If you host your website on GoDaddy and are using their own Email services, you must have realized the
performance bottleneck.
Did you know that you can very well use the Gmail Application with your custom email IDs i.e. such as
anil.gupta@am22tech.com. Yes, it is possible by just changing the back
end Email server to Gmail keeping the Email IDs intact and that too for FREE.
Google applications allows you to use Gmail application with custom emails IDs for 10 people for FREE. For more
people in your organization, you need to purchase a business plan.
Some of the key CONS that I could think of in Godaddy Email:
- Limited number of FREE relays: Godaddy only allows 250 relays per day FREE of cost. if you want to
send more mails in a day, purchase credits and send mails.
Gmail does not have any such restriction.
- Limited Storage Space In Mail Box:
The storage space on Godaddy email server is pretty less. As a matter of fact, you only get 100 MB free for 1
domain. If you need more, you need to shell out money!
Gmail gives you much more space (Approx. 7GB - virtually equal to unlimited) as you would seldom feel the need
of storing that much data in your emails.
- Issues With Sending Bulk Mails:
This was one of the important point that i faced with Godaddy email. You try to send multiple emails (add
multiple addresses in 'CC' or 'BCC') list and press send. You will not get any message back even if the mails
were NOT delivered.
It happended with me multiple times that i sent mails to more than 20 people in BCC list and that mail was
never delivered to anybody. Obviously, I was NOT spamming.
- Creepy User Interface:
If you have used the web mail interface
of Godaddy email, you know it all. It is pretty slow and outdated given the likes of Gmail and Yahoo web
mails.
- No Good Mobile Application For Checking Mails:
I could not find a mobile application for checking my Godaddy email server on my Android mobile. It is an era of Smartphones and you have to have a good mobile version of your web mail or an application that can easily help you check mails on the go.
Gmail application supports the custom web mails in its Android and iPhone's applications. This is pretty handy
and a great feature.
-
Delayed Emails: Looks like lot of people use Godaddy's email and hence their server is almost always
overloaded. I have experienced the email delays almost 90% of the time. You send an urgent email (by the way,
my all emails are urgent :)), and it will be delivered alomost always with an average delay of 1/2 hour.
I don't hink i need to define the speed of Gmail here. You already know it!
So, if you are also sufferring from the above shortcomings, you can pretty easily switch to Gmail (Using Google
Applications) and still use your custom Email IDs.
The whole thing actually works as you only switch the Email server from Godaddy to Google's Gmail. Everything
else remains same.
Note: The old mails that you have on your GoDaddy's email server won't be transferred to the new Gmail server
automatically. So, it is wise to send them to a common ID before making the switch.
Another important point to note is the downtime. Official Godaddy time for switch could be as long as 48 hours
but when i made the switch, it was pretty fast. In fact, my Google applications and Gmail was up and running
within minutes of making the configuration changes.
The deatiled steps on how to start using Google applications and set up Gmail for custom emails IDs i.e. switch from Godaddy to Gmail server are given
here.