business, especially for collaborative teams.

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Bluehost: Best for Multiple Email Accounts & High Storage Limits

Bluehost is primarily known as a leading WordPress web hosting company. It doesn’t offer a standalone business email service, but its web hosting plans come with five to unlimited email addresses as well as a free domain and SSL certificate for security. It’s the best business email provider for startups and small businesses that are ready to build an online brand presence.

Email users also enjoy high storage limits of 100GB in the base plan and unlimited with all other plans. While not as much storage as Microsoft 365 business email provides, it’s more than Google Workspace’s base tier and most other providers. For example, IONOS’ plans cost only $1 but only include 2GB of storage, and Zoho Mail’s free emails only include 5GB.

This makes it a great option for email users who need a lot of storage, such as those handling large graphics or video files. For more details, read our step-by-step instructions for setting up Bluehost webmail. Keep in mind that it’s also easy to add your Bluehost email address to your favorite app, including Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Mail, among others.

If you plan to host your website in this plan, we recommend considering WordPress alternatives like Wix for most small businesses, due to the learning curve and other aspects of building a WordPress site. However, we understand that there are cases where WordPress is the best option. Bluehost is one of the easiest ways for any small business to build a WordPress website and it’s a WordPress-recommended hosting company.

WordPress will be installed and core updates will be managed for you, and your plan will come with a no-code WordPress page builder. It also has plans which are ecommerce-ready for online stores, including all the plugins you’ll need to get your ecommerce website up and running.

Bluehost Pricing & Plan Features

*Billed annually

Bluehost’s inclusive plans make them the best choice for businesses looking to set up their professional web presence in one go. Here are the features that allow you to do so:

• Unlimited users and storage: Bluehost is the only business email provider on our list that offers unlimited storage and accounts. At $5.45 per month, this is a great value. Take note that this is just the introductory price, and it renews at $13.99.
• All-inclusive plans: Bluehost plans are one-stop solutions. Shared hosting plans give from five up to unlimited business email addresses starting at just $2.95 per month. Aside from email and web hosting, plans come bundled with a free domain name, SSL/TLS security to encrypt your data and protect it from hackers, and a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder.
• Affordable way to build an online presence: Considering the features that Bluehost provides starting at $2.95 per month, it’s well worth the money for new businesses building a web presence for the first time.

Our Expert Opinion

Bluehost includes free business email hosting in web hosting plans. Plans start at just $2.95 with web hosting, domain, SSL, and five email accounts, or $5.45 per month for unlimited professional email accounts. This makes it a good choice for new businesses that are building an online presence and need both web hosting and email at a great value.

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Microsoft 365: Most Advanced Business Email Features & Base Tier Storage

Microsoft 365 is the best email provider for businesses that want to use Microsoft’s productivity suite (including Microsoft Outlook business email), those needing a ton of storage, and those that send or receive large attachments. The base tier’s app inclusions are similar to Google Workspace and start at the same price of $6 per user, per month; however, it includes a massive 1TB of cloud storage via OneDrive (compared to 30GB with Workspace).

The base tier also allows video conferencing with up to 300 participants compared to 100 for the comparable Google Workspace plan. However, Google Workspace is a better option for collaborative teams as multiple users can work on documents simultaneously.

It’s also worth noting that to download Microsoft Office’s desktop apps, you’ll have to subscribe to the second-tier plan at $12.50 per month. Learn more about how Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 office suites compare.

All plans include the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) suite with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other apps that so many know and love. Want more information on how to set up Outlook for business email? Learn how to create a Microsoft business email in just a few easy steps.

Microsoft 365 Pricing & Plan Features

Microsoft 365 has a slew of amazing tools and features, especially for teams looking to take advantage of Outlook business email and the Microsoft Office 365 family of business apps. Here are just a few of the Outlook features that are helpful for businesses:

• High attachment limits: At 150MB for both outgoing and incoming attachments, Microsoft 365 is a great choice for businesses that send (and receive) large email attachments.
• Extra-large storage capacities: Microsoft 365 offers 1TB of storage per user on every single one of their plans. If you’re looking to spend $6 per month, per user, and need large storage capacities, Microsoft 365 blows even Gmail out of the water.
• Power Automate: Microsoft 365 business plans all come with Power Automate, a service that allows you to synchronize and get data between apps to automate workflows within the Microsoft 365 system.

Our Expert Opinion

Microsoft 365 offers competitive pricing for plans that include a ton of cloud storage—1TB, to be exact—for just $6 per month. Large attachment limits and automation features are also massive perks. However, some businesses may not need all these features and prefer a more simple business email interface like Gmail to the feature-packed Outlook email client. For this, choose Google Workspace.

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IONOS: Cheapest Business Email Plans With a Free Domain

IONOS (formerly known as 1&1 by IONOS and IONOS 1&1) is a top web hosting company that also offers premium business email for as low as $1 per month. Although its features are basic, the price is hard to beat. You can use IONOS’ intuitive web-based mail interface from any browser and easily connect your email address to your favorite email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail).

On the cheapest plan, you get 2GB of storage, anti-spam filters, SSL/TLS certificates, a 70MB max attachment limit, and a free domain name ($12 to $20 per year value). On the premium plan, which is still very affordable at just $5 per month, you get all that plus basic collaboration tools like a shared calendar and advanced antivirus protection for as little as $2.50 per user.

If you’re worried that 2GB of storage won’t be enough for you or others on your team, take a closer look at Zoho Mail. Like IONOS, it’s on our list of the cheapest email hosting services and offers higher storage limits, even in the free plan. Or use them together—buy a cheap domain from IONOS for $1 (the first year) and use it with Zoho’s free email plan for a super low-cost domain and email solution to get your business off the ground.

IONOS Pricing & Plan Features

*All plans billed annually

As a provider in our list for best business email services, all of IONOS’ email hosting features are pretty solid. Here are some of the highlights:

• Affordability: IONOS’ plans are extremely cheap, starting at just $1 per month. Zoho Mail comes equally cheap, but doesn’t include other nifty features IONOS brings, like a free domain name and great security.
• High attachment limits: Though not as high as Zoho Mail or Microsoft 365, IONOS’ 70MB and 100MB attachment limits are higher than most other providers, and more than enough for the average user.
• Security features: By upgrading to the $5 per month plan, you get IONOS’ premium antivirus on top of data encryption and filters—an extremely affordable solution for businesses dealing with sensitive content.

Our Expert Opinion

Although IONOS’ email hosting plans lack collaboration tools like video conferencing, at $1 to $5 per month, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better (or cheaper) basic business email provider. It has everything you need to get started, includes advanced anti-virus and anti-spam protection, has high attachment limits, and you’ll save money by getting a free domain name.

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Zoho Mail: Business Email Provider With the Best Free Plan

For the cheapest business email option, look no further than Zoho Mail. Though you’ll need to buy a domain name, it’s one of the best ways to get a free business email address. The free email service provides up to five email addresses and, like IONOS, the cheapest premium plan costs just $1 per month. However, Zoho Mail includes more storage in its free and base tier (5GB) compared to IONOS’ Basic plan with 2GB of storage.

In addition to its free and basic plans, one of the reasons it’s on our list of the best business email providers is that Zoho Mail offers Workplace plans well-suited for teams. They include a 30GB plus 10GB shared storage plan at $3 per user, monthly, or a 100GB plus 100GB shared storage plan priced at $6 per user, monthly.

They also include email hosting on multiple domains, Zoho Office Suite, Zoho Cliq (collaboration tools), mobile apps, large file upload limits, and from 10- to 100-participant video meetings. These tools make them comparable to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, and at $3 per month, per user, the Standard plan is half the cost of either of those providers.

Unlike Microsoft 365, the free plan has low attachment size limits and low storage limits overall. For this reason, it’s best for those who don’t depend heavily on email but want a business email address to maintain a professional image. Check out what’s involved with setting up Zoho Mail for business.

Zoho Mail Pricing & Plan Features

*Billed annually

Zoho Mail is an affordable business email service with excellent features to help you get started. Here are the top features to look at:

• Free-forever plan: Zoho Mail is the only business email provider on our list that offers a free-forever plan. Though the plan has significant limitations (e.g., five maximum users, 5GB of storage, and a 25MB attachment limit), it’s still a great option for startups and small businesses on a budget.
• Large attachment limits: With a maximum attachment limit of 1GB for outgoing emails, Zoho Mail is a top option for businesses that need the ability to send large attachments.
• Available collaboration tools: On the Workplace plans, you get a suite of collaboration tools like shared documents and sheets, and video conferencing—similar to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. This is useful for businesses looking for an alternative to Google or Microsoft and teams utilizing other Zoho apps, such as their email marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

Our Expert Opinion

Zoho Mail is widely regarded as one of the best ways to get free business email, making it a great choice for budget-conscious businesses that need five or fewer email addresses. Paid plans start at $1 per month, per user, but the low cost is at the expense of high storage space. If your business relies heavily on email, the best options are Bluehost and Microsoft 365.

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DreamHost: Best for Unlimited Business Email Addresses

DreamHost is an excellent option to choose for small businesses with a higher number of employees. Recommended by WordPress, DreamHost is a web hosting provider with an extensive product offering. Its strengths lie in its large storage capacity and an affordable plan that can provide unlimited emails, each with 25GB of storage.

Unlike Microsoft 365 and other business email providers on this list, DreamHost’s pricing structure for business emails is not as straightforward. Being primarily a web hosting platform, they offer email hosting as an add-on for the Basic website hosting plan. They also have unlimited emails in the Unlimited plan, both of which start at a $2.95 monthly rate the first year.

The only plans that do not come in with an email hosting bundle are Shared Starter, DreamCompute, and DreamObjects. The plan for email hosting in these plans costs $1.67 per mailbox, per month, with 25GB storage and an ad-free webmail experience. This can be availed for the plans that do not automatically include email hosting mentioned above or for users with domains registered elsewhere.

DreamHost Pricing & Plan Features

*Billed annually; monthly billing is also available at a higher cost
**With annual billing

DreamHost’s product range shows a good mix of power and value that small to medium businesses can benefit from. Here are some of its best features as a top business email provider:

• Smart anti-spam filter: As one of the frontrunners in website hosting, DreamHost has been able to develop impressively strong email security features for its price range. Their filter is highly effective against spam, malware, and phishing attacks.
• Unlimited emails for Shared Unlimited plans: For as low as $2.95 a month, businesses can subscribe to an intensive hosting plan with unlimited emails for their registered domain. This makes it one of the best options for small and mid-size businesses wanting to bundle their hosting services and provide emails for all staff members at a cost-effective rate.
• Ad-free webmail software: Expect an easy experience managing your important emails with DreamHost’s clean and intuitive interface. It boasts a drag-and-drop functionality for increased efficiency and built-in, ad-free webmail that protects your data against third parties.

Our Expert Opinion

DreamHost can provide an all-around website and email hosting platform for businesses on a budget. Alternatively, their standalone email hosting service provides a solid foundation for small organizations with 25GB storage and a top-of-the-line customer experience for just $1.67 per email account, per month. It has all the essentials to start with and plenty of moving room to upgrade when in need of additional features.

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IceWarp: Best Low-cost Email, Chat & Video Conferencing Services

With the highest tier for email hosting service at $7 per month, IceWarp is an enticing email and collaboration tool for businesses. Similar to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, it also offers additional tools for collaboration, document editing, and basic video conferencing, but at almost a quarter of the price. IceWarp’s email hosting solutions are also quite solid, with decent storage and features.

Although IceWarp is undeniably high-value for its price point, it is weaker in terms of third-party support and integration. This lock-in issue makes it difficult to work with other tools outside of IceWarp.

IceWarp Pricing & Features

For a low price, IceWarp offers a range of alternative tools and features that rival more premium email hosting solutions. Here are a few of them:

• Affordability: Considering its product offering and suite of productivity tools, IceWarp’s $2.80 monthly rate is a definite steal. The Lite plan comes with basic voice and video conferencing, one-on-one chats, collaborative editing, and 20GB of storage per user.
• Collaborative and productivity tools: Much more than your typical email and calendaring, IceWarp serves collaborative editing tools in their custom document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors. You can also host team instant messaging and voice and video conferencing with your subscription.
• High storage capacity: By upgrading to the $8 per month plan, you get a whopping 5TB FileSync cloud storage—an extremely affordable storage option for businesses with smaller budgets and needing a collaborative platform.

Our Expert Opinion

With features similar to top-tier email hosting solutions, IceWarp can give you a run for your money with their custom productivity suite. For as low as $2.80 a month per user, you get high-quality video conferencing options for your team and more than enough storage. Granted, it lacks strong third-party support, but as long as you are happy with their alternative tools, it can be a great fit.

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How We Evaluated the Best Email Providers for Small Businesses

All businesses need email addresses that can be accessed quickly, securely, and reliably with enough storage to keep messages from bouncing. However, some companies only need a single email address, while other businesses require a scalable email solution. For that reason, we looked at a range of options that can serve anyone from the sole proprietor wanting a free address to a growing business with multiple employees.

The criteria we used to identify and evaluate the best business email providers include:

• Price
• Ease of use
• Available storage
• Security and accessibility
• Spam and virus protection
• System integrations
• Scalability
• Customer support
• Our own firsthand experience with business email services and apps

Based on scores, firsthand experience, and our expert opinion, we determined that the best business email provider is Google Workspace. While not the cheapest, you’ll still save money as the productivity and collaboration tools small businesses need are also included. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial to test the limits of what your business can get with Gmail business email and Google Workspace software.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is better for business email: Gmail or Outlook?

For teams that need collaboration tools or work remotely, Gmail (and Google Workspace) is better. Its tools are intuitive, modern, and user-friendly, and multiple users can collaborate on projects simultaneously. On the other hand, Outlook (and Microsoft 365) offers better security, and its software has more advanced features and workflow automations. Outlook users get more storage in the base tier as well.

For more details, read our list of the top 10 Outlook features for business users. If you’re still not sure which to choose, get the complete breakdown Gmail vs Outlook for business email.

How do you create a custom email address for business use?

It’s easy to create a custom email address on your domain name, such as “name@yourbusiness.com.” First, register a domain (e.g., yourbusiness.com) by purchasing one from a domain name registrar like Google Domains, Domain.com or IONOS for as little as $1 the first year. Then, get email hosting and set up access to your email with your favorite email app.

How do I choose a professional email address?

There are three main rules when evaluating professional email address ideas. First, make sure you use a custom domain. Second, maintain a consistent username email format. Third, create generic email addresses you can use on your website that forward to you or your team instead of your main email address, e.g., support@yourbusiness.com. This can prevent spam and protect your primary email.

Ready to get started? Learn how to create a professional email address in four easy steps.

Bottom Line

Businesses depend on email communication, so you need to choose email services that are dependable, feature-rich, and affordable. For small businesses looking for the cheapest business email provider, we recommend Zoho Mail. However, for small businesses looking for the best option overall, Google Workspace, which comes with Gmail business email and a slew of productivity and collaboration tools, is our number one pick.

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