{"id":4,"date":"2016-06-04T09:01:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T09:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greatmail.com\/weblog\/?p=4"},"modified":"2025-08-26T02:21:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T02:21:55","slug":"free-vs-paid-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatmail.com\/blog\/email-hosting\/free-vs-paid-email\/","title":{"rendered":"Free vs. Paid Email"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to reduce expenses, many\u00a0businesses\u00a0opt to use free email addresses when first starting up.\u00a0\u00a0And while you can get some mileage out of free email addresses,\u00a0there are\u00a0some drawbacks to using them. First, free email lacks a\u00a0level of professionalism that is typically expected of serious, established businesses.\u00a0 Second,\u00a0when all of your employees have personal email addresses at different service providers,\u00a0there’s a real sense of disparity. Your clients are more apt to\u00a0perceive your team\u00a0as a loosely connected group than as\u00a0a formal company.\u00a0\u00a0Third,\u00a0using free email\u00a0could send a message to potential customers that your business is unable to afford\u00a0the basic expense of email accounts at your own domain. Lastly, if you’re at all concerned about privacy, you may want to think twice about free email as the content of your inbound and outbound messages may be scanned for advertising and marketing to third parties.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, using email addresses at your own domain\u00a0helps establish your company’s brand, reinforces your company image as a “real” business and sends a positive message to your customers, “We’re serious – we are<\/em> this business.” Partnering with an email provider that has an official privacy policy in place can provide some assurance that your email messages are not being scanned or data mined for marketing and\/or advertising purposes.<\/p>\n

Getting your own email accounts doesn’t have to be expensive either. All you need is\u00a0an email provider and\u00a0your own domain name.<\/p>\n

What is a domain name and why do I need one?<\/h2>\n

A domain name is an identifier\u00a0or descriptor for realms or sites on the internet.\u00a0 Examples of domain names are aol.com, yahoo.com, greatmail.com etc. Registering a domain name for your business is straightforward. You will have to choose a domain name registration service or registrar and search for an available domain name.\u00a0 Costs range from $10-$30 per year depending on\u00a0the registration service you\u00a0use.\u00a0\u00a0Having your own domain enables you to have a web site for your business and set up email addresses for your team\u00a0using personal addresses at\u00a0your domain.<\/p>\n

The hosting of email addresses at your domain, also known as email hosting<\/a>, is\u00a0usually included in web hosting packages.\u00a0 Hosted email is also sometimes bundled with web based office suites.\u00a0 Another option is to\u00a0use an\u00a0email hosting provider, a specialist that offers high availability cloud based email with varying feature sets, dedicated email support analysts and additional services you could use in the future like email marketing and web hosting.<\/p>\n

Basic\u00a0vs. Advanced Features<\/h2>\n

The most basic and affordable email service, POP3\/IMAP, might be a perfectly acceptable solution for your company and more than adequate for a long time.\u00a0 Without getting into the differences between POP3 and IMAP<\/a>, using an IMAP service allows you to synchronize your email on multiple devices and computers.<\/p>\n

For more advanced collaboration between users (shared calendars, contacts and tasks), consider open source solutions like Zimbra and OX Open Xchange.\u00a0 Both of these applications can be set up and hosted using your domain. Another more costly option is Hosted Exchange<\/a> which gives you all of the features of an Exchange server without the cost and hassle of managing the hardware and licensing.<\/p>\n

The Hidden Cost of Free<\/h2>\n

Nothing is really free. Free email is often sponsored by advertising, and\u00a0some free email providers actually scan your email content to place targeted advertisements in your email that you are more\u00a0likely to click on.\u00a0 It is no secret that Gmail users should not expect privacy<\/a> using Google’s email service. While some people are OK with their email being scanned for advertising, others are more creeped out by\u00a0the bigger picture of identity tracking.\u00a0Even if the information in your emails is not proprietary, it is your\u00a0business and shouldn’t that\u00a0remain private?\u00a0 Do you really\u00a0want a third party to have access to all of the content and contacts in your business communications?<\/p>\n

Ditching free email in favor of a paid email\u00a0service buys you\u00a0both privacy and freedom from marketing and advertisers.\u00a0 A good, reputable\u00a0email hosting provider should offer and have in place a Privacy Policy<\/a> protecting your business from commercial monitoring and identity tracking. If you are concerned about email privacy and security, Greatmail offers a wide range of email services<\/a> for businesses of all sizes and stages of maturity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to reduce expenses, many\u00a0businesses\u00a0opt to use free email addresses when first starting up.\u00a0\u00a0And while you can get some mileage out of free email addresses,\u00a0there are\u00a0some drawbacks to using them. First, free email lacks a\u00a0level of professionalism that is typically expected of serious, established businesses.\u00a0 Second,\u00a0when all of your employees have personal email addresses … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-email-hosting","tag-free-email-hosting"],"yoast_head":"\nFree vs. Paid Email - Greatmail Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greatmail.com\/blog\/email-hosting\/free-vs-paid-email\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free vs. Paid Email - Greatmail Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In order to reduce expenses, many\u00a0businesses\u00a0opt to use free email addresses when first starting up.\u00a0\u00a0And while you can get some mileage out of free email addresses,\u00a0there are\u00a0some drawbacks to using them. 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