5 Best Business Email Hosting Solutions in 2024

In this article, I’m going to introduce the 5 best business email hosting solutions, so you will have your own dedicated email server.

Traditional Email Hosting Providers vs Self-Hosted Email Server

The traditional email hosting model (like Google Workspace and Microsoft Exchange Online) has lots of limits and drawbacks, such as

• You share the mail server IP address with other users. If another user sends spam, your IP reputation will be damaged as well.
• You don’t have control over the mail server and the data on it.
• You can’t customize the mail server to suit your needs.
• When you need to create lots of email addresses, the cost becomes very expensive.

This article will show you the 5 best solutions to run your own email server, so you can enjoy the following benefits:

• You will have a dedicated IP address to improve email deliverability
• You have control over the mail server and all the data on it.
• You can customize the mail server and add new functionalities.
• You can easily create unlimited mailboxes, unlimited mail domains, and send an unlimited amount of emails per day for a fixed price.
  

5 Best Business Email Hosting Solutions

• Scalahosting Managed VPS
• iRedMail
• Modoboa
• Zimbra
• Build Email Server From Scratch

1. ScalaHosting Managed VPS

Scalahosting managed VPS (Virtual Private Server) is probably the easiest, fastest, and the best method to run your own email server. Why it’s the best?

• Create unlimited email addresses, unlimited email domains, and send unlimited emails for $14.95 per month.
• Dedicated IP address with high reputation.
• You can use its simple and intuitive control panel to create email addresses. No need to learn how to use the command line to manage a Linux server.
• WebMail client with calendar.
• You can create quota for each email address.
• Advanced spam protection
• Send and receive emails via POP3/IMAP/SMTP
• Free domain registration/transfer for the first year.
• Automatic daily backups
• Ultra-Fast NVMe SSD to achieve the best server performance.
• Free SSL/TLS certificate for your website.
• They take user requests seriously. A requested feature can be implemented in 1~2 months.

Besides the above reasons, Scalahosting managed VPS offers more than just email hosting.

• It’s not just a control panel for mail server. It’s also an all-in-one web hosting platform that allows you to easily set up and manage your website.
• It gives you a premium Softaculous license free for life. Softaculous is a platform to automatically install hundreds of web applications like WordPress, Drupal, Magento, PrestaShop, so you don’t have to learn the Linux command line, which takes lots of time and energy.
• If you have an existing website, you can migrate it to ScalaHosting SPanel Managed VPS, so your mail server and web server run on one host. The ScalaHosting team can help you migrate your website for free.

Cost: $14.95/month

Best for: Users who want a hassle-free setup of email server and website on a performance VPS.

Follow the tutorial linked below to set up your own email server on Scalahosting.

• How to Set Up ScalaHosting Managed VPS Email Server

2. iRedMail

iRedMail is a shell script that automatically installs and configures all necessary mail server components on your Linux/BSD server, thus eliminating manual installation and configuration. With iRedMail, you can easily create unlimited mailboxes and unlimited mail domains in a web-based admin panel. Mailboxes can be stored in MariaDB/MySQL, PostgreSQL database, or OpenLDAP. The following is a list of open-source software that will be automatically installed and configured by iRedMail.

• Postfix SMTP server
• Dovecot IMAP server
• Nginx web server to serve the admin panel and webmail
• OpenLDAP, MySQL/MariaDB, or PostgreSQL for storing user information
• Amavised-new for DKIM signing and verification
• SpamAssassin for anti-spam
• ClamAV for anti-virus
• Roundcube webmail
• SOGo groupware, providing webmail, calendar (CalDAV), contacts (CardDAV), tasks and ActiveSync services.
• Fail2ban for protecting SSH
• mlmmj mailing list manager
• Netdata server monitoring
• iRedAPD Postfix policy server for greylisting

Pros:

• easy to upgrade to new versions.
• Good documentation.
• Community support is available online. Paid support is also available.

Cons:

• It’s a freemium product. You can use the free version for most of the tasks. But if you need to create an email alias or other features, you will need to upgrade to the premium plan.
• You will need to rent a self-managed VPS and install iRedMail on it, and you are responsible for managing the VPS via the Linux command line.

Cost: $10~$20 per month, depending on your needs

Best for: Users who are familiar with the Linux command line and can spend some time debugging if problems arise.

Follow the tutorial linked below to set up iRedMail email server.

• How to Easily Set up a Full-Fledged Mail Server on Ubuntu 20.04 with iRedMail

3. Modoboa

Modoboa is a free and open-source mail hosting and management platform designed to work with Postfix SMTP server and Dovecot IMAP/POP3 server. Modoboa is written in Python, released under the terms of ISC license. Main features of Modoboa are as follows:

• Modoboa by default uses Nginx web server to serve the webmail client and web-based admin panel.
• Compatible with Postfix and Dovecot.
• Support MySQL/MariaDB, or PostgreSQL database.
• Easily create unlimited mailboxes and unlimited mail domains in a web-based admin panel.
• Easily create email alias in the web-based admin panel.
• The webmail client provides an easy-to-use message filter to help you organize messages to different folders.
• It can help you protect your domain reputation by monitoring email blacklists and generating DMARC reports, so your emails have a better chance to land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.
• Includes amavis frontend to block spam and detect viruses in email.
• Calendar and address book.
• Integration with Let’s Encrypt.
• A policy daemon for Postfix that allows you to define daily sending limits for domains and individual accounts.
• Includes AutoMX to allow end-users to easily configure mail account in a desktop or mobile mail client.

Pros:

• Modern web-based admin panel
• You can easily create unlimited mailboxes and unlimited mail domains
• Easily create an email alias in the web-based admin panel.
• Supports 2-factor authentication
• 100% free and open-source.

Cons:

• Support is limited. Modoboa is a side project of a single developer, so you might need to wait a long time for problems to be fixed.
• Not easy to upgrade to new versions.

Cost: $10~$20 per month, depending on your needs

Best for: Users who are familiar with the Linux command line and can spend some time debugging if problems arise.

Follow the tutorial linked below to set up Modoboa email server.

• How to Quickly Set Up a Mail Server on Ubuntu 20.04 with Modoboa

4. Zimbra

Zimbra is an open-source email, calendaring, and collaboration software suite developed by Synacor, Inc. It comes with a shell script that automatically installs and configures all necessary mail server components on your Linux server, thus eliminating manual installation and configuration. With Zimbra, you can easily create unlimited mailboxes and unlimited mail domains in a web-based admin panel. Email accounts can be managed in MariaDB or OpenLDAP. The following is a list of open-source software that will be automatically installed and configured by Zimbra.

• Postfix SMTP server
• Nginx web server to serve the admin console and webmail. It will also be used as an IMAP/POP3 proxy.
• Jetty: web application server that runs Zimbra software.
• OpenLDAP stores Zimbra system configuration, the Zimbra Global Address List, and provides user authentication.
• MariaDB database
• OpenDKIM: for DKIM signing and verification
• Amavised-new: an interface between MTA and content scanner.
• SpamAssassin for anti-spam
• ClamAV: anti-virus scanner
• Lucene: open-source full-featured text and search engine
• Apache JSieve: email message filter
• LibreOffice: High fidelity document preview
• Aspell: an open-source spell checker used on the Zimbra Web Client
• memcached: open-source object caching system.
• unbound: lightweight and fast DNS resolver.

Zimbra also ships with some of its own developed software:

• zimbra-drive: cloud storage.
• zimbra-chat: text chat.
• zimbra-talk: group messaging and video conferencing with screen sharing and file sharing funcationality.
• mailboxd: Its own developed IMAP/POP3 server.

There are two editions of Zimbra:

• Free open-source edition.
• Commercially supported Network Edition with 60-days free trial.

Pros:

• Zimbra integrates additional software in one package (webmail, calendar, task manager, team chat, cloud storage).

Cons:

• Doesn’t support BSD systems.
• Zimbra uses open-source software such Postfix, and Nginx. But the configuration structure is obfuscated to prevent custom configurations. It’s not easy to update a single component.
• Zimbra uses more CPU and RAM compared to other mail server solutions.

Cost: $10~$20 per month, depending on your needs

Best for: Users who are familiar with the Linux command line and can spend some time debugging if problems arise, and those who also need a collaboration suite on top the email server.

For how to set up your own Zimbra mail server, please read the following tutorials.

• How to Set Up Zimbra Open-Source Mail Server on Ubuntu 18.04

5. Build an Email Server From Scratch

Are you a professional Linux server admin and want to learn how an email server works under the hood? Then you might want to build an email server from scratch.

Pros:

• You can customize everything to your liking.

Cons:

• You are responsible for managing the VPS via the Linux command line.
• Takes a lot of time
• Support is limited.

Cost: $10~$20 per month, depending on your needs

Best for: Users who are familiar with the Linux command line, eager to learn how email server works under the hood and can spend a lot of time configuring Linux server.

For how to build an email server from scratch, please follow the email server tutorial series linked below.

• Build Your Own Email Server From Scratch on Ubuntu

Wrapping Up

I hope this article helped you select an email hosting solution for your online business. As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter to get more tips and tricks. Take care 🙂