E-mail Hosting Review: Kerio Connect Hosting

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This is a long term review of my experience with a independent e-mail service provider.

 

History:

 

A few months ago, I was searching for a e-mail service provider so I could have a more personalized e-mail address, was capable of push e-mail and full Microsoft Exchange support, including on a mobile device (such as my Blackberry Z10). Good price and excellent service quality was my goal, while having unlimited storage would be a major plus. I use my e-mail extensively (I personally get roughly 40-50 e-mails a day), so I outgrew my ISP's bundled e-mail, and G-mail didn't fit my needs.

 

 

After some searching, I came across Kerio Connect Hosting (www.keriomailhosting.com) They listed Tech Strategies Inc as the main sales contact, and I've looked over their plans. Basically, there were 3 plans available:

 

Connect

• $4.80 per month per mailbox
• Unlimited e-mail
• POP3, IMAP, webmail, Outlook Connector, OTA Sync support
• e-mail antivirus scanning provided by Sophos, and a basic spam filter

Connect+

• $5.70 per month per mailbox
• Unlimited e-mail
• POP3, IMAP, webmail, Outlook Connector, OTA Sync support
• e-mail antivirus scanning provided by Sophos, and a more advanced spam filter
• E-mail continuity

 

Connect Archive+

• $7.75 per month per mailbox
• Unlimited e-mail
• POP3, IMAP, webmail, Outlook Connector, OTA Sync support
• e-mail antivirus scanning provided by Sophos, and a more advanced spam filter
• E-mail continuity
• 10 year e-mail archive

 

Looking over the plans, I chose the basic plan (Connect), for $4.80 per month, and paid upfront for a year's service as there is a discount for annual billing. I placed my order with TSI and within minutes was contacted by their sales rep to work out the setup arrangements. After chatting with the sales rep, he had the e-mail inbox setup, and then asked me if I wanted to have my domain name registered by him. I gave approval for him to register my domain name through him for a quoted price of $17 a year, which he then billed me for $14 instead and after I paid the invoice, completed setup of my e-mail. Basically, after 2 hours after placing my order, my e-mail was up and running.

 

Overall Service Impressions:

Very fast and quick customer support. They were on the ball contacting me directly to setup my e-mail, and providing inital setup support. E-mail service is also extremely good, with easy integration onto my Blackberry and my tablet, with zero unscheduled downtime in the 4 months of having them provide my e-mail. It's basically more dependable as a e-mail service than Gmail is, and big attachments doesn't bring my e-mail to its knees. Also, offline sync with Outlook works perfectly as everytime I open Outlook, I don't have to wait for my e-mails to download as they are already downloaded for me automatically.

 

Can I Recommend This to Friends:

Yes. Excellent customer service, prompt support at a good price is hard to find these days, and Tech Strategies Inc does a great job. Basically, if you want e-mail with your own domain name, this is the company to do it with.