Are you looking for a checklist to find the right email hosting solution for your business?
Business email hosting is critical, but with over 4.59 billion email users and 376.4 billion emails sent every day, using the wrong email hosting provider can completely destroy your business.
Without the best email hosting, you’ll experience:
- Frequent downtime and lost communications
- Security vulnerabilities that leave your sensitive data exposed
- Poor email deliverability that damages your reputation
The good news? By following the right evaluation process, you can find a reliable email hosting provider that ensures your business email communications run smoothly, securely and efficiently.
In this article you will learn:
- Business Email Hosting Essentials
- Security Features You Can’t Live Without
- Performance Metrics to Evaluate
- Integration Capabilities for Maximum Efficiency
Business Email Hosting Essentials
Business email hosting is not the same as your personal Gmail account.
Here’s what you should know:
Business email hosting offers you a professional business email address that uses your domain name. Instead of having an email like [email protected], you get an address like [email protected] or [email protected]. This immediately sets a professional and legitimate image.
Business email hosting also provides you with complete control over your email service. You can customize access permissions, user storage allocations, security settings and more.
Free email services like Gmail and Yahoo can be shut down at any time. With business email hosting, you own your email data and can fully control your email communications.
Security Features You Can’t Live Without
Security is extremely important when it comes to choosing an email hosting provider.
Think about it: 94% of organizations reported being victims of phishing attacks in the past 12 months. That’s an alarming statistic that highlights how vulnerable email systems can be.
Here are the must-have security features to look for: Two-factor authentication (2FA), end-to-end encryption, advanced spam filtering, DDoS protection and regular security updates.
Basic security measures just won’t cut it these days. Your business data is too important to risk getting compromised.
Performance Metrics to Evaluate
Email downtime will destroy your business relationships with clients and partners.
It all happens in the blink of an eye. One moment you’re sending a time-sensitive business deal email. The next, the email service goes down. Emails fail to send. Incoming messages don’t get delivered to your inbox.
You lose critical customer communications. Miss out on time-sensitive business deals. Destroy trust from clients and business partners. And cost your business money from missed opportunities.
That’s why email uptime guarantees are so important. Look for an email hosting provider that offers at least 99.9% uptime. The more reputable and premium email hosting providers like SiteGround offer even better guarantees of 99.95% uptime, which means your email service will be available almost all the time.
The other performance metrics to look for include email delivery speed, server response times, storage capacity and bandwidth limits.
If an email hosting service is cheap, you can bet it’s probably not going to perform very well.
Integration Capabilities for Maximum Efficiency
Integrating your email with your business systems is important.
Your email communications must work seamlessly with CRM systems, project management tools, calendar systems, and file sharing services. If the systems are not integrated, you end up wasting time constantly switching between platforms and risk missing important information that’s been shared with your team.
The best email hosting providers have API access and pre-built integrations for all the popular business tools on the market. This saves you and your team a ton of time and increases productivity.
Evaluating Customer Support Quality
Good customer support can make or break your email hosting experience.
Email problems are more likely to happen at 2 AM on a Saturday than during business hours. This is when you need support the most. That’s why 24/7 customer support is non-negotiable.
Look for an email hosting provider that offers multiple support channels (phone, chat and email), very fast response times and knowledgeable technical staff.
Test their support before you sign up. Ask them a question and see how long it takes them to get back to you with an answer. This will give you a glimpse into what you can expect as a paying customer.
Pricing Models and Hidden Costs
Email hosting can be a bit confusing when it comes to pricing.
Many providers advertise low prices and then hit you with hidden costs later on. Setup fees, migration costs, storage overage charges and renewal price increases are common. Always read the fine print and calculate the total cost of ownership over the next 2-3 years.
The cheapest option upfront may end up being the most expensive in the long run.
Scalability and Future Growth
Your email hosting requirements are going to change as your business grows.
An email hosting solution that works for a 5-person startup won’t work for a 50-person company. You need a solution that can scale as your business expands without having to migrate to a different provider.
User limits, storage expansion, feature upgrades and administrative controls to manage large teams are key considerations.
Plan for future growth so you don’t have to switch email hosting providers when you grow.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
Different industries have different email hosting compliance requirements.
If you are in healthcare, financial services or legal services, you need email hosting that meets specific compliance and regulatory standards like HIPAA, SOX or GDPR.
Important compliance features include data retention policies, audit trails, data location and storage and encryption standards that meet industry regulations.
Be wary of email hosting providers that don’t seem to understand your industry’s specific compliance requirements. Ask specific questions about compliance features before making a decision.
Migration Process and Data Transfer
Switching from one email hosting provider to another should not be painful.
The best providers offer email migration assistance to transfer over your existing emails, contacts, calendars and more. Some providers will do the entire process for you, others will provide instructions for you to follow.
Email data backup, DNS changes, user training and parallel testing are key steps in the migration process. The smoothest migrations are those that are carefully planned and minimize downtime and stress on your team.
Red Flags to Avoid
Some email hosting providers should be avoided altogether.
Here are some red flags to watch out for: no uptime guarantees, shared IP addresses, email-only support, hidden or unclear pricing and consistently poor reviews from actual paying customers.
Trust your gut. If something feels off during the evaluation process, don’t hesitate to look elsewhere.
Making Your Final Decision
Choosing the right business email hosting provider is not a decision to be taken lightly.
Set up a simple scoring system with different categories: Security features (30%), Performance and uptime (25%), Integration capabilities (20%), Customer support (15%), Pricing and value (10%).
Weight the categories based on your business’s specific needs. A law firm might weigh security and compliance more heavily, a startup might value pricing and scalability.
Rank providers based on your top priorities and make the best decision for your business.
Wrapping It All Together
Finding the right email hosting provider for your business is all about knowing your specific business needs and requirements.
The best email hosting providers offer rock-solid security features, excellent uptime guarantees, seamless integrations, great customer support and transparent pricing.
Don’t rush the decision-making process. Your business’s email communications are too important to risk using an email service that may not be able to perform when you need it the most.
The cheapest provider is not always the best value. It’s a good idea to invest in a quality provider that will grow with your business and keep your email communications secure.
