Norway-based Runbox (which begins at $19.95 per year for the Micro edition, which gives you one mailbox and one single runbox.com address), is a privacy-minded hosted email service that also touts the fact that it runs largely off green energy. As far as privacy goes, Runbox seems to perform as advertised. However, when compared against the competition, the Runbox service has a ways to go in terms of management tools, business features, and user interface (UI) design. For now, these problems keep it well behind Intermedia Exchange Email and Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium, our Editors' Choice winners in our hosted email provider review roundup.
If you decide to try Runbox, then you'll immediately notice some anemia in terms of initial configuration. Where services such as Rackspace Hosted Exchange start you off with 100-gigabyte (GB) mailboxes, Runbox keeps users to just 1 GB worth of mail storage, though this can scale up as you add users. Additional accounts begin at $7.95 per mailbox per year. While not specifically citing a service-level agreement (SLA), Runbox does claim between 99.99 and 100 percent of monthly uptime, though the latter sounds optimistic. They also offer email and live text chat on a 24/7 basis. A free 30-day trial is available on their website.
Getting Started
On the plus side, getting started with Runbox is simple. With some basic contact information and a password, you can start using it. Adding your domain to Runbox is one of the easier things to do with the platform. Up to five domains can be registered under the email hosting administration page. For those who don't already have a domain, Runbox can also register and host your domain name for you. Using your own domain does require that you get at least the $34.95-per-year Runbox Mini edition, however, so it's important to evaluate if that's important to you. For all intents and purposes, businesses with domains are taken more seriously, so unless you're a sole proprietor who doesn't do a significant amount of online business, this should probably be your default choice.
Unfortunately, while setup is easy, account management is something of a strange beast. Additional users are called subaccounts in the context of the service. Adding and maintaining them, however, is effectively the same as managing users in any other system. The only catch is that because they are subaccounts, you can't elect multiple administrators, which could put some constraints on your IT staff in larger organizations. Still, aside from this, Runbox's administration pages are fairly clear and certainly well-documented.
Similar Products
Intermedia Hosted Exchange Email
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
GoDaddy Web Hosting
Google Workspace for Business
Rackspace Hosted Exchange
IceWarp Cloud
Zoho Mail
AtMail
Amazon WorkMail
Email and Collaboration
Runbox is reminiscent of Google G Suite Business' Gmail in terms of its minimal appearance and overall navigation style. Composing an email instantly made me realize my pop-up blocker was on. That's a ding because, considering HTML 5's capabilities, there's simply no valid reason to require pop-ups in an online web client. On the bright side, there is an HTML text editor if you need to add specially formatted text to your emails, and Runbox also supports drag-and-drop attachments. But despite these niceties, the UI simply felt disjointed: nothing felt or behaved as though it had been cleanly put together and thoroughly tested. Groups and contacts seemed almost like an afterthought and, while the email tagging could have been used to great effect, it turned out to be noticeably clunky to use.
Given all of the weaknesses of the Runbox web client, most users will want to tie the service to a third-party email client of their own choosing. Fortunately, this is easy to do once you get the instructions. A bit of digging gets you procedures for connecting Runbox to Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Microsoft Outlook, though most of those instructions will be through an FAQ. Runbox supports both the POP and IMAP email standards, which makes adding third-party clients even easier. IMAP, in particular, opens the service to for use across multiple devices, which is more than just a nice-to-have for today's business users.
In terms of collaboration tools, Runbox offers a shared file repository accessible via FTP. With enough effort, you could create a shared FTP space for collaboration. But considering the capabilities of sophisticated team communication tools such as Dropbox Business or Microsoft Teams, what Runbox is offering can only be termed "collaboration" in the broadest possible sense. Worse, the web UI to this FTP service is virtually useless, so using it will again require a third-party FTP client, and that means more unsupported configuration headaches for you.
Security and Privacy
Like AtMail, Runbox's spam detection is based on the third-party app SpamAssassin as well as a statistical spam filter called DSPAM. These feed off of multiple databases of spam originators that seem well-maintained. The DSPAM component uses self-reported spam as training material to help improve performance over time. In addition, there's a Block Sender list and a whitelist that can be used to explicitly deny or allow individual users or domains from sending email to your account. Unfortunately, while phishing emails can and do get flagged as spam, there is no additional technology in play to guard against clicking on links. Runbox customers will need to seek out third-party security software to deliver this level of protection.
On the privacy front, Runbox starts with a good story reflected mainly in its marketing. The company places extra emphasis on the fact that it operates under Norwegian jurisdiction, which means it's not subject to the typical data mining operations of the known superpowers. It also means that personal data must be kept confidential unless access is required by law. Their data center is secured by a 360-degree boundary fencing with secure access control, a detail that seems intended to prove Runbox has user privacy and security in mind. The downside, however, is that it doesn't cite any third-party regulating body that audits internal processes. So if your business operates with the need to comply with regulations and standards, like SOC 2, ISO 27001, or even HIPAA, you'll probably wind up working with someone else.
Integration
Third-party integration is another weak point for Runbox but this one seems to be by design. It doesn't offer a publicly available application programming interface (API) but there's a reason for that: If it did, then that would probably wind up conflicting with the data privacy the principles that are so important to Runbox. That's disappointing because it essentially means you can't include the Runbox service into a larger ecosystem, but it's not surprising given the company's security stance. Those that need to live in a larger web services world will be better off going with one of the more mainstream options, such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google G Suite Business ($12 Per User Per Month at Google Workspace) .
After using the service, I really want to like Runbox. The company champions ideas of anti-surveillance and try to place security at the forefront of everything they do. But when I look at Runbox from a business IT professional's perspective, the lack of verified regulatory support, the lack of third-party integration capabilities, and the near total lack of team collaboration tools really place it at the back of the pack. Couple that with a dated web client and no calendar and this is really a low-frills, security-conscious email service aimed at solitary users rather than even the smallest of business clients.
If Runbox ever builds more business-conscious features into its service, then it will be well worth a look to companies for which security is important. But in the meantime, cost-conscious businesses will probably be better served looking at platforms such as IceWarp Cloud (3.90 Per User Per Month for the Standard Edition at IceWarp) or Zoho Mail as well as the lower pricing tiers of either of our Editors' Choice winners mentioned earlier.
Runbox has a lot of flare in its quest for a privately owned, surveillance-resistant hosted email, but the service falls a bit flat on features.
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