Almost every new website comes with the same question: "And the e-mail, do you handle that too?" The answer is no, and that is a deliberate choice. We explain why, and what we do instead so that your mail simply works.
Why we don’t do it
E-mail looks simple, but behind it lies a world that has nothing to do with websites. Whether a message arrives depends on the reputation of the server, on spam filters that change every day, on technical signatures on your domain and on how quickly someone reacts when a server ends up on a blacklist. Add to that storage, backups, protection against viruses and phishing, and a mailbox that has to be reachable day and night, even while we sleep.
A web server is the wrong place for that. A site that is briefly down you notice immediately and fix. Mail that quietly fails to arrive or lands in spam you only notice when a client calls to ask why you are not responding. We do not want to run that risk for you. Companies that only do e-mail do it with teams, monitoring and agreements that a small agency like ours can never match. So we leave it to them.
What we do instead
Not running a mail server does not mean you are on your own. In every project we make sure the e-mail side is right:
- Choosing the right provider. We ask how you work, with how many people and what matters to you, and then recommend one provider. Not the most expensive, but the best match.
- Setting up the domain properly. We register and manage domain names ourselves. If we manage your domain name, we put in place the records that make mail work and trusted: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If the domain is with someone else, we spell out exactly which details the administrator needs to enter. That is the part that usually goes wrong when people set it up themselves.
- Creating and migrating mailboxes. New addresses, aliases such as info@ and invoices@, and moving existing mail if you switch. We also guide a move from Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace to Proton, keeping all users, mail, calendars and files.
- Configuring devices. Phone, laptop, tablet. You do not have to search for server addresses and ports yourself.
- The mail from your website. Contact forms and confirmations are sent through a separate transactional mail service, so they do not land in spam and your mailbox is not affected.
Which providers we recommend
There are hundreds of parties. These are the five we work with in practice, and who they suit.
Proton Mail: the privacy-safe choice
Proton comes from Switzerland and built its service from the ground up around privacy. Mail is stored encrypted in a way that even Proton itself cannot read your messages, and between Proton users mail is end-to-end encrypted. The company earns its money with subscriptions, not with advertising or with analysing your mail. For businesses there is Proton Workspace: mail, calendar, cloud storage, documents, spreadsheets and video calls in one package, with your own domain and shared addresses. That makes it as complete as the suites from Microsoft and Google.
We recommend Proton if you work with sensitive information: consultants, healthcare, legal, financial, or simply if you feel your business mail does not belong with an advertising company. In fairness: Proton is slightly less common, some integrations with other software are more limited and the mail apps work a little differently from what you are used to. In return you know where your mail is and who can access it. Already on Microsoft or Google? Switching to Proton is possible without losing users or data; we guide that move.
Microsoft 365
The standard in many offices. Outlook, a calendar everyone knows, Teams and the Office programs in one subscription. The logical choice if your team already lives in Word and Excel or works with organisations that use Teams. For small businesses there are entry plans with just mail and calendar.
Google Workspace
Gmail with your own domain, plus Drive, Calendar and Meet. Fast, the same everywhere and with a search function second to none. A good choice if you collaborate a lot in shared documents and prefer working in the browser over separate programs.
mailbox.org: European, secure and complete
mailbox.org comes from Germany and runs on servers in Germany, under European privacy rules. It is more than a mailbox: mail, calendar, contacts, cloud storage, online document editing and video calls come in one package, with your own domain and support for encrypted mail. That makes it a European alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace for anyone who would rather not keep their data with an American company, but still wants a complete suite. It looks a little plainer than the big two, and as with Proton some integrations are more limited.
A Dutch hosting company
Many Dutch hosting companies offer simple business mailboxes on Dutch servers. No calendar integrations or collaboration tools, but a decent mailbox at a sharp price. Fine for a small business that mainly wants reliable mail and needs little else. One piece of advice: do not move the domain name along with it. That stays with us, as part of maintenance, so that your site, your mail and your settings are managed in one place and you can switch providers without your domain going with them.
How to choose
Three questions usually decide:
- How sensitive is what you mail? The more sensitive, the sooner Proton or mailbox.org.
- What does your team already work in? Office and Teams point to Microsoft, shared documents in the browser to Google. If you want both, but European, look at Proton Workspace or mailbox.org.
- How much do you need besides mail? Just a mailbox, then a Dutch host is often enough.
Count on a few euros to well over ten euros per user per month for a business mailbox, depending on what is included. You pay that directly to the provider; we earn nothing from it and we like to keep it that way. That way we recommend what fits best, not what pays most.
In short
We leave e-mail to companies that make it their profession. Choosing, setting up and migrating we do, as a fixed part of a project or of maintenance. That way you have one point of contact for your site and your domain, and a mail provider that does what it is good at.
