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Increasing numbers of people are choosing to use cheap email hosting services that offer unlimited storage and bandwidth, sometimes for as little as $6 a month.
You’ll need a professional business email address, and if you’re like most startups and small enterprises, you’ll need it to be cheap yet trustworthy. We looked at more than 20 different choices to identify the top five cheapest email hosting companies for small businesses, all of which cost $6 or less per month.
Here are the top five low-cost email hosting services for small businesses:
- Zoho Mail: Best for individuals who don’t depend on business email significantly.
- Bluehost: Best option for organizations who want more than five business email addresses at a moderate cost.
- DreamHost: Best low-cost email hosting for individuals who don’t want to sign a long-term contract.
- Google Workspace: Best email service for organizing collaborative groups.
- IONOS: Best low-cost email hosting for individuals who also need a domain.
How We Assessed Low-Cost Email Hosting Providers
To interact with clients and communicate among their employees, small companies and startups need secure, dependable, easy-to-use, and incredibly inexpensive communication technologies. That’s why we looked at low-cost email service providers with monthly subscriptions beginning at $6 or less. To determine the greatest overall value, we evaluated service plans, any additional features provided (such as file storage, email protection, and collaboration tools), and user ratings.
Let’s look at each of the finest low-cost email hosting companies for small businesses in more detail:
Zoho Mail
What We Enjoy
- Up to five free business email accounts are available.
- Connecting to a free CRM is an option.
- Pay just for the space you need.
What Isn’t There
- Only webmail is available.
- The storage limit is really low.
- If you upgrade, you must pay for all accounts.
Best For
- Business owners on a tight budget that want a free, no-frills email service.
The storage offered in Zoho Mail’s corporate email plans scales up, so you only pay for what you need. It distinguishes itself by providing ad-free business email hosting with advanced privacy protection, as well as extras like the option to link to Zoho’s customer relationship management (CRM) for free. It has a small storage limit of just 5GB, but it’s excellent if you want a professional email account but don’t use email often.
Pricing & Features
Zoho provides a Free Forever plan with 5GB of storage for up to five users. Additional email accounts start at $1 per month for the Mail Lite plan and $1.25 per month for the Mail Premium plan if you require more than five.
You may upgrade to the Zoho Workplace Standard plan for $3 per month, payable yearly, if you require more than 5GB of storage. It comes with 30GB of storage, 30MB of attachments, and access to Zoho’s productivity suite, which is identical to Google Workspace’s.
With the Free Forever plan, you get up to five business email accounts, end-to-end encryption, and no ads. You can download the Zoho Mail app from the Apple App and Android stores, even if you can’t connect to your own mail app. The team collaboration feature, which allows your team to interact with messages using Zoho’s webmail or mobile app, makes this free plan stand out. It reduces your reliance on email by enabling your team to communicate with messages using Zoho’s webmail or mobile app.
The Mail Lite package doubles your attachment size limit from 25MB to 250MB for $1 per user, every month (with an annual commitment). You may also receive a storage upgrade from 5GB to 10GB for an extra 25 cents per user, each month. Additionally, by connecting through IMAP/SMTP or Microsoft ActiveSync, you may now use your chosen email client.
The Mail Premium plan boosts your attachment size limit from 250MB to 1GB and your storage from 10GB to 50GB for $4 per user, each month (with an annual commitment). It also provides enterprise-level capabilities including the option to reserve conference rooms with preferred facilities for meetings, as well as the ability to white label your admin interface with your corporate identity across all email subscribers.
Ease of Use
Zoho is well-known for being one of the most user-friendly email services available. From registering for a plan to connecting your domain, they give clear, step-by-step guidance. If you run into any problems, they provide live chat and email ticket assistance. Zoho also offers a variety of additional products, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that interfaces with Mail or Workplace, allowing you to centralize your company’s activities.
Bluehost
What We Enjoy
- At just $5.45 a month, you can get unlimited email.
- It also comes with a free domain.
- Gmail or Microsoft Office may be accessed.
- Security features built-in
- Get both business email and web hosting in one package.
What Isn’t There
- A 12-month contract is required.
- There are no collaborative tools available.
Best For
- Businesses that are just getting started and need low-cost web hosting and email.
- Businesses in need of a large number of email addresses at a minimal cost.
Bluehost is a web and email hosting company that offers a comprehensive set of email and web hosting services as part of their packages. Plans start at $2.95 per month for up to five free business email accounts, or $5.45 per month for unlimited email addresses and storage.
To secure critical data, all options include a free domain name, desktop and mobile accessibility, web hosting, and antivirus and spam filters. If your company need web hosting as well as a big number of email accounts or email with limitless storage, this plan is suitable. You may link your Bluehost email to Google and view your business email using Gmail if you prefer that interface.
Pricing & Features
Bluehost is a wonderful option for email hosting if your company has a WordPress website since all of its web hosting plans offer free email hosting. Its most basic option is $2.95 per month (with a three-year commitment) and comes with five free business email accounts.
Bluehost’s Plus package, which includes unlimited email hosting, begins at $5.45 per month (with a three-year commitment). Their options also come with a free domain name and the opportunity to link your business email to third-party services such as Gmail.
The Bluehost Basic plan includes up to five email accounts, each with 100MB of storage, as well as website hosting. If you don’t require website hosting, try Zoho’s Free Forever plan, which offers far more storage but has a smaller attachment size restriction.
You may get unlimited storage by upgrading to one of their higher-tiered services. Bluehost’s Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro plans feature cheap initial costs; but, your price will rise after the promotional payment cycle finishes. Consider DreamHost’s Email plan for an easy-to-manage plan with no long-term commitment.
User-Friendliness
Bluehost is well-known for its ease of use and award-winning customer support. Bluehost’s email service is simple to use, thanks to its user-friendly layout. If you prefer to utilize their email interfaces, Bluehost email also interacts with Gmail and Microsoft 365. If you have any problems, such as merging your domain, their customer support is there to assist you.
Dreamhost
What We Enjoy
- With 25GB of storage for just $1.67 per month, you get a lot of storage for a very cheap price.
- Low-cost web hosting options feature a free domain name.
- Security features built-in
What Isn’t There
- There isn’t a productivity suite included, like Google Workspace.
Best For
- A new company owner who doesn’t want to commit to a long-term contract but needs high-quality, low-cost email hosting.
Another popular web hosting company that also provides low-cost email hosting is DreamHost. It’s simple and quick to use, and it’s a wonderful deal for small companies that need a lot of storage for a cheap price and don’t want to sign a long-term contract.
While email is included with every web hosting plan, you may also buy DreamHost’s email hosting service separately. Your email account includes 25GB of storage for $1.99 per mailbox, per month if paid monthly, or $1.67 per mailbox, per month if billed yearly.
DreamHost email hosting, like Bluehost, allows you to access your email through the Gmail interface if you choose, and you receive free business email when you buy one of their web hosting plans. If you’re also creating a website for your company, it’s better to receive your email for free as part of your web hosting package.
Pricing & Features
DreamHost provides solo email hosting with a storage capacity of 25GB. When invoiced monthly, it costs $1.99 per mailbox per month, or $1.67 per mailbox per month ($20 per year) when billed annually. It’s simple and uncomplicated to sign up and use, and it can be accessed from any device. It also has high-quality spam filters and is ad-free.
Ease of Use
DreamHost makes it very simple to join up by offering just one package. Having a simple email service also aids in the easy and painless management of your account. There is no collaboration and productivity suite, and it does not give admin control, so if you’re managing a collaborative team, Google Workspace is a better option.
Google Workspace
What We Enjoy
- It’s simple and intuitive to use.
- Google’s extensive collaboration and productivity capabilities are included (e.g., Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar)
- Storage space is limited to 30GB.
- Large-scale team management requires strong administrative controls.
- Built-in advanced security features
What Isn’t There
- There isn’t a domain name included.
- At $6 per user, each month, this is the most costly option.
Best For
- The company that needs a lot of collaboration.
Google Workspace (previously G Suite) is a significant supplier of email hosting and business applications. Its email hosting package is simple to use, full of extra features, and reasonably priced, beginning at $6 per user, per month.
Gmail setup and customization is easy because to its clear layout, quick navigation, and built-in collaboration options. Because of these characteristics, Google Workspace is an excellent email and collaboration option for non-technical firms who don’t want to spend a lot of time setting up or maintaining their email.
Pricing & Features
Google Workspace options start at $6 per month per user for a secure email account with your domain (up to 30 email aliases) and 30GB of storage, as well as productivity tools.
While cheaper Gmail email hosting is available, the actual selling point is access to Google Workspace, which includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, as well as calendars, team messaging, and video conferencing, making it the ideal inexpensive email hosting choice for collaborative teams.
The Business Starter subscription for Google’s Workspace suite of collaborative workplace tools is the most affordable option. The basic package comes with 30GB of storage and third-party integrations with a variety of major platforms, including Asana. The Business Starter plan is suitable for most firms, but you may upgrade at any moment if you feel your company has outgrown it.
The storage limits for the Business Standard and Business Plus plans are 2TB and 5TB, respectively. All basic email services stay the same, but higher-level subscriptions include office suite features such as participant video meetings. Zoho is the only other company that provides a comparable set of collaboration options.
Ease of Use
The Google signup procedure is simple, but the admin part might be difficult to navigate for newcomers. They lack real customer assistance, while having well-documented information on how to set up services such as your domain. For your email accounts, they utilize the same interface as Gmail, making it much simpler to manage your account overall.
IONOS
What We Enjoy
- At under $1 per month, it’s inexpensive.
- Contains a domain name
- Built-in admin controls
What Isn’t There
- Google Workspace and other productivity tools are not included.
- Cancelling a plan might be challenging.
Best For
- Businesses on a tight budget that want a low-cost domain and email address
IONOS is a web hosting and business application company that provides low-cost email hosting with a domain name included. It distinguishes itself by providing simple, secure email hosting for just $1 per month, which includes spam protection, limited storage, a domain name, and customer assistance, but not much more. This plan could be suitable for you if you’re a freelancer or an early-stage business with a tight budget and a requirement for a domain name.
Pricing & Features
IONOS by 1&1 is a no-frills business email hosting service. The cheapest plan is $1 per month, however it only comes with 2GB of storage and a 100MB attachment limit. While $1 per month for business email with a free domain may seem to be a good deal, the little storage supplied will be insufficient for many firms. It also lacks the collaborative features that most enterprises want, necessitating their purchase separately.
Small company owners may choose between two IONOS beginning options. The Mail 1 and Mail 1+ subscriptions have storage limits of 2GB and 12GB, respectively. The attachment size limit of 100MB is higher than that of some of the large companies, such as Google Workspace.
The Mail Business plan boosts your storage capacity to 50GB while maintaining a low monthly cost of $5. For $1 extra each month, you can buy Google Workspace, which includes a full suite of office and collaboration tools, or you can get Zoho’s Workplace package for $2 less per month.
Ease of Use
“We’ve simplified the process of creating a customized email address and made it as simple as possible for you to set up and use,” IONOS claims. When you click the “proceed” button on the plan you want to utilize, you’ll see how simple it is.”
If you choose not to utilize IONOS’ interface, you may link your email account to major platforms like Google Workspace utilizing IMAP and SMTP settings. Their email interface may seem simple in comparison to other platforms, but having a simple design contributes to the ease of utilizing an email service without having to learn how to use other tools.
Other Top Email Hosting Providers
Are you curious about the other top email hosting companies? The simple answer is that they didn’t make the cut since they don’t measure up to the other suppliers on our list. They’re either less user-friendly, more expensive, or have fewer inclusions and features.
Here are some of the other email hosting options we looked at (and why they didn’t make the cut):
- Microsoft 365; is more costly than Google Workspace (previously G Suite) at $12.50 per user, per month for a package with similar capabilities but has a reputation for being less user-friendly.
- Rackspace: For the same capacity and functionality, plans start at $2.99 per user, per month for 25GB of storage, making it 50% more costly than DreamHost.
- Hover: Plans start at $20 per year for 10GB of storage, so it’s almost as expensive as DreamHost, but it needs a yearly commitment and offers less than half the capacity.
- Hostinger: Email hosting services start at 99 cents per user, per month on a per-user basis. This is extremely similar to 1&1’s IONOS and offers greater storage, however it does not come with a free domain name. Zoho’s free plan is likely to be a better bargain for those who don’t require a domain. Hostinger also provides unlimited email hosting and storage for $9.99 per month, which is equal to Bluehost’s $5.45 per month plan.
- HostGator: You must have a web hosting plan with HostGator in order to receive email hosting, and email hosting plans are only available for a price. In addition, HostGator charges an extra $6 per month for Google Workspace (which you can get directly from Google for the same price).
- Amazon WorkMail; has a monthly fee of $4 per person with 50GB of storage. While this is a large quantity of storage, most small firms do not need it. Those who want a lot of capacity will find Bluehost’s unlimited storage for little over $1 extra per month to be a superior bargain.
- MXRoute: For $40 per year, MXRoute’s plan provides unlimited email addresses and unlimited storage, making it a good bargain for enterprises who want a large number of email accounts. Its UI, on the other hand, is outdated and not user-friendly.
- Yandex: While it promotes a free corporate email service, the free version lacks storage. You’ll need to switch to a premium membership, which costs roughly $2 per month, to access email storage. Premium plans, on the other hand, are priced in Russian rubles, and the monthly sum may fluctuate depending on international exchange rates.
Conclusion
The best low-cost email hosting services deliver more than simply professional email at a reasonable cost. They also give the tools that enterprises need, such as security and administrative controls, as well as enough storage and effective communication capabilities. If you’re still undecided, Google Workspace, the world’s biggest corporate email hosting service, is a safe bet. Because the plans are month-to-month, there’s no danger in giving it a go.
