Hostlabs has been around for 15 years, providing Exchange hosting solutions to their customers with Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003. They pride themselves on their customer service and their excellent hosting facilities.
Pros: Many features come with Hostlabs’ Exchange plans. They include things like unlimited inbound domains, a global address list, mobile access, web access, free Outlook 2000 or 2003, VPN, public and shared folders, and unlimited devices. As well, BlackBerry service is an add-on for the Exchange plan, which means that it’s easy to consolidate both bills. If you are ordering more than 50 mailboxes at once, you get a 10% discount. Anti-virus and anti-spam is included in the package.
Cons: Exchange plans are slightly more expensive than other companies, and Microsoft Messaging, a plan that doesn’t use Outlook, is the same price as an Exchange plan with another company. However, you do get more storage.
Version of BES: (Microsoft, IBM Lotus Domino, Novell Group Wise) Hostlabs uses Microsoft Exchange 2003.
Plans and Pricing: HostLabs offers three service tiers. Basic Exchange offers 200MB mailbox space for POP accounts only, for $3.95 per month. Standard Exchange offers 500MB of mailbox space for $9.95 per month. It adds shared folders, shared calendar and contacts, and scheduling, which the Basic Exchange plan does not offer. Premium Exchange offers 5GB of storage for $12.95 per month. This runs through ExchangeServer 2003, and includes nightly BES service. There is a three-user minimum for the Premium Exchange plan.
Firewall Protection: None.
Anti-Spam and Virus Protection: Anti-virus and anti-spam is included with every plan.
Set-up Fee: There is no set-up fee for Exchange and Microsoft Messaging plans; however, there is a $29.95 activation fee for BlackBerry service.
Other Devices Supported: BlackBerry, Pocket PC, SmartPhone, and PalmPilot.
Customer Service: They offer 24/7 live phone support which is toll-free in the U.S. and Canada. Hostlabs also has a Service manager online to report your issues.
Backup History Storage: Data backups are performed nightly and the data is kept for three weeks. Weekly backed-up data is kept for ten weeks, and monthly backups are kept for 52 weeks.
Uptime Guarantee: 99.9%, according to their website and SLA.
Additional Services: Hostlabs also provides Windows Hosting services and dedicated server plans.
Fee to Change BlackBerry for Current Customers: There is no charge for this service.
