For more than a decade, the business email and calendar market has been a two-horse race between Microsoft and Google. If you started a new business, you purchased your domain and immediately signed up for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. With the launch of the new Apple Business platform, Apple is officially throwing its hat in the ring to challenge Google and Microsoft with a free business email service.
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Fully Hosted Email and Custom Domains
Apple is introducing fully integrated email, calendar, and directory services directly into the new Apple Business portal for up to 500 users. Businesses can use their own custom domain name or purchase a new one directly from Apple. Users get 5GB of free iCloud storage, but IT teams can easily upgrade users to levels up to 2TB starting at just $0.99 per user per month.
These new services are designed to optimize operations from the first moment. Apple includes essential business scheduling tools, such as calendar delegation, which is an absolute requirement for busy executives and assistants, and a built-in company directory. This directory will make it easy for employees to connect with user groups and view personalized contact cards on their devices.
Apple’s new business email will be compatible with any IMAP-compatible email client. Apple’s calendar service will support any CalDAV-compatible calendar application. This means full support for Android and Windows as well.
9to5Mac’s opinion
From an IT perspective, it’s clear that Apple is targeting purely new enterprises and startups. If you’re a founder walking into an Apple Store to buy a MacBook and iPhone to start your company, Apple can now offer you device management software, custom domain, hosted email, and company calendar, all under one roof.
I don’t think many companies that are entrenched in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 will change today, but Apple will likely continue to expand this solution over time. A big part of that is that it’s free. While Google offered free @yourdomain.com email for many years, it was phased out in 2022. If Google and Microsoft continue to slowly raise prices, Apple’s free business email will remain a free alternative built into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.
The technical aspect of this announcement is that Apple supports open standards for email and calendar, so there is no need for companies to change their entire fleets if they have some users on Android or Windows.
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