There are a number of possibilities available to you, all offering a different service, different costs, different advantages and different disadvantages, so what is the best option for you and your business?
Let's have a look at the three options we offer you at TerraMedia and compare them.
Standard POP3 Email
This is the standard email that comes with your hosting when TerraMedia is your hosting provider. We provide up to 15 email accounts for free, any more than that incurs an additional fee.
These email accounts require you to either use an email client on your computer like Outlook or Apple Mail, or to use one of the three available webmail clients.
The way POP3 works is that they are downloaded to your computer by the client and then generally removed from the server, and sent items that are sent are stored by your client, not by the server. So, if you access webmail when you normally use an email client, if your client deletes emails from the server as they are downloaded, you may find that there are no emails there, or that your sent emails aren't there are so on.
If you and your employees work primarily on a single computer and generally don't need to access email from anywhere else, then this is likely more than sufficient for you.
These email accounts are limited in size to the size of your hosting plan.
For more information, have a look at our hosting information.
Gmail Custom Domain
The next level up that we offer from the standard POP3 account is a Gmail Custom Domain setup on the Google Apps platform. With very similar functionality to the standard Gmail service, this allows you to use your domain name on Gmail. So you might have info@email.com but access it through Gmail.
This gives you some more flexibility than the standard POP3 email as you are able to either download your email to a POP3 client, or through an IMAP client, as well as access it directly online.
POP3 functions the same way as the standard POP3 email, IMAP works similarly, except that everything goes back to the email account, so you will have a record of all your sent emails on the server as well as in your email client.
Similarly, you can access all of your email online using Gmail's excellent webmail application and when using the web application, you can also make use of Google Calendar and other built in messaging services.
If you primarily access your email via the web, or regularly alternate between the web and an IMAP email client on your computer, this may be the solution for you. If you have up to 50 email accounts, there is only a base setup fee for our time setting up your account of $170.00, and then Google provide the ongoing service for free (it is ad supported though). If you have more than 50 email accounts you need to use, or wish to get rid of the ads, Google offer a paid ongoing subscription option which is billed per account per year. Contact us for more information on this option.
The free option comes with 7gb of space per inbox and paid comes with 25gb per inbox.
Microsoft Exchange Email
The top tier of email services that we offer is based around Microsoft's Exchange Server.
Using this option, you can utilise the power of Microsoft's Exchange with Outlook to have your email, contacts, calender, tasks and notes synchronised between any number of computers, smart phones and PDA's like Windows Mobile devices, iPhones, Blackberries and more. Similarly you also receive access to your email, contacts, calendar and notes via the Exchange webmail view.
The Exchange webmail view offers a near replica of the functionality found in Outlook when accessed through Internet Explorer, or with slightly reduced functionality in other browsers. This represents one of the most functionally comprehensive web based email clients available.
If you regularly access your email from a number of computers, such as a desktop and a laptop, or computers spread across a number of locations and on a phone, then this option may be the most suitable for you as it keeps all of your data up to date no matter where you are.
We are currently offering this service with no initial setup fee. Monthly fees start at $29/month per account with 500mb of space per inbox. This is upgradeable on a per account basis as necessary.
For more information, including other plans available, please see our Microsoft Exchange Email section.
Not Sure?
If you aren't sure what the best solution for you is going to be, don't hesitate to get in touch with us today and have a chat about your needs.
