Google Workspace alternatives for business email
Short answer
Choosing among Google Workspace alternatives depends on what you want to leave behind: the monthly cost or the privacy terms. Compare each option on price, storage, admin effort and privacy. Our own option, mailcare, costs from USD 20 a month and keeps your domain address.
Who needs an alternative to Google Workspace?
Three reasons send a business to look for business email without Google: cost and privacy.
On cost, check whether a plan bills per mailbox. If it does, the bill grows with every person you hire. On privacy, read how the provider processes your mail and decide who in your company signs off on that.
Switching mail provider does not change your address. A mailbox like name@yourcompany.com belongs to your domain, so you point the domain at a new provider and the address stays. If your team works daily in Google Docs and Meet, decide what replaces them before you move the mail.
How do Google Workspace, Zoho Mail and mailcare compare?
We compare on four things: price, storage, admin effort and privacy. For each option we only state a figure when it comes with a source.
Google Workspace
Zoho Mail
mailcare (ours)
mailcare is our own mail service. The plan "Mailboxes on your domain" costs from USD 20 a month (the minimum payment), plus USD 60 once to connect your domain. It includes mailboxes on your domain and webmail with one-click sign-in. Storage per mailbox:.
The domain check looks at your mail records, and mailcare sets up DKIM (the signature that proves mail from your domain is really yours) automatically.
How do you choose, and how do you move a domain mailbox?
Answer three questions before you compare plans. How many mailboxes do you need today? Does any rule or client contract limit who may read your mail? Who will manage the setup, you or a provider?
Moving a domain mailbox takes four steps:
- Choose the provider and list the mailboxes you need.
- Add the provider's DNS records (the settings that route mail for your domain): MX (tells the internet where to deliver your mail), plus SPF, DKIM and DMARC (records that let other servers check that mail from your domain is really yours).
- Create the mailboxes.
- Move the old mail, if you want to keep it.
With mailcare,. For the service itself, see custom domain email.
If you also need a customer list and mailings next to the mailboxes, see CRM and business email details.
Follow-up questions
Can I have business email without Google?
Yes. Any provider that hosts mailboxes for your own domain works. You change the domain's MX records to point at the new provider, and your team keeps the same addresses.
What are the Google Workspace alternatives for a business?
The comparison above covers Zoho Mail and mailcare next to Google Workspace. Judge each on price per mailbox, storage, admin effort and privacy.
What does switching cost?
With mailcare, USD 60 once to connect the domain, then from USD 20 a month. For other providers the switching cost depends on their plan price and on who does the DNS setup and the mail transfer.
Can I keep my domain address?
Yes. The address belongs to your domain, not to the mail provider. After the DNS records change, mail to name@yourcompany.com arrives at the new mailbox.
Mailboxes on your domain with mailcare
mailcare gives you mailboxes on your domain: from USD 20 a month (minimum payment) and USD 60 once to connect the domain. You buy under a public offer. You can cancel in any month; the month you've already paid for is not refunded.
Details are on the custom domain email page.
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