There is one constant in the world of Small Business: people will lose their mind if their email service is down. We have all been there, frustrated when we can’t send that important email, or when you feel like you are missing that incoming note about a big sale you are closing. We all take it for granted until it does not work.
Email has been around as long as the internet and it is easy to forget how complicated and difficult it is to provide as service; and be good at it.
At Pagely we offered email service for a bit, and quickly realized it was the last thing we wanted to do. We moved the few clients we did have using local email over to a 3rd party, and just referred everyone else to gmail. From an infrastructure perspective providing email is a nightmare, something we feel is better handled by a specialized company. Pagely has specialized in secure WordPress hosting and that has allowed is focus on being the best at it, the same would hopefully apply to a company providing business email service.
If you value it, pay for it.
Just because your domain registrar gives you 1 million billion mailboxes with your domain registration does not mean it is the best value. I am not saying it will not work for you or your business but the quality of service may not be up to the same level as a commercial vendor.
Gmail is likely the best widely adopted email service the world has ever known, and it is still free for personal use. Google Apps Email for business use to be free as well however they have recently began charging for it.
Commercial email providers typically will provide a better and more reliable service. Less spam, less phishing, and more reliable delivery of your email. This pretty much applies to everything else in business. If it a vital and important part of your business, you should consider paying for it.
You don’t have to pay a lot of money for it, but if a company is charging for email service they are more incentivized to make sure it works well for their customers.
Commercial Email providers