There are dozens of business email hosting options ranging from a few pounds a year to £15 or more per month. The price gap is significant, so it's worth understanding what you're actually comparing before you decide.
Deliverability first
The most important thing an email provider has to do is make sure your emails arrive. This is called deliverability, and it isn't guaranteed regardless of what a provider promises.
I've had a client switch to a cheap email hosting provider to save money, and their emails were being blocked — specifically flagged and rejected by Mailgun's filtering systems. The client had no idea. Emails they'd sent simply weren't landing, and they only found out when they followed up with people who had no record of the original message.
This isn't a rare edge case. Cheap providers sometimes share IP addresses with other senders who have poor sending reputations. Your legitimate emails get caught in the same filter, even when you've done nothing wrong.
What to look for
Provider reputation — established platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have the infrastructure and reputation to ensure consistently strong deliverability. Smaller, cheaper providers often don't.
What's included beyond email — Microsoft 365 includes Word, Excel, Teams, and OneDrive. You're not paying for email alone, you're paying for a business platform built around tools most people already use. For many small businesses, the additional software justifies the cost on its own.
Support — when something goes wrong with your email, you need help quickly. Many cheap providers offer minimal or no meaningful support.
Storage — email inboxes fill up over time. Generous storage avoids the headache of constantly managing space.
Security and spam filtering — built-in protection matters more than most people realise, particularly for small businesses that don't have IT support to fall back on.
What to avoid
Email hosting that costs under £2–3 per month almost always involves a trade-off somewhere. Usually it's deliverability, storage, or support — the three things that matter most.
Read our comparison of Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace for small businesses or find out how much a professional business email address costs.
To get a recommendation based on your specific setup, get in touch with NC Digital.