email hosting 2015, is Google the best?

[Happy Worker]

Hello

I have searched and found some useful threads on this subject but the last one appears to about a year ago.

I am starting my own consultancy soon and I am looking for an email hosting service (I have a domain name). I use a macbook pro with Office 365 and have the option of using either Outlook or apple's mail system or web/cloud based models

Google Apps at £3.30 per month looks OK but are there any pitfalls/service issues people are aware of?

Also, might one benefit be that this Google App could save me from renewing 365 next year?

Many thanks

David

 

[ryedale]

We've used Google Apps Email for about 2 years now - can't fault it. Clean interface, fast and incredibly reliable.

 

[webhostuk]

Yes for emails Google is really the best option.

 

[Happy Worker]

We've used Google Apps Email for about 2 years now - can't fault it. Clean interface, fast and incredibly reliable.

Many thanks both

 

[Sam Richards]

Google email security seems to be very good and reliability seems to be better than most.

 

[Cromulent]

Google Apps is pretty good. I've used them for years and they have only improved over time. They are my goto email service these days.

 

[Squantrill]

Fastmail to us has proven better than google mail.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

Hi David,

Welcome to the forums.

Google's service is arguably one of the best, it's what we normally recommend.

If you want a half price Google Apps voucher then just let us know.

Google Apps does provide Excel and Word alternatives, although whether you feel they're feature rich enough to replace Office 365 depends on you really. But if you start with Google Apps soon, you'll have plenty of time to try it out and find out before your Office 365 subscription is up for renewal.

You've mentioned your domain and email, but not web hosting. Do make sure you get decent UK based web hosting if that's the market you're primarily targeting. Your visitors and Google ranking will thank you for it.

If you need any help on that side of things then feel free to get in touch.

Best of luck,

Dan

 

[ldjames]

Google crawls through your email to target ads at you elsewhere on the web. The service is usually reliable but if there is a problem, expect to wait weeks without email.

On the other hand, Rackspace Apps is half the price, much better privacy and just as reliable and secure. If something ever does goes wrong, the support is great.

 

[ryedale]

In fairness to google app, their support is actually fantastic.. The two times I have called support , it was answered quickly and the person dealt with the issue immediately.

 

[Andrew Fairlie]

Yes Google Apps is a great solution for small businesses. It rarely has problems, but when something does go wrong their telephone support is really good.

We moved from Office 365 to Google Apps a few months ago and the service is dramatically better.

One additional benefit to using Google Apps is that it integrates really nicely into many of the CRMs small businesses use and is compatible with tools such as HubSpot's Sidekick.

 

[Martin Gallagher]

Agree with all the above, the Google Apps integrations, reliability etc are difficult to look past IMO - the Google office stuff is pretty decent these days too.

 

[Cromulent]

Google crawls through your email to target ads at you elsewhere on the web. The service is usually reliable but if there is a problem, expect to wait weeks without email.

On the other hand, Rackspace Apps is half the price, much better privacy and just as reliable and secure. If something ever does goes wrong, the support is great.

This is wrong. You are talking about GMail which is Googles free email platform.

Google Apps for Business (or Google Apps for Work as it appears to be called now) does none of that stuff and the technical support is excellent. Plus it supports DKIM and DMARC out of the box something that many other email providers don't provide.

 

[makeusvisible]

It is a superb platform. It isn't flawless, but the lengths Google have gone to in making their full suite of apps integrate with each other, make it a great choice....especially if data and collaboration are or might be in your plans.

 

[ldjames]

This is wrong. You are talking about GMail which is Googles free email platform.

Google Apps for Business (or Google Apps for Work as it appears to be called now) does none of that stuff and the technical support is excellent. Plus it supports DKIM and DMARC out of the box something that many other email providers don't provide.

Wrong. Straight from their commercial Google Apps FAQs:

"Our systems scan and index emails and some other user data for multiple purposes; this scanning is 100% automated and cannot be turned off. Scanning enables us to, for example, perform spam and malware detection, sort email for features like Priority Inbox, and return fast and powerful search results when users search for information in their accounts. The scanning and indexing that our systems run also enable us to display contextually relevant advertising, including in Gmail."

So even if they don't display ads in Google Apps, they still crawl through your emails to advertise at you elsewhere.

The tech support may be great if you need help getting Outlook to work - I don't know about that. I'm referring to how they deal with genuine bugs in their system. We got involved in one such case and friendly as they were, it took many, many escalations and weeks to finally get it fixed and restore access to email. Again, this is the paid service.

As for outgoing mail verification, yes, it's good that they support it. They do have other good features like 2FA. They're not the only one with decent security though.

I'm a big fan of Google's technology - they have some incredible engineers there. The ethics are lacking though, and in the case of mail, there are cheaper offers with the same service and much better ethics.

 

[Artifix-Guy]

Yes Google Apps is a great solution for small businesses. It rarely has problems, but when something does go wrong their telephone support is really good.

We moved from Office 365 to Google Apps a few months ago and the service is dramatically better.

One additional benefit to using Google Apps is that it integrates really nicely into many of the CRMs small businesses use and is compatible with tools such as HubSpot's Sidekick.

What triggered you to move from Office 365 to Google Apps, and in what way is the service better (besides CRMs)?

Just curious as I actually use both and prefer Office 365!

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

Interesting.

Personally I have no problem with my emails being scanned by an algorithm.

I also use Google surveys.

Personally I can't stand non targeted advertising.

Youtube, despite being owned by Google is a good example. When they take over a page with Vevo advertising for some incredibly commercial pop I'd never listen to. It's just annoying, and makes you want to use the service less. I've even searched for adverts before, for something I'm interested in. If all the advertising were targeted and based on my interests, and actually relevant, I'd certainly be less annoyed and enjoy the service more, but I'd probably watch the adverts more as well.

It's win win really, as long as you don't mind them knowing things about you.

I don't really watch TV, but remember sometimes seeing lots of adverts targeted at women and a market I'm not in, and it made me wander if I was watching the wrong programme.

Perhaps Google should allow it to be turned off for the paid for service. I think that would be fair.
However the quality of their free products means I'm personally perfectly happy paying for that with the data they collect on me.

The actual product is excellent. The Spam filtering has always been great, although recently I have found it too aggressive. Microsoft and others still don't seem to be able to get this right. Hotmail/Outlook is pretty poor in comparison.

So Google Apps for Work is still the service we recommend.
We provide a Wizard in cPanel that lets you set it up on seconds, it's very handy.

Will certainly continue to keep an eye out for alternative services however.

 

[integreatmedia]

For those using Google Mail for Business can you tell me if you point your DNS mail server records to Google if GMail then solely uses yourdomain.com as incoming and outgoing e-mail addresses and these aren't just a 'masked' gmail.com address?

Also has anyone had any success with migrating e-mail from another client/ web provider into GMail?

 

[ldjames]

@Aritifix-Guy: We have some customers with Office365. I can't believe how cluttered that interface is! They seem to like it though.

@Dan_HiHosting: Personally, I do mind, especially because it's not clear what they extract and how it's used. If you're aware of it and still want to use it, no problem

@itegreatmedia: Yes, we do migrations all the time. Are you talking about Gmail (free, doesn't use your domain) or Google Apps (paid, only uses your domain)? For the latter, you set the MX records and then they use your domain for incoming and outgoing mail.

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

@integreatmedia

Yes, Google Mail for Work/Business means Google will handle your email as a remote mail exchanger/email service provider. Nothing is masked, and your domain is used.
It's simply a case of adding the Google MX records to your DNS Zone File, setting your Mail routing to remote mail exchanger, and adding the Google SPF entry.
Any decent web host will provide a wizard to do all that for you.

On migration, yes, Google provides tools for doing this. It's generally pretty straightforward.

We have a half price Google Apps for Work voucher expiring soon if anyone would like it.

All the best,

Dan