You’ll see email hosting providers that seem to focus their energies in particular areas, allowing the competition to excel in others. That seems to be the case with IceWarp, which really excels should you need a lot of email and file storage.
That isn’t to say that IceWarp is particularly lacking as an all-rounder. Perhaps its support could be better and you have to sign up a minimum of 10 users, but the potential of adding native desktop apps is a great alternative to Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
Part of a storage-hungry organization? Keep reading our IceWarp review to fund out why this could be the email hosting service your business needs.
IceWarp: Plans and pricing
Unlike many of the other email hosting providers we’ve reviewed, IceWarp lets customers choose from plans for cloud email hosting and self-hosted email. For those who prefer the scalability and flexibility that you get from the cloud, the choices include Startup, Business, and a custom quote. For self-hosted email, you can opt for either a licence subscription or a customer quote.
The cloud Startup plan costs $23 per month for up to 10 users, while the Business tier costs $3.50 per user per month for up to 500 users. Should you need email for more than 500 users, you’ll need to get in touch with the IceWarp sales team directly to receive a custom price.
If you’d rather go with IceWarp’s self-hosted offering, this is charged at $3 per user per month for up to 500 users. And again, if you need more than 500 users, you'll need to reach out for a bespoke price from IceWarp. All of IceWarp’s plans come with one month free and, if you sign up for an annual subscription, you’ll save 17% compared to being billed monthly.
Pricing is slightly different if you want access to IceWarp’s native desktop applications for Windows and Mac. These are optional add-ons for subscribers to the Business plan and will set companies back an additional $3.50 per user. The flexibility of IceWarp’s pricing for this desktop suite is a bonus, however. You can sign up for Business email for your entire organization, for example, but add the desktop apps for as many or few individuals as required.
Features
In terms of its core features, the first thing that stands out about IceWarp is the generous amounts of cloud storage you receive with your chosen email hosting plan. Even Startup customers receive 200GB of email storage per user and 1TB of file storage.
Other welcome features included across both plans include TeamChat to help with collaboration, video conferencing for up to 1000 attendees, a calendar, and a personalized dashboard. There’s also ChatGPT integration, indicating that IceWarp isn’t going to let the opportunity of incorporating AI tools into its email hosting pass it by. So, if you already have a ChatGPT subscription, you can leverage it to create an AI assistant for use with your IceWarp account.
The main point of difference in terms of features between the Startup and Business tier plans is the desktop suite of applications for Windows and Mac devices. This isn’t available at all for Startup customers and can only be purchased as an optional add-on if you’re signed up for the Business plan. These applications represent pretty good alternatives to those you get with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. You can create and edit your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, but you may find that the applications are not quite as slick or well-designed as those on offer from Google or Microsoft.
Support
IceWarp's support isn’t bad but doesn’t necessarily fare that well against some of its competitors. For example, although its live chat support is easy to use and makes for a good first port of call for users, the company only guarantees a response within 48 hours. This is twice as long as the guaranteed response time for some other services, with Hostinger promising to respond in a single business day.
However, if you do need more urgent support, you can put in a request for dedicated cloud support, with responses typically provided in two hours. There’s also priority support available for those self-hosting, with a contact for telephone support.
In addition, IceWarp has an academy for video tutorials, an online FAQ, and a pretty active community forum. Overall, IceWarp’s support is pretty decent - it’s just that you might find more responsive assistance elsewhere.
Security
IceWarp has a fairly good security offering, with all applications safeguarded by TLS/SSL encryption. There are also integrated anti-spam and antivirus solutions and two-factor authentication is supported.
IceWarp’s security is multi-layered and leverages online detection to protect against threats. In total, it combines 20 antispam technologies with real-time zero-hour protection from CYREN and Intrusion Prevention System. That should help prevent malicious actors from accessing your email account.
What’s more, if you still hold reservations about the cloud’s security credentials, you can always decide to go with IceWarp’s on-premise plan. This puts responsibility for safeguarding your sensitive information firmly in your hands.
The competition
IceWarp certainly differentiates itself from the competition - noticeably in two major ways. It provides an on-premise option and has a minimum number of users set at 10. The former is a nice option if you have the resources to run your own IceWarp server, but the latter could be off-putting for smaller firms. On the other hand, larger enterprises will need mailboxes for more than 10 users anyway.
If you need plenty of storage, IceWarp blows most of the competition out of the water. While the cheapest Google Workspace plan comes with 30GB of shared storage per user, you get 1TB of file storage with IceWarp. Of course, storage isn’t everything, so if you want a slicker office suite or more third-party integrations, you might want to check out other providers, like Zoho Mail or Neo.
IceWarp: Final verdict
IceWarp is an excellent email hosting provider for businesses that need a lot of storage. For everyone else, it’s just very good. Smaller businesses may find the minimum sign-up for 10 users prohibitive, but they will enjoy the inclusion of various productivity tools.
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