Alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for business email
Last updated: 26:10:2026
First: do you need a suite or just email?
The most useful question comes before any comparison table. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are not email services with extras - they are collaboration suites in which email is one part. Shared documents, cloud storage, calendars with meeting booking, chat and video calls all come from one vendor, under one admin console.
If most of these describe you, a suite is probably the right answer and the rest of this guide is about which one:
- your team edits documents and spreadsheets together every day,
- you schedule meetings through shared calendars and need free/busy information,
- you want one sign-in and one admin console for everything.
If instead your documents live elsewhere (a separate cloud drive, a project tool, a desktop office suite) and what you need is reliable email on your own domain, an email-only provider is worth a serious look. You may pay less, and you are not tied to one vendor for everything.
Five criteria for a fair comparison
1. The pricing model, not just the price
Suites charge per user per month, and that price includes the documents, storage and video tools. Email-only providers differ widely: some charge per mailbox, others a flat price per account or plan with a number of mailboxes and sending limits included. Work out the cost for your team, including role addresses such as office@ or invoices@ - with per-user pricing, each one may cost as much as a person, while elsewhere it may cost nothing extra. Also check whether the price shown assumes a yearly commitment and whether it is an introductory price.
2. Where the data is, and who can access it
Under the GDPR, your email provider is your processor. Look for:
- a data processing agreement (DPA) you can accept,
- where mail is stored (country, and whether you can choose a region),
- which subprocessors are involved, and whether any of them is outside the EEA or has a parent company outside it - and what legal safeguard covers that (for example the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses).
"Hosted in the EU" can mean different things: data at rest in an EU data centre, all processing in the EU, or a European company with no non-EU parent. Read the privacy policy rather than the marketing page.
3. The mail features you actually use
- Client access: IMAP and SMTP for standard apps, POP3 if you still need it, or the vendor's own protocol (Exchange/ActiveSync) for full Outlook integration.
- Addresses: how many mailboxes, whether aliases and catch-all addresses exist, how forwarding works.
- Teamwork: shared inboxes, delegated access, assignment.
- Storage and limits: mailbox size, attachment size, how long data is kept, daily sending limits.
- Security: DKIM signing with your own domain, two-factor sign-in, separate passwords for mail apps, spam filtering - see business email security basics.
4. Calendars, contacts and documents
If you leave a suite for an email-only provider, you need a home for calendars, shared contacts and files. Some email providers include calendars and contacts (often via the open CalDAV and CardDAV standards); others don't, and you would keep those elsewhere. Decide this before you move, not after.
5. How easily you can leave
Standard protocols make the next move easier: mail can be copied out over IMAP, calendars exported as iCalendar files, contacts as vCards. Prefer a provider that lets you export everything yourself. Our guide to switching email providers covers the move step by step.
The providers people usually compare
Prices and plans change often and vary by country and currency, so we describe the providers below in terms of what they are and how they charge, based on their official pages as of October 2026. Check the current prices on each provider's own site before deciding.
Google Workspace
Gmail with Google Docs, Drive, Calendar and Meet, priced per user per month, with pooled storage that grows with each tier. Data regions - choosing that certain data is stored in the US or Europe - are available on some editions (according to Google's admin help, Business Standard and Business Plus among them, but not Business Starter).
Microsoft 365
Exchange Online email with Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint and (on some plans) the desktop Office apps, priced per user. Microsoft announced in February 2025 that its EU Data Boundary was complete, so that eligible European customers' data for Microsoft 365 is stored and processed in the EU and EFTA. Third-party apps connecting over IMAP need modern (OAuth) sign-in, since Microsoft has disabled basic authentication for IMAP and POP in Exchange Online.
Zoho Mail
Offers email-only plans (Mail Lite, Mail Premium) as well as Zoho Workplace bundles with documents and storage. There is a free plan for up to five users that does not include IMAP, POP or ActiveSync. Zoho runs data centres in several regions, including the EU; according to its help pages an account is assigned to one based on the user's location by default.
Proton Mail
A Swiss provider (based in Geneva) built around end-to-end encryption, with business plans that include a calendar and file storage. Standard desktop apps connect through Proton Mail Bridge, which per Proton's support pages is available only on paid plans and not on mobile; POP3 is not offered.
Fastmail
An email provider with calendars, contacts and file storage, with per-user business plans that include shared calendars and a shared address book. Its pricing page lets you choose the primary data residency, EU or USA. Check the plan comparison: at the time of writing, the cheapest business tier did not include custom domains or third-party app access.
Migadu
A Swiss email-only provider whose plans are priced per account rather than per mailbox, with many mailboxes and domains included and daily incoming and outgoing message limits that differ by plan. No office suite.
mailbox.org
A German provider whose services run in data centres in Berlin. Business plans are priced per user, from a small mail-only tier to plans with calendar, contacts, online office documents and video meetings; webmail, IMAP and POP3 are included.
AnyMail
Our own service, so here is what it does and doesn't do, plainly. AnyMail is email-only hosting on your own domain, priced per plan rather than per user: at the time of writing Starter is $1.99 per month for one mail server with up to 10 inboxes, and Pro $9.99 per month for up to six mail servers with up to 50 inboxes each, plus a REST API and webhooks. It is operated from Poland: the application and mail transport run on a server in Poland, and the database is hosted by MongoDB Atlas in Germany (MongoDB's parent company is in the USA - the privacy policy describes the safeguards).
- Included: guided MX/SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup with automatic checks, a 2048-bit DKIM key per mail server, a web app you can install on desktop and mobile, up to 10 aliases per inbox that it receives at and can send from, IMAP and SMTP submission with per-inbox app passwords, shared inboxes (read-only or manager access, assignment, internal notes), filter rules, two-factor sign-in, and self-service data export and account deletion.
- Not included: calendars, contacts, documents or video calls; POP3; Exchange/ActiveSync. A message can have up to 50 recipients (To, Cc and Bcc combined), and mail storage is 5 GB per account on Starter and Subdomain and 25 GB on Pro and Business - less than the big suites offer (mail and attachments are kept until you delete them).
That makes AnyMail a good fit for small teams who want reliable, inexpensive mail on their own domain and keep documents and calendars elsewhere - and a poor fit if you need a mailbox that doubles as a long-term file archive or daily group mail with many recipients.
A quick decision table
| If you need... | Look at |
|---|---|
| Email, documents, calendars and video from one vendor | An office suite (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho Workplace) |
| Email plus calendars and contacts, documents elsewhere | Email providers with CalDAV/CardDAV (e.g. Fastmail, mailbox.org) |
| Many mailboxes or domains at a flat price | Providers priced per account or plan (e.g. Migadu, AnyMail) |
| End-to-end encrypted mail | Providers built around it (e.g. Proton Mail) |
| Full Outlook integration with Exchange features | Microsoft 365 |
Before you switch
- List what you use today: mailboxes, role addresses, forwarding rules, shared mailboxes, calendars, files.
- Decide where calendars, contacts and documents will live if the new provider doesn't have them.
- Run a trial with one or two people for a week before moving everyone.
- Plan the move itself - see how to switch email providers without losing mail - and the DNS records you will need (how to add DNS records).
Let AnyMail handle these records for you
AnyMail generates the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domain, checks every one of them automatically and tells you exactly which record to fix - then hosts your inboxes, operated from the EU.