It’s tempting to get an email address from the same company that provides your domain hosting. Don’t.

The problem is that each mailbox has a low limit – 2, 5 or 10 GB. And in today’s image and video rich world, those limits are quickly reached.

You end up having to pay more and more each year. As you renew, you’ll find your bills creeping up, ever so slowly.

This is what happens. Let’s say there are 5 users in your small business. Once each of you reaches the limit, you end up paying as much for email as you do for hosting. And if you have set your account to auto-renew, the money is swiped from your credit card.

Your domain company does a fine job of hosting your site. Email is probably outsourced, since it is not a core activity.

The bigger problem arises if you want to transfer your hosting package. Good luck moving 100-150 GB of messages to another hosting provider. It’s worse than moving house because you can’t call some movers over to get it done for you!

So, what should you do? Keep the two separate. If you want the hassle of getting an email server set up and all the attendant problems of keeping it going, that’s a low-cost option. But if it goes down, you’ll need expensive help to get it back up.

The other one you could consider, especially if you have a small business where you send out only a few emails every day is a Swiss Email company that has a different business model. They charge by the number of emails you send every day. And plans start at $4 a month.

You may receive tens of email every day. But, chances are, you send out only 8-10 emails on a daily basis. The other advantage is no charge for unlimited storage or the number of domains you manage on the site.

Bottomline: Get email wise. And don’t fall for Free because it is expensive in the long run