Microsoft Exchange Online vs IONOS Email. My experience of using both and why I recommend Microsoft Exchange
Introduction
When I first launched my business I signed up with IONOS (1&1) to build a website and create an email addresses. Although my website worked well, I found the email system was unreliable so I migrated my emails to Microsoft Exchange Online. This post will tell you more about my experience and why I recommend all self-employed people and small businesses use Microsoft Exchange Online.
My Poor Experience with IONOS Email System
Unreliable email
When I setup my business I purchased the domain name, webhosting and email with IONOS (1&1). I created a WordPress website and setup an email address through the control panel of IONOS’s website. It was easy to setup both of these features and everything worked well.
I use Outlook to read and write emails, as I prefer Outlook for managing my emails compared to the online webmail systems that IONOS provided. My first impression was that the emails were working well. Customers were emailing me and I was emailing them back. I was winning business which was great. But after awhile I noticed a few strange things. I would email a customer who I knew would reply but they didn’t reply. I would then phone the customer up and ask them if they got my email and they said no. When I asked them to check their spam folder they found my email.
What was even stranger was a customer would receive an email from me and the next day it would go straight to their junk folder. At this point I knew I had to find an alternative solution. These lost emails were costing me business and money. How many other customers had thought to themselves that I had not bothered to reply when in fact the email I sent was probably sitting in their spam/junk folder!
IONOS email does not provide synchronization of the Outlook calendar and contacts with my mobile phone
In my home office I was also using the Microsoft Outlook program for the calendar to manage my appointments and the address book to keep track of all my customers’ contact details.
This worked well except when I was out on the road and wanted to check my calendar or the phone number of a customer on my phone. I couldn't! This information was only available on my PC which was back at home.
Researching a new email system
My extensive research on alternative email providers concluded that there were two possible solutions:
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft Exchange Online
Microsoft Exchange Online gave me the features I wanted such as large mailbox, cloud based email, contacts and calendar which could be synchronized across all my devices. Furthermore, the Microsoft 365 ecosystem would give me access to SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. Although I didn’t need them at the time, as my business has grown, having Teams has been very useful.
GET A BETTER EMAIL SYSTEM FOR YOUR BUSINESS
We have migrated many people from IONOS email over to Microsoft 365.
What is Microsoft Exchange Online
Exchange Online is the service that handles your emails. You can think of it as the sorting office of emails. It’s a bit like comparing DHL, DPD and Royal Mail.
When someone sends you an email it might just magically appear in your inbox but to get there it has to go through a lot of hoops. The first hoop is to look up on DNS servers who is hosting the email account (ie. who is the sorting office).
Before the migration to Exchange Online, IONOS were my ‘sorting office’ and as discussed above they weren’t doing a very good job in handling my emails. Exchange Online are my new sorting office who I have found to be much more reliable.
It doesn’t matter whether you use Outlook, a webmail system, Apple Mail or Thunderbird to send and receive your emails. It is the sorting office who determines how reliable your email is.
So now we know that Exchange Online will handle the delivery of all your outgoing and incoming emails. Another great feature of Exchange Online is the calendar and contacts. These two features are not part of the IMAP email systems which IONOS use.
Advantages of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
- 50GB mailbox
- Advanced spam filters
- More reliable email delivery
- Calendar
- Contacts
As my business has grown, being able to have a synchronised calendar across my desktop PC, laptop and mobile phone is great. I’ll never miss another appointment! And if I amo n the road I can call any of my business contacts easily.
When an existing customer phones I know immediately who it is which only improves my customer relationships. Having the Outlook app on my phone enables me to reply to customers whilst I am on the road.
How much does Microsoft 365 Exchange Online cost compared to IONOS?
If you have your website hosted with IONOS then you probably have email address(es) included inthe hosting package. Alternatively they offer various email packages.
Their cheapest offer is Mail Basic 5 which costs £1+VAT per month. You get 5 email accounts which can hold 2GB of emails each. Their next package called Mail Basic 1+ costs £1.50+VAT per month and includes 1 email account with 12GB of space.
Microsoft 365 Exchange Online costs £3.30+VAT per month per email address. If you need Microsoft Teams as well then upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Basic for £4.90 +VAT per month. If you don't have any Microsoft apps such as Word, Excel or Outlook you will need Microsoft 365 Business Standard which costs £10.30 + VAT per month.
IONOS email is cheaper but given that just one lost email could cost you a lot of money it doesn’t take much to realise that Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is very good value for money.
Microsoft 365
How to choose the correct Microsoft 365 Package
Read our knowledge article which explains clearly how to choose the correct Microsoft 365 package for your needs.
How do I setup my emails to use Microsoft Exchange Online?
It is possible to migrate your emails from IONOS to Microsoft Echange Online, without losing any emails and without any downtime. I provide a service where I can migrate all your emails over to Microsoft Echange Online. The process usually takes around 3-4 hours, spread over 2 days.
I have also written a complete series of knowledge base articles on how to migrate your emails from IONOS to Microsoft Echange Online.
What about my website, does this need to be moved as well?
If IONOS is hosting your website this can stay the same. I still have my IONOS webhosting account which is used to host my domain name and my website. But all my emails now go through Microsoft 365. This is achieved by changing DNS records in the IONOS control panel. Microsoft 365 have an excellent online wizard to help you with the process of updating your DNS records.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MICROSOFT 365 MIGRATION SERVICES WE OFFER
We have migrated many people from IONOS email over to Microsoft 365.
Need professional help migrating your emails
We have helped lots of self-employed and small business migrate their emails to Office 365.
No loss of emails and no downtime...