Featured Partners
3
IONOS
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
The journalists on the editorial team at Forbes Advisor Australia base their research and opinions on objective, independent information-gathering.
When covering investment and personal finance stories, we aim to inform our readers rather than recommend specific financial product or asset classes. While we may highlight certain positives of a financial product or asset class, there is no guarantee that readers will benefit from the product or investment approach and may, in fact, make a loss if they acquire the product or adopt the approach.
To the extent any recommendations or statements of opinion or fact made in a story may constitute financial advice, they constitute general information and not personal financial advice in any form. As such, any recommendations or statements do not take into account the financial circumstances, investment objectives, tax implications, or any specific requirements of readers.
Readers of our stories should not act on any recommendation without first taking appropriate steps to verify the information in the stories consulting their independent financial adviser in order to ascertain whether the recommendation (if any) is appropriate, having regard to their investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs. Providing access to our stories should not be construed as investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any security or product, or to engage in or refrain from engaging in any transaction by Forbes Advisor Australia. In comparing various financial products and services, we are unable to compare every provider in the market so our rankings do not constitute a comprehensive review of a particular sector. While we do go to great lengths to ensure our ranking criteria matches the concerns of consumers, we cannot guarantee that every relevant feature of a financial product will be reviewed. We make every effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information. However, Forbes Advisor Australia cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of this website. Forbes Advisor Australia accepts no responsibility to update any person regarding any inaccuracy, omission or change in information in our stories or any other information made available to a person, nor any obligation to furnish the person with any further information.
Edited By
Edited By
Editorial note: Forbes Advisor Australia may earn revenue from this story in the manner disclosed here. Read our advice disclaimer here.
Email has been a crucial form of electronic communication for decades, and it will likely be ubiquitous for many more years to come. While there are plenty of free email services available for Australian users and small businesses, many of them lack specialised features, such as central management that lend themselves well for office use.
We evaluated the best systems on the market and compared them based on price, features, security and more to help you make the best decision for your team.
Featured Partners
On Bluehost.com’s Website
Starting price
$2.95 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
Money Back Guarantee
30 Day
On HostGator’s Website
Starting price
$US3.75 ($5.62 AUD) per month
Storage and Bandwidth
Unmetered
Extras and inclusions
Free domain registration for a year, free website and domain transfer, free SSL certificate, free email
3
IONOS
On IONOS’s Secure Website
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
We reviewed providers using a complex scoring methodology to help you find the five best email hosting services for small businesses. Our ratings consider factors such as price per user, number of features available and a review by our experts based on the opinions of real users. Our Australian-based editorial also applied an additional layer of research to determine the best option for local users. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Note: The below list represents a selection of our top category picks, as chosen by Forbes Advisor Australia’s editors and journalists. The information provided is purely factual and is not intended to imply any recommendation, opinion, or advice about a financial product. Not every product or provider in the marketplace has been reviewed, and the list below is not intended to be exhaustive nor replace your own research or independent financial advice. For more information on how Forbes Advisor ranks and reviews products, including how we identified our top category picks, read the methodology selection below.
$US1.67 ($2.44 AUD) to $US1.99 ($2.90 AUD)
per mailbox per month (depending on payment terms)
25 GB
Not applicable
$US1.67 ($2.44 AUD) to $US1.99 ($2.90 AUD)
per mailbox per month (depending on payment terms)
25 GB
Not applicable
DreamHost delivers a rich feature set with a consistent and easy user experience across multiple platforms at an affordable price. DreamHost comes with webmail built-in, and syncs messages across mobile and desktop devices to ensure users don’t miss a single message.
DreamHost is constantly updating its anti-spam features so that customers are a step ahead of the spammers. The company also has strong virus and anti-phishing tools to protect your inbox from cybercriminals.
Who should use it. DreamHost is great for SMBs. You don’t have to be a tech expert to get up and running or to protect yourself from phishing attacks and spam.
$4.99 AUD to $12.49 AUD
per month (depending on package and payment terms)
Unlimited
Not applicable
$4.99 AUD to $12.49 AUD
per month (depending on package and payment terms)
Unlimited
Not applicable
SiteGround provides a full complement of hosting services, including email, website and WordPress site hosting. The solution supports an unlimited number of users per domain as well as unlimited inbox sizes. This should be particularly handy for businesses with high volumes of emails and/or a large user base.
Administrators can manage email through a central panel and configure automated forwarding and responders. The solution also supports SMTP, IMAP and POP3, which makes it a great fit in any environment.
Who should use it. SiteGround is ideal for businesses that host WordPress sites or use WooCommerce (managed WordPress e-commerce hosting solution). SiteGround is an ideal platform for resellers and service providers to host their customers’ solutions.
$US1.59 ($2.32 AUD) to $US2.59 ($3.78 AUD)
per month (depending on package and payment terms)
10 GB to 30 GB
(depending on package)
Not applicable
$US1.59 ($2.32 AUD) to $US2.59 ($3.78 AUD)
per month (depending on package and payment terms)
10 GB to 30 GB
(depending on package)
Not applicable
A2 Hosting is feature-rich, providing unlimited email addresses, spam protection, preinstalled webmail software and automated email forwarding and responding.
A2 Hosting works with POP3, IMAP and SMTP, and comes with popular email clients preinstalled, which makes it a great fit for any SMB. Support for Contact Form 7 and integration with phpList, Dada Mail and poMMo make it easy for businesses to automate and enhance customer communications processes.
Who should use it. A2 Hosting’s security features make it a solid fit for any business that prioritises keeping data safe.
$1.65 AUD to $9.35 AUD
per user per month
5 GB to unlimited
250 MB to 1 GB
$1.65 AUD to $9.35 AUD
per user per month
5 GB to unlimited
250 MB to 1 GB
Zoho Mail offers a well-rounded feature set, including hosting for multiple domains, domain aliases, email recall and more. The solution supports “events,” “tasks,” and “notes.” The former makes it easy for users to schedule events, while the latter two can be used to plan, track and collaborate on processes. When events, tasks and notes are created within emails, there’s a neat feature that allows users to @mention others to make sure messages don’t slip through the cracks.
Zoho’s commitment to security played a big role in making Forbes Advisor’s Best Email Hosting Services list. All data is encrypted during transfer and at rest, and security policies can be created to quarantine or reject unauthorised emails. The solution also comes with malware detection capabilities and enables administrators to set email policies to prevent data leaks. Email retention, audits and eDiscovery functionality are also useful for investigating breaches.
Who should use it. Zoho Mail has email hosting packages for everyone. The Mail Lite version is great for front desk staff, contract employees and frequent travellers, while the premium version is better for power users, senior technical professionals and IT professionals.
$8.40 AUD to $25.20 AUD
per user per month, depending on package
30 GB to 5 TB
25 MB
$8.40 AUD to $25.20 AUD
per user per month, depending on package
30 GB to 5 TB
25 MB
Gmail is one of the most commonly used email solutions, with 1.8 billion users across the globe. Given its massive user base, most will be familiar with the look and feel and functionality of Gmail, so you can spend less time training employees. Gmail also offers tight integration with the rest of the Google Workspace suite.
All of Gmail’s plans come with security features like 2FA, group-based policy controls (to ensure users only see the data that they are authorised to see) and end-point management tools. Gmail also leverages AI to block spam, phishing emails and malware.
Who should use it. Google Workspace is a good choice for SMBs. Google Workspace provides businesses with an email hosting platform plus an entire suite of office productivity applications like Google Drive, Calendar, Meet and more.
Email hosting refers to the technology that stores your email messages, files and other information on a remote server. Email hosting services also make it easy to set up and deploy individual email accounts for your employees. Whether it’s your personal email address, such as a Gmail account, or a work account, all email activity is hosted in some way, shape or form.
Finding the right email hosting solution for your business is a function of your needs. You have to consider factors like your industry, existing IT environment, headcount, inbox and attachment-size requirements, feature requirements and more. If you need to support a lot of users, you probably want something with volume discounting. If you are in an industry that is disproportionately targeted by cybercriminals, then you should consider security-focused providers.
Featured Partners
On Bluehost.com’s Website
Starting price
$2.95 per month
Standout Features
Free domain name & SSL for a year
Money Back Guarantee
30 Day
On HostGator’s Website
Starting price
$US3.75 ($5.62 AUD) per month
Storage and Bandwidth
Unmetered
Extras and inclusions
Free domain registration for a year, free website and domain transfer, free SSL certificate, free email
3
IONOS
On IONOS’s Secure Website
Starting price
$US2 ($2.95 AUD) per month
Drag-and-drop interface
Yes
SSL certificate included
Yes
To choose the email hosting providers for this ranking, Forbes Advisor compared each company based on important factors that include features and pricing. We ranked each company on these factors based on a five-star rating system, with the highest score being five out of five stars. Our criteria were similar to that we applied to our guide to the best web hosting services but with some changes to account for email-specific needs.
Email hosting pricing models and total costs were evaluated based on per-user pricing and volume discounting. Those providers whose pricing was considered to be cheap or midrange fared the best. Pricing accounted for 30% of our weighted scoring.
We compared email hosting providers based on their functions and features, giving preference to providers with the most useful features and tools. Among these included whether a provider offered security tools and calendar functionality, made a mobile app available, offered inbox sizes of at least 20 GB and allowed for attachment sizes of at least 10 MB. We weighted features at 40% of our total score.
Vendors should make it easy for customers to get in touch with support staff in case they need help. That was one of the many factors that real users mentioned in third-party reviews, and our experts scoured these reviews to gauge opinions of these email hosting services. Additionally, we researched reviews to get users’ opinions related to ease of use, stand-out features, popularity and value for the money. Our experts’ analysis made up 30% of the total score.
You don’t have to pay someone to host your email for you. You can host email on your own servers. However, that means you have to purchase, configure and maintain an email server and register your domain on your own. Using an email hosting provider will save companies a lot of time, money and frustration.
Similar to web hosting sites, email hosting services use several layers of security to protect the integrity of your email communications. These include end-to-end encryption, which obscures your data when its sent or received; two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), which means whoever accesses your email account must know certain information or have access to certain things, such as a mobile device or email address, to get into the account; and Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption, which makes it so that email communications remain secure even when the network, such as a public network used in a library or cafe, is not.
No, there is nothing preventing a business from hosting their website with one provider, and their email on another. Keep in mind that many web hosting companies typically include a free email domain for customers.
Some essential features you will want to have include spam protection for your emails, such as spam filters; the ability to create and have an unlimited amount of email addresses for yourself and your employees; email forwarders for those times when you are away from the office; autoresponders, which can also be used when you are unable to answer your emails and can also be used to answer supply informational responses to any general email addresses that you set up; and webmail software, which allows you to send emails via a web browser. You also want to have large mailbox sizes―preferably unlimited—and the user interface or experience needs to be pleasing to the eye.
There are a few web hosting services available that allow you to send and receive emails at no charge, usually through webmail or POP clients and email or IMAP clients. Some examples of these include Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Gmail. While these sites are free and generally offer a decent amount of storage space for individuals or small businesses, they offer limited cloud storage space that might be needed by medium or large businesses. They usually also have limited security measures in place, limited customer support options and no way to personalise your email address to represent yourself or your business.
Like other providers, the best email hosting providers offer many levels of security. When choosing these providers, you want to look for security features like two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches, intrusion detection, the monitoring of user activities, data encryption and privacy protection.
The best email hosting provider will depend on the size of your company, the nature of your business, and your budget. However, some of our favourite picks:
The information provided by Forbes Advisor is general in nature and for educational purposes only. Any information provided does not consider the personal financial circumstances of readers, such as individual objectives, financial situation or needs. Forbes Advisor does not provide financial product advice and the information we provide is not intended to replace or be relied upon as independent financial advice. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. Forbes Advisor encourages readers to seek independent expert advice from an authorised financial adviser in relation to their own financial circumstances and investments before making any financial decisions.
We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Forbes Advisor provides an information service. It is not a product issuer or provider. In giving you information about financial or credit products, Forbes Advisor is not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular product. It is important to check any product information directly with the provider. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), Target Market Determination (TMD) and other applicable product documentation before making a decision to purchase, acquire, invest in or apply for a financial or credit product. Contact the product issuer directly for a copy of the PDS, TMD and other documentation. Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved or otherwise endorsed by our partners. For more information, read our Advice Disclaimer here.
Lee Davis is a tech analyst who has been covering the document imaging industry for over five years. Currently, Lee is the Associate Director of Software and Scanners at Keypoint Intelligence, where he is responsible for maintaining coverage of document imaging software and office scanning technology. Lee also contributes editorial content centered on news and trends in the document imaging industry.