What is Email Hosting?

We often hear about web hosting as a way to get your business online and out into the world. Granted, this is an essential step, but it leaves an important question unanswered: how will you manage your business communications?

There are many free options out there, and they’re great for private use. But when it comes to business email, there’s only one solution: email hosting.

Email hosting is easy to set up. It’s usually an optional service that comes with your website, and you can activate it when you create your site or later. Alternatively, you can use separate providers for web and email hosting, which is also common.

In this article, we’ll look at how email hosting works and explore what it can do for your business.

• How Does Email Hosting Work?
• What’s the Difference Between Web Hosting and Email Hosting?
• Who Hosts Email?
• Do I Need Web Hosting for Email?
• Email Hosting Options
• Why Does Your Business Need Email Hosting?

How Does Email Hosting Work?

Everyone uses email. Most individuals use free email hosting services from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, but these don’t help your professionalism. While these are great for personal use, a free email hosting service comes with security limitations, and that’s a no go even for small businesses.

Every free email hosting service works the same way. However, business email hosting gives you some personalization elements like the ability to use your own domain name.

An email hosting service provider gives you server space to store your emails and grants you access to a domain name of your choice. If you already have a personalized domain, use it for the email hosting account.

You get access to your emails through an email client on your system. A basic setup is needed to receive and send emails, and your email hosting service should have easy-to-follow documentation on setting up your account.

Once configured, your email hosting works like any other free email account from Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo. Suppose you don’t want to fiddle with setting up your email client. In that case, you can access the webmail online application from your email hosting provider, using only your username and password.

With this straightforward process, you’ll have an active email account in a matter of minutes, and then you can start working on creating custom folders and rules for your emails.

What’s the Difference Between Web Hosting and Email Hosting?

All these plans and hosting types might sound confusing, especially when you’re trying to focus on your small business growth, but luckily we have the time to explain it all. The two most popular hosting types are web hosting and email hosting.

• Web Hosting: Think of web hosting as what enables your website to exist and be discoverable on the internet. This service houses your website and is responsible for maintaining its connection to the internet. Your web hosting service might also include an option to activate email hosting, but you need to tell your provider that you want to do that.

• Email Hosting: While it’s usually included with a web hosting plan, email hosting is a separate service that allows you to set up a custom email address and use it to send and receive emails. The email account name will match your website, for instance, name@yourbusiness.com.

Who Hosts Email?

Web hosting companies usually bundle free email hosting with their plans, and Xneelo is no exception.

Dedicated email solutions have been around for many years, covering all your email needs while boasting practical additions that free email services don’t have. Apart from the companies that give their services for free, many web hosting companies offer email hosting plans for small businesses and freelancers.

Generally, emails are stored at the same servers where web hosting is stored, meaning it’s nothing that web hosts can’t deal with because they’re already using their servers for storage.

Do I Need Web Hosting for Email?

Although people usually get web hosting to build their websites, they also get free email hosting. It’s not mandatory to have a website hosting plan to have a professionally-looking email account.

You can have an email hosting plan with no website, which means you can get each of your services from your preferred provider.

Providers like Google and Microsoft offer business email hosting for a fee, giving you extra features like the ability to use your domain name and personalize your business with your logo in your mailbox.

So if you own a small business with 10 to 20 people, then email hosting is recommended, as it will also have benefits in other areas. Email hosting can be more secure than free email services. The large providers like Google and Yahoo, while offering relatively secure services, are a more attractive target to hackers simply because of their client base.

Email Hosting Options

If your email hosting provider offers any of the following options, you should consider taking advantage of them.

Online archiving: Access to online email archives gives you a historical record of all your business communications. Some services offer five to ten years of backups that you can access directly via a login portal.

Multiple mailboxes: If you have a growing business, you’ll need the ability to create mailboxes on the fly. Ensure your email host gives you all the mailboxes you need to support your operations.

People commonly use separate mailboxes to categorize emails based on business functions. You can have an admin mailbox for website and service queries, a billing mailbox for payments and accounts, an info mailbox for general communications, and a bulk mailer address for advertising and campaigns.

Bundle deals: If you find a service provider offering web, domain, and email hosting in one package, you can sometimes get better pricing than if you purchased each service separately.

Mailbox storage: Find out what your mailbox size limits are. A mailbox for a typical business needs to be able to store large files and huge quantities of mail, so make sure your mailbox storage is appropriate for your needs.

Room to grow: You never know exactly how much email storage or how many mailboxes you’ll need with an online business. Multiple email addresses can streamline your business operations and improve its image, but the email accounts will add up quickly.

Large email attachments will fill up your allotted storage space faster than you may anticipate. It’s essential to choose an email hosting provider that will be able to meet your needs as your business grows.

Before you choose options that may increase the cost of your email hosting service, you must understand any technical terms involved. Make sure you know exactly what you’re signing up for. If you’re not sure about any of the details, contact the provider so that you can get a full explanation.

Why Does Your Business Need Email Hosting?

Email hosting plans usually cover many angles that a free email service won’t. The most important thing is that by having an email hosting plan, you ensure that your business conveys a professional image to the outside.

A customized domain name based on your business name showcases your company to your colleagues and customers, who don’t have to search for it. It’s right on the email address!

Another critical factor to consider is scalability. As your business grows, you should reserve the first part of your email address for a specific person or department, for example, sales@yourbusiness.com or info@yourbusiness.com.

Whether you want to get all your online services bundled from a single provider or have a favourite email hosting provider separate from your web host, there’s a business email solution for you. Email hosting is usually straightforward to sign up for, and you should never need to settle for a service that doesn’t offer the options and flexibility you need.