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Business Email vs Enterprise Email Hosting: What’s the Difference and Which Does Your Company Need?
Your company has outgrown free Gmail addresses and you want email on your own domain. Then you open a hosting provider’s email page and find two products that look almost the same: business email and enterprise email. Both give you name@yourcompany.in. Both have webmail and a mobile app. One costs three times as much.
This guide explains what actually separates them, which teams need the bigger plan, and how to mix the two so you don’t pay enterprise prices for every mailbox.
The short answer
Business email is a professional mailbox: send, receive, calendar, contacts. Enterprise email is a mailbox plus a small collaboration suite: much more storage, a file drive, document editing and shared calendars. If your staff only need to send and receive email, business email is enough. If your team stores and shares files, works on documents together, or keeps years of large attachments, enterprise email is the better fit.
Side-by-side: what you get
Using Salasar’s own two plans as the example (both run on Open-Xchange, the same webmail platform, so the difference is purely capacity and features):
| Feature | Business Email | Enterprise Email |
|---|---|---|
| Address on your domain | Yes | Yes |
| Mailbox storage | 5 GB per account | 30 GB per account (25 GB mail + 5 GB files) |
| File storage drive | No | Yes, 5 GB, with sync clients for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS |
| Document editing and sharing | No | Yes, in the browser |
| Webmail, IMAP and POP3 | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar and contacts | Yes | Yes, plus shared and public calendars |
| Team chat (Flock) | Yes | Yes |
| Anti-virus scanning | Yes | Yes |
| Typical price | ₹50 per account per month | ₹150 per account per month |
Prices are Salasar’s 12-month rates at the time of writing; see the business email and enterprise email hosting pages for current plans.
What “enterprise” really means here
The word suggests something only large corporations need. In practice it describes three things.
1. Storage that doesn’t run out
5 GB sounds like a lot until someone receives drawings, scanned invoices or product photos every day. A busy sales or accounts inbox can fill 5 GB in a year or two, and then mail starts bouncing. 30 GB pushes that problem years down the road.
2. Files live next to email
With a file drive, staff stop emailing the same spreadsheet back and forth. They share a link to one copy, edit it, and everyone sees the latest version. That alone removes a lot of “which file is the final one?” confusion.
3. Working as a team
Shared calendars show who is free before you book a meeting. Public calendars work for things like a shared delivery schedule or leave planner. Small things, but they replace the WhatsApp messages and spreadsheets many teams use to coordinate.
Who needs which plan
| Role or situation | Usually enough |
|---|---|
| Front desk, delivery staff, technicians who only read and reply | Business email |
| A shared address like info@ or careers@ with light traffic | Business email |
| Accounts, purchase and sales teams handling many attachments | Enterprise email |
| Managers and owners who keep years of mail | Enterprise email |
| Teams who share and edit documents every day | Enterprise email, or Google Workspace |
You don’t have to choose one plan for everyone
This is where most small businesses overspend. Mailboxes on the same domain can sit on different plans. A 15-person company might put 4 people (owner, accounts, two in sales) on enterprise email and the other 11 on business email:
- All 15 on enterprise: 15 × ₹150 = ₹2,250 a month
- 4 enterprise + 11 business: (4 × ₹150) + (11 × ₹50) = ₹1,150 a month
Same domain, same webmail, same address format, and everyone can still email each other normally. The people who need storage and files get them; the rest don’t pay for what they won’t use. Ask your provider whether mixed plans are supported on one domain before you buy.
Where Google Workspace fits
Google Workspace is the third option you’ll see on most comparison tables. It gives you Gmail on your domain plus Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Meet. Choose it if your team already lives in Google Docs and Sheets or needs video meetings built in. It costs more per user than either Open-Xchange plan, so the same “mix and match” thinking applies. Our Google Workspace guide for India covers its plans in detail, and the Google Workspace page has our setup service.
Questions to ask before you buy any email plan
- How much storage per mailbox, and what happens when it’s full? Bounced mail is worse than a slow inbox.
- Can I mix plans on one domain? If not, you’ll pay the higher price for everyone.
- Will you set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC? Without these, your mail is more likely to land in spam. Our business email vs free email guide explains why.
- Will you move my old emails across? Losing years of history is the most common regret after switching.
- Does email depend on my web hosting? Separate email hosting keeps mail running even if your website has a problem or you change web hosts.
Frequently asked questions
Is enterprise email more secure than business email?
On the same platform, both get the same anti-virus scanning and encrypted connections. The difference is capacity and collaboration features, not a different level of security. Security depends far more on strong passwords, two-factor login where offered, and correct SPF/DKIM/DMARC records.
Can I upgrade a mailbox from business to enterprise later?
Yes. Most providers can upgrade individual mailboxes when someone runs short of space. Your address and existing mail stay the same.
Do I need enterprise email if I already use Google Drive or OneDrive?
Probably not. If your files already live in another drive, business email plus that drive may be all you need. Pay for enterprise when you want storage and files in one place under one login.
Will changing email plans change my website?
No. Email is controlled by your domain’s MX records and your website by its A record. Changing one does not touch the other. See how to point your domain to your hosting for how these records work.
Can I keep using Outlook?
Yes. Both plans support IMAP and POP3, so Outlook, Thunderbird and the built-in mail apps on phones all work alongside webmail.
Not sure which plan your team needs?
Tell us how many people you have and what they do, and we’ll suggest a split between business and enterprise mailboxes, set up the DNS records and move your existing mail. See enterprise email hosting, or contact us / call +91 99620 05753.