The 6 Best Email Hosting Services for Small Businesses

Businesses depend on email, so you need dependable email. The best email hosting services not only provide a way to connect a custom domain but are reliable, affordable, and feature-rich. With so many email hosting providers on the market find the right one isn’t always easy, so we reviewed dozens of the top options, to find the six best—including the best overall—based on price, features, storage limits, reliability, and real user ratings.

The 6 Best Email Hosting Services 2021

How We Evaluated the Best Email Hosting Services

Researching the best email hosting services can be time-consuming; it’s challenging to find providers that are affordable and offer a robust feature set. We endeavored to save businesses time by narrowing down the best email hosting options based on affordability, amount of storage, reliability, the number of email accounts included, extra features, and user reviews.

The criteria we used to evaluate the best email hosting services include:

• Price: Affordability is key for small businesses working with limited budgets. To keep costs low, we chose providers with plans that cost less than $10 per month.
• Storage: The amount of storage included in email hosting plans is a key consideration for businesses, so the minimum requirement for our list inclusions was 100MB for entry-level plans.
• Reliability: High uptimes (the percentage of time a host is functioning properly) is critical to business email hosting. To ensure we included the best, our baseline uptime was 99%.
• Features and add-ons: The plans on this list offer a lot more than email hosting. Many also include built-in security (including anti-spam and anti-phishing features), business calendars, domain names, mobile-friendly sites and apps, support, and more. All of these were considered in our ranking.
• User reviews: For better insight into the usability of each hosting service on this list, we researched user reviews. Services with an acceptable rating from customers served as the baseline, though many of the services on our list surpass this basic requirement.

Given the criteria above, the overall best email hosting service on our list is Google Workspace. Given its value—with prices starting at just $6 per user, per month—and ease of use, it is a popular choice for small businesses. It also features a robust collection of productivity and collaboration tools at no additional cost.

Overall Best Email Host: Google Workspace

Google Workspace, powered by Google, is the professional version of Gmail that allows businesses to use a custom email address. Users not only get a reliable and user-friendly email but also an entire suite of organizational and productivity tools—all for $6 per user, per month. Google Workspace is best for businesses that like an easy-to-use email client integrated with productivity tools like a word processor, spreadsheet application, and company chat.

Google Workspace Pricing

Google Workspace’s entry-level email plan costs $6 per user, per month, and jumps up to $12 and $18 per month for the premium plans, making it the most expensive email hosting service on our list. However, their entry-level plan comes with 30GB of storage, and their mid-and top-tier plans come with 2 to 5 TB of storage.

Google Workspace Tiered Features

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Best for Email & Web Hosting: Bluehost

Bluehost is an industry-leading email and web hosting service noted for its exceptional value. Plans start at $2.95 per month and include multiple free email addresses, a free domain, reliable web hosting, and access to additional features like Google Workspace integration and domain privacy for a minimal extra cost. It is the best solution for those who need both a business email and reliable web hosting from an industry leader.

Bluehost Pricing

Bluehost is a very affordable email hosting service with plans starting at $2.95 per month for five email addresses, 100MB of storage, a free domain name, and reliable web hosting. The next plan up is the Plus plan, which offers unlimited storage and unlimited email addresses for just $5.95 per month.

Get the complete breakdown of pricing and features in our Bluehost review.

Bluehost Tiered Features

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Best Email Hosting for Unlimited Storage: HostGator

HostGator is an industry-leading web and email hosting service. Plans start at $2.75 per month for web hosting, unlimited storage, and email addresses, a spam blocker, email forwarding, and 24/7 customer support. It’s best for businesses that send and receive a high volume of emails with large attachments due to the unlimited storage.

HostGator Pricing

HostGator’s entry-level plan is $2.75 per month, which includes web hosting, unlimited storage, and unlimited email addresses. As HostGator is primarily a web host, plans increase to $5.95 per month based on web hosting-specific features as opposed to email-related services.

HostGator Tiered Features

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Best Email Hosting for Security & Protection: DreamIT Host

DreamIT Host is a web and email hosting provider that offers unlimited email to all customers—including free daily backups and SSL certificates—with plans starting at $3.55 per month. All plans also come with mail filtering and 24/7 support. Given the robust spam protection, SSL security, and daily backups, DreamIT is the best choice for businesses that want their data secured, even on an entry-level plan.

DreamIT Host Pricing

DreamIT Host is a great value with plans ranging from $3.55 per month to $14.31 per month. All plans include unlimited email addresses, daily backups, free SSL certificates, and more. It’s worth noting that DreamIT is an Australian company, so prices reflect the current exchange rate from Australian to U.S. dollars.

DreamIT Tiered Features

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Best for Marketing & Collaboration: Zoho

Zoho is an online office suite and email marketing platform celebrated for its collaboration and productivity tools as well as its integrated email marketing. Zoho comes with standard email for as little as $1 per month (if billed annually), and plans come loaded with features, including robust email marketing tools. Zoho is the best email hosting service for businesses that are looking for a low-cost email with integrated marketing solutions.

Zoho Pricing

Zoho has three email hosting plans: Mail Lite, Standard, and Professional. Mail Lite, their entry-level plan, costs only $1 per user, per month and includes 5GB storage and standard email features. For just $2 more per month, the Standard plan jumps up to 30GB and includes Google Workspace integration.

Zoho Tiered Features

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Best for Multiple Address at $1/Month: 1&1 IONOS

1&1 IONOS is a budget email hosting service known for its exceptional affordability. In fact, their entry-level plan is what separates them from alternatives, as it costs only $1 per month and includes up to 25 email addresses. It is the best email hosting service for startups with growing teams on a tight budget.

1&1 IONOS Pricing

1&1 IONOS pricing for their entry-level plan is the most affordable on our list. The Mail Basic plan costs just $1 per month (billed annually), which includes up to 25 email accounts, each with 2GB of storage. Premium plans—which go up to $10 per month—include increased storage limits, but only include one email address each.

1&1 IONOS Tiered Features

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Bottom Line: Best Email Hosting Services

The best email hosting services are those that combine ample storage, high uptimes, and multiple addresses to meet a small business’ needs. We considered these factors in our ranking, as well as security, privacy, domains included, customer support, and add-on features like productivity and collaboration tools.

Based on our criteria, we found that the best overall email hosting provider is Google Workspace. They are not only reliable and feature-rich—including email and productivity tools with their email hosting packages—but they are also one of the most easy-to-use email platforms. Try Google Workspace today risk-free with their 14-day free trial available on any plan.

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