Neo may not have the name recognition of the real major players in this space, like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or Proton Mail, but it is nevertheless making a concerted effort to join them as one of the best email hosting services around.
Attempting to set itself apart from its competitors, Neo has set its sights on the small business market. This is an email provider that is geared towards entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. And what it does, it does well. If you are a small business, this is an email hosting platform that ticks a lot of boxes.
Neo comes with a good range of features, including appointment scheduling, email templates, and read receipts, and is available at an affordable price. It’s a great option if you want a custom email address, flexible cloud storage and the possibility of exploring whether some of those AI tools making headlines are really as important to business success as they claim to be.
It must be said, Neo isn’t perfect. We’ve found that the support on offer isn’t the most responsive and if you're a large enterprise you might require some of the advanced functionality that you find offered by some of the larger players out there.
However, if you’re a small business on the lookout for a reliable, affordable email solution, then it’s certainly worth giving Neo a go. The email and marketing services on offer could help take your brand to the next level.
Neo: Plans and pricing
|
Plan |
Starting rate (paid annually) |
Starting rate (paid monthly) |
|---|---|---|
|
Business Starter |
$2.49/mailbox/mo |
$3.11/mailbox/mo |
|
Business Standard |
$4.99/mailbox/mo |
$6.24/mailbox/mo |
|
Business Max |
$9.99/mailbox/mo |
$12.49/mailbox/mo |
Neo subscribers can choose from three plans: Starter, Standard, and Max. The Starter plan is priced at $2.49 per mailbox, per month when billed annually — a step up from its original launch pricing, but still highly competitive compared to most business email providers. The Standard plan comes in at $4.99, while the Max plan sits at $9.99 per mailbox, per month on an annual subscription.
One area where Neo still stands out is its billing flexibility. You can choose monthly, yearly, two-year, or four-year subscription terms, with longer commitments unlocking lower rates. This is fairly unusual in the email hosting market, and it's a nice option to have if you're confident in sticking with Neo for the long haul.
It's also worth noting that if you need more than 50 mailboxes, you'll need to contact Neo's sales team directly for custom pricing. That's standard practice for business software at this scale, but if you're already managing 50+ mailboxes, you may want to weigh up whether a platform built for larger enterprises might be a better fit.
AI tools
Neo has been quietly building out its AI capabilities and by now they're a meaningful part of what the platform offers, particularly on the Max plan. The headline feature is Smart Write, an AI email writer powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT API. You give it a prompt, pick a tone and length, and it produces a ready-to-send draft in seconds. You can also use it to reply to incoming emails with the "Reply with Smart Write" option, which automatically pulls in the context of the email you're responding to.
Smart Write supports multiple languages and handles everything from cold outreach to client negotiations. If the first draft isn't quite right, you can hit "Give me another option" for a fresh take.
However, it's worth knowing that the tool operates under a fair usage policy. You get 75 words per input prompt and Smart Reply autofills up to 1,000 words of context from the email you're replying to. Privacy-wise, OpenAI only accesses the specific content you share with Smart Write, and does not use it for model training.
On the Standard and Max plans, you'll also get access to a built-in Grammar & Spell Check feature, which gives your outgoing emails an extra layer of polish without needing a third-party tool. It's a small addition, but useful for day-to-day correspondence.
Beyond email, Neo has rolled out an AI-powered website builder under its AI Site product. The tool generates a ready-to-launch one-page website from a short text prompt, and you can refine it using an AI copy assist feature. Higher-tier site plans unlock more generations and access to the latest AI models. It's not a replacement for a dedicated website builder, but for small businesses that need a quick professional web presence alongside their email, it's a practical bonus.
Features
As with all business email providers, the features that you receive depend heavily on the subscription you’ve signed up for. Let’s start by taking a look at the email storage on offer. With the Starter plan, you receive 15GB of mailbox storage, which matches the free 15GB that comes with a personal Gmail account. We did find that this amount of space filled up quickly, so if you’re a small business with big aspirations, you might find this somewhat lacking. If that is the case, you’ll probably want to look at the 50GB you get with the Standard plan or even the 100GB enjoyed by Max customers.
In terms of the other features that Neo offers, there’s plenty on show. Subscribers to all three payment plans will receive access to Android and iOS mobile apps, a built-in calendar, and the ability to access their Neo inbox via a third-party mail platform.
Some more advanced functionality is provided on the Standard plan, including a priority inbox and unlimited read receipts. But the really high-level stuff requires you to be signed up for the Max plan. For instance, customers here get a plethora of powerful business suite tools, such as access to campaign mode (great for email marketing), appointment booking, and the AI Smart Write feature.
Support
Here’s an area where Neo could do better. While there is a help center, which comes with a host of useful articles and guides like help getting started and a general FAQ, it’s when you try to contact Neo directly that things become a little more tricky.
There is a link that allows you to create a support ticket but getting a response can take a long time. This is a shame, because for small businesses especially, any issue could cause significant reputational damage that ends up sending customers elsewhere.
Security
Neo’s security credentials are solid and this is clearly something that the platform takes very seriously. The platform offers data encryption both at rest and in transit with 256-bit ciphers, two-factor authentication, advanced antivirus and antispam functionality, and is hosted on Amazon Web Services, which should give users a little extra peace of mind.
Neo is also fully GDPR compliant and allows users to include a digital signature with their message to add extra authenticity whenever they are sending an email.
The competition
Although you might think that email is a bit old-fashioned, it remains essential to the business world. Sure, most successful organizations may have adopted an omnichannel strategy these days, meaning they can contact customers via WhatsApp or a social media platform, but email remains crucial.
In terms of email providers targeting the small business market, Neo has to compete with the likes of Zoho Mail, IONOS, and a growing array of others. Neo fares pretty well in terms of price and does offer users a free .co.site domain, but for advanced functionality or more response support, you might be better off going with more established players. In fact, Neo's affordability is a massive strength when compared to its rivals - especially for smaller players where budgets may be a bit tighter.
Final verdict
Neo is a very decent email provider - especially given that it hasn’t been around the longest. If you too are just starting out and don’t require some of the more advanced features you get with larger vendors, then be sure to check Neo out. This is an email hosting platform that really shines when it's used within the small business market - it's here where we think it truly excels.
If you have expectations of scaling your business rapidly, you might find that you outgrow Neo, but until then, this platform is likely to have everything you need at a very reasonable price.
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