Recommend an Email Hosting Service

nheather

nheather

nheather

Associate
Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
1,035
Location
Horsham, West Sussex
Hi,

I have my own domain name use a website/hosting service.

This started many years ago with a provider called Dataflame and I got a pretty good deal to host my domain name, provide email hosting services and a very comprehensive website service including a full range of backend services.

In the early days I had grand ideas of playing with the hosting, but other than a few noddy efforts that didn’t come to anything. So I just used it to host my domain name and to provide an email server.

That worked fine for many years before Dataflame were bought out by TSOHosts, but they honoured the deal and I stayed with them and everything was much the same.

Last year TSOHosts was sold to 123Reg and with very little notice I was migrated across to them. I had just renewed with TSOHosts so 123Reg honoured that, but there were strong suggestions that at the next renewal (October 2025) I would be moved across to their pricing models that look much more expensive. Also the email experience so far has not been great, the servers are very slow.

So with a little more planning this year I want to see if there are better alternatives.

I’m only interested in someone to host my domain and provide email servers.

Is there anyone you would recommend?
 
I used to use Microsoft 365 but switch to Google Workspace and I'm pretty happy with it. Lots of features, easy to admin, reasonable price. If you need Microsoft Office though Office 365 Business is probably going to be the best option.
 
I use StablePoint and have been really happy with them. Sounds like we have a similar history of domain/hosting intentions which result in little more than email!
 
Keep your domain with 123 reg and sign up to MS exchange. Once signed up, you can add a custom domain and it’ll take you through the setup which includes the DNS records to add. It’s very easy and you’ll never have email reliability issues.

MS exchange will cost you around £3 per month. The domain will renew on 123reg every year or two for a small fee.
 
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Thanks, I’ve sent an enquiry to Fastmail.

The idea of leaving my domain with 123Reg and using MS Exchange sounds interesting, though must admit I don’t really understand how that would work, will look into it today.

One question:

I currently have one domain, and I can create as many email addresses as I want, as a minimum I need 4. But when I look at potential providers they quote prices based on mailboxes. What exactly is a mailbox, would each of my email addresses count as a mailbox because if so that would be really expensive compared with what I have been paying.

There are 4 emails that I must have, but in the past, I have enjoyed the flexibility of being able to setup a new email adddress whenever I wanted. Obviously, all email addresses have the same domain.
 
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shifty_uk said:
Keep your domain with 123 reg and sign up to MS exchange. Once signed up, you can add a custom domain and it’ll take you through the setup which includes the DNS records to add. It’s very easy and you’ll never have email reliability issues.

MS exchange will cost you around £3 per month. The domain will renew on 123reg every year or two for a small fee.
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Is MS Exchange a service on 123Reg, or a service elsewhere? Having difficulty searching because MS Exchange is also the name of the software so search results are containing all sorts of things.
 
One thing I don’t like about my current arrangement with 123Reg is that the email servers seem very slow compared with what I had recently.

For example, if I know someone has just sent me an email, I will usually have to wait a couple of minutes for it to show up, previously it would have been a few seconds. When it first happened I just assumed that the sender was slow, but since then I realise that it happens all the time so must be something at my end.

It is particularly annoying when you are trying to buy something and a verification code is sent.


Is this uncommon or has this become the new norm with providers?
 
nheather said:
One question:

I currently have one domain, and I can create as many email addresses as I want, as a minimum I need 4. But when I look at potential providers they quote prices based on mailboxes. What exactly is a mailbox, would each of my email addresses count as a mailbox because if so that would be really expensive compared with what I have been paying.

There are 4 emails that I must have, but in the past, I have enjoyed the flexibility of being able to setup a new email adddress whenever I wanted. Obviously, all email addresses have the same domain.
Click to expand...
A mailbox is like a login. Assuming you're the only user then you need 1 mailbox.
Then it depends on what the provider lets you configure.
For example with fast mail I have a catchall mailbox, I use a different address for every account I create and the emails all end up in the same place. If I need to send from a specific address I can do that. If I need to block an address I can do that. This is just the basic account type that's about 50 quid a year.
 
I must admit, I’m pretty ignorant of what I have, I just use it, and it works.

When I log into the admin console, I can see all my emails, what their quotas are and how much is being used.

But I’m not sure whether they all count as separate accounts or whether there is just one account and they are like sub-accounts.

I think the storage quota limit is for the whole, not the individual emails, I can set the individuals but I don’t think the sum of those can exceed a total limit.

And each email has its own logon for webmail or pop etc.

I don’t pay very much, in fact I have been paying pretty much the same for about 20 years, about £50 a year. And that is for everything including web-hosting and back-end processes and databases. But I only ever use the email so maybe that might be why they have never put the price up - and the email is just personal use so overall I am a very light users, don’t go anywhere near the quotas.
 
I use Proton.

The are quick and reliable.

The main plus point of Proton is that it allows you to create Aliases. These are email addresses that piggy back on your main email. The basic idea is that it allows you to create an infinite number of email addresses so that you can give everyone a different email. This means that they can't cross reference you with your email, because they all have different emails. Also, if you start getting spam on an email you just block it create a new one and only one store or forum or whatever needs to be updated with the change.

You can also incorporate your domain and it handles mail forwarding from other hosts to the Proton account.
 
Do you have an Apple iCloud subscription by any chance?

I was already paying Apple for 2TB of iCloud storage, which comes with Apple’s email service, so I recently switched from Google Workspace.

It allows for 5 separate email addresses within the cost but you can have unlimited sub addresses or plus addresses eg [email protected]
Where you change the text after the + for each separate address then they all come into the same mailbox.
 
nheather said:
Is MS Exchange a service on 123Reg, or a service elsewhere? Having difficulty searching because MS Exchange is also the name of the software so search results are containing all sorts of things.
Click to expand...
You subscribe directly with Microsoft:

It means you can cancel all the hosting stuff with 123reg and just hold your domain with them. Point the domain to exchange servers and let Microsoft do the lifting with emails. Fast and more space than you'll ever need.

Just an option.
 
throwaway4372 said:
A mailbox is like a login. Assuming you're the only user then you need 1 mailbox.
Then it depends on what the provider lets you configure.
For example with fast mail I have a catchall mailbox, I use a different address for every account I create and the emails all end up in the same place. If I need to send from a specific address I can do that. If I need to block an address I can do that. This is just the basic account type that's about 50 quid a year.
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Currently I have at least 4 email addresses, me, my wife, my son and my daughter. I have had others in the past, for my use, but when I want a very specific, limited use for an email address. I can create and delete email addresses as I wish, as many as I want.

I’m still not clear whether that means that I have one mailbox or an unlimited number of mailboxes, I suspect the former.

What isn’t clear to me, if I choose to switch supplier, is whether I have to buy one mailbox or 4 mailboxes? What I can say is that if I have to buy 4 or more mailboxes to match what I have at the moment then it will be much more expensive than what I pay now.
 
nheather said:
What isn’t clear to me, if I choose to switch supplier, is whether I have to buy one mailbox or 4 mailboxes? What I can say is that if I have to buy 4 or more mailboxes to match what I have at the moment then it will be much more expensive than what I pay now.
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4 users = 4 mailboxes
So with fastmail you'd choose the "Family" package, which supports up to 6 users.

Edit:
Email with your own domain is kind of a trap, I feel that too, given that gmail is free.
There's defo a case for switching to gmail if you aren't comfortable with paying for it forever.
 
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shifty_uk said:
You subscribe directly with Microsoft:

It means you can cancel all the hosting stuff with 123reg and just hold your domain with them. Point the domain to exchange servers and let Microsoft do the lifting with emails. Fast and more space than you'll ever need.

Just an option.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this.

Currently I have a domain, mydomain.co.uk, and I can create as many emails addresses as I want. There are 4 main ones

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I also have a few additional ones that I use for specific purposes

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

If I were to swap to another provider I’d want the 4 main email addresses as a minimum.

Is that one mailbox or four?

It seems natural that it would be four, but when I look at the price that is often very expensive, much more than I am paying now, and my current payment includes all the web, application and database hosting too.
 
You’d need to pay for 4 mailboxes I’m afraid. That would be the same with Microsoft, Gmail and others.

I’m unfamiliar with smaller hosting setups that allow multiple mailboxes per ‘hosting package’ so I’ll bail out here.

Hopefully someone else can help.
 
throwaway4372 said:
4 users = 4 mailboxes
So with fastmail you'd choose the "Family" package, which supports up to 6 users.

Edit:
Email with your own domain is kind of a trap, I feel that too, given that gmail is free.
There's defo a case for switching to gmail if you aren't comfortable with paying for it forever.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. That works out at £118 per year.

What puzzles me is why is my current service so cheap. I can make as many email accounts as I want, I could have 50 and that doesn’t change the price. In fact it is much cheaper than the fastmail family package plus I get web, application and database hosting included.

Although I’m half expecting 123Reg to ramp up the price when renewal comes round, because they only promised to honour the remainder of the year that had already been paid for at the time they purchased the previous provider.
 
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