What Is Email Hosting? A Complete Guide for 2025

Free email services like Gmail and Outlook are sufficient for personal use, but they’re not ideal for businesses. Instead, you’ll want to use a premium email hosting provider. But you might be wondering: what is email hosting?

Professional email hosting services let you store and manage emails over a custom email address which helps establish credibility. They often provide additional mailboxes, storage space, robust security measures, and round-the-clock support.

In this post, we’ll aim to answer the question: what is email hosting? Then, we’ll discuss key features to look for in an email hosting service and show you how to get started with an email hosting provider. Let’s get to it!

What Is Email Hosting?

Although many confuse the two, email hosting is completely separate from web hosting. However, some web hosting companies bundle the two together, often providing free or cheap email hosting when customers purchase web hosting plans.

That’s because web hosting companies are already renting out server space to accommodate your website’s files. Therefore, you could host your emails and website on the same server for ultimate convenience.

You also have the option to use email hosting without web hosting. In this instance, email servers are provided so you can store and manage emails from a physical or virtual computer (or network of computers). You’re paying for the infrastructure to send business communications under your domain name, so your email address looks like @mycompanyname.com as opposed to @gmail.com.

Many email hosting services typically offer extra tools and features, including additional storage space, faster email servers, advanced security measures, and more. Some also provide round-the-clock customer support.

Why Do You Need Premium Email Hosting Services?

Most individuals use free email services like Outlook and Gmail for personal use. However, this isn’t suitable for business email hosting.

For starters, free email services set you up on an email domain that uses the provider’s brand name (e.g. gmail.com). Meanwhile, business email hosting lets you send and receive emails over a custom email address which makes you look more professional and trustworthy.

The limited security features provided with free solutions also makes them less suited for dealing with sensitive information found in bills, invoices, etc. On the other hand, a premium service will offer robust security features like spam protection and encryption to keep email data safe.

Plus, free email services often limit you to just one account and/or limited storage space. This isn’t ideal if you have multiple employees or departments. It also makes it difficult to send high volumes of emails and large attachments.

Premium email hosting providers give you team collaboration tools like shared calendars and contacts. Better yet, web-based solutions enable you to reach your inbox on any device or browser. This also means you can sync email data to popular email clients, or log in to your email account via webmail.

Email Hosting vs Other Email Services

You’ll encounter different terms when looking for email hosting. So, here’s what you need to know:

• Email hosting services let you rent server space to manage and store business emails from a personalized domain name.
• Email clients let you interact with your inbox. Some email hosting services provide their own clients or use third-party solutions like Outlook and Gmail.
• An email service provider (ESP) isn’t essential, but it can be useful for high-volume senders. Typically, these solutions let you automate email campaigns, bulk-send messages, and manage contact lists.

In most cases, email hosting services are sufficient for daily business communications.

If your email needs are extremely basic, you could get by with email clients like Gmail, but these often come with restrictions like limited storage capacities. Also, if you want to distribute your marketing campaigns to thousands of subscribers, you’ll need an ESP.

Key Features of Professional Email Hosting Services

Before we show you how to get started with an email hosting provider, here are some of the essential features you’ll need:

• Email archiving. An email archiving solution offers a complete historical record of your email communications. While this can be handy for a range of tasks, it also ensures compliance with data protection policies.
• Multiple mailboxes. The best email hosting services let you set up enough email accounts to support business operations. Although you can create mailboxes for each employee or department, you can also categorize inboxes based on function (e.g. queries, accounts, etc).
• Storage space. It’s important to choose email hosting services that don’t severely limit your mailbox size. This would restrict the volume of emails you can send and stop you from sending/storing large email attachments.
• Custom domain support. Some business email hosting services let you set up a free custom email address. Even if this isn’t the case, you should be able to easily connect your custom domain.
• Advanced security. We’ve already discussed the value of email backups for protecting user data. However, you can also enhance email protection by opting for hosting services that offer features like two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and spam protection.
• Support. When you’re paying for a professional email hosting account, you’ll need to ensure reliable email communication. If there’s an issue, it’s important that you can quickly contact support to minimize disruption to your business and preserve your professional reputation.

You may have additional needs, but by considering the factors above, it will be easier to find a robust, quality email hosting provider that meets your business demands.

Where to Find Email Hosting Solutions

Most web hosting companies offer email hosting as well as other products like domains, SSL certificates, and web hosting plans. It’s much more convenient to use the same provider for all the services you need.

By bundling everything together, you can manage resources from one central dashboard. Plus, some hosting services like NameHero offer free email services when you pay for another product like a web hosting package or website builder.

If you don’t need web hosting, you can still register for dedicated email hosting services with NameHero:

You’ll get many security features like spam protection, email backups, and 24/7 support. You’ll also be able to access your inbox from any device or browser and connect to popular email clients.

NameHero offers superior email deliverability, minimizing the chances of your messages landing in spam folders. Your professional email address will match your domain name to help boost credibility and nurture trust with new customers.

If you already have an email hosting account, NameHero offers a free migration service.

Conclusion

Although you can find free email hosting solutions, you won’t be able to use your own domain and storage will be limited. Therefore, you’ll want to opt for a premium email hosting provider that lets you store and manage business communications via a custom email address.

Just like web hosting, email hosting gives you access to the technical infrastructure you need to send email messages to your audience. Better yet, you can usually access extra perks like more robust security features, ample storage capacities, multiple mailboxes, and more.

At NameHero, all plans come with spam protection, an integrated calendar, premium email deliverability, and more. Plus, you can use the same hosting company for your web hosting solution and custom domain name. Check out our email hosting packages today!