Bottom Line Up Front
We are discontinuing Mail Hosting Services and ContinuityEmail effective September 30, 2025. After nearly 20 years of providing email hosting, we’re ending these services to focus on areas where we can better serve modern business needs: email authentication, DMARC implementation, and deliverability solutions. Customers have four months to transition to providers like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or other platforms that offer the integrated business tools today’s companies require.
When Mail Hosting Services was launched in June 2005, the digital landscape looked vastly different. Social media was in its infancy, smartphones were still called “PDAs,” and email was the undisputed king of digital communication. Twenty years later, as we announce the end-of-life for our email hosting services, we can’t help but reflect on the incredible journey email has taken—and the rumors of its demise that never quite materialized.
The App That Was Going to Kill Email (But Didn’t)
Remember when Slack was going to replace email? Or when Teams would make it obsolete? How about when instant messaging, social media, or the latest collaboration platform would finally put email out of its misery?
We’ve heard these predictions for nearly two decades, and yet here we are in 2025, with email more essential than ever. The rumors of email’s death have been greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain. Instead of disappearing, email evolved, adapted, and remained the backbone of business communication while other platforms came and went.
Email didn’t just survive—it thrived. It became the universal account identifier, the authentication mechanism for virtually every online service, and the reliable constant in an ever-changing digital world. Every new app that was supposed to “kill email” ended up sending you email notifications.
When Simple Was Enough
In 2005, providing reliable SMTP, IMAP, and POP3 access was revolutionary for many small businesses. Companies were thrilled to have professional email addresses with their own domains, basic spam filtering, and the ability to access their messages from multiple devices. We were proud to offer exactly that—simple, reliable email hosting that just worked.
For many years, that was enough. Businesses needed email addresses, and we provided them. Clean, straightforward, without the complexity that would come to define the modern email landscape.
The Complexity Revolution
But somewhere along the way, “simple email hosting” became anything but simple. The requirements shifted dramatically:
- Authentication became critical. DMARC, SPF, DKIM—acronyms that were academic concepts in 2005 became mandatory requirements for email deliverability. Inbox placement became a science, with major providers like Gmail and Outlook implementing increasingly sophisticated filters.
- Business needs evolved. Companies no longer wanted just email—they needed integrated calendars, shared contacts, document collaboration, real-time chat, video conferencing, and seamless mobile experiences. The modern workplace demanded unified communication platforms, not isolated email boxes.
- Deliverability became paramount. Sending an email and having it actually reach the inbox transformed from an expectation into an achievement. IP reputation, domain warming, engagement metrics, and authentication protocols became the difference between successful business communication and messages lost to spam folders.
Our Evolution
As these changes swept through the industry, we found ourselves evolving too. Our focus naturally shifted from simple mailbox hosting to the tools and expertise that businesses actually needed to succeed with email in the modern era: email authentication services, DMARC implementation, deliverability consulting, and inbox placement optimization.
We discovered our passion wasn’t in hosting mailboxes—it was in solving the complex challenges that made email actually work in 2025. The technical problems that kept businesses awake at night weren’t about storage space or IMAP configuration; they were about ensuring their important messages reached their customers’ inboxes.
The Giants Have Won (And That’s Okay)
Let’s be honest: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have fundamentally changed what customers expect from email services. They’ve set a new standard that includes not just email, but entire productivity ecosystems with enterprise-grade security, compliance tools, and global infrastructure that small providers simply cannot match.
And that’s okay.
The market has spoken, and it’s spoken clearly: businesses want comprehensive communication platforms, not just email hosting. They want their email to integrate seamlessly with their calendar, their documents, their video calls, and their project management tools. They want enterprise-grade security, compliance features, and the peace of mind that comes with global infrastructure.
These platforms have also largely solved the deliverability and authentication challenges that have become so complex for smaller providers. When Google hosts your email, getting into Gmail inboxes becomes significantly easier. When Microsoft manages your authentication, Outlook treats your messages with appropriate trust.
A Bittersweet Farewell
It’s with genuine sadness that we announce the end-of-life for Mail Hosting Services and Continuity Email, effective September 30, 2025. This decision wasn’t made lightly. These services have been a labor of love for nearly 20 years, and we’ve cherished the relationships we’ve built with customers who trusted us with something as fundamental as their business communication.
But times have changed, and we’ve changed with them. Rather than trying to compete with comprehensive platforms that can offer capabilities we simply cannot match, we’re choosing to focus our energy and expertise on the areas where we can truly add value: helping businesses navigate the complex world of email authentication, deliverability, and inbox placement.
Thank You
To every customer who chose Mail Hosting Services over the years: thank you. Thank you for trusting us with your business email, for your patience during the occasional outage, for your understanding as the email landscape became increasingly complex, and for being part of this incredible 20-year journey.
Email may have survived every prediction of its demise, but the email hosting landscape has fundamentally transformed. We’re proud to have been part of that story, and we’re excited to continue helping businesses succeed with email—just in different ways.
The inbox isn’t going anywhere. But how we help you reach it is evolving, and we couldn’t be more excited about what comes next.
Customers of Mail Hosting Services and ContinuityEmail should check their email for detailed information about the transition timeline and recommended alternatives. We’re committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.