Email hosting
Overview
Usually webmail is perceived to be the only email service, but in reality the advertising supported email services and free webmail are not the premium email services. These premium email hosting service require extra subscription charges as they are form of internet hosting service, which run runs on large email servers.
Need for Dedicated Email Hosting
Email hosting services are required by business owners that don’t want any unwanted advertisements. These are typically required by small to midsize businesses, and some of the demanding email users that are not content with the free webmail service. Email hosting providers facilitate custom configurations and larger number of email accounts as opposed to the shared web hosting service providers. They also take care of domain managements, email authentications, and other business specific requirements.
Different Email Hosting Platforms
Different email hosting providers provide premium email services based on their own custom platforms. The web hosting agencies provide standard POP3 or IMAP based email, or free webmail based on free platforms like Squirrelmail, Horde, and the likes of them.
Dedicated Email Hosting Providers versus Shared Web Hosting Providers
The dedicated email hosting providers render premium email services at a reasonable cost, but all email hosting providers don’t necessarily offer shared web hosting services. On the contrary, all the shared web hosting providers do provide email support, that too totally free of cost! It’s just that you have to pay the price if you want a premium email service, and that’s why email hosting services are popular amongst the midsize businesses. Most of the start-up companies, and extremely small size businesses are content with free webmail, while the large corporate giants have customized email services of their own.
Corporate Email Hosting
Very few large size organization opt for email hosting services, because most of them prefer to implement their own email hosting set-up, as mentioned earlier. However, those who don’t have enough resources to take care of troubleshooting and maintenance, go with corporate email hosting services. Such companies have business specific requirements, and the host usually customizes the set-up based on the needs of the particular organization.
Business Email Hosting
Email hosting services don’t just involve premium email service support, but also management of domains and sub-domains of the business owner. Some of the business owners prefer to have a common host who can take care of their shared web hosting as well as premium email hosting needs. But, very few companies offer both the services. So, finding such a host may not be too easy, though not impossible.
Exchange Email Hosting: POP3 versus IMAP
Emails are delivered to mailbox via different exchange servers such as POP3 Access, and IMAP. So, depending upon the type pf exchange supported by your email hosting service provider, you can set-up the preferences. If Microsoft Outlook is configured with POP3 exchange, you need to refresh every time to be able to see new emails. A copy of the email is saved on the email server. Note: You can do so by clicking on Send/Receive tab of Outlook’s top menu. In case of IMAP access, no copy of email is saved on the email server. Hence, once you delete the email permanently using CTRL + ALT + DEL, it is lost forever. But, in case of POP3 you can recover the copy of email saved on the email server. So, you must be wondering which one is the superior option. Well, most of the email hosting providers offer support to both POP3 as well as IMAP. So, it is up to you whether you wish to keep one of them (if so which one) or both. Remember, IMAP access is faster and doesn’t burden the email server, as opposed to POP3, which is more burdensome on the email server, and works comparatively slowly.
Things to Consider before Selecting Dedicated Email Hosting Services
While selecting dedicated email hosting services, you should keep following consideration on top of your checklist.
- Reliability: Of course, it is never a wise idea to try newbies in the market. You must not leave email hosting needs of your company at the hands of inexperienced companies, and leave any margin for troubles. Giving an extra dollar to an experienced email host is always a better idea than trying to save few bucks by relying on a new contender in the market.
- Pricing: Pricing does matter, but not at the cost of quality or customer support. You should not overrun your budget, but as mentioned above, you should not sacrifice reliability and facilities just for sake of saving few dollars.
- Level of Customization Offered: A good email hosting provider is not just the one who offers reliable email hosting at decent price. Unless you don’t get the desired level of customization, it is useless to pay so much for dedicated email services. So, you should ensure that pick a email hosting provider that offer maximum level of customization, and takes care of all your needs.
- Customer Support: Whenever there’s any trouble, the customer support team will be your only point of contact. So, make sure that your email hosting provider has a good, responsible, friendly support team that answers your queries quickly and efficiently. Tip: Before you pick an email host try sending a test mail to their support team and observe how long it really takes to receive a reply. If they keep you waiting for 2-3days, it is not a wise idea to pick such a host.
- Extra Goodies: Most of the good email hosting providers offers some sort of extra goodies at no additional price. So, it is all about getting the best value for every penny paid.