5 Best Email Service Providers for Small Businesses in 2021

Anyone using email for professional purposes will benefit by dumping the personal email address for a business email address (name@yourdomain.com). The good news is that it’s cheaper and easier to set up than you might think. To help you find the best business email provider for you, we weeded through dozens to determine which live up to—and even exceed—their marketing claims based on the factors that matter most to small businesses.

Need help choosing the right email provider? Take the quiz!

Here are the five best business email providers for small businesses:

• Google Workspace: Best overall provider for value for price
• Zoho Mail: Free bare-bones email that connects to your own domain
• Bluehost: Best for unlimited business email addresses for one low price
• Office 365: Best for professional email with Microsoft Office Suite included
• DreamHost: Most reliable low-cost email for budget-conscious companies at just $1.67/month

Overall Best Value Business Email Provider: Google Workspace

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is the supercharged version of Gmail for professional use. What makes Google Workspace stand out is that it not only includes top-notch professional email that uses your own domain name, but it also comes packed with modern productivity and collaboration tools, from Google Docs (Google’s version of Microsoft Word) to advanced admin control and hundreds of the best third-party email apps and tools for $6 per user, per month.

Interested in learning more about Gmail vs Google Workspace? Learn more about Gmail for Business.

Google Workspace Pricing

Pricing starts at $6 per user, per month, making it very affordable for such feature-rich email plans with industry-leading collaboration and productivity tools included. Google Workspace also offers an enterprise-level plan that includes advanced customization, and pricing is tailored to a business’ specific needs.

Google Workspace Tiered Pricing & Features

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Best Free Email Service Provider for Business: Zoho Mail

If what you’re looking for is the cheapest email option that enables you to connect your own domain name, then look no further than Zoho Mail. It offers up to five free business email addresses, as well as the lowest prices in the market for premium email (just $1 per month). It’s best for those who don’t depend on email, but who want to have a professional email address to maintain a professional image.

Zoho Mail Pricing

Zoho Mail is the only solution on our list to offer a free plan that supports up to five users, and it’s widely regarded as one of the best ways to get a free business email address. Paid plans range in price from $3 per user, per month (billed annually) to $8 per user, per month, and include additional features like multiple domain hosting, email forwarding, and system integration.

Want cheap, but need a little more than what you get with Zoho Mail’s bare-bones plans? Opt for DreamHost instead for just $1.67 per month with 25GB, or check out the best cheap email hosting services.

Zoho Mail Tiered Pricing & Features

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Best Unlimited Email Addresses for One Low Price: Bluehost

Bluehost is a leading web hosting provider, and its plans are packed with extras, including free email for business. Its entry-level plan starts at just $2.95 per month, which includes up to five free email addresses that use your own domain, making it a great value for any business whose site is built on WordPress. If you don’t need web hosting, but do need a large volume of email addresses, Bluehost is the best value at just $5.45 per month for unlimited email.

Bluehost Pricing

Bluehost offers hosting on a shared server, which ranges from $2.95 to $13.95 at its introductory price. Aside from hosting for a WordPress site, plans come with a free domain name. The entry-level Basic plan comes with up to five free business email addresses, whereas all of its other plans include unlimited email addresses. So even if you don’t need hosting, it may be an affordable way of getting a large number of professional email accounts.

Bluehost Tiered Pricing & Features

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Best for Email With Microsoft Office Suite: Office 365

Microsoft 365 is the best email provider for businesses that want to use the Microsoft Office 365 productivity suite. Though it’s very similar to Google Workspace, its entry-level plan is slightly cheaper at just $5 per user, per month, it includes the Office Suite that so many know and love, and it also includes a massive 1TB of cloud storage via OneDrive. It’s best for businesses that need a ton of storage and the Office Suite of productivity tools

Microsoft 365 Pricing

Pricing is competitive for what you get with Microsoft 365, with plans starting at $5 per month, which include a ton of cloud storage—1TB, to be exact. However, if you need more than access to the Microsoft Office Suite and business email, you’ll need to choose a premium plan. For example, those who want desktop access to Office apps (and who wouldn’t), you’ll need to opt for the Business Standard Plan at $12.50 per month.

Microsoft 365 Tiered Pricing & Features

Want more information? Get an in-depth look at Microsoft 365 for business.

Visit Microsoft 365

Best Email Provider With Month-to-Month Plans: DreamHost

DreamHost is a top-rated web hosting company known for its reliable service, but what you might not have known is that it also offers ultra-low-cost business email. For as little as just $1.99 per month, you can get commitment-free, month-to-month email hosting—no website required. However, if you do have a website with WordPress, you can get free email addresses for your company with its low-cost web hosting plans, which you’ll need anyway for your site to be live.

DreamHost Pricing

DreamHost offers one straightforward email hosting plan, which comes with 25GB of storage and costs $1.99 per month with month-to-month billing, or $1.67 per month with annual billing. This makes it a very affordable way to get custom branded email, and unlike other providers such as Bluehost, which offers email hosting within its web hosting plans, with DreamHost you can just purchase email hosting without web hosting.

DreamHost Tiered Email Pricing & Features

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How We Evaluated the Best Email Services

All businesses need an email address that can be accessed quickly, securely, and reliably with enough storage to keep messages from bouncing. However, some companies only need a single 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 evaluate each of these providers include:

• Price
• Ease of use
• Available storage
• Security and accessibility
• Spam and virus protection
• System integrations
• Scalability
• Customer support

Still can’t decide? Go for Google Workspace. It’s the best email service provider for small businesses and since there are no contracts, it’s not much of a commitment to try out.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is better: Google Workspace or Office 365?

The answer might depend on what you’re looking for, but for most, Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is the superior product to Office 365. Not only are its productivity and collaboration tools more modern and user-friendly, but it’s half the price. Email that connects to your own company’s domain with Google Workspace costs $6 per user, per month, whereas Office 365 costs $12.50 per user, per month for the equivalent set of features.

Get the complete comparison of Google Workspace vs. Office 365.

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

It’s surprisingly easy to create a custom email address, or an email address that uses your own domain name (e.g., name@yourbusiness.com). First, get a domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com), which you can purchase from a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy or Hover for around $12 per year. Then, get email hosting and set up your email with your favorite email app. Get the step-by-step instructions on how to create a custom email address.

How do I choose a professional email address?

There are three main rules when choosing a professional email address. First, always use your own domain, so that your email address shows as, say, yourname@yourbusiness.com (as opposed to yourbusiness@gmail.com). Second, maintain a consistent username format across your company. And third, create generic email addresses, such as support@yourbusiness.com, to display on your site. Check out these three rules to choosing a professional email address.

Bottom Line

Businesses depend on email, so you need to choose business email providers that are dependable, secure, and packed with the features you need—in addition to being affordable. While the best for you will depend on your unique needs, the best overall email provider for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is Google Workspace. It’s the best value for price with feature-packed plans starting at just $6 per month and no contracts, so it’s risk-free.

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