Shared Hosting & Email Hosting. What Are The Differences?

Shared Hosting and Email Hosting differences.

Shared Hosting is when you have your website hosted on a server that is also hosting a number of other websites. Shared Hosting is also usually the cheapest hosting plan overall that you can get.

Most Shared Web Hosting providers do include email hosting as well. For example, if you host your website through a provider like Hostgator or even an Offshore Web Hosting provider like Orangewebsite, you can also get email hosting with your shared hosting plan. 

However, email hosting services offered with shared hosting plan often restrict certain features from the email hosting they include, such as the number of outgoing emails allowed or mailbox storage space. However, for most who opt for shared hosting, the email features they do provide are often more than enough, even if you have multiple sub domains.

Most shared hosting email limitations occur when you begin to include email marketing and you’re sending and receiving large quantities of emails. In addition, your ability to add features like secure emails, encryption options and TTS are also either limited or not included as well.

Email Hosting however, is a little different.

Email Hosting is when a hosting provider provides hosting specifically for email. That’s right, you can actually have a web hosting provider only provide you with email services instead of hosting a live website. 

Email Hosting has become quite popular among online marketers and other businesses that rely heavily on email in order to promote their goods and services as well as to keep in touch and engaged with their clientele. 

Many find that Email Hosting provides much more stable, consistent as well as higher performance levels for their email activity than conventional web hosting which includes email as well as free Email Hosting options like Gmail.

In this post, I’m going to look at the differences between Shared Hosting and Email Hosting and when you should do which or both. 

I will also attempt to answer some frequently asked questions regarding Shared Hosting and Email Hosting to try to clear up any misunderstandings. I know I had a few when I was looking into my options for email marketing. 

What is “Shared Email Hosting”?

Shared Hosting, in a nutshell, is when your website is hosted on a server along with many other websites. 

As I’ve mentioned above, Shared Hosting is normally the cheapest hosting plan that most web hosting providers offer. It is also usually the most popular hosting plan that most get when setting up a website for the first time. 

There are other types of hosting plans that many web hosting providers offer in addition to Shared Hosting like: 

• Cloud Hosting.
• VPS Hosting.
• WordPress Hosting.
• Dedicated Server Hosting.

Why use Email Hosting when it is normally included with Shared Hosting plans? 

If you have a small business or email isn’t a big part of your business, then your Web Shared Hosting Plan, which includes email should be sufficient.

However, if your business relies heavily on:

• Sending and receiving emails.
• Email marketing. 
• Email collaboration between staff and clients.
• The need to keep your website and your email servers separate for diversifying risk.
• Reliable email delivery.
• The need for a professional email address like, name@yourbusiness.com, without having a website.

Then you should really check into Email Hosting.

What is the best Email Hosting for small businesses?

For most small businesses, the best Email Hosting would be the free Email Hosting that is normally offered with web hosting plans. 

For example, if you’re first starting out and are looking to save costs, then most Shared Hosting plans do offer email with a limit on the number of email accounts you can have within your Shared Hosting plan. 

If you opt for a VPS Hosting or even Cloud Hosting, those two usually offer Email Hosting along with their plans as well.

However, if you are a small business that relies a lot on email, email marketing, collaboration and any number of other email related services, then you might want to check into a separate Email Hosting plan.

What to look for in an Email Hosting service?

When enquiring about Email Hosting it’s important that you check some or all of the following as per your particular requirements:

• Shared, Cloud, VPS or Dedicated Email Hosting.
• Email Account limits.
• Sending size limits.
• Support 24/7.
• Amount of Storage and Server space.
• Antivirus and spam filters.
• Security.
• Disaster recovery.
• Collaboration tools. These can include: shared calendars, folders, address books, task lists, etc. that can be viewed, shared and edited among a group of people for collaboration online.
• Email synchronization. Across multiple devices, through webmail, smartphone and preferred Email Client; like Outlook.
• Maintenance and management tasks as well as other updates.
• Hardware resources.
• Email authentication services like: Captchas, filtering, replication and rerouting
• Folder and contacts management.
• Does it handle large attachments. If so, how large?
• Mailing, white and blacklists. It’s important that your email domain is not shared with other blacklisted domain, which can happen on “Shared Email Hosting”
• Backups/archiving.
• Do they include the use of aliases, forwarders, and autoresponders.

You may only be concerned with a few on this list.

However, it doesn’t hurt to find out all the options available with a certain Email Hosting provider to not only make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. 

You may even want to upgrade and/or utilize some of these other services in the future as your email requirements expand.

How can I get free Email Hosting?

The easiest way to get free Email Hosting is through a service like Google’s Gmail. 

If you already have a website that is either hosted on WordPress.com, or if you have your website self-hosted, then usually, most Self-Hosting Providers include email along with your Shared Hosting as well as other web hosting plans.

What’s the best way to get cheap Email Hosting?

The best way to get cheap Email Hosting is to simply use the Email Hosting that is offered through your web hosting provider’s plan. That is if you already have a live website on a hosting plan. 

If you are on a Shared Hosting plan for example, you will usually find that it does include Email Hosting as well. 

Although hosting plans don’t usually come with email automatically set up for you. 

You actually have to go into your web hosting provider’s dashboard and set up the email servers and your email accounts separately from your WordPress website’s files. 

It’s quite easy to do, and most reputable web hosting providers will give some kind of step-by-step tutorial either through their blog or through their support areas.

Does Microsoft Office 365 provide Email Hosting?

The beauty of Microsoft Office 365 is that you can use their service without opting for their Email Hosting. 

Though it’s important to note that Microsoft Office 365 does provide Email Hosting along with all the services that Microsoft Office 365 has to offer. 

However, many can still get away with simply using Microsoft Office 365 without opting for their Email Hosting. 

You might want to do this if you are looking to save money on your Email Hosting costs. 

Although Microsoft Office 365 does offer very powerful, premium Email Hosting. 

Microsoft does, after all, have some of the most powerful servers in the world.

Therefore, if you are looking to scale your email marketing efforts, faster and more dependable email delivery rates, easier whitelisting or are simply looking for added security in your email transactions, then you should seriously consider Microsoft Office 365 Email Hosting hosting as well.

Shared Hosting and Email Hosting summary.

To summarize, there is quite a difference between Shared Hosting and Email Hosting. And it is important not to confuse the two. 

In addition, if you are looking for Email Hosting, one of the things you should be aware of are the differences between various Email Hosting plans because many Email Hosting plans will use shared servers just like Shared Web Hosting. 

As I’ve gone through above, your needs may require not only a separate email server for Email Hosting but a superior Email Hosting plan like Cloud Email Hosting or a VPS Email Hosting etc. 

Knowing the differences between the various types of Email Hosting as well as what you need to look for in a great Email Host. 

This can make all the difference in the long-term success or failure, or at least inconvenience, in a successful email oriented business model.

In the end, most will find that their current Web Hosting plan will more than likely include email as well. 

Therefore, many will not need a separate Email Hosting plan for their email efforts. 

The only way to find out is to do your homework, know what to look for, then choose the best and most cost effective Email Hosting provider you can.