Overview:
ASP-One, a division of Apptix Inc., has been around since 1999 and joined with Apptix in 2004. They are a hosting company that is dedicated to customer satisfaction.
Pros: ASP-One offers two Exchange plans, and both come with a variety of features. Users get free SharePoint with 100 MB of disk space; free Outlook 2003 or 2007, custom inbound domains, unlimited aliases, unlimited public folders, and more. Secure features also abound – you get anti-virus and anti-spam protection and secure connections and Outlook Web Access. ASP-One offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and relatively good prices with no set-up fees for mailboxes. If you’re an enterprise of over 20 users, part of the public school district, or a non-profit organization, you may qualify for a discount.
Cons: If you want extra security, you’ll have to pay a small fee. However, basic anti-virus and anti-spam is included with all plans. Although prices are lower, set-up fees are in the high range for some plans.
Detailed Provider Information:
Version of BES: (Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, Novell Group Wise) ASP-One uses Microsoft Exchange 2003.
Plans and Pricing: ASP-One offers two plans – the first is the x500 Exchange Plan, which gives you a 500 MB mailbox and costs $9.95 a month. The second plan is the x1GB Exchange Plan, which includes a 1 GB mailbox and costs $14.95 a month. Both plans include pretty much the same things.
If you’re looking for wireless Exchange, ASP-One does have mobile plans. Their BlackBerry Mobile Service is $10.00 per user, per month (which is quite a good price compared to other companies), but you’ll have to pay a set-up fee of $49.95 a user. If you have a Good Messaging device, you’ll pay $19.95 a user, per month. However, the set-up fee is slightly cheaper than other companies at $39.95 a user, and you get all the features of both services, including push Exchange mail, the ability to project PowerPoint presentations from your device, and more.
If your business has more than a few users, ASP-One offers three different plans. The 10+ mailbox plan includes 10 MB for 10 mailboxes. It’s $125 a month and includes a set-up fee of $49.95. The 20+ mailbox plan gives you 20 MB for 20 mailboxes and is $250 a month with a $99.95 set-up fee. Finally, the 50+ mailbox plan gives you 50 GB for 50 mailboxes and is $625 a month with a $199.95 set-up fee. Each additional mailbox is 300 MB and costs $12.50 a month.
Extra storage is $5.95 per 100 MB and $49.95 per 1 GB. This is average for extra storage prices across the board.
Firewall Protection: ASP-One offers a security package with email protection shields and quarantine management for $1.50 a month per user. This is an add-on to any Exchange plan.
Anti-Spam and Virus Protection: Basic anti-virus and anti-spam is included with all plans; if you want more advanced protection, you can order ASP-One’s security package for $1.50 a month per user.
Set-up Fee: There are no set-up fees for single-user mailboxes, but there are for enterprise and mobile accounts. If you have an enterprise plan, set-up fees vary from $49.95 to $199.95. If you have a wireless Exchange account, expect to pay from $39.95 to $49.95.
Other Devices Supported: ASP-One supports BlackBerry, Treo, Pocket PC, PalmOne, and Smartphone devices.
Customer Service: All plans include 24/7 LiveTech support and an online knowledge base. There are also numbers on the Website to call.
Backup History Storage: ASP-One performs daily backups onto tape and weekly system backups.
Uptime Guarantee: 99.9%, according to the company’s SLA.
Additional Services: ASP-One offers email archiving, security software, additional disk space, VPN, and Web hosting.
Fee to Change BlackBerry for Current Customers: There is a fee of $19.95 for this service for the first time you switch your device.
We shut down our own Exchange Server and switched to ASP-One. Have never looked back. Great support. Solid full support for Blackberry. Skip their Spam add-on. Seems to miss a lot of Span so we keep Outlook Spam blocker.