Which email server-type do you prefer (Google or Exchange)?

Software
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Hi everyone,

If you had a choice of email servers (both remotely hosted) would you prefer GMail for business or MS Exchange?

Setting up a small business site and Fatcow.com offers Gmail for business for $6/mo and Exchange for 12.95/mo.

I’m primarily using Macs and an IPad / iPhone to access my mail and it’ll be yet another email address (and phone number).

We talk a lot (here and on the show) about email clients; but Outlook doesn’t seem to get much coverage.

For those who use it, does Outlook for macOS and iOS work well?

A friend used to use a VM strictly to run Outlook for Windows (10+ years ago) because he felt the Mac version was far too limited in comparison.

Thoughts?

– Tim

P.S. I’ve put off writing this post and will prob. make a choice pretty quickly… The only bonus is, if I change, it should all be the same email addresses and donation; so, if I change my mind, I can make a switch (presumably without too much trouble).

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Why do you want to go through a reseller? If you go directly to Google and Microsoft then the prices are around $4 and $8 a month.

My domain uses GSuite, it’s grandfathered in on an ancient free plan - I’m not sure it would be worth paying for it per account. For WhenWorks I recently switched to Zoho Mail which is around $12/year, it’s much cheaper and works great for me.

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Wow! … Thank you Rosemary!

I was just coming back to add a “PS” that Bluehost was cheaper per month.

Still a reseller; but hosting, etc. includes Office 365 (which I am paying for). … Your post now has me looking at going direct though(!).

Thank you again!

—Tim

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Re: Paying for 365. I could drop that and then switch my hosting to Bluehost and save money.

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I can’t weigh in on gmail v exchange.

But I have to use a PC at work. I don’t care for most thing MS, they’re solid, but unspectacular, but I use the heck out of Microsoft’s Outlook on the PC, and it’s the only thing you would have to pry out of my cold dead fingers. I’d be completely lost without it.

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Is it too late to add Fastmail to your shortlist?

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FWIW, if you choose to use Google I recommend using webmail on your Mac and the Gmail apps on IOS. As I recall their anti phishing technology only works with their IOS apps and webmail.

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Never buy email service via a vendor alway’s deal directly!

For 80% of my clients I choose G-Suite. Its rock solid, every user can setup their email in seconds and most are familiar with it. When reaching large volumes of email storage (I have users with +110GB on a single account) the Google server is hard to beat a specially when you need to search for old emails.

Then there are the archiving and legal hold options etc etc

Ah well I sound like a Google fanboy but am far from it. But this just works…

BTW I never give the user the option to use only a password 2FA is mandatory. Just don’t give them an option not to use it :wink:

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Hi Rob, It’s not too late. What makes you like Fastmail the best?

And, it looks like some of these do support Outlook; so perhaps I can use all the Outlook features I liked (from when I used that) and perhaps any app/service’s features that exceed Outlook, when I want to use them…

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I am leaning toward trying @RosemaryOrchard 's suggestion – it looks super!

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I’m a Fastmail customer but you need to be aware that because they are standards compliant, many third party integrations don’t work. Services develop and support O365 and Gmail, but rarely IMAP/JMAP and CalDAV.

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