7 Best Email Hosting Services in 2022 (Reviewed and Compared)

Rackspace has been around for more than two decades, and it played a large part in shaping what web hosting and cloud services look like today.

It’s the classic Silicon Valley fairytale — starting off as a small garage project and growing to be a multimillion-dollar business with offices on five continents.

In 2016, Apollo Global Management acquired Rackspace for a reported fee of $4.3 billion.

The cloud provider has been expanding aggressively ever since, adding companies like TriCore Solutions, DataPipe, RelationEdge, and Onica to their portfolio.

The Rackspace Webmail service officially launched in 2001 as a solution for the growing needs of secure business communication. It operated through the Webmail.us platform at first, but the hosting provider later acquired it and ultimately rebranded as Rackspace Email and Apps.

Ease of Use

If you’ve ever had an email account, you should have no trouble operating this webmail client. It’s clean, intuitive, and packs all the essentials. No more frustrations caused by tons of needless options — Rackspace focuses on usability.

A left-side menu with your folders, a clear indicator of your mailbox quota, and 1-click account actions — you won’t need a fancy diploma to start using this one.

Key Features

One of RackSpace’s strong selling points is its resource allocation.

Every client is getting a sweet piece of the pie, with huge 25 GB mailboxes and 50 MB attachment limit. And that’s the minimum for all Rackspace Email plans, even the cheapest deal.

If you go for a Plus account, you’ll have access to ActiveSync, Office-compatible plugins, and instant messaging app. You get more communication options, while your mailboxes grow to 30 GB.

The third webmail plan adds an archiving option, but almost doubles the price, so it might not be the most cost-effective offering in this list.

Security

Two decades of experience have not gone in vain as the Rackspace team have become wizards in web and email services.

That includes ensuring maximum protection for clients and their online projects.

The Texas provider actively monitors accounts, and tackles spam through advanced filters, IP blocklists, and secure IMAP protection.

Rackspace also keeps an eye on your links, making sure no pesky malware can pass through.

You’ll always have a helping hand in your quest for the best email for business — chat, phone, contact forms, and ticketing are all possible support options.

Around the Web

Speaking of sales and technical assistance, we cannot overlook the fact that Rackspace had been praised as one of the best hosts in terms of support for years.

That’s the thing, though — had been.

Not sure if this coincided with the Appolo acquisition or other reasons were involved, but the results are apparent — a sudden influx of bad reviews and no company rep to defend the RS honor.

Price

Email — from $2.99 user/mo
Email Plus — from $3.99 user/mo
Add Archiving — from $6.99 user/mo

For all that power and capability, the Rackspace plans are super affordable — starting from $2.99 per user/mo, it’s an ideal solution for startups and SMBs. There are plenty of upgrade options if your project grows, and the team takes care of moving your account.

Verdict

Rackspace offers a solid range of products with an excellent price-quality ratio. The email service provider is very experienced in web solutions and uses that to secure and optimize its servers to perfection. Eight global datacenters ensure full worldwide coverage and, ultimately — great speeds.

Customer support seems to have gone downhill in the last couple of years, so hopefully, Rackspace can improve upon that aspect.

The Zoho Corporation was founded in 1996 and initially focused on web-based tools with various business applications.

The developers bundled the best of them together, and in 2005 the Zoho Office Suite hit the market.

Today, the company headquarters are in Chennai, India, and over 8,500 employees serve Zoho’s clients every day.

2019 saw another milestone for the provider — 50 million global customers.

Ease of Use

One thing that puts Zoho among the best business email providers is you can easily sync it across devices.

The developers offer both desktop and mobile apps. Their installation is seamless and takes no more than a couple of minutes.

The insides of Zoho Mail look a lot like a full-blown CRM — you can create tasks, add bookmarks, manage your contacts, set up meetings. I found it a bit cluttered at first but quickly figured out what-is-where.

Key Features

Luckily, testing out risk-free Zoho is easy with the Free Forever plan.

You can create emails for a single domain and have 5 GB mailboxes with a 25 MB attachment limit — same caps as the entry-level plan.

Once you move out of the free email hosting, you can enjoy things like POP/IMAP support, domain aliasing, and offline access.

All that and more, going for only $1 per user/month.

The Standard and Professional plans are where you take the most advantage of the Zoho Workplace bundle. You now have 30+ GB mailboxes and a full set of tools for communication and business collaboration.

The two deals come at $3/mo and $6/mo per user, respectively.

Security

Just how secure is Zoho?

I was impressed to find a comprehensive whitelist, where the provider explains how they tackle different aspects of their security. Things like:

• organizational security
• infrastructure security
• data security
• access control
• operational security
• vendor management

You can find all the details on this Zoho page, but among everything, I can highlight the SSL/TLS encryption, advanced anti-spam filters, and rich set of log files.

Around the Web

When it comes to private email providers, there seems to be an interesting correlation between the number of clients and the amount of negative buzz they generate around a company.

The bigger they are — the harder they fall.

It makes sense in a way — people are generally more inclined to share negative opinions than positive ones, so you have to read between the lines.

In the case of Zoho Mail, the main client concerns revolve around service limitations and below-par support. The provider doesn’t seem to be trying to defend its reputation, which further backs the notion that you would mostly be relying on yourself.

Price

• Free Forever
• Mail Only — from $1 user/mo
• Standard — from $3 user/mo
• Professional — from $6 user/mo

Zoho offers us some of the most affordable personal and business email plans, hands down. You can try it out completely free or switch to one of several low-cost packages should you need more.

One thing to keep in mind — even though all prices appear as user/month, you will be billed for the whole year in advance.

Verdict

Zoho stands as one of the best email service providers for a reason. Its solutions are quite user-friendly and fit into any budget. The Indian developers regularly add new apps to their rich portfolio, making business communications even more simple and effective. Zoho’s support is not necessarily helpful at all times, so you often have to rely on the extra tutorials and guides in the knowledge base.

I am sure you don’t need a history lesson about Microsoft, so let’s talk about their Exchange Server specifically.

The mail and calendar service first launched in 1996 as an exclusive for the Windows OS. You could get a license in an on-premise form (CALs) or software-as-a-service (SaaS) with a monthly fee.

By 2005, cloud technology was already gaining traction, so Microsoft came up with a hybrid between traditional server solutions and this new decentralized method.

Exchange Online hit the stage and quickly came to compete for the title of “best email hosting”.

Ease of Use

If you’ve ever worked with the Outlook client, you’ll quickly get the hang of the Microsoft environment.

In fact, you can easily sync your existing email accounts there and continue using them with the new service.

The navigation is smooth, but the initial setup isn’t the easiest. Microsoft Exchange Online doesn’t offer a live chat, so you are stuck with the phone, email, and online tutorials, should you need assistance.

Features

When you have a company like Microsoft behind your back — you can afford to give your clients more. Sometimes even way more.

The entry-level plan with Exchange Online gives you 50 GB mailboxes and 150 MB attachment limit.

Yes, you heard right — about 2-3 times bigger than most of the competition.

But that’s not all.

This professional business email service lets you set up calendars, schedule meetings, and optimize your workflow.

Dealing with a lot of emails daily?

Worry not, as Microsoft’s solution makes tracking and sorting them an effortless task.

When you’re ready for the next step, you can opt-in for a fully-packed Business Premium package where things get really interesting:

• 1 TB storage
• access to the Office 365 app bundle — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more
• file sharing
• video conferencing
• chat-based workspace

The price tag of $12.50 user/month might scare off low-budget clients, but most enterprises are well aware of the value of quality business communication.

Security

When it comes to safeguarding your business email address, partnering with Microsoft has its pros and cons.

On the one hand, you can be sure the team is well-versed when it comes to technology. After all, they’ve been doing that for decades. Server redundancy, anti-spam and malware filters, data loss prevention — those are just a few of the aspects Microsoft covers for you.

But then again, all this means is you have minimum control over your setup. You are stuck with the Windows OS and whatever precautions Microsoft takes on your behalf.

Around the Web

The word around the Exchange Online platform is mostly positive. In fact, there are barely any 1-star reviews in the more reputable aggregators.

Quite a lot of happy campers praise Microsoft’s packages as some of the best business email hosting deals on the market today.

Sure, maybe so…if you can afford them.

Price

• Exchange Online Plan 1 — $4.00 user/mo
• Exchange Online Plan 2 — $8.00 user/mo
• Office 365 Business Premium — $12.50 user/mo

Microsoft’s plans are not the cheapest, and that’s putting it mildly. The monthly per-user fee is one of the highest in our list, but that doesn’t tell you the whole story.

We are talking about a package so robust it’s almost incomparable with other cheap email hosting providers. So the product may very well match the price here.

Verdict

If you are searching for more than a simple mail client for a couple of users (and you can afford it), you can look no further than Exchange Online. It offers well-rounded packages with an app environment of an unmatchable scale. Every reputable business needs reputable partners, and you can’t do much better than Microsoft.

Here is another big name on our list.

Among a ton of other things, Google fathered G Suite — a set of productivity and collaboration apps, securely lying in the cloud.

This hosted email solution made its first baby steps in early 2006. It initially included just a few services:

• Gmail
• Google Talk
• Google Calendar
• Google Page Creator

Today, over 3 million businesses utilize the G Suite packages, including notable names like Uber, Verizon, BuzzFeed, and PwC.

Ease of Use

All the best email hosting providers have a thing in common — their interface looks simple, feels familiar, and navigates smoothly. If they manage to do that AND pack a lot of features, they’re surely on their way to the Hall of Fame.

G Suite does this to perfection.

The variety of apps in the plugin library is comparable only to Microsoft’s. If you encounter any snafus along the way, you can get extra support from Google via phone, email, or online documentation.

Features

You can pick between three G Suite packages — Basic, Business, and Enterprise.

All plans pack options in four distinct categories:

• Connect — business email, video chat, conferencing
• Create — documents, spreadsheets, presentations
• Access — 30+ GB cloud storage
• Control — 24/7 support, alert center, endpoint management

The higher-tiered packages are suitable for larger teams, where the needs for control and workflow optimization can often be mission-critical.

Security

Google takes great care of your professional email address when it comes to unsolicited messages. The tech giant equips you with state-of-the-art spam filters and malware detection software, reducing risks to a minimum.

All your information is in the cloud, which adds an extra layer of security. After all, it’s one thing to hack a single server and completely different to bring down a whole network of machines.

The Big G also promises full data transparency, accessibility, and accountability through disaster recovery processes and enterprise-grade security certifications.

Around the Web

G Suite is one of Google’s highest-rated products by its users. The platform enjoys consistently high scores from online reviews, which is truly impressive when you consider there are tens of thousands of them.

We are all used to using Google products by now, so there is almost no entry barrier to start using G Suite.

You can add the bundle on your PC, smartphone, or tablet and communicate with your team on-the-go.

What’s not to love?

Price

• Basic — $6 user/m
• Business — $12 user/mo
• Enterprise — $25 user/mo

There’s no sugarcoating it — G Suite is the most expensive solution in our list of best email hosting platforms. It’s also the most feature-rich, so the price ends up justified.

If you still think you might fit it in your budget — you can sign up for a 14-day free trial and ensure G Suite is the right service for you.

Verdict

Google gives us an incredible bundle of business apps that have already proven their worth for millions of users worldwide. G Suite is the solution for those who want more — more storage, more freedom, more control.

A little heavy on your pockets, but at least you see the value of every dollar you invest.

The XYZ is an ad-free private email host based in Toronto, Canada.

The provider first appeared on the radar in 2007 and remains employee-owned to this day. A few notable moments in the company history made TheXYZ what it is today:

2009 — launched premium personal email hosting
2010 — added a new server location in Sydney
2011 — moved US servers from California to Chicago, Illinois
2012 — acquired software company ScriptDorks and its clients
2013 — introduced email archiving
2014 — cut the ribbon of a new data center in Finland
2015 — added two-factor authentication
2018 — started offering Office 365 packages
2018 — partnered with site-building platform Weebly

As you can see — a lot is going on in TheXYZ HQ every year.

Ease of Use

When it comes to navigating around your email software, TheXYZ is by no means a poor performer. Although a bit wonky, you can still understand what is going on and how to activate the most important features.

Problem is, it still falls inferior to the competition in the likes of G Suite or Zoho Mail.

To compensate, TheXYZ puts a stronger focus on its support services.

Unlike many other email service providers, this Canadian host offers assistance via online forms, ticketing, phone, and live chat. All are available seven days a week, but the latter two are active only between 9 am — 7 pm EST.

Features

TheXYZ has a long experience in handling business emails. After all, this is how it all started for the founding team.

So, first thing you need to do is determine the scope of your needs, as the three plans are fundamentally different.

The Premium Webmail deal is an ideal solution for small business email hosting. You get mailboxes with plenty of space (25 GB) and high attachment limits (50 MB). Sync data across all your devices and communicate with your team on-the-go.

For a couple more dollars per user monthly, TheXYZ adds MobileSync, full admin access, and unlimited aliases. Storage grows to 30 GB, and your data now resides in the cloud.

The last plan is a full-blown Microsoft Exchange package with all its perks — enhanced office capabilities, corporate-level security, and proper licensing for Outlook. The storage space is impressive (100 GB), but so is the price — starting at $14.95 user/mo, it’s far from a fit-all-budget solution.

Security

No business email solution is complete if you can’t secure it properly.

TheXYZ does its fair share in that aspect — all servers undergo SSL encryption and pack state-of-the-art antispam and malware filters. You can create blacklists/whitelists and further control which messages go through.

Data Archiving is a very neat service where you can keep a secure copy of your emails in the cloud, but it’s only available as a paid add-on.

Around the Web

Clients that go for platforms like TheXYZ are well-aware they’ll never have the feature abundance they can get with a big name like Google or Microsoft.

And that’s ok because quite often people don’t really need it.

Boutique providers can afford to be personal with each client and understand the specifics of their project.

TheXYZ customers appreciate that, which is apparent from the online testimonials. Sure, there aren’t many reviews available, but almost all are super positive.

Price

Premium Webmail — from $2.95 user/mo
MobileSync + Cloud Drive — from $4.95 user/mo
Microsoft Exchange — from $14.95 user/mo

TheXYZ is one of those email hosting providers that prices its packages reasonably, in an attempt to attract all-sized businesses. Not only that, but the cost is not per user, it covers the whole package.

The good gets better if you’re prepared for a long-term commitment.

Prepaying for a year in advance shaves off two months of the total bill, and the biannual deal will save you four whole months of subscription.

Verdict

TheXYZ email solutions seem to have a lot going for them. They are user-friendly, well-secured, and offer the constant uptime your business deserves. This wonderful bundle comes with a very lucrative price tag, so it can be a solid choice if you’re not looking for something super fancy.

MailCheap has not been around in the email game for long but wasted no time reading the manual — the host expanded to 120+ mail servers and 20,000+ clients in just five years.

One question still bothers me — why did the company choose a name so confusingly similar to the well-established MailChimp?

I may never learn the answer, but what I can find out is if the service is worth your time (and money).

Ease of Use

The insides of MailCheap look a little barren, which can be a good thing in terms of usability.

The problem here is even the simplest task can become unnecessary problematic. The platform is far from perfect, even if the support claims they are working on a lot of optimizations.

For what it’s worth, the MailCheap operators are quite friendly and ready to address your issues with the needed patience and understanding.

The downside is, there isn’t any live help via phone or chat, so your only resort is ticketing assistance.

Features

One thing the best email hosting provider should have is the ability to scale easily as the clients’ needs grow. MailCheap addresses that by dividing its products into categories (Reseller, Enterprise, Dedicated), each with their own set of packages.

Talk about taking scalability to the next level.

The packages aren’t functionally different but vary in terms of storage space. For example, on the shared enterprise platform, you can start with a 10 GB limit and grow all the way to 100 GB per mailbox, should you need it.

All plans support POP, IMAP, and SMTP.

If you’re coming from another host, the MailCheap team can help you migrate your data and seamlessly integrate it with the new platform.

Your deal will include offsite backups, giving you a much-needed sense of security.

Speaking of which…

Security

MailCheap seems eager to take all precautions to make you feel safe.

One of the highlights is the mail filtering system, which utilizes a neural network to fight spam. The advanced anti-virus protection includes filters for malware, phishing, and macro viruses.

Topping things off, the provider supports SPF and DKIM encryptions to protect your business communication further.

No wonder MailCheap is up there with the most secure email providers.

Around the Web

MC’s business mailing services are getting mixed reviews.

As you can imagine, it’s quite hard to get unbiased reviews about a brand that can be so easily confused with another one (MailChimp).

From what I’ve gathered, there aren’t any common denominators for either praises or complaints.

Some clients like the support, others find it appalling.

Some users enjoy the simplicity of the environment, others find it limiting.

Price

Basic 10G — from $2/mo
Basic 20G — from $4/mo
Basic 30G — from $6/mo
Basic 40G — from $8/mo
Basic 50G — from $10/mo
Basic 100G — from $20/mo

The great thing about MailChimp is you can tailor your email services to be both functional and budget-friendly. The monthly price is not per-user, which further reduces your costs.

One thing to consider, the deals come with annual billing. There aren’t any obvious discounts for new clients so what you see is what you pay.

Verdict

MailCheap is your notable alternative if you don’t find popular email hosting providers like Zoho, G Suite, or Office 365 suitable. The provider offers across-the-board email services like SMTP relays, reseller and enterprise hosting, dedicated solutions, and more.

Rounding off our ranking of the best email hosting providers, we have GoDaddy.

When it comes to web services, almost no list can go without the GD name.

I mean, how can you miss this host — 17+ million clients with their 75+ million domain names — few can brag they are coming close to such numbers.

GoDaddy supports the full range of hosting services — shared, reseller, VPS, cloud, dedicated, domain names.

That’s a lot of solutions to look after.

So, where does email hosting fit in this equation?

Ease of Use

GoDaddy’s interface is functional without being too cluttered.

I was able to navigate the backend without any apparent hiccups, and pointing my emails to GD was a breeze.

Should you need any extra assistance, my advice would be to go for the online tutorials and video guides. GoDaddy offers 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and tickets, but the operators are rarely helpful and sometimes make things even worse.

If you’re into self-teaching, though, there are plenty of options to go around.

Features

The insides of your account is a vital part of any email hosting review. The three GoDaddy deals greatly differ in that regard:

The entry plan is aptly named Email Essentials as that’s exactly what you’re getting — a mere 5 GB storage space, 25 MB attachment limit, and up to 400 aliases.

What the Plus package does is add some much-needed space to that — you can now store up to 50 GB of data.

The Business Premium plan is where we start talking…well…business.

You get the full Microsoft Office 365 package, along with a desktop and mobile app for easy accessibility. Your online storage now utilizes OneDrive, for extra protection, and 150+ more apps help perfect your business domain hosting with email.

Security

Shhh, can you keep a secret? GoDaddy certainly thinks it can.

They promise complete data privacy, no unwanted ads, or unsolicited emails.

How do they do that?

For one, GoDaddy supports email archiving, one-click backup restores, and advanced spam and virus protection.

While that can certainly come in handy, the whole setup is quite basic. GD has never been about fancy configurations or innovative approach to hosting. It’s like:

You get the essentials, they (should) work as expected, now move along…

Around the Web

If client reviews have a big influence on your buying decision, you might be better off skipping GoDaddy.

And it’s not like the tons of negative reviews are just spiteful attempts to tarnish the reputation of otherwise one of the best email hosting providers.

In reality, GoDaddy has some pressing flaws, and it doesn’t really seem interested in fixing them. The company’s aggressive marketing and seemingly cheap offers still bring heaps of new clients, so why change a working formula, right?

All in all, the tales of horrible support and mediocre services are often well-justified, so proceed at your own risk.

Price

Email Essentials — from $1.99 user/mo
Email Plus — from $3.99 user/mo
Business Premium — from $9.99 user/mo

At first glance, it seems as if GoDaddy prices its packages reasonably. But that’s never the case with GD long-term. Those introductory rates are available only for the initial billing period, and the price jumps 30-40% upon renewal. Add it to the fact that GoDaddy’s setup is pretty basic, and the deal suddenly loses its appeal.

Verdict

One thing you can’t deny, GoDaddy’s scale of operations means the provider isn’t going anywhere. So, if you’re looking for server reliability and don’t need any extra help to run your business communications — by all means, do give GD a try.

And that concludes our extended reviews of the best email hosts out there.

But one question still remains unanswered:

Do you really need a specific package to handle your team communications?