Which webhost has the best WEBMAIL?

dr_anrak · 20th April 2007

I run my own small company website and am using Freeola at the moment to host my site and receive email. The main problem, and what really drives me mad about Freeola, is their appalingly bad webmail. It really is shocking. It's unreliable, does not save sent emails, does not have an address book, deletes emails automatically after 60 days etc. etc. Basically everything that a webmail service could do badly, it does.

Anyway, I'm looking to move to a proper paid hosting solution, but my main priority is to find one with an excellent webmail service. I am out and about all the time and really need access to my mail from any PC, so it must be webmail. I don't want to use Yahoo or Googlemail unless absolutely necessary, although I do like their features. I need to send from my company email and I know I can do this from Yahoo but it costs to do it.

What host currently offers the best webmail service that is on a par with the likes of Yahoo and Googlemail, or is there no such provider? I don't know how much priority they give to webmail so maybe none of them are that great.

Advice much appreciated. Thanks...

othellotech · 21st April 2007

Yahoo, Hotmail, Google are all multi-billion dollar companies, so have spent some of that on "slick" presentation of their webmail.

As far as "host-based" webmail services go, they tend to be wrappers around a proper email service, with Horde and RoundCube being the most featurefull.

At least with a hosts webmail you stand a chance of it being delivered, wheras I hear daily complaints about gmail and hotmail.

Jon-NC · 21st April 2007

I'd personally be looking for some form of Microsoft Exchange webmail hosting. IMO it's the best webmail facility. Plus you have the facility to hook it to PDA's etc.

I believe http://www.relio.com/ do exchange hosting.

garrence · 21st April 2007

Zimbra is by far the best webmail program - it's one of the leading packages behind the Web 2.0 / AJAX buzz. Some companies offer hosted solutions at £X per user per month.

MK Hosting · 21st April 2007

I have to say roundcube is the best I have used. I dont use webmail that often though.

aguk · 21st April 2007

If you find a webmail client you like you could install it yourself (dependant on language used) on a hosting package.

dr_anrak · 21st April 2007

I'm not that technically savvy when it comes to this whole web hosting thing, so I ideally would want an all in one solution from the host that offered excellent webmail with reliable hosting for the website.

I'm not so bothered about the presentation of the webmail, but it's essential that it doesn't delete emails automatically, has an address book, keeps sent messages, and has a massive capacity. Don't mind paying extra for these features.

You mention Zimbra and Roundcube - do they do all of these things? If so, what reliable UK hosts offer one of these as their webmail?

Does it matter if host is UK or US based by the way? I am in the UK.

JamieBeeston · 21st April 2007

I'd say virtually any decent host will provide what you've asked for.

It's certainly not the norm, in my experience, to automatically delete clients email... that's for them to control and decide, not us.

J

dr_anrak · 22nd April 2007

No, I think that particular habit is limited to Freeola. Their webmail barely meets the definition of the word.

Problem is, I've no idea who is considered good, short of someone telling me they've had a good experience. But that's not exactly a good indicator overall. Is there an online poll or ratings chart of different hosts and who is good and who is not? I'm sure there are some dodgy ones out there. The tech jargon they spew out means little to me, so I'm none the wiser having looked at umpteen different providers.

othellotech · 22nd April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr_anrak

I'm not so bothered about the presentation of the webmail, but it's essential that it doesn't delete emails automatically, has an address book, keeps sent messages, and has a massive capacity. Don't mind paying extra for these features.

You mention Zimbra and Roundcube - do they do all of these things? If so, what reliable UK hosts offer one of these as their webmail?

Does it matter if host is UK or US based by the way? I am in the UK.

UK vs US is an interesting debate - in my experience the location actually makes little difference to email service, but does make a noticable difference in web - so if you're using webmail, you want it "local" to you if possible

RoundCube (which I like very much for my webmail) & Horde both do what you need. Zimbra I've not used extensively.

The auto-delete of client emails is not a "common" issue, certainly not something we've ever implemented I've known hosts lose all their clients emails, but thats a rare hardware failure based problem not a general configuration facility

aguk · 22nd April 2007

It is usually common for hosts offering 'unlimited' diskspace to auto delete mails after 60-90 days.

Hosts including mail in your diskspace usage will generally leave your mail alone since it is up to you to manage your space.

luke · 22nd April 2007

At $dayjob i've setup roundcube on our new mail server, initial feedback is good because it's clean and simple to use!

RSH · 23rd April 2007

I would second roundcube when it comes to compare different available webmail applications.. For those who are not aware about roundcube, you can check their demo at http://demo.roundcube.net/

UH-Matt · 23rd April 2007

Round cube is nice, but remember its beta and does have some bugs... lot of people seem to be using it in production regardless.

dr_anrak · 23rd April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by aguk

It is usually common for hosts offering 'unlimited' diskspace to auto delete mails after 60-90 days.

I definitely DON'T want that. Emails must be stored indefinitely. Capacity that the host offers would have to be alot though, as webmail is going to be the main place where all mail is stored, rather than on a PC via Outlook/Thunderbird. As I say, if that means paying a bit extra, I don't mind.

The Roundcube demo link above looks nice. Seems to offer everything required in a simple and easy to use package.

With that in mind, does anyone know of a good reliable UK based host that offers Roundcube (or Horde if that's equally as good)?