1. Single point of failure - if one breaks, everything goes down
If your website crashes, is hacked or otherwise stops working, all of your email accounts will likewise stop working. This can potentially result in hours or even days of downtime. You’ve heard of “not putting all your eggs in one basket” and the same applies to your web and email hosting. Keeping them separate is the smart way to go for businesses.
2. Outdated technology
The POP/IMAP server-based email standard is over 30 years old – that makes it almost as old as the internet itself!
Imagine for a moment if we still stored and shared files on floppy disks or watched our favourite YouTube cat videos on VHS tapes? Of course, that would not be very practical given the technology we now have at our fingertips.
Likewise, it is impractical for businesses to continue using an outdated email technology when a superior system, designed for the needs of modern businesses is available to use.
3. Web hosting servers are designed for hosting websites, not emails.
Web servers are optimised for speed and reliability of websites – not email. Your local lawnmower guy might know a thing or two about engines but if you need your car fixed, taking it to an auto mechanic is the smart option because that is their field of expertise. Over 80% of all technical support requests we receive are related to email deliverability problems from using server-based email.
4. Reduced security and poor spam filtering
Using POP3 or IMAP email hosted on the same server as your website even with recommended security settings is still less secure than having dedicated email hosting. There is a greater risk of email-borne viruses and email phishing attacks which can capture private data including financial information, login details or identity details! You will also likely encounter a lot more spam email as well as problems with legitimate emails being incorrectly flagged as junk or worse still, not receiving emails at all.
5. POP3 and server-based email share the same IP address as your website
If another website hosted on the same server has their email address blacklisted, this can cause major delivery issues for your email addresses as well since the IP address is the same.
6. All of your emails are stored only on the server or a single computer/device
POP3 requires your computer to constantly download emails. Unless you have changed the default settings, once a message is downloaded, it is deleted from the server. Because of this, emails are not synchronised between devices – if you read an email on your phone, you won’t be able to see it on your computer later. Additionally, if your computer (or website) suffers a catastrophic failure, your emails are gone forever.
7. Emails take longer to send and receive
Since your website most likely shares a web server with several other sites, your website’s server must manage incoming and outgoing email for all of these sites. This means that it takes longer to send and receive email than using a dedicated email hosting service.
