What Is Email Hosting and How to Choose
The complete guide to email hosting
Contents
What is email hosting
Email hosting is a service that lets you send and receive email using your own domain, such as [email protected] instead of Gmail or Yahoo.
- Email on your own domain looks professional
- Customers trust brand email more than gmail
- You control your own data
- Clearly separate from personal email
Email Hosting vs Webmail: the difference
Webmail like Gmail and Outlook.com provides free @gmail.com addresses; email hosting provides @yourdomain.com addresses for an annual fee.
- Gmail is free but gives @gmail.com addresses
- Email hosting: @yourdomain.com with annual cost
- Business email affects conversion rates
- Better spam filtering and security at business level
Key features to look for in email hosting
Look for storage per mailbox, good spam filtering, support for SPF/DKIM/DMARC and a guaranteed uptime SLA.
- Storage per mailbox ≥5 GB
- Accurate spam filtering
- SPF/DKIM/DMARC support
- Uptime SLA ≥99%
What are SPF DKIM DMARC and why they matter
SPF specifies authorised sending servers, DKIM cryptographically signs email, DMARC defines the policy for email that fails verification.
- SPF: DNS TXT record specifying mail servers
- DKIM: cryptographic signature in email header
- DMARC: policy and reports when email fails
- Missing all three causes email to land in spam
Email hosting providers in Thailand
Thai email hosting providers include Ruk-Com, Hostatom and AsiaGB, plus Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for enterprises.
- AsiaGB: email hosting with DirectAdmin
- Ruk-Com: bundled with Thai hosting
- Google Workspace: complete ecosystem at higher cost
- Microsoft 365: Exchange plus Teams plus Office
How to set up email hosting
Main steps: purchase a plan, create a mailbox, configure MX records in DNS and test sending and receiving.
- Create email account in the hosting control panel
- Set MX record at your DNS registrar
- Wait 24–48 hours for DNS propagation
- Test sending email from both sides
Email migration without losing data
Use IMAP sync or a tool like imapsync to transfer all old email before changing MX records so no messages are lost.
- Migrate via IMAP before changing MX
- imapsync: free open source tool
- Test sending and receiving before final cutover
- Notify the team at least one day in advance
Email hosting costs
Email hosting costs from tens of baht per mailbox per month to Google Workspace at higher prices, but the ROI is better than personal email addresses.
- Thai hosting: affordable and functional
- Google Workspace: ~6 USD/user/month
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic: ~6 USD/user/month
- B2B clients always expect professional email