# Small business Email server for $750? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604 "2006-01-12T01:46:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/1 "2006-01-12T01:46:24Z")
I have a customer who is looking for a decent corporate email server on the cheap, as it were. It needs to handle at least three domains, about 75 to 100 total users (about 70 in one domain, two or three each in the other domains), support POP3, IMAP4, and web access, hopefully have spam and virus protection built in, run on Microsoft 2000 Server, and cost around $750. Or less. Less is always good when you’re talking cost. I’ve been using Eudora WorldMail for my own in house mail server for years, but the 100 user version is around $3000. Ditto for Ipswitch Imail, and a couple of others. MS Exchange is WAY expensive. Anyone know of anything that might fit the bill? Mods: I started this in GQ because I felt an actual answer is possible (Is there any such software?) but if you feel that this should elsewhere, please feel free to move as needed.) ---
**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/2 "2006-01-12T01:57:29Z")
I’d suggest [MailEnable](http://www.mailenable.com). I’ve been using it for getting on two years now with very little hassle. The standard version is free, but there are Professional ($220) and Enterprise ($560) versions with extra services included. You’ll need to look at their site and make a decision about which one’s right for you. We use the Enterprise version and it’s been able to do everything I’ve required of it; hosting dozens of domains and hundreds of users. It’s been running on a dual-processor P4 box with 2Gb of RAM, but which is also our central SQL server. The processor overhead and memory footprint is minimal, so it pretty much goes unnoticed. The only problem we ever had with it was that the POP service would crash occasionally, but Windows was automatically configured to restart it. We eventually scheduled a start/stop on that service in the small hours of the morning once a week and it stopped being a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/3 "2006-01-12T02:00:38Z")
Why are they so cheap if they have that many needs and users? An e-mail server is an odd item to go absolutley bargain basement on when you have that many people that depend on it for business. As I always tell my clients, you have to look at costs AND benefits. Buying a sub-par or buggy e-mail server go cost you many times your “savings” in the first few months alone. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/4 "2006-01-12T02:58:54Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Why are they so cheap if they have that many needs and users? An e-mail server is an odd item to go absolutley bargain basement on when you have that many people that depend on it for business. Well, that part of the discussion is probably more debate material than GQ, but I’ll answer quickly. They have some server resources free. They can stay with an outside email provider that will fill their needs for about $100 to $150 a month. If we can find a decent solution for $750 to $1000, they’ll commit the server resources and bring the mail server in house and get the extra control associated with that. If it’s much more than that, they’ll leave the mail with someone else and use the server for another project. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/5 "2006-01-12T19:05:31Z")
> [@Armilla](#): > > I’d suggest [MailEnable](http://www.mailenable.com). > > I’ve been using it for getting on two years now with very little hassle. I’ve been looking at it, and looks very promising. Thanks very much! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/6 "2006-01-12T20:39:13Z")
Isn’t there an open-source version of Sendmail? Doesn’t that mean the license is free? ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/7 "2006-01-12T21:41:53Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Isn’t there an open-source version of Sendmail? Doesn’t that mean the license is free? Ok, I hate to sound stupid, but isn’t most open source stuff for linux or some other \*nix variant? If so it probably won’t help me here, the server they have available is running Win 2k Server. I’ll look around though, couldn’t hurt. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-business-email-server-for-750/339604/8 "2006-01-12T23:16:43Z")
Ok, sorry to respond to my own post again, but what the heck. Has anybody used a product called [MailTraq](http://www.mailtraq.com) from Enstar? It looks like it has a good feature set, and the price is in the ballpark. Also, **Armilla** , [MailEnable](http://www.MailEnable.com) is looking better and better the more I look at it. But if anyone has any direct experience with any others that might fit the bill, I’d sure like to hear about it.