What is webmail Email Hosting and why do you need it?
This may get a bit technical, but we hope we can explain the basics on this so that you can understand why your business needs an email hosting service and not just a free Gmail, Webmail or Yahoo account. Email hosting is an online service that rents out and operates email servers. Email hosting provides a more premium product and usually allows you to get a domain name which you can associate with your company and create a brand identity.
Signing up for webmail email hosting is also not the same as signing up for web hosting – although you often can get both services from one provider which makes life much easier.
So are you confused yet? We know, it can be tricky!
We’ll cover exactly what email hosting is in the following paragraphs and how it both differs from and is linked to web hosting, and some details you may need to know.
What exactly is this magical service called webmail Email Hosting?
As a website owner, you likely already know what web hosting is after all, if you have a website, you have web hosting. You may not know how web hosting differs from email hosting, though, or you may have assumed that they are the same exact thing.
Email hosting services usually offer premium email as opposed to advertisement-supported free email or free webmail. Webmail bmail hosting services thus differ from typical end-user email providers such as webmail sites. They cater mostly to demanding email users and small and medium-sized (SME) businesses, while larger enterprises usually run their own email hosting services on their own equipment using software such as Microsoft Exchange Server, IceWarp or Postfix. Hosting providers can manage a user’s own domain name, including any email authentication scheme that the domain owner wishes to enforce in order to convey the meaning that using a specific domain name identifies and qualifies email senders.
Here’s how they differ:
- Website hosting: is a service that provides the physical computer space (a server) necessary for your website to ‘live’ on the internet. It involves website files being stored on one or more servers and making those files available to web browsers. Content that will be stored on the server includes everything from software and apps to text and images.
- Email hosting: is also a service in which a hosting provider rents out server space–only these servers are used exclusively for email data.
Email hosting can be:
- On the same server that hosts your website data
- With the same company that hosts your website, but on a different server
- With a completely different company that exclusively handles email hosting
Why is Using webmail Email Hosting Important for Your Business?
A personal or customised email address ending in ‘@gmail.com’, ‘@yahoo.com’ or ‘@webmail.co.za’ is fine for keeping in touch and paying your bills. When you set up a web presence for your business, you need something more serious you need a business email. Ideally, it should be a professional email that uses your domain name for example, hello@yourbusinessname.com. This gives you much more credibility than the former.
Using a professional webmail email address is vital, for several reasons:
- A professional email address adds credibility and lets your customers know that you are a legitimate business
- An email address using your domain name is unique and memorable
- A separate business email helps you stay organized and avoid mixing up your personal and business tasks
- A business email lets you easily activate emails for new employees and deactivate emails (and access!) for former employees
