When it comes to choosing an email hosting service, agencies often turn to popular options like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Both these companies are known for providing reliable and secure email services with an extensive set of tools. Consumers get free @gmail and @outlook email accounts, while business or enterprise customers opt for the paid advantage of a custom domain and a host of additional business-focused solutions. While these two giants offer advanced and comprehensive tools, they may not always fit the unique needs or budgets of every agency. For teams looking for cost-effective, user-friendly, or more customizable email solutions, there are several alternatives that provide a good collection of business tools without the complexities or price tag of these larger email hosting service providers.

In this article, we will explore some email hosting providers that serve as the best alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. These options cater to agencies' simple needs—whether affordability, ease of use, or enhanced privacy. These alternatives can empower agencies to manage their email better while maintaining a professional digital presence.

No matter which alternative you end up choosing from the list below, your agency can still take full advantage of Spark for Teams, our powerful email solution designed to take the hassle out of managing email and help you focus on what’s actually important. Spark for Teams provides a range of benefits tailored to help agency teams work together and communicate more efficiently.

Still on the fence? Here are seven reasons why your agency needs Spark for Teams. It is the perfect tool to streamline your email workflows resulting in increased focus and output at your agency.

1. Fastmail

What's Best: Reliability and Speed. The best email hosting service provider overall.

Fastmail has been a leading provider of reliable email hosting services for over two decades. Although the company began offering free email hosting accounts in 1999, it has transitioned to focus its services as a "premium brand" with only paid accounts for individuals or businesses. Fastmail is widely known for its focus on privacy, simplicity, innovative offerings, security, and reliability. Fastmail’s web interface features a beautiful and clean design with no ads anywhere. It also offers all the things you’d expect from a modern email hosting service, including aliases with custom domains, robust spam filtering with custom rules, and integration with productivity tools.

Fastmail for business includes the ability to connect your custom domain, along with integrated contacts and calendar apps. Pricing for business accounts starts at $3/month per user for the Basic plan with 6GB of total storage, $5/month per user for the Standard plan with 60GB of total storage, and $9/month per user for the Professional plan with 150GB of total storage.

Fastmail is one of the best alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 out there, and I highly recommend you give it a try. It works great with our Spark email app, so you’ll feel right at home with it.

2. Zoho Mail

What's Best: Privacy-focused. Integrates with Zoho's suite of business apps.

Zoho is a company known for its extensive suite of cloud-based business applications. Along with Zoho Mail, the company also offers tools for CRM, finance, project management, social media management, and more. Founded in India, with offices around the globe today, Zoho provides affordable and user-friendly cloud-based applications for businesses of all sizes. Many of the services that Zoho offers include a Free plan, so you can try their services for a longer period than a typical trial.

Zoho Mail is one of the company’s more popular offerings and provides businesses with secure, ad-free email hosting. For agencies, Zoho Mail offers affordable pricing, custom domain email addresses, and seamless integration with other Zoho applications, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, allowing users to build an integrated work environment. Zoho Mail also features advanced spam protection and an integrated calendar, all with a clean and intuitive interface. For privacy-conscious businesses, Zoho offers strong data protection policies, which make it a strong Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 alternative.

Check out Zoho Mail standalone pricing here, or if you want a more comprehensive product like Google Workspace, which includes online storage, online meetings, and similar services, the company also offers Zoho Workplace.

3. Proton Mail

What's Best: Focus on Security, Privacy, and Encryption.

Proton is a Swiss company that is known for its suite of apps, all of which focus on privacy and encrypted communications. One of their offerings is Proton Mail, which is marketed as a secure email service with a focus on data privacy. Originally founded by scientists and researchers from CERN and MIT, Proton is based in Switzerland, which has strong privacy laws that help safeguard users' data. Naturally, Proton Mail is an obvious choice for many businesses that are looking for data security. Proton Mail offers end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access the contents of an email. 

For agencies, Proton Mail is a highly secure and professional email hosting solution. Its encrypted services are designed to protect sensitive information, making it ideal for businesses that handle confidential data or need to comply with data protection regulations in their respective countries. The company also offers apps such as Proton VPN, Proton Drive for online cloud storage, Proton Pass password manager, and Proton Calendar, collectively forming an ecosystem aimed at protecting online privacy for businesses of all sizes.

4. Namecheap Business Email

What's Best: Affordability and integrated web services

Namecheap is one of the most popular domain registrars and web-hosting providers in the market today, offering a range of affordable online services tailored for agencies and entrepreneurs. As the name suggests, Namecheap is well-known for its fair pricing of services, making it a popular choice for users seeking reliable, cost-effective solutions. Over the years, Namecheap has built a reputation for helping agencies establish a professional online presence. Although primarily a domain registrar, Namecheap also offers Business Email hosting with plans starting at a few dollars a year. 

Namecheap’s Business Email service offers a straightforward, affordable email hosting solution that’s ideal for agencies. With offerings like custom domain email addresses, generous storage, and advanced home-grown spam filtering, Namecheap Business Email works for all kinds of agencies. The service is fully ad-free and supports productivity tools such as calendars and contacts, keeping teams organized and efficient. Namecheap’s pricing for their Professional Business Email services starts at about $15/year. The company also often runs promos, so you can start with a basic plan with a custom domain for your business for less than a dollar a month and upgrade to higher-tier plans as needed.

5. Spacemail

What's Best: Innovative interface and storage upgradeability

Spacemail is an email-hosting solution from Spaceship, which is Namecheap’s own sister concern. Much like Namecheap, Spaceship offers services like domain registration, web hosting, email hosting, etc., but with an entirely different approach and unlike any other company today. Spaceship’s notable highlight is what they call “Unbox” — a new way of setting up products and services together. Don’t worry, though; their support team helps you out if you’re confused.

Spacemail is like a new kid on the block, so their pricing for email hosting reflects that. The starter plan with 1 mailbox and 3GB of total storage is priced at just $5/year for the first year, and renews at about $7. This makes Spacemail an excellent choice for agencies looking for cost-effective solutions that aren’t heavy on their pockets.

6. Amazon WorkMail

What's Best: Enterprise-grade email with AWS ecosystem integration

Amazon WorkMail is a secure, managed email and calendaring service developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), well-known for its robust cloud infrastructure and extensive suite of business tools. AWS provides a wide range of scalable solutions that serve businesses of all sizes, and Amazon WorkMail integrates smoothly with the AWS ecosystem, making it particularly attractive to companies who already use one or more AWS services. With Amazon’s global infrastructure, WorkMail offers reliability and performance, backed by AWS’s own reputation for secure and scalable cloud solutions.

For agencies, Amazon WorkMail is an excellent option for businesses who want business email hosting, albeit with a highly professional touch. Amazon WorkMail’s ease of management and integration with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3 for secure data storage and Amazon WorkDocs for document collaboration, make it an efficient choice for agencies looking to streamline their operations under a single, secure cloud platform. Amazon WorkMail offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which may be confusing for some businesses.

Irrespective of which of the six email hosting services detailed here you end up choosing, you should set them up in Spark for Teams — an email app that's specially designed for agencies and similar small businesses. With Spark, your team members can collaborate better and focus on what's actually important without having to waste time managing their inboxes. By bringing in your agency's email correspondence into Spark for Teams, you'll benefit from all the amazing things it has to offer, such as shared inboxes, email sharing, internal team discussions, shared drafts and email templates, and lots more.

All six best email hosting services for agencies detailed in this article also fulfill the role of being the best alternatives to the industry mammoths, viz. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. They provide a wide range of email solutions, are priced such that they cater to all kinds of agencies, and sport user-friendly and intuitive user interfaces that don’t feel too “enterprisey” or boring.

Once you've finalized which email hosting service provider you're signing up with for your agency, you should download Spark and set it up for your team here.