- This video is sponsored by Wix.
Create your online store today
at the link in the description below.
Hey guys, my name is Christian Taylor.
Welcome back to Craylor Media where I talk about
all things online, branding and marketing.
Today we'll be taking a look at which email hosting solution
is best for your small business.
Email hosting is what you need to have a custom inbox
with your domain name, like yourname@yourdomain.com.
Having a custom email address
is a basic way to stand out as professional
but it can be confusing to find the right email host.
I think most people tend to stick with G Suite
or Google Workspace because it's so popular
or they ended up buying or using included email hosting
from whoever their web host or website builder is.
And while email hosting is email hosting,
finding the right email hosting
can save you time and headaches down the road.
There's three main things to focus on
when picking the right email hosting for you,
price, reliability and security.
There's other aspects like features and privacy
but the main deciding factors
come down to these three things.
So let's jump in with my favorite email hosting solution
of all time, Namecheap private email hosting.
If you've been watching the channel,
you already know I love Namecheap.
Starting at $11 and 88 cents per year
with a two-month free trial,
private email hosting is affordable, reliable and simple.
If you're already a Namecheap customer
it's super easy to set up.
If you're not a Namecheap customer
and your domains are held elsewhere, that's okay,
because you can still use private email hosting.
If you wanna give it a try,
start with the two-month free trial
so you can set it up and see what you think.
Namecheap gives you five gigabytes of space
with additional mailboxes and storage options
available for a higher fee.
With private email hosting,
you're getting no frills reliable email hosting
that just works.
The online interface is nothing impressive.
It's a clean and simple design
but it's no Gmail replacement.
I find that private email hosting is best
for those who want to use a desktop email client
like Outlook or Spark.
I use Spark, which is free for Mac, iOS and Android.
It connects with Namecheap private email
and lets you manage email as expected.
And sorry, Windows users,
I don't really have a recommendation for you
because it's been years since I've used Windows,
I'm a Mac guy.
In my years of using Namecheap private email hosting
I've always been extremely satisfied.
The spam filter is fairly accurate.
It's maybe slightly less accurate than Gmail
but it's sufficient and keeping the obvious spam emails
from invading your inbox.
The reliability is shockingly good for $12 a year.
This is why I love Namecheap email hosting, the value.
I use it on quite a few domains because it's affordable.
It allows me to get started with a custom email
with no money involved, thanks to the free trial.
And if the brand continues to evolve
and need a custom email address after the trial
I can maintain it for a very low cost.
But what are the downsides
to Namecheap private email hosting?
Well, there's really only two, support and security.
Namecheap offers 24 seven live chat support
but lately it can be a frustrating experience
with reps who aren't very knowledgeable
and are slow to respond.
They'll eventually take care of your issue
but it's definitely not a great experience.
I rarely need to reach out to their support,
so it's worth it for me on a lot of domains
to have cheaper email hosting and just have this trade-off
but it's definitely something to keep in mind
when you're deciding what's right for you.
Talking security, my beef with private email hosting
is that two-factor authentication is offered
but it only applies to the online email client.
Anyone could attempt to brute force your email account
through a desktop client like Outlook or Spark
and they could essentially guess your password
without two factor-authentication being required.
You're only as strong as your weakest link,
so in my mind, this is essentially saying,
you don't have two-factor authentication
as an option with Namecheap private email hosting.
This is what caused me to find a different solution
for my hello@craylor.media email.
As my brand grows, I start to have nightmares
about the sensitive info that could compromise my business
if found by hackers.
If you're a small business or a low profile creator,
you'll be just fine with Namecheap private email hosting.
And to be honest, I'd probably be just fine with it too.
But for my own sanity and peace of mind
I recently made the switch to Google Workspace
for the ultimate security protocols, more on that later.
If you want custom email hosting
with a focus on privacy and reliability,
take a look at FastMail.
Now for full disclosure, I don't personally use FastMail.
I mentioning it because it's got a big following
and is known for having a strict privacy policy
to protect your data.
Available for $5 per month per inbox,
FastMail is priced in the same tier as Google Workspace.
You'll receive 30 gigabytes of storage per user
also identical to Google Workspace.
And your email will be hosted by a company
that specializes in email.
With FastMail, there's never any tracking
and you have access to human support.
Something that's hard to access with Google email hosting.
FastMail supports two-factor authentication
with app-specific passwords for email clients
that don't support 2FA, giving us a clear security advantage
over Namecheap private email hosting.
So perhaps the biggest upside to FastMail is that
they're dedicated to hosting your email.
It's all they do, it's how they make their money.
So you won't be sold other products or services
and your data is safe and secure.
However, this also means that you don't have the convenience
of a streamlined set process.
No matter where your domain name and website are located
you'll always have to take the extra step
to link your domain with FastMail.
Let's look at Namecheap private email hosting.
If you purchase your domain name from Namecheap
in some cases you won't have to do any extra steps
to link it with your Namecheap email hosting.
You just purchase the hosting and it works.
This is also the case with Google Workspace.
Many domain registrars, website builders and web hosts
offer direct integration with Google Workspace.
So you can simply purchase an account
through your website builder
and not have to deal with anything like
linking Google servers or DNS records or any of that.
Setting up female hosting doesn't have to be difficult.
Thanks to today's sponsor,
setting up Google Workspace is a breeze,
it's one of the many features of wix.com.
The Wix eCommerce platform provides merchants,
entrepreneurs, and retail brands
with the professional tools and services you need
to sell online and in store.
Manage and track everything with an advanced
integrated dashboard from inventory orders and fulfillment
to payments and brand marketing,
Wix lets you focus on what matters most in your business.
Enjoy a must have features
like customizable branded storefronts and carts,
multi-channel sales, hassle-free drop shipping,
extensive shipping and fulfillment capabilities and more.
Wix eCommerce aims to allow any business
to have the same tools as big brands.
I created an e-commerce store with Wix
in less than 30 minutes.
The dashboard is a joy to use
and I especially liked the ability to calculate
exact USPS shipping rates for each order,
and the ability to automatically calculate
sales tax with Avalara.
The Wix eCommerce platform
is home to over 500,000 stores worldwide.
They help merchants by offering step-by-step guidance
to build and grow an e-commerce business
with the eCommerce school and online courses.
Create your online store using the link
in the description below.
When you're done, go to your dashboard
and get the Google Workspace add on setup in no time.
Thanks again to Wix for sponsoring today's video.
Now let's answer the question,
should you consider Google Workspace for email hosting?
If you can justify the price,
I believe it's the best email hosting out there.
Personally, I use Google Workspace for my main
hello@craylor.media email.
And I use Namecheap private email hosting
for my less advertised emails.
So why did I pick Google Workspace
over Namecheap for my Craylor Media email?
I did a video covering this question that you can watch
but it boils down to three main things,
spam filter, security and reliability.
As my business grows
my concern for my account security increases.
Your email is the key to all of your accounts.
If someone knows your email address
and they can obtain access to your email
they can send reset password emails on all of your accounts
and use your email inbox
to get into the rest of your accounts.
As my business scales, I wanna know that I have
the strongest security possible
on my business email address.
I love the peace of mind on my personal Gmail,
knowing that I have a physical security key
securing my account.
And someone can't try to log in with an email client
and bypass two-factor authentication.
Any mainstream email account supports
Google's official login page which forces the user
to input the physical security key.
And for all the email clients
that don't support Google's proprietary login method,
I can set it up to automatically reject log-in attempts
made from those programs.
In other words, there's zero way to get around
using two-factor authentication
to get into my Google Workspace account
with Namecheap private email,
2FA isn't present on login attempts from email clients
and with FastMail,
while they do allow apps-specific passwords
that's a bit of a bandaid solution.
There's nothing stopping a hacker
from guessing that app-specific password via brute force
and still getting into your account.
You're only as strong as your weakest link.
And if your weakest link is two-factor authentication
every single time, then your account is pretty secure.
Google's email hosting also has
the most accurate spam filter, thanks to Google AI.
And it's Google we're talking about,
you'll get the best in class reliability
for your email inbox and rest easy knowing that
you won't miss emails due to outages or downtime.
So what's the case against Google Workspace,
cost and privacy.
Google Workspace costs $6 per month per inbox,
a high price to swallow
if you're just starting your business.
I've also seen many comments,
voicing concern for data privacy with Google.
With a free Gmail account,
it's no secret that Google accesses your data
and leverages it for marketing and advertising purposes.
The Google Workspace terms of service declare that
these same practices are not conducted
on paid Google Workspace accounts.
After all, that's why they charged $6 per month per inbox.
Still some users are uncomfortable
putting their sensitive business data
in the hands of Google,
and I can understand that perspective.
There is no one size fits all solution
for email hosting for your business.
But here's what I would recommend you consider.
If you're just starting your business
or you're a low target business
like a local shop or service or freelancer,
somebody who's not gonna be targeted by hackers
like a big influencer with a lot of online followers,
give Namecheap private email a try.
They offer a two-month free trial,
and I don't think you'll find a better value
on reliable email hosting.
If you like the idea of an email host
that only hosts email for a living
and is committed to treating your data right,
look at FastMail, it's priced close to Google Workspace
but that goes to show you that you're paying
for your email hosting with dollars instead of data.
You won't be sent email after email
about other products they offer
and your data is yours and yours alone.
If you want the best email hosting money can buy,
Google Workspace is for you.
You'll get the dependability of Google
with all the benefits of Google's AI for spam filters,
categorization, smart compose, and more.
You'll also get unmatched security features
that will ensure your account has maximum protection.
You really can't go wrong with any of these email hosts.
And if you do go the route of Google Workspace
remember that you can set it up super easily
in your Wix account, after you've created your online store.
Thanks again to Wix for sponsoring this video.
Let me know which email hosts you're using
in the comments below.
Make sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon
so you don't miss when I release new videos.
And with that said, I will catch you guys next time.