- You need a custom email address
if you want to look professional
and have your business stand out.
But picking the right email hosting is critical,
especially if you're gonna be using
that email for business purposes.
So which email host should you use?
It may not seem like that big of a deal.
After all, you could just go to Google
and find the first email host that comes up and sign up.
I mean, you're getting the same end result, right?
A custom email address hosted on your domain name,
a domain name you could get from Porkbun
the sponsor of today's video, but more on that later.
The most important things that email hosting needs
are reliability, email deliverability,
tight security, and a quality spam filter.
These all make a big difference in your inbox experience.
If you don't do it right from the beginning,
emails could start ending up in people's spam folders.
You could face downtime or not have emails delivered
and you could end up overpaying for simple features.
And it's easy to feel like your email is held hostage
at a particular host
and you can't migrate it somewhere else.
So which hosts are worth your time?
I've compiled a list of a few options
that I think are worth your time.
And in this video, I'm gonna help you make a decision
on which email host is right for you.
I wanna start out with Namecheap's private email hosting.
This is a solution I've used for years
and I find it's reliable, affordable,
and a great starting point for many people.
The base plan offers five gigabytes of inbox storage
for 14.88 a year.
The setup process can be easy
if you have your domains held at Namecheap
but I found that if your domain is not at Namecheap,
it's a little bit convoluted.
I find myself scratching my head
and searching for where the DNS records are.
And since I run all of my DNS through Cloudflare
for all of my domains,
I always have to deal with this annoyance,
and it's a little bit of a headache.
You can get a two-month free trial with no strings attached.
And I'm a big fan of Namecheap's web client,
which is powered by Open-Xchange.
It's a clean and simple interface
and it's something I always enjoy using.
Namecheap does offer support for IMAP and SMTP
so you can connect it to third party email apps.
Namecheap spam filter is pretty decent
but it's definitely not as accurate as Gmail
or other bigger providers.
They did just launch a dedicated feature called Jellyfish
which is a spam filter manager
where you can whitelist or blacklist emails
and set up all sorts of filtering rules
based on subject lines or other criteria.
It is a pretty advanced system and I think it's cool
to see Namecheap improving their spam filter in this area.
Overall, Namecheap private email is a great value
for beginners.
Next step is Zoho Mail.
And Zoho Mail is the only host on this list
that offers a forever free plan for custom email hosting.
It does have some limitations.
You'll have five gigabytes of email storage per user
up to five users.
You'll also have a 25 megabyte attachment limit on emails
and you cannot access IMAP or SMTP,
which means that you'll have to use Zoho's web client
or their email apps that you can download
for all your devices.
Zoho Mail offers a really easy setup process.
Their setup wizard walks you through every step
including adding DNS to your domain name,
and overall, it was way easier
than the setup process at Namecheap.
The Zoho Mail app is all right.
I'm not a big fan of the interface
and the apps feel a bit cluttered.
Normally, I'm not too picky about this
because I typically prefer to connect my email addresses
to third party email apps anyway.
But with the free version of Zoho Mail, you can't do that.
You're forced to use their app
since you cannot access IMAP or SMTP in the free version.
And if all you need is a free custom email
that gets the job done, Zoho is going to be just fine.
But I still feel like overall,
the interface could be improved on.
It's worth noting that for $12 per user per year,
you can upgrade to the Mail Lite plan at Zoho,
which allows you to access IMAP and SMTP
for your email addresses.
The actual reliability of Zoho Mail has been good.
It's a solid email host, and I think it's a great solution.
if you need a free basic email
or if you want IMAP and SMTP compatibility on a budget
for only $12 a year.
Zoho Mail is feature-rich and affordable at the same time,
making it a great value.
But you'll still need a domain name
to set up your custom email.
And that's where today's sponsor Porkbun can help.
Porkbun is a refreshingly simple domain name registrar
with everything you need to make your ideas bloom to life.
With over 500 domain name extensions available,
you're bound to find something
no matter your needs or your niche.
Not only does Porkbun have some of the best pricing
on domain names year round,
they also offer more free services
than any other big name registrar.
This includes free SSL certificates,
free WHOIS privacy, and much more.
Porkbun isn't just affordable, they're trustworthy too
with more five star reviews from real customers
than any other registrar.
They back it all with their expert support
via chat, phone, or email
so you can get real answers from real people
and you can reach them 365 days a year, including holidays.
I love Porkbun and used them for tons of domains I own.
And when Porkbun reached out and wanted to sponsor a video,
I was thrilled.
You can get your domain at Porkbun at the link below.
Thanks to Porkbun for sponsoring today's video.
And now, let's get back to the comparison
and take a look at Google Workspace.
Google Workspace is email hosting powered by Gmail.
It's Google's business email product
and it functions just like a normal Gmail address
but it's connected to your custom domain.
For $6 per user per month,
you'll get access to 30 gigabytes of Google Drive space
Instead of the 15 gigabytes of drive space you typically get
in a free Gmail account.
You'll also have access to Google Docs,
Sheets, Forms, Google Drive,
and all the other Google services you know and love.
Google Workspace is definitely designed for corporations.
And the setup process isn't the easiest.
That's not to say if you're a solo user,
you should stay away from Google Workspace.
I have a lot of friends that use it
for their personal brands
and they're not some business or big corporation.
So I think it is a good fit for a lot of people
but you'll definitely want to spend some time digging
through Google's admin console and reading help articles
to understand the setup process.
Otherwise, I think you might be a little bit frustrated
and confused.
It's definitely not the simple elegant setup process
that you get with something like Zoho Mail.
I personally use Google Workspace for my company emails
and I prefer over the other options
for reasons like email deliverability, reliability,
and the spam filter.
And that's why I'm willing to pay $72 a year per user
instead of 12 or $15 a year
for a host like Zoho or Namecheap.
One thing that a lot of users forget
to consider is security.
With conventional email hosting,
there's no way to enforce two-factor authentication
when using IMAP and SMTP.
Now sure, something like Namecheap's private email hosting
does support two-factor authentication for the web client.
But at the end of the day,
when you connect the email address
to a third party email app,
it's just looking at your username and password,
and there is no way for IMAP and SMTP
to force two-factor authentication.
So if someone were to guess your password,
they can get access to your email.
Since Google is Google and they're a tech giant,
they actually enforce a proprietary authentication method
for third party email apps.
This means to log in with Gmail or Google Workspace,
you have to do it via google.com.
In this way, they're able to make sure that everybody steps
through the two factor authentication screen
if you have it set up.
I personally have a hardware security key
so I have to actually plug it into my computer's USB port
and touch it in order to sign into my Google account
after I enter the password.
And I get it, not everyone needs this level of security,
but Google Workspace can provide this level of security
if it makes sense for you.
Very few providers are able
to force their own login protocols
for third party email apps
but another provider big enough to do this is Microsoft.
The Microsoft 365 business basic plan
provides a custom email address powered by Outlook,
access to online versions of Microsoft Office
and one terabyte of one drive space for $6 a month.
It's basically the Microsoft version of Google Workspace.
It's just a Microsoft account
with a custom email address connected to it.
And it has all of the similar team features
that Google Workspace offers.
Once you set up your Microsoft email,
you can access advanced security features
similar to Google Workspace.
This allows you to actually enforce two-factor
authentication when logging into third party apps.
And Microsoft even has this feature
where you can use just a security key to log in
and actually take advantage of passwordless authentication.
I think it just comes down to personal preference.
I'm used to the Google ecosystem
so I'm happy paying the Google tax for Google Workspace.
But if you prefer Microsoft
and you're used to the features they offer,
Microsoft email is a great choice.
So last up, I wanted to take a look at HEY.
HEY is a newer email provider
from the parent company that makes Basecamp.
Let's get this out of the way first.
HEY is definitely a premium option.
At $12 per user per month, it's very expensive
and it doesn't support access to IMAP or SMTP.
If you think that's ludicrous
for such an expensive hosting service,
HEY may not be right for you.
The idea behind HEY is to rethink
and simplify how email works.
And they're able to do that
by forcing you to use their proprietary mail apps.
The signup process was the easiest email hosting setup
wizard I've ever been through.
Typically when I set up a custom email,
I think that it may not be the easiest
for people who aren't tech savvy,
but HEY holds your hand through the entire process.
They tell you exactly how to add the DNS records
to your domain.
And overall, I was absolutely blown away
by how simple it was.
There's a 30-day free trial if you wanna try
to set up wizard and play around with it.
And it's worth noting that HEY offers a discounted rate
of $10 per month for the first user.
So if you're solo and you're the only one
who's gonna have an email address on your domain name,
HEY is only gonna cost $10 a month.
Once it's set up, you can start accessing your imbox.
This is what hay calls the inbox in their platform.
There are a few things that set HEY apart
from other providers.
First, the imbox is designed where you have
to whitelist every single email.
So instead of blacklisting spam emails
that keep sending you newsletters
or junk that you don't want to get,
HEY allows you to whitelist emails from the start
to make sure you only allow emails through
from people that you want to get email from.
The idea behind this is that you'll get less emails overall
and your inbox will be less cluttered
when you can say, "No, thanks,"
when you forgot you signed up for that email list
and they send you an email for the first time
and it pops up in your HEY screening,
you can say, "No, I don't want that."
And then you're never gonna get
those email newsletters again in your inbox.
HEY has a big emphasis on privacy,
vowing not to sell your user data.
There's a number of things
that make their platform so unique.
And if you're curious,
you can go check out the HEY manifesto linked below.
This is the page on their website
where they talk about what sets them apart
from other providers and why they are so unique
and committed to innovating the future of email.
I'm enthusiastically watching HEY from a distance
but I'm just not ready
to use their proprietary email platform right now.
I prefer to add all of my emails to a third party email app
so I can see everything in the same place.
And since HEY does not support IMAP or SMTP,
it's not a fit for me personally.
The $12 per user per month price tag is also hard
to swallow.
For my company where I have three email addresses,
I'd be paying $34 a month for email hosting,
which is almost double what I currently pay
for Google Workspace.
But hey, if HEY looks interesting to you,
I definitely recommend trying it out.
I think it's a solid platform.
I really like what they're doing to innovate in the space
and I hope that they do a lot in the future
to continue making email that much better.
I do wanna give a quick honorable mention to Fastmail.
It's another email provider with a big emphasis on privacy.
And for $5 per user per month,
they offer support for IMAP and SMTP
so it may be worth considering.
So in the end, which host do I personally use and recommend?
Well, I personally use a mix
of Namecheap private email hosting and Google Workspace.
I have my primary email address on my craylor.media domain
at Google Workspace.
And I'll use Namecheap private email hosting
for any other smaller projects that come up
where I still want a custom email address.
It's a great value option and it gets the job done
without breaking the bank.
But I've gotta say,
this might be the first comparison video I've ever done
where I can recommend just about every option in the video.
Normally, there's usually some option that I'm not a fan of
but of all the providers I decided to try in today's video,
I was impressed with all of them in different ways.
Namecheap private email hosting
and Zoho mail are great budget options
depending on your needs or preferences.
And Google Workspace and Microsoft email hosting
are topnotch world class, email hosting
if you want the most reliable,
best hosting that you can buy.
If you like what people over at 37 signals are doing
with HEY, I can definitely recommend it
for its smoothness, reliability,
and privacy-focused mission.
I honestly don't think you can go wrong
with any of the email hosts featured in this video.
That's not something I say a lot in my comparison videos
but I think you're in good hands
with any of the companies mentioned.
Regardless of the host you pick,
don't forget to get your domain name
from Porkbun at the link below.
And if you're interested in knowing
how you can get a custom email address hosted by Apple,
be sure to check up my other video here.