Email Free @yourdomain.com Email Accounts & Alternatives

Google Apps and Microsoft Live Outlook email services are popular but are no longer free. My web page at How to setup free @yourdomain.com Email Accounts with Outlook Live Domains - Centmin Mod - Menu based Nginx installer for CentOS servers is very popular so time to bring the discussion onto the forums .

It's very important to have reliable @yourdomain.com email addresses especially if you intend to use https SSL for your domain (SSL - HTTPS as a Google ranking signal as domain validated SSL certificates also need verification via @yourintendedhttpsdomain.com email address to process your SSL certificate orders as well. There's a good article explaining why you may not want to run your own locally hosted email server.

I listed some Google App and Microsoft Live domains alternatives on the web site include:

• Atmail - starts at $2/per user a month (minimum 5 users)
• FastMail - Standard Plan at $5/month with 25GB storage.
• Rackspace Email (FREE 14 day trial) - $2/mailbox per month or $24/yr with 25GB storage.Rackspace Email Knowledge Center, Getting Started and Rackspace Email and Apps Migration Services. Rackspace Email Forums.
• Zoho Mail - update Zoho no longer provides POP/IMAP access on their free plan only on upgraded paid plans for new accounts. Free for first 10 users with 5GB email + 5GB file storage (bonus 15 more free users after signup for business email plans) then $2.5/user/month or $24/user/year with 10GB email + 5GB file storage. Also 20% discount on yearly subscriptions. Added Zoho Mail Setup Information thread for folks wanting to try it out
• Amazon WorkMail - $4/user/month for 50GB storage or $6/user/month for Amazon WorkMail + Amazon WorkDocs with 200GB storage. (Added Feb 2015) unfortunately doesn't support imap and pop3 clients Email - Amazon WorkMail service | Centmin Mod Community

What do you use for @yourdomain.com emails ?

I was lucky enough to grab Google App free and Microsoft Live domains free services so that is what I am using myself. But if I had to now, it would be between a paid Google Apps Business account and Rackspace Email. Update: Actually, probably FastMail Standard plan looks better considering their respective sending limits.

• FastMail - Standard Plan at $5/month with 25GB storage.
  
• Google Apps Business edition or now called GSuite Basic paid service at $6/user/month with 30GB storage
• Rackspace Email (FREE 14 day trial) - $2/mailbox per month or $24/yr with 25GB storage.

Google App Domain Aliases

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Also for folks already using Google App free @yourdomain.com email, you can also take advantage of domain alias support in Google Apps. So if you have mydomain.com setup on Google App free service and have a mydomain.net added as a domain alias to mydomain.com.

This will allow username@mydomain.com and username@mydomain.net to go to same account. You can do this with other domains too. Which is great if already have too many email accounts to manage Details for Google App Domain Aliases at Add a domain or domain alias - Google Apps Administrator Help and their limitations at Limitations with multiple domains - Google Apps Administrator Help

Free Email Forwarding at DNS level

If you do not need full mail inbox support, you can also setup email forwarding from your domain registrar. Domain registrars like namesilo.com, internet.bs and namecheap.com offer free email forwarding as well. You can see some guides at:

• Email Forwarding
• Namecheap.com Knowledgebase • Email Forwarding

 

cheap indeed, how could I of missed that heh

have you used them ? don't see any preview screenshots of the web interface etc ?

 

Definitely, will give them a try then for my future domain setup

 

cheers @Zykov

 

Yeah when i first heard Outlook live domains would stop being free and to prevent existing users adding usernames, I bulk added all the usernames I would ever need to my existing domains before hand

 

I haven't tried Office365, bulk of my domains use Google Apps free edition, only a handful use Outlive Live domains free edition.

Still need to do research on email hosting though as I still have plenty of domains for projects which haven't started yet so they don't have an email service chosen yet

 

Looks like Namecheap also offering 2 months free trial as an option too https://www.namecheap.com/hosting/email.aspx so you can in theory get 2 months free + 12 months paid

 

on all plans or private only ? business ?

 

Guess as @Matt posted, Rackspace Email might be more suited then for @yourdomain.com emails

 

looks like Rackspace Email has an even lower limit http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/bulk-email-policy

looks like for forum mass mailings Mandrill or Mailgun are better suited still !

 

what reading up on Fastmail's pricing and limits at https://www.fastmail.fm/help/ourservice/pricing.html and https://www.fastmail.fm/help/account/limits.html

So for a FULL account $20/yr has 4,000 daily limit, 2,000 hourly limit and 1,000 emails 10 minute interval limits. On their Enhanced account $40/yr doubles those limits at 8,000 daily limit, 4,000 hourly limit and 2,000 emails 10 min interval. Their Premier is $120/yr and has 4x times the limit of FULL account at 16,000 daily, 8,000 hourly and 4,000 at 10min interval.

@RoldanLT can't seem to find namecheap's email limits ? https://www.namecheap.com/support/k...u-have-any-restrictions-on-sending-out-emails ? edit: ok think this is it https://www.namecheap.com/support/k...p-private-email-and-web-hosting-email-service

Seems Fastmail has better sending limits on their FULL and higher plans. Fastmail's limits are even better than Google App Business plans https://support.google.com/a/answer/166852?hl=en ! Google App Email has 2,000 daily limit !

Ah Fastmail only offers domain hosted email on Enhanced and higher plans so US$40/yr ! https://www.fastmail.fm/help/receive/domains.html

 

I think namecheap's 20 emails per 10 min interval is the more restrictive one compared to Fastmail Enhanced plans 2,000 emails per 10 min interval.

Yeah Mandrill for smtp transactional mails is cheap. I'm just thinking of regular everyday email support @yourdomain.com, seems Fastmail Enhanced plans probably good for that and some start up sites So use mandrill for smtp forum/site transactional emails + use Fastmail for @yourdomain.com emails