At 3 mailboxes, Zoho Mail Lite is cheapest at about $3/month ($1/mailbox, 5GB). Hostinger Standard and Zoho Premium cost almost the same — about $12/month — but Zoho's plan includes 50GB to Hostinger's 20GB. Google Workspace is priciest at $21/month ($7/mailbox), because that price also buys Docs, Sheets and Meet.
Key takeaways
- Zoho Mail Lite is the cheapest plan here at roughly $1/mailbox/month, with 5GB storage — the smallest storage allowance in this comparison, matching its position as the cheapest plan.
- Hostinger's Standard plan and Zoho's Premium plan cost almost exactly the same per mailbox (~$3.99 vs. ~$4.00), but Zoho Premium includes more than double the storage — 50GB vs. Hostinger's 20GB — at that price point.
- Hostinger's Premium tier matches Zoho Premium's 50GB storage but costs roughly 50% more per mailbox ($5.99 vs. $4.00) — at this specific tier, the affiliate-linked provider is genuinely not the better deal.
- Google Workspace's price buys a productivity suite, not just a mailbox. Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet and pooled Drive storage come bundled — paying for it while using none of those tools is paying for software you don't open.
- Zoho has a genuinely free tier — up to 5 users, 5GB each, web access only (no IMAP/POP/ActiveSync) — which covers a true solo setup at zero cost if a native mail client isn't required.
Per-mailbox cost at 3 mailboxes
Each row uses a named business-tier plan, at the per-mailbox rate the provider's own pricing page lists, scaled to 3 mailboxes for a small-team comparison.
| Provider / plan | Per mailbox | 3 mailboxes/mo | Storage/mailbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Mail Lite | ~$1.00 | ~$3.00 | 5 GB |
| Hostinger Standard Business Email | ~$3.99 | ~$11.97 | 20 GB |
| Zoho Mail Premium | ~$4.00 | ~$12.00 | 50 GB |
| Hostinger Premium Business Email | ~$5.99 | ~$17.97 | 50 GB |
| Google Workspace Business Starter | ~$7.00 | ~$21.00 | 30 GB (pooled) |
The spread between Zoho Lite and Workspace is roughly 7× per mailbox, but that's the widest gap in the table, not the typical one — Hostinger Standard and Zoho Premium are separated from each other by almost nothing in price. The Docs/Sheets/Meet bundle is Workspace's actual premium; for a team that already uses separate tools for documents and video calls, that bundle is dead weight in the price.
What each price tier is actually buying
Zoho's and Hostinger's mailbox-only tiers buy IMAP/POP access, forwarding rules and basic security — the functional minimum for a working business inbox. Storage scales with price within each provider's own lineup, but not consistently across providers: Hostinger's Standard plan costs about the same as Zoho's Premium plan while including less than half the storage. Google Workspace's entry tier buys that same functional minimum plus a full productivity suite most of its price is attributable to.
Bar length = cost per mailbox per month, scaled to Workspace's $7.00. Sourced October 2026.
Documented vs. inferred vs. unsupported
| Claim | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace Business Starter bundles Docs, Sheets, Meet and pooled storage at its base price | Documented | Directly stated on Google's own plan feature lists |
| Zoho offers a genuinely free tier for up to 5 users | Documented | Listed consistently across multiple independent pricing trackers with matching terms (web-only access, 5GB/user) |
| Hostinger's Standard and Premium Business Email plans are priced at $3.99 and $5.99 per mailbox, with 20GB and 50GB storage | Inferred | Sourced from Hostinger's own plan-comparison page as reported by review sites (dated mid-2026). A separate review and a different regional pricing page cite a lower figure around $0.99/mailbox for what may be a different plan name, region, or billing term — flagged here rather than silently picking the lower number |
| Hostinger's Premium tier is a worse per-mailbox deal than Zoho's Premium tier at the same storage | Documented | Both figures come from the same sourcing pass: Zoho Premium ($4.00/mailbox, 50GB) vs. Hostinger Premium ($5.99/mailbox, 50GB) — identical storage, roughly 50% higher price for Hostinger |
| These five plans represent the full market or the cheapest options available | Unsupported | Three providers across five plan tiers checked for direct comparability; other options (Fastmail, Proton for Business, Microsoft 365) weren't included in this pass |
Which one to pick
- Solo developer or true one-person setup: Zoho's free tier if web-only access is fine, otherwise its Mail Lite tier at roughly $1/mailbox/month.
- Small team, cost-sensitive, needs more than 5GB/mailbox: Zoho Mail Premium — matches Hostinger's Premium tier on storage (50GB) for roughly a third less per mailbox.
- Already hosting your domain or website with Hostinger and want one invoice: Hostinger Business Email — a genuine convenience trade, not a price or storage win over Zoho at the matching tier.
- Team that already lives in Docs/Sheets/Meet daily: Google Workspace — the higher per-mailbox price is actually a suite price, and the comparison to mailbox-only plans isn't apples-to-apples for that use case.