Shopify has been at the top of the eCommerce industry for a couple of years now, which is not surprising considering how user-friendly the platform is. There is one downside, though – even though it’s a fully hosted platform as far as your store goes, it doesn’t offer its own Shopify email hosting. So, you’ll need to set it up with a third-party provider
Why Is Shopify Email Hosting Such a Big Deal?
Without Shopify email hosting services, your visitors can’t contact you with questions about your products. Email hosting helps you build your brand: the right email address can convey a professional image and instil trust.
With a decent Shopify email hosting provider, you will be available around the clock, and your inbox will scale with your business through advanced storage and synchronisation options. A reliable email hosting provider will:
- Ensure all your communication is encrypted.
- Use anti-virus and anti-malware software to scan all data for potential threats
- Have advanced filters in place to keep your inbox clear of spam
- Offer disaster recovery options
- Make sure you can access your inbox from anywhere
The Shopify Email Hosting Options Out There:
If you’re opening a store on Shopify or migrating from another platform, you should look into Shopify email hosting provider options. The big 3 options out there include:
Bluehost
Officially recommended by WordPress, Bluehost is amongst the most popular web hosting services at this moment. It’s not just an email hosting service, but many choose it to get their custom email address there.
You can pick up a custom domain for your email for as little as $2.75 per month. However, this price comes with small print: to get the price that’s so low, you have to commit, often for several years. If you don’t, the cost goes up to $7.99 for their basic plan.
For this, you will receive five custom email accounts but only 100MB of storage per account. There are also hidden charges, like having to pay for a tutorial if you are not sure how to set up your email, which drives the cost up too much.
Shopped Mail
Shopped Mail is a dedicated Shopify email hosting service created and run by professional Shopify developers. The standard plan costs $10 per month, which might seem a lot, but it comes bundled with 5GB of storage per mailbox.
There is also no limit to the number of custom emails that you can create for your store. If you take a twelve-month subscription, you’ll only have to pay for ten (you get two months on them!)
The sign-up process is very easy: visit the site, sign up, and follow the instructions. If you already have a mailbox, you can migrate from another provider too.
Also, this is an email hosting provider exclusively for Shopify. This means that you get a dedicated service that will help you with the technical side of linking your email to your Shopify store.
Zoho Mail
Another option out there is Zoho Mail. It’s not just an email hosting service but also comes with other features like a calendar, tasks, notes, and bookmarks. Features like rules and filters for the inbox make it easy to find any conversation, and signatures help you get that professional look to your emails.
There are three pricing plans, and each comes with additional services like Zoho Cliq, Docs, Office Suite, Meeting, Connect, or Showtime. The prices seem great at first. You pay $1 per month for each user for Lite, $3 per month for the Standard, and $6 per month for the Professional plan, but those are only available if you pay annually.
If you want to pay monthly, you only have access to the Standard plan for $4 per month and the Professional plan for $7 per month.
If you need a full business suite (for enterprises or larger merchants), it may give you more functionality. But, if you are just looking for a simple and easy-to-use Shopify email hosting service, it’s not going to be a good fit, and you’ll be paying for a ton of features you don’t even use.
Match Your Shopify Email Hosting To Your Needs
While there are a lot of email hosting options available, most of them are a hybrid of business suites or website hosting services – they are not standalone email hosting options. If you are looking for a suite, Zoho Mail is a good choice. If you need website hosting, too, BlueHost can be a good choice.
But if you’re looking for standalone email hosting, go for Shopped Mail. Shopped Mail is the only dedicated Shopify email hosting service on the market currently, and considering you won’t be stuck doing the technical setup yourself, it’s well worth the investment.
