Business email hosting: what a small business actually needs
Business email hosting is the infrastructure behind addresses at your own domain. The important comparison is not whether a provider can create `name@company.ca`; it is how mail is authenticated, accessed, protected, migrated, administered, and recovered.
List the mailbox and workflow requirements
Count people, shared addresses, aliases, forwarding rules, storage needs, mobile/desktop clients, webmail, calendars, and any applications that send mail. A tiny team can still have complex routing if several systems use the domain.
Keep inbound mail and outbound sending paths clear
MX records control where incoming mail is delivered. SMTP submission, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reverse DNS, and sender reputation affect outbound mail. A provider that receives mail successfully is not automatically the right path for website or bulk sending.
Plan migration before changing MX
Create destination mailboxes, copy historical mail if required, configure clients, and decide how new messages received during DNS cache transition will be synchronized. Keep the old service accessible until the new path is verified.
Use account security and recovery that survives staff changes
Administrative MFA, delegated roles, recovery contacts, audit history, and documented domain ownership matter because email often becomes the recovery channel for other business systems.