Email can be quite challenging to get right, there are many factors to consider including the storage of emails and spam, both outgoing and incoming. So is hosting your email with your website the best idea?

While you can use your hosting service to provide email services it does put more of the responsibility of running a mail server back to you, especially if your hosting is a VPS or dedicated server. If email is important to your business it makes sense to actively consider how it’s being provided instead of putting it in the same boat as your website.

One solution that is increasingly being taken up by businesses of all sizes is using a cloud app provider such as Google Apps or Office 365.

The Benefits

• You generally no longer need to worry about your email server being blacklisted by third parties, meaning less worries when another customer at your hosting company is spamming

• Having your server or service run out of disk space is no longer an issue as these providers are very clear on how much space you have available.

• If you ever migrate your hosting either between servers or even hosting providers you will generally not experience any email issues that you would have if your email is tied in with your hosting.

The product links for Google Apps and Office 365 are below, but I would encourage you to do your own research about email providers before making the move.

• http://www.google.com.au/intx/en_au/work/apps/business/
• http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/business/office-365-business-email-and-shared-calendar-services-FX102996755.aspx