Many small business owners use email forwarding as a way to streamline and manage their communications. Based on the popularity of this practice, most web hosts that offer email services also support email forwarding. However, forwarding features and capabilities can vary by individual web host, and the plans that they offer. In this article, we will give an overview of the pros and cons of email forwarding, what capabilities you should look for in a web host, and our recommendations for the best email forwarding hosting.
The 10 Best Email Forwarding Hosting Services of 2021
How Did We Pick the Best Hosts for Email Forwarding?
We shortlisted the hosting plans that come with easy email forwarding setup and multiple types of forwarding options. We prioritized hosts with solid email hosting overall, which includes spam controls.
Then, we looked for companies with high customer service ratings, turning to thousands of real users for their genuine feedback.
A2 Hosting
With A2 Hosting’s cPanel-based user interface, it’s easy to set up email forwarding and autoresponders for your site.
And A2 Hosting offers many other useful features. Even the minimum-priced Startup plan includes perks such as CloudFlare CDN, a free SSL certification, and DDoS protection.
But if it’s in your budget, you would be wise to upgrade to either their Turbo Boost or Turbo Max plan. That would provide you with access to A2 Hosting’s turbo servers, which are up to 20 times faster than what the average hosting provider offers.
These plans also come with Horde, Squirrelmail, and Roundcube webmail software pre-installed, and they offer built-in spam protection as well.
Price
Money-Back Guarantee
Features
Startup: Starts at $2.99/month Drive: Starts at $4.99/month Turbo Boost: Starts at $9.99/month Turbo Max: Starts at $14.99/month
Full refund within 30 days of purchase, after 30 days the refund amount will be prorated
>949 ms avg. response time >99.84% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at A2 Hosting
Pros & Cons of A2 HostingEmail Forwarding Hosting
With their affordable prices, robust features, and flexible money-back guarantee, there’s certainly a lot to like about A2 Hosting. But one downside is that 99.9% is the industry standard for hosting uptime, and an independent audit found that A2 Hosting doesn’t quite meet that mark.
Pros
Cons
>cPanel-based interface >Turbo servers
>Uptime under 99.9%
What Customers Are Saying
The turbo servers are an especially popular feature, and customers also say that the support is very reliable. “I have a Turbo web hosting plan for professional use,” wrote one user. “I am a wedding photographer and it’s very important that my homepage shows up in a couple of seconds to my potential clients, without delays. I have rarely had issues, but when issues happened they solved the problem within a few minutes. I’d recommend them to all those who want a fast and reliable web server.”
Bluehost
Bluehost’s prices start at $2.95 for their Basic plan, which works for one website and includes 50 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, and a free SSL certificate.
Upgrading to the Plus, Choice Plus, or Pro shared hosting plan would provide you with extra features such as unlimited websites, unlimited storage, and a free 30-day trial of Microsoft 365 email.
And all of these premium plans come with SpamExperts, which is an advanced filter that blocks spam, viruses, phishing, and other email-related attacks with 99.98% accuracy
If you have too much traffic for a shared hosting solution, Bluehost also has VPS hosting and dedicated hosting plans available.
>1,176 ms avg. response time >99.961% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at Bluehost
Pros & Cons of BluehostEmail Forwarding Hosting
The performance is a mixed bag with Bluehost. While you will benefit from an excellent uptime rate, the average response time is a tad slow.
Pros
Cons
>Above-average uptime >24/7 phone support
>Below-average speed
What Customers Are Saying
Users love Bluehost’s high uptime rate. “I switched from another host owing to frequent outages and poor client service,” wrote one customer. “Bluehost has been an excellent selection. I have had just about no outages since moving to Bluehost.”
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks also has a cPanel-based interface that allows anyone to quickly set up email forwarding and autoresponders.
Another reason to use this provider is their commitment to protecting the environment — for each amperage they pull for their system, GreenGeeks matches three times that amount with carbon offset products from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
As for hosting, their prices start at $2.95 per month for the Lite plan, which works for one website and includes unlimited data transfer, free CDN, a free SSL certificate, and free nightly backups.
GreenGeeks plans also include a variety of email hosting capabilities. You can access your messages via IMAP or POP3 and send messages with Sendmail or SMTP. Plus, they provide unlimited personalized email accounts and free email spam protection.
>866 ms avg. response time >99.975% uptime >24/7 live chat, phone support available every day from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. EST >More features at GreenGeeks
Pros & Cons of GreenGeeksEmail Forwarding Hosting
Even the most basic GreenGeeks plan offers many useful features, and their performance is excellent as well. But ideally, their phone lines would be open 24/7.
Pros
Cons
>Exceptional performance >cPanel-based interface >300% green energy match
>Phone support not always available
What Customers Are Saying
This customer had tried several other hosting providers before, and they found that nothing compared to GreenGeeks: “I prefer GreenGeeks over any other web hosting site. They have excellent customer service, and it is super fast and easy to use. My favorite thing they do is they help reroute all domains for you instead of the tedious work that I would have had to do on the back end. And plus, they are a green company!”
HostGator
HostGator’s Hatchling plan is just $2.75 per month. It works for one website and includes unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain.
Upgrading to the Baby or Business plan would provide you with extra features such as unlimited websites, SEO tools, and a dedicated IP.
All of these plans include cPanel-based site management, allowing you to easily manage email forwarding as well as other hosting and domain-related tasks. Additional email features include unlimited POP3 email accounts with SMTP, mobile access via IMAP support, and SpamAssassin spam protection.
Also, HostGator gives you $100 in Google AdWords credits and $100 in Bing Ads credits when you sign up.
>1,158 ms avg. response time >99.932% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at HostGator
Pros & Cons of HostGatorEmail Forwarding Hosting
Low prices and benefits such as cPanel-based site management and advertising credits make HostGator an enticing option, but their below-average speed is a good reason to consider your other choices.
Pros
Cons
>cPanel-based interface >Advertising credits
>Below-average speed
What Customers Are Saying
Users tend to talk up HostGator’s interface and customer support. “I liked HostGator’s technical support,” wrote one user. “You could call with any concern and they will help you with your problem and give you the resources. I also like how easy it is to set up subdomains and emails.”
Hostinger
If you’re looking for the absolute most affordable hosting provider, look no further — Hostinger has plans as cheap as $0.99 per month.
That’s the cost of their Single shared hosting plan, which works for one website and only includes one email account and 100 GB of bandwidth. You’ll need to upgrade to the Premium or Business plan for unlimited websites, email accounts, and bandwidth. All of these plans feature cPanel-based site management.
Hostinger also offers separate plans for email hosting. The Business Email plan is $0.99 per month and includes 10 GB email storage, 2 mail filters, 50 email aliases, and antivirus protection. Upgrading to the Enterprise Email plan would cost $2.49 per month and provide you with 30 GB email storage and unlimited email filters. And both of these plans include advanced features such as contact management, productivity tools, and integrated video calls.
It must be noted, though, that uptime is a significant concern with Hostinger. We’ve already mentioned that 99.9% is the industry standard. Hostinger doesn’t quite hit 99%.
Price
Money-Back Guarantee
Features
Single Shared: $0.99/month Premium Shared: $2.89/month Business Shared: $3.99/month
30 days
>459 ms avg. response time >98.79% uptime >24/7 live chat support >More features at Hostinger
Pros & Cons of Hostinger Email Forwarding Hosting
The ultra-low prices and fast average response time are strong points in Hostinger’s favor, but their uptime is below the industry standard.
Pros
Cons
>Low prices >Excellent speed
>Uptime under 99%
What Customers Are Saying
Hostinger’s customer support staff is just as quick as their servers. “The support from the staff is very impressive as they tend to respond to the questions very fast,” wrote one user. “They also deploy fast servers and very economical hosting plans.”
HostPapa
HostPapa is yet another provider that offers an easy-to-use, cPanel-based user interface for setting up email forwarding, autoresponders, and all the other tasks you need to manage for your domains.
The Starter shared hosting plan works for two websites and includes plenty of useful features, such as CloudFlare CDN, Let’s Encrypt SSL, and free domain registration. Upgrading to the Business or Business Pro plan would provide you with access to faster servers, advanced security tools, and unlimited email accounts. Also, all of these shared hosting plans include email management features such as personalized email campaigns and one-click install for mailing lists.
For another $2 per month, you can add HostPapa Advanced Email to your plan. This includes 5 GB of email cloud storage, unlimited IMAP connections, a calendar tool, and spam/malware/phishing protection.
In addition to these shared hosting plans, HostPapa also offers VPS hosting and reseller hosting for high-traffic sites.
Price
Money-Back Guarantee
Features
Starter: $3.95/month Business: $3.95/month Business Pro: $12.95/month
30 days
>954 ms avg. response time >99.954% uptime >24/7 phone support >More features at HostPapa
Pros & Cons of HostPapaEmail Forwarding Hosting
With their affordable prices, feature-rich plans, and strong performance, HostPapa is a solid all-around hosting option. But if you prefer live chat over phone support, that’s not going to be an option for you here.
Pros
Cons
>Feature-rich hosting plans >24/7 phone support
>No live chat support
What Customers Are Saying
According to this user, HostPapa offers particularly good customer support: “Whenever we have had technical problems we found the HostPapa tech people very fast to respond, courteous, knowledgeable, and helpful. Having dealt with many tech companies in the past, I know this is rare and valuable.”
InMotion Hosting
If you’re on a tight budget, this likely isn’t going to be the best option for you — their most affordable plan is $5.99 per month, which is roughly two to three times as much as the minimum price offered by many other providers.
But you do get a lot of value for that $5.99 per month plan, as it includes cPanel-based site management, security tools, marketing tools, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain. It does only include 10 email accounts and 500 MB email storage per inbox, though. For more accounts and storage, you’ll need to upgrade to the Power plan (50 accounts and 10 GB storage per inbox) or Pro plan (unlimited accounts and 20 GB storage per inbox). All plans include email forwarding, autoresponders, and SpamAssassin spam protection.
InMotion Hosting is somewhat lacking, however, when it comes to response time and uptime. Their average response time is slower than the industry standard and their uptime rate also falls short according to an independent audit.
>1,168 ms avg. response time >99.836% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at InMotion Hosting
Pros & Cons of InMotion HostingEmail Forwarding Hosting
While InMotion Hosting’s plans do offer an impressive set of features, you’ll need to weigh that against their cost and performance concerns.
Pros
Cons
>Feature-rich hosting plans >24/7 phone support
>Relatively high prices >Below-average speed and uptime
What Customers Are Saying
Customers like that InMotion Hosting serves as a one-stop shop for many of their business needs. “We have been working with InMotion Hosting for five years now,” wrote one user. “The domain, hosting, and WordPress solutions they offer are stellar! As a business, it is important for us to have all the above services in one place. InMotion Hosting delivers this on so many fronts.”
iPage
Unlike most other providers, iPage only offers one option for shared hosting.
For $1.99 per month, you get unlimited disk space, a free SSL certificate, one year of free domain registration, a built-in shopping cart, an enhanced security suite, 24/7 network monitoring, and much more. As for email features, this plan includes a customizable email address with your domain, email forwarding, autoresponders, virus checking, and customizable spam filters.
And for a more powerful hosting solution, there are also VPS hosting and dedicated hosting plans available.
Price
Money-Back Guarantee
Features
$1.99/month
30 days
>984 ms avg. response time >99.951% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at iPage
Pros & Cons of iPage Email Forwarding Hosting
It’s hard to find a flaw with iPage, as they offer affordable prices, strong performance, and all the features you need for email forwarding hosting. One drawback is that rather than providing unlimited bandwidth, iPage offers “scalable” bandwidth for their shared hosting plans, which they say is more than enough for 99.5% of their customers. But if you have a lot of traffic, you may have no choice but to upgrade to one of their VPS or dedicated hosting plans.
Pros
Cons
>Low prices >Feature-rich hosting plans
>Limited bandwidth on shared hosting plans
What Customers Are Saying
Users also report that iPage’s interface is especially easy to use. “I like the simplicity of iPage, and the ease of navigation on their website and portal,” wrote one customer. “Any task that I need to accomplish, from domain administration to email creation is easy to accomplish.”
Namecheap
Namecheap’s three shared hosting plans are Stellar, Stellar Plus, and Stellar Business.
The Stellar plan is just $1.44 per month. It works for three sites and includes unmetered bandwidth, 20 GB SSD storage, a free website builder, free CDN, and one year of free domain registration and privacy protection. Upgrading to the Stellar Plus plan would get you unlimited websites, unlimited SSD storage, and automatic backups.
The Stellar Business plan is cloud-based — it offers 50 GB SSD storage (plus cloud storage), personal nameservers, and built-in PCI compliance.
Also, all of these plans include a cPanel-based user interface for easy site management. You can quickly set up a domain-based email address, forwarding, autoresponders, and mailing lists.
>701 ms avg. response time >99.928% uptime >24/7 live chat support >More features at Namecheap
Pros & Cons of NamecheapEmail Forwarding Hosting
From pricing to features to performance, this is another option that offers just about everything you could ask for from a hosting provider. The only downside is that there’s no phone support.
Namecheap may not offer phone support, but the live chat support appears to work just fine. “The attention offered by the technical support team is the best, as they are efficient and fast,” wrote one customer. “They will pay close attention and offer the best solution for your problem.”
SiteGround
Some hosting users are constrained by a tight budget and consider pricing before all else. Others have a budget big enough for them to choose their favorite provider regardless of the price.
If you belong to that latter category, then you should give SiteGround an extra close look.
All of their shared hosting plans include cPanel-based site management, unlimited email accounts with forwarding and autoresponders, SpamExperts, daily backups, free CDN, and a free SSL certificate. And with an average response time of 534 ms and an uptime rate of 99.986%, you’re just not going to find better shared hosting performance than this.
>534 ms avg. response time >99.986% uptime >24/7 live chat and phone support >More features at SiteGround
Pros & Cons of SiteGroundEmail Forwarding Hosting
SiteGround offers a variety of helpful features and truly exceptional performance, but it comes at a steep price.
Pros
Cons
>Exceptional performance >Feature-rich hosting plans >24/7 phone support
>Relatively high prices
What Customers Are Saying
SiteGround’s powerful performance and intuitive interface have earned them a lot of praise. “Even web pages with many large scripts and dynamic code load very fast and usually get high scores in web performance tests,” wrote one customer. “The control panel is designed to be simple. For those with basic experience with web hosting tools, SiteGround’s web hosting account is easy to manage.”
What Is Email Forwarding?
Email forwarding is the act of re-sending email received by one address to another address. In web hosting, it refers to the automation of this resending according to rules set up by the hosting administrator.
If you have a domain name for your business (which you should), you will want to set up email addresses using that domain name.
You could use these email addresses by checking mail from the hosting plan’s mail server if you want to — either through the host’s webmail client or by setting up your own local client such as Outlook. A
different option would be to outsource your email operation to another subscription-based email server, such as Google Apps.
Finally, sometimes the simplest solution is just to use email forwarding. Email forwarding might be used for several different reasons.
Reasons to Use Server-Based Email Forwarding
Collect Several Addresses Into One Account
If you run a lot of different projects on different domain names, it might not make sense to actually use a different email address for each domain name. But it might still be desirable to have a public-facing email address for each of them.
You could just have all of the emails to any of your pseudonyms forward on to your primary email address. This could be an address one of your own domains, or it could be a personal email account at a well-respected personal email service.
(Note: It seems that currently, @gmail.com is the only acceptable address type for this kind of use. And it only really makes sense if the disparate business all relate back to you and your own skills and personality. This works well for writers, consultants, and freelancers. It works less well for more “corporate” or institutional endeavors.)
If you are using Gmail (and a few other commercial webmail services), you can set up your own email account to send mail as another address.
With this feature, you can have all your email forward to your Gmail account, and respond from it there, while still retaining your branded domain email address.
If you’re going to go that far though, you might as well just set the service up to act as a full-scale mail client.
Role-Based or Function-Based Email Addresses
If you want to use email addresses like [email protected] or [email protected], then you are usually better off setting these up as a forwarding address from the beginning.
You can make your one-person organization seem a little larger if you have all these “departmental” email addresses, but manage everything by having those emails forward straight on to your primary account.
The other benefit to having them set up as forwarders is that you can add people to them easily. As your organization grows or changes, you can simply add addresses to the forwarding list, or remove them as you need to.
IF you want to have these role-based emails, it is much better to have them set up this way rather than having them set up as individual accounts that have to be checked on their own.
The people doing those jobs might do several jobs, and you don’t want them to have to individually check multiple emails addresses.
You also want to be able to quickly start or stop email forwarding to a particular address, in the case that there are ever any problems.
Replacement Receiver
Someone who used to be a part of your organization, but isn’t any longer, would have had an email address when they were employed with you. Other people might have gotten that email address and might still be sending messages to it.
It’s a good idea, whenever an email address is decommissioned, to have the old email address set up to forward all messages to the person or people who will be taking over that user’s duties.
The Problem With Using Email Forwarding
There are two problems with using forwarding as your way of handling branded-domain email.
The first problem is that it might not get to you. If you are using the mail server on a shared hosting account to forward your business email on to your personal email address, it is possible that your email will get flagged as spam and never reach your inbox. You might not even know it has happened.
Depending on your mail service provider, you may be able to fix this problem by white-listing your hosting account’s IP address or your branded email address.
The other problems come in the common practice of using a “send mail as” feature to respond to email.
If you are spoofing the email address you are sending from (rather than connecting back to the server to send mail from there), this can be understood by some spam filters as bad behavior.
Depending on the content of your message, and other factors, this could lead to your outgoing messages being flagged.
What is spoofing?
In technical terms, spoofing is the practice of masking the source of a communication, so the recipient thinks it is coming from a known, trusted source. Because this is typically a practice used with malicious intent, to obtain personal information or spread malware, email spam filters are sensitive to “send mail as” features. If you are using this type of email forwarding feature, even if your intentions are good, your emails could be flagged or blocked as spam.
Looking for a great deal on email hosting? SiteGround — rated #1 by our readers — provides quality email hosting and a variety of email forwarding functions. Right now you can save up to 67% on these plans. Use this special discount link to get the deal.
Using Email Forwarding
Most web hosting companies offer mail forwarding management from the hosting control panel. It is usually very easy to set up.
Our writing team comes from all over the world with diverse backgrounds in the arts and sciences. But what links them is their passion for the internet. All together they represent many decades of experience working in all facets of it – from programming and hardware creation to website design and marketing.
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Who’s Best for Email Forwarding Hosting?
We think SiteGround is the best choice for Email Forwarding.
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