Business email is a little like the company letterhead. Nobody notices it when it works, but an address on a free email service, or a mailbox that stops receiving on a busy morning, tells a client a lot about a business before the first meeting. Most owners set up email once, when the company starts, and only think about it again when the team grows, a mailbox fills up or a provider changes its terms.
In short, hosted mailboxes give each person an email address on your own domain and focus on email itself, which suits a team that mainly needs dependable email. Google Workspace gives the same kind of address together with shared files, calendars and video meetings, paid for each user, which suits a team that already works together online. The right choice depends on how your team works today.
Should a Business in Malaysia Use Email Hosting or Google Workspace?
A business in Malaysia should choose email hosting when its team mainly needs dependable email on its own domain, and Google Workspace when the team also shares documents, calendars and video meetings every day. Count the people who need a mailbox, list the tools they already use, and decide who will add and remove users when staff change.
Key Points
- Both options give every person an email address on your own domain, such as name@yourcompany.com.my.
- Hosted mailboxes focus on email, and are often managed together with the website and the domain.
- Google Workspace adds shared files, documents, calendars and video meetings, and is paid for each user.
- The running cost depends mostly on the number of mailboxes, the storage each person needs and the tools the team will actually use.
- Moving later is possible either way, and many mailboxes are best moved in planned groups.
What Each Option Gives You
A hosted mailbox is an email account on your domain, kept on an email hosting server, often with the same provider that hosts your website. Your team reads it in Outlook, in the mail app on their phone or in a webmail page, and the mailboxes are managed through the hosting account.
Google Workspace is Google's subscription for businesses. Each user gets Gmail on your own domain, together with Google Drive for files, Docs and Sheets for working on the same document, a shared Calendar and Meet for video calls. It is paid for each user, every month (check Google's own page for the current plans and terms).
Microsoft 365 is the other common suite. It is built in a similar way, with Outlook email on your domain, Teams for meetings and OneDrive for files.
Hosted Mailboxes and Google Workspace Compared
| Hosted mailboxes | Google Workspace | |
|---|---|---|
| Email on your own domain | Yes | Yes |
| Shared files, documents and calendars | Email only | Included |
| Video meetings | Not included | Included |
| How it is paid | Per mailbox, or as part of a hosting plan | Per user, every month |
| Who manages users | Through the hosting account, often by your web and hosting provider | Through Google's admin console, by your own administrator or a Google partner |
| Suits | A team that mainly needs dependable email | A team that already shares its work online |
Questions to Ask Before You Choose
- How many people need a mailbox? Count shared addresses such as sales@ and accounts@ as well, because some of them can be aliases that deliver to an existing mailbox instead of a mailbox of their own.
- Does the team already share files and meet online? If documents still travel as email attachments, a suite brings a real change in how people work, and the team will need time and training to use it well. If the team already works in shared folders and video calls, a suite brings these under one login.
- How much email history do you keep? Years of attachments decide how much storage each person needs, and storage is one of the main things that sets the running cost.
- Who adds and removes users? When a staff member leaves, someone has to close the mailbox or pass it to a colleague on the same day. Decide whether that is your own administrator or your provider.
- Who manages the domain? Email only reaches you when the domain's mail records point to the right service. Know where your domain is registered and who can change its records.
Moving Many Mailboxes Without Losing Email
Whichever option you choose, moving later is possible. The usual order is to create the new mailboxes first, copy the existing messages across, switch the domain's mail records, then copy any messages that arrived during the change. A business with many mailboxes is usually better served by moving them in groups, starting with a small team, so that any problem is found early. The full order is in our guide to moving a website, email or domain without downtime.
Before the move, also list the devices and systems that send email on the company's behalf, such as website forms, office printers and accounting software, so that they keep sending after the switch.
How We Set Up Business Email at Valse
At Valse Technologies, we host business mailboxes together with the websites we build and manage, and as a .my accredited registrar we look after the domain records that both of them depend on. Where a business prefers Google Workspace, its mailboxes stay with Google and we set the domain's records to point to it, so the website, its forms and the email work side by side. We believe email should follow how your team works, so we start by asking how many people need a mailbox and what they use every day. You can read more on our website design and development page.
Planning to set up or move your business email? Take the free RIDE Digital Scorecard, or talk to us today.