Best email hosting - IMAP and web based

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timmmay

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#119646 9-Jun-2013 08:35

I use HostGator as my web host. As a hosting company they're great, but their email hosting is average at best - an afterthought or tick in the box. I have four domains I check email on, though I have around 20 domains I don't bother to check most of them. HostGator run SpamAssissin, but massive amounts of spam get through. I have about 100 email filters set up to block spam, by subject line and sender. I'm sick of maintaining custom spam filters.

I use AuthSMTP as my mail sending agent, as sending via HG wasn't working well. AuthSMTP is a specialist emailing sending company, they work really well. They only send though, they don't receive.

I'd like to change to a single specialist email hosting provider for all my domains. I require SMTP and IMAP, preferably encrypted, as well as a decent web interface. If the web interface can show me multiple email accounts simultaneously but keep them separate that would be great.

I know gmail can do everything I want, and I can have different tabs in my web browser for each account. I don't know about costs, it may be free, or there may be a monthly/charge.

Can anyone suggest email hosting companies I should look into?

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#832875 9-Jun-2013 08:38

I use GMail/Google but I just have the one domain :-) No issues with spam, free to use to. Although I think there's a fee if you have several domains.

But amazing service.

timmmay

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#832879 9-Jun-2013 08:48

Oh, the other thing I do is I register unique addresses for each website. So for geekzone I registered with the email geekzone.co.nz@mydomain.com. This lets me cut of spam address easily.

I need the hosted email to have access to the catch all account.

itxtme

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#832910 9-Jun-2013 09:42

Google apps allows you to change that practice, and use a catch all on a single address.

email@mydomain.co.nz
email+geekzone@mydomain.co.nz
email+netflix@mydomain.co.nz
email+anything@mydomain.co.nz
email+spam@mydomain.co.nz

are all the same email to google apps, you do not need to register each account, just use the + alias and it will come to your main account

Kyanar

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#832912 9-Jun-2013 10:07

FYI, Google Apps no longer has a free tier - it will cost you no matter how many domains you have. You can also use Windows Live Domains (http://www.domains.live.com/) to provide email services - pretty sure that's free.

Zeon

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#832923 9-Jun-2013 10:21

Try a hosting provider using Smartermail:
http://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/mail-server-software.aspx

Awesome features including full email/contact/calendar/notes sync using activesync to your mobile and a really good webmail system (including sharing folders, calendars etc. between mailboxes). This is a NZ provider:
https://web-2u.co.nz/index.php/webemail-hosting

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CYaBro

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#832925 9-Jun-2013 10:23

itxtme: Google apps allows you to change that practice, and use a catch all on a single address.

email@mydomain.co.nz
email+geekzone@mydomain.co.nz
email+netflix@mydomain.co.nz
email+anything@mydomain.co.nz
email+spam@mydomain.co.nz

are all the same email to google apps, you do not need to register each account, just use the + alias and it will come to your main account

I've found lately that most sites say that those email addresses, with the + in them, aren't a valid email address so won't let you use one or they just ignore the + part.

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timmmay

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#832958 9-Jun-2013 11:32

Thanks for all the information and thoughts so far :)

Google mail supports the catchall account, but I'll try the + thing as well if I go with them. I have no problem paying for a good email service.

SmarterTools looks like software you run yourself - I'd rather have a hosted solution that I don't have to maintain. Web-2u looks like a tick in the box from an ISP - i'd really rather have a dedicated email hosting firm, or at least a division like gmail. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Domains.live.com gives me the error message "Something went wrong and we can't sign you in right now. Please try again later.". And also "you're not logged in", with no option to log in. Once I went to another site to sign in then came back it worked, but their information is really poor. Combine that with the historical tendency of hotmail to be a spam haven and difficult to get email to I think I'd prefer to avoid Microsoft.

I've also found Zoho email for domains, at $24/year. I've read a couple of reviews, and it appears to be a pretty standard and competent hosted email service.

Gmail is currently looking like the front runner. At $50/year it's not badly priced, and it's a trusted name, which is important.

More options/thoughts/options happily accepted and appreciated :)

Kyanar

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#832966 9-Jun-2013 12:06

Rackspace email is also quite good from memory. 25GB per user, $2 per month.

pctek

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#833062 9-Jun-2013 15:50

I used to host through Opehost/Webbase/Webdrive but their spam filtering was the pits.

Moved to Webslice - who have SpamAssassin incidentally - but I get way, way less now.

Adding the rare ones that come through to the blacklist works fine with them.

michaelmurfy

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#833120 9-Jun-2013 17:12

Zoho is pretty good, they have a free tier too. Personally I pay for Google Apps.

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blakamin

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#833122 9-Jun-2013 17:19

I use Crazydomains email hosting
$1.50 per month.

EDIT: It's Email Authentication helps stop spam... I've had none at all.

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michaelmurfy

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#833125 9-Jun-2013 17:22

blakamin: I use Crazydomains.com.au email hosting
$1.50 per month.

I see why...

timmmay

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#833126 9-Jun-2013 17:23

Zoho free tier doesn't support domains, but their paid tier does. $48 per year for two domains/users.

Rackspace would work best if I registered one user per domain, $4 per month - that's relatively cheap total. $48 per year as well.

With Gmail for domains/business I'd probably need two accounts, one for each domain - right? Total $100 per year, so more than double the cost of the others. One advantage is I know it works from work, from my tablet, etc, and I can stay signed in with as many users as I like at a time, which makes it super fast to check all my email accounts from a web browser. Alternately I could use some kind of notification tool, no doubt there are a lot of them for gmail.

With Zoho/Rackspace I'd have to log out and log in again to see both email accounts, same as I do now. The advantage would be reliability, and it's cheaper than gmail.

The main reason I'm moving is for better spam protection, but nicer web mail would be nice as well. Any comments on these aspects of Zoho/Rackspace? Gmail I already know works well.

blakamin

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#833127 9-Jun-2013 17:26

michaelmurfy:
blakamin: I use Crazydomains.com.au email hosting
$1.50 per month.

I see why...

Bwahaha.. I never noticed... ;P

I actually FWD my hosted email to my gmail too.

mattwnz

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#833164 9-Jun-2013 18:48

Use one that uses RBL's, although most good ones now do. I get almost no spam at all. The cheap ones probably don't, and reliy on filtering like spam assasin which I don't find the best.

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