Best Email Hosting Services for Canadian Businesses in 2025

When you’re trying to grow your business and subscription list, having a great email provider is critical to help you optimize your email capabilities.

For the past few years, email has been the number one way to communicate and distribute valuable information on the Internet, with 361.6 billion emails sent per day in 2024.

Yet, most small businesses still rely on free, unbranded email accounts that cost them trust and conversions.

Hundreds of email hosts exist, with some offering solid business support while others fall short.

While there is no one-size-fits-all answer for your email hosting plans, you’ll have enough knowledge to help you make an intelligent decision by the time you’re done reading this.

Before we dive in, I want to address the question on everybody’s mind…Can I just use a free email host?

There’s nothing wrong with using a free web-based email hosting service for your personal correspondence and digital coupon collecting.

However, if you want to be taken seriously in the world of online business, then you’ll want to use a more robust solution that lets you set up an address @yourdomain.com instead of something like @gmail.com or @hotmail.com.

Zoho is our clear winner here. Its huge range of features would already put it ahead based on scope alone. The bonus is that those features deliver premium quality at a bargain price.

Zoho has got the solution to pretty much any email hosting problem you could have. Whether you use one of their purpose-built apps or connect through popular services like Dropbox, Zoho covers every need.

Zoho is a fantastic service, but there’s plenty of other email hosting services out there for a company to consider, so why fork out the cash for this one?

One big draw is the free plan. Zoho offers a trimmed-down version you can use forever, giving you time to test everything and figure out which paid features you actually need.

The free version is only available for up to 5 users, so for a growing business, a paid plan is necessary. Still, if you have a side-hustle and want to start small (and free) with a provider that can grow with your needs, Zoho is a great choice.

With PGP and TLS security encryption standard with all plans, and extra S-MIME encryption protocols built into the Premium plan, your emails will be airtight with an email server hosting like Zoho.

They have all the phishing and spam filters you’d expect of a quality email service, with the added bonus of a solid privacy policy to protect all your personal information.

Related: How to Uncover Phishing Websites Through Web Analytics

I could easily fill pages covering Zoho’s more niche tools. But for a quick sense of what stands out, here are a few highlights:

• Email recall
• Mail merge
• SAML-based SSO integration
• Domain aliases
• Folder sharing with delegation
• Integrated calendar and resource booking
• Wide collaboration toolset
• Notes and to-do tools

Another strong point is their endless host of extensions available with Zoho. In the unlikely event you can’t find a specific extension, even their basic Mail Lite plan has an integrated extension development suite, letting you alter the service in any way you need.

For those on the go, integrated iOS and Android mobile apps offer plenty functionality while you’re away from your desk. In short, there’s very little you can’t do with Zoho!

Email might still be how many businesses communicate and share information, but social media is giving business email hosting a run for its money.

Zoho synthesizes the best of both. The Streams feature turns email updates into a social-style feed where colleagues can like, comment, and share content with ease.

This added layer of communication makes Zoho one of the most innovative email services out there, giving it an undeniable competitive edge.

Over the past 20 years, Namecheap has accumulated millions of customers looking for a cheap domain name and private email hosting package. Once you take a look at their plans, you’ll quickly understand why so many people worldwide trust Namecheap’s affordable, safe and trustworthy email hosting solution which is suited to both businesses and individuals alike.

We’ve tested their hosting plans in depth and given an honest review of Namecheap to let you see for yourself.

Airtight Two-Factor Authentication

Protection is a top priority for many seeking a reliable email hosting service. Namecheap has you covered with two-factor authentication (2FA).

Even if your password is stolen, you can keep your Namecheap account and emails safe by adding an extra security step in addition to your username and password. It’s also absolutely free, proving that for Namecheap, customer security is what matters most.

On their website, you can choose from three of the best 2FA methods available right now, including TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password), OneTouch (SMS) and U2F (Universal 2nd Factor). TOTP allows you to secure your Namecheap account using another device with a frequently-changing password.

OneTouch enables you to use your mobile to conveniently secure your account with a single tap of a button. While U2G uses NFC or USB devices to quickly secure your account.

Anti-Spam Protection

Spam emails have a way of getting overwhelming very quickly. Nobody has time to sort through every single unsolicited email, manually deleting messages that may or may not be spam. Which is exactly why Namecheap includes anti-spam protection in all of its private email hosting plans.

The Namecheap Spam Protection system uses self-learning smart technologies to erase spam before it even reaches the network. And best of all, it has a very low false positive rate, so you won’t miss any important emails.

Free Two-Month Subscription

Namecheap doesn’t offer a free, unlimited email hosting service, though customers can test out all of their plans for up to two months being charged. During this time, all of the plans are free with no functional limitations. That said, the price to add more mailboxes will increase depending on the plan you choose.

In order to test out the service, you’ll also require a domain name. You can use our domain name buying guide to find one, or simply go with Namecheap, which has a wide range of low-priced domain options. When placing your order, you can either purchase a new domain, use a domain already owned by Namecheap, use a domain from another registrar, or transfer your existing domain if you already have one.

Tons of Features

Namecheap has lots of great email-based features that we’ll touch on quickly here. Many of these are only available with higher tier plans, so do a little digging before you choose your tier. Some of our favorite features include:

• Docs, sheets, and presentation tools
• Mobile sync support
• Advanced collaboration features
• Professional email signatures
• SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 support

Special introductory deals often cut this price by as much as 80%.

It’s no secret that we are big fans of SiteGround (and have been for some time). Having used SiteGround for our own websites for many years, the performance, support, and quality of service has been remarkable. They’re one of the few web hosting services who doesn’t just “set and forget” their hosting infrastructure.

They regularly overhaul their data center servers, and continually refine their services to provide the best email hosting we know of.

For starters, SiteGround’s most basic web and email hosting packages are steadfastly reliable. With a 99.95% uptime over the past 12 months, SiteGround provides the kind of service usually reserved for VPS and dedicated hosting clients.

Offering 475 ms load speeds (on average) SiteGround is also the fastest web/email host that we’ve ever reviewed, which is almost reason enough to never lose a customer to a laggy website ever again.

SiteGround packs in so many strong email tools that we could write a full guide on them. To keep things simple, here’s a quick list instead:

• AI Spam checks
• No daily send limits
• WPForms integrations
• Analytics for engagement rates and clicks
• No-code email builders
• Mobile optimizations
• Test campaigns
• DKIM and SPF authentication

In addition to their superb uptimes and fast load speeds, SiteGround also offers their customers access to robust security features that will keep the emails of you or your customers safe from prying eyes and hackers.

Every new subscription includes a free SSL certificate, IMAP and POP3 email delivery, plus a free CDN.

Note: Renewal prices will be higher

HostGator offers some of the best email and web hosting packages in the business at great prices. While their uptime and load speeds don’t quite match those of SiteGround, their hosting plans cost so little that the overall value remains hard to beat.

Just remember, like many email providers, renewal pricing will be more expensive so bear that in mind.

At only $1.67/month to get started, HostGator offers uptimes that are only 0.01% lower than SiteGround’s at a better price point. With equally impressive load times (601 ms) HostGator is one of the most affordable email hosts on the market, especially considering the quality you get for the price.

No matter the level or length of the hosting package you buy, HostGator takes your safety seriously. Some noteworthy security features include:

• Advanced anti-virus tools
• Custom DKIM plus data encryption
• Two-factor authentication
• Robust spam filters

As with all of the hosting services we recommend, HostGator offers 24/7 live chat support so your website and email accounts can run smoothly no matter the time of day.

They also have a great knowledge base on their website if you want to find answers to common questions related to their service on your own.

More HostGator features worth noting:

• One-click import for existing contacts and emails
• Turbo search
• Auto-clean tools
• Priority inbox
• Email labels
• Contact groups
• HTML email support

*Note that these are introductory prices, and renewal rates will be higher.

Hosting.com (previously called A2 Hosting), comes standard with many powerful features and the overall performance you get from this service is an absolute bargain for the price.

While the lowest tier includes just 5 mailboxes and 5GB of space, you still get useful tools like contacts, calendars, tasks, and scheduling.

As you move up the tiers, the feature set expands, eventually adding perks like a free domain name that make the higher pricing worthwhile.

Their tools aren’t as granular or advanced as some competitors, but the platform delivers strong functionality at excellent prices. Customers rate them highly for reliability and speed, and they remain an easy recommendation in our view.

Hosting.com offers decent security features, though we wish they were more transparent so users didn’t have to dig to find the details. Here’s what we could confirm:

• Free SSL certificates
• DDoS protection
• Brute force defense
• Malware scanning

They also maintain a large knowledge base covering security practices, but navigating it can feel a bit overwhelming.

The protections in place are reliable, but specifics are harder to uncover than they should be. If security is a priority for you, expect to spend a little time tracking down precise information.

While Hosting.com doesn’t quite match SiteGround for speed or reliability, the gap is small when you look at the pricing. With 99.91% uptime and fast 625 ms load times, your site stays available and responds quickly for visitors.

Before publishing any review, we put each provider’s support team through a demanding series of increasingly technical tests.

Hosting.com’s 24/7 support responded quickly, politely, and with impressive expertise every time.

Help is available through both live chat or phone, which is becoming rarer among budget hosts.

Hosting.com offers a broad set of features for users who combine web and email hosting. To keep this section focused, here are the email-specific tools we found most useful:

• Webmail clients
• Easy mailbox integration
• Collaboration tools like online meetings and video/audio chat
• Message sniffers
• Personal webmail
• Scheduling tools
• Mailing lists
• File storage

Choosing an email hosting service can feel overwhelming, so here are the baseline features we recommend looking for:

☑️ Free, unlimited email accounts
☑️ IMAP and POP3 Email Delivery
☑️ Fast Speeds and Reliable Uptimes
☑️ High-quality customer support

Free Unlimited Email Accounts

Many companies charge an exorbitant per-account fee (yeah, we’re looking at you GoDaddy) upwards of $5/account/month. If you see a company advertising “cheap email accounts” then you can almost be sure their baseline service might be cheap, but they’ll nail you for every email account you add.

Any web/email hosting service worth their salt will offer you an unlimited number of email accounts (or at the very least 25+) absolutely free as part of your standard hosting package.

IMAP & POP3 Email Delivery

While these standards are common, some cheap hosts still rely on outdated delivery systems that expose you to unnecessary security risks.

Do yourself a favor and make sure that whatever host you choose offers IMAP and POP3 email delivery. These security standards will ensure that your private emails stay, well… private to prevent your information from falling into the wrong hands.

For many small businesses, reliable email deliverability is critical. Once you’ve signed up for an email host and secured your company email, we also suggest pairing your company email with an email marketing service like Constant Contact, MailChimp, Aweber, or ActiveCampaign. These will ensure your messages reach their intended destination without a hitch.

Fast Speeds and Reliable Uptimes

Unlimited email accounts and loads of storage doesn’t matter if your website isn’t online long enough for customers to email you!

In the world of web hosting, there’s no number of extra marketing goodies that can make up for shoddy uptimes and slow speeds. You’ll want to make sure that your host has an uptime of at least 99.5% and load speeds of 1,200 ms or faster.

High Quality Customer Support

If you decide to build and maintain your own website, you’re going to need customer support at some point. It’s an inevitability that faces all webmasters.

And when it happens, you’ll want to make sure that your hosting service offers easily accessible and efficient customer support to help you get back up and running as quickly as possible.

Look for providers that offer 24/7 live chat or over-the-phone support so you know there are always on call when you need them. Also, be sure to look at online communities like Reddit and web hosting forums to gauge the public opinion on the company’s customer service before jumping in.

Whether you need a single email account for a new blog or a full suite of corporate accounts for the startup you’re building, the services in this guide offer dependable options worth considering.

Let us know which one you choose in the comments below and, as always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out — we’ll respond as quickly as we can.

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References and image credits:

• ByarvitSolutions.com
• PointCloser.com
• WebSeoMarketers.com