We do not provide email hosting. There are, however, many excellent email providers on the market today. We recommend using Google's G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 or Rackspace. We will give a brief review of each of these options below so that you can get a head start on determining what service is right for you.
When you're considering an email provider, try to think about how their service meshes with your organization's workflow and core philosophies. All of these companies are industry leaders with exceptional products. While there are some pros and cons for each company, the main difference is in what type of workflow each service caters to.
Office 365
Office 365 is a very affordable option, starting at just $5 per user per month. This price includes business email with 50 GB mailboxes as well as the online suite of office tools. You can upgrade to include the desktop office tools, 1 TB of storage space and some additional features for $12.50 per user per month.
Office 365 email is compatible with all major email clients and supports filters for inbox organization. In addition, Microsoft's Outlook mail client utilizes machine learning to separate your inbox into a Focus tab, for priority emails, and an Other tab for everything else. Office 365's highly customizable spam filter and virus scan will, for most people, work well out of the box. However, some users have found it necessary to make a few adjustments to keep good emails out of the spam folder. Office 365 offers excellent data security capable of supporting HIPAA compliance.
Subscriptions include access to Microsoft's office suite, including industry standard tools like Word and Excel. Over their long history these tools have collected an extensive feature set. In recent years, good design from Microsoft has made the learning curve easier but these programs can still take some time to learn to use well.
Full details about Office 365 are located here.
G Suite
G Suite is Google's professional email hosting service and suite of office tools. G Suite services start at $6 per user per month with 30 GB of cloud storage per user. You can upgrade to 1 TB of cloud storage and a special cloud search feature at $12 per user per month. This option gives you unlimited cloud storage if your organization has five or more users.
G Suite's inbox organization is implemented through a label system. Many users find this system powerful and intuitive but it can be a bit of a learning curve for those familiar with more traditional inbox filters. The spam filter and virus check is excellent from the jump but lacks some customization features found in Office 365. Like Microsoft, G Suite can support HIPAA compliance.
G Suite's included applications tend to have fewer features than their Microsoft counterparts but these features are implemented from the ground up for a cloud based workflow. This results in a streamlined solution that many people find easier to use than Microsoft's tools.
A major downside with G Suite is compatibility. Some users have reported difficult integration with desktop email applications like Thunderbird or Outlook. In addition, while G Suite's office applications are capable of opening and editing MS Office document types, they sometimes translate specific formatting incorrectly. Most of the time this is no more than an annoyance but it is something to consider if you collaborate heavily with MS Office users.
You can find out more about G Suite here.
Rackspace
Rackspace is a well established cloud hosting solution based out of Texas. They offer a range of email hosting options starting at just $2.99 per user per month. In addition to their in-house email service, Rackspace offers a managed Microsoft Exchange service for demanding email users. This offering is significantly more expensive at $10.99 per person per month but will be worth it for some users. They also offer a hybrid solution allowing you to use Rackspace email for some users while offering Rackspace's Microsoft Exchange inboxes for the users who need the extra features.
For security, Rackspace provides spam filtering and virus scanning on incoming mail. They are also SOC 2 certified for service security and availability. In addition, they offer a 100% service uptime guarantee. Rackspace does not have their own office suite, but they do resell Office 365 for an additional cost.
You can find the full details on the Rackspace website.
Summary
Each of these email providers offers professional business email at your domain name. G Suite and Office 365 also offer a suite of office tools while Rackspace offers plain and simple email with several custom solutions. Office 365 is well suited for organizations with compatibility requirements or that utilize an offline or hybrid workflow. G Suite lends itself to organizations with a cloud based workflow and large cloud storage needs. Rackspace is best suited for organizations looking for a minimal option at a low price or organiz
