European email for your business: an alternative to Outlook and Gmail

Monday morning. A colleague asks whether her email can also go on her new phone, and because you are the office manager, you sort that out. Then the director comes by with a different question. Can our email not simply stay in Europe, instead of at Microsoft or Google?

It can, and your team usually does not have to learn a new app for it. In this piece you read what to look for in a European email provider, what changes for your team and what you can already arrange tomorrow.

Why do businesses look beyond Outlook and Gmail?

Outlook and Gmail work fine. That is not the issue. It is about the question of who has control over your email.

Microsoft and Google are American companies. They fall under the CLOUD Act, a US law of 23 March 2018 (Public Law 115-141, division V). That law requires a US provider to hand over data on a valid order, even if that data is located outside the United States. A European data centre of an American company therefore changes little about that.

There is something else at play. Perhaps a customer or client has already asked you where you store their data. And there is more in your email than you think: quotes, contracts, CVs of applicants. It is often the most sensitive place in your entire business.

What do you look for in a European email provider?

A European address on the website says little. Ask every provider these questions:

• Where are the mailboxes and the backups? Ask for the country and the data centre, not just for Europe.
• Which law does the company itself fall under, and the parties it engages? You can read that on the list of sub-processors.
• Does it work in the apps your team already uses? Look for IMAP and SMTP. You set up a mail program with IMAP and SMTP and an app password from your workspace (beta).
• Can you keep your own domain? Your customers email your name, not that of the provider.
• Can you leave again? Via IMAP you take your email with you to a next provider.

Does your team have to get used to a new app?

Usually not. A mailbox that speaks IMAP and SMTP is set up in the app you already use. You set up a mail program with IMAP and SMTP and an app password from your workspace (beta). That saves you an afternoon of explaining to colleagues.

What does change are the integrations tied to Microsoft or Google. Think of a shared calendar in Teams, or a form that puts its answers in Google Drive. Make a short list of those beforehand. Then they will not catch you by surprise on the day of the switch.

What do you keep, and what not?

A standalone European mailbox is something different from a whole package. With Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, chat, video and online storage hang off your email. If you only switch with your email, those services simply stay where they are for a while. Starting with email makes sense: it is the most sensitive part, and via IMAP it moves most easily.

If you want to move more later, look at a workplace in which mail, calendar and files come together. On the page Noveu and Microsoft 365 compared you can see the features and costs per component.

What you can do tomorrow

1. Count your mailboxes and write down for each address who uses it. Do not forget info@ and invoices@.
2. Find out who manages your domain and the DNS. In a switch with your domain, you change the MX record there, and you do not want to figure that out on the day itself.
3. Ask two or three European providers for their list of sub-processors and compare them. Ours is public.
4. Set up a test mailbox and use it for a week on your phone and your laptop. How to set it up, you can see for example in our guide to setting up mail.
5. Choose a quiet moment for the switch. A changed MX record does not take effect everywhere at the same time.

Where Noveu fits

Noveu Mail runs on our own mail server in a Hetzner data centre in Falkenstein, Germany, just like the backups. Cloudflare (US) sits at the edge of the network for web traffic; mail.noveu.eu is at Hetzner. Noveu Mail is standalone business email with webmail and IMAP/SMTP. Your own domain, with your own email addresses. Noveu Werkplek brings mail, calendar and files together under one login. In the calendar, you invite colleagues and external addresses.