Types of Email Hosting

Free Email Services vs. Private Email Hosting

Lets go into the differences between private email hosting and using a free email service.

Free email services

There are a lot of free email services that will give you an email address with a generic domain (like @gmail.com, @outlook.com, etc.). These are generally fine for personal use but aren’t great for business email. An email address like [email protected] looks unprofessional, and your customers might mistake it for spam.

Another negative of free email services is that they often mine your data. As the saying goes, if you’re using a service for free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.

Private email hosting

With a private email hosting service, you get a professional email address that ends in your unique domain (such as [email protected]). For business owners, this automatically makes your company look more legitimate and professional.

Private email hosts usually charge a subscription fee, but most are pretty cheap ($2 to $10 a month, on average). Since you’re paying a subscription fee, most private email hosts do not sell your data. However, that’s not always true. Be sure to review the email service’s privacy policy before you sign up if you’re concerned about data mining.

With a lot of private email hosts, you can register a domain at the same time as signing up for their service (or transfer a domain you already have). You’ll most likely need to pay a small annual fee for your domain.

Get Email + Free Domain for 1 Year

Self-Hosted Email vs. Managed Hosting

Now let’s look at the differences between self-hosted email and managed email hosting.

Self-hosted email

Self-hosted email is stored on a computer server owned by the email user. Some people choose to self-host because it gives them complete control over their email, but it’s not easy. When self-hosting, you’re responsible for security, maintenance, spam filtering, and running your server 24/7. It’s very difficult to make self-hosted email as secure as email hosted by a reputable email service.

Also, many email companies filter out emails from smaller, unknown servers, so there’s a high likelihood that some of your emails won’t be delivered.

Managed email hosting

Managed email hosting means using an email service to store and deliver your emails. This could be a free service, like Gmail or Hotmail, or a private email host. With managed email hosting, the email service handles security, spam filtering, and running and maintaining email servers. For most email users, managed email hosting is much easier and more secure than trying to self-host your email.

Is there a way to control my data and email address with managed email hosting?

If you’re concerned about maintaining control of your email address and data, you can still use managed email hosting.

• Control your email. When you get a unique domain-based email, this email address can be transferred to another email host if you’re not happy with the one you have.
• Control your data. You can maintain your privacy by choosing a private email host that doesn’t sell your data or use it for targeted advertising.

At Northwest Registered Agent, we believe in Privacy by Default®. We have never sold our clients’ information and never will.

Shared vs. Dedicated Hosting

Another consideration when choosing an email host is shared vs. dedicated hosting.

Shared hosting

With shared hosting, multiple email users share the same server. This option is much cheaper than dedicated hosting, which is why the majority of email services use shared hosting.

Dedicated hosting

With dedicated hosting, you have your own private server that is only used for your email. This option is appealing to large companies that need hundreds or thousands of email accounts, but it’s much more expensive than shared hosting and is generally overkill for the average email user.

IMAP vs. POP3

The most common internet protocols for receiving emails are called IMAP and POP3. Nowadays, most email platforms can support both IMAP and POP3, but some only support one or the other. Let’s break down the differences.

IMAP

When an email host uses IMAP (Internet Message Across Protocol), emails continue to be stored on the server even after they’re delivered. Your emails aren’t downloaded to your device until you open them, so they take up less storage space on your computer.

IMAP is generally recommended for business email because it can be accessed from multiple devices simultaneously, which is great for email accounts shared by multiple users.

The main downside with IMAP is that you need to be connected to the internet in order to receive emails.

POP3

With POP3 (Post Office Protocol), emails are immediately downloaded to the user’s device, so they can be accessed even when you’re offline. However, it can be difficult to share emails between multiple devices. Emails aren’t saved on the server after they’re delivered, which can cause you to lose emails if your computer fails.

Another danger of POP3 is that email attachments are immediately downloaded onto your computer, so it can be harder to protect your computer from viruses.