Thoughtbus is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and has been around for 12 years under the umbrella of NOMIA Inc. The company provides Exchange hosting services, SharePoint and more.
Pros: Instead of plans, Thoughtbus offers its users features by the price, so that they can choose what they want instead of having to buy into a lot of features they may not necessarily need. Some features that the company offers include support for just about any mobile device, anti-spam protection, Outlook 2003, and email migration. You can get anything you want – for a price.
Cons: Everything costs – and this can add up. Although a lot of their prices are one-time only, many of their features have recurring costs. As well, you have to pay for mailbox backup and security features. There is a minimum of 2 users per organization.
Version of BES: (Microsoft, IBM Lotus Domino, Novell Group Wise) Thoughtbus uses Microsoft Exchange 2007.
Plans and Pricing: All Thoughtbus plans cost $10.95 per month per user. The mailbox capacity of the plans depends on the number of users. Plans with 2 to 9 users provides 3GB per mailbox, 10 to 24 users provides 4GB per mailbox, and 25 or more users provides 5GB per mailbox. Additional storage costs $5.95 per month per mailbox. Thoughtbus also provides licenses for Outlook 2007 and Entourage 2008.
BES access costs an additional $9.95 per user per month.
Firewall Protection: The services are protected by multiple firewalls.
Anti-Spam and Virus Protection: The standard service uses multiple anti-virus engines for all mail, inbound and outbound. It also includes basic anti-spam protection. You can also get Ultimate Anti-Spam Protection for $1.50 a month per user or $1.00 if you have a group plan.
Set-up Fee: The hosted exchange plans do not require a setup fee, but BlackBerry service setup costs $19.95.
Other Devices Supported: BlackBerry, Treo, SmartPhone, and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.
Customer Service: Thoughtbus provides an email address for their users on the website, as well as a knowledgebase so that users can troubleshoot. You can also choose to use the toll-free telephone number on their website.
Backup History Storage: Thoughtbus does offer nightly backups. If you want your mailbox restored from any point in the last 4 weeks it will cost $19.95.
Uptime Guarantee: 99.9%, according to their website and SLA.
Additional Services: Thoughtbus also provides SharePoint services.
Fee to Change BlackBerry for Current Customers: There is no charge for this service.
My company (we have 30 users) have used Thoughtbus.com for 3+ years and we have always been incredibly impressed with the level of service we get. We use almost all of their services - blackberry, sharepoint, goodlink and anti-spam - and think it is a great service for the money! The costs are really reasonable, especially when compared with what it would cost if we had to support everything in-house. We've just upgraded to Exchange 2007 and I wanted to write the review because of how seamless (and free) the transition was.
Jim on January 7th, 2009 at 14:04 pm
Another Satisfied Customer! We have two accounts whth Thoughtbus using Exchange 2007 and BES. They have bee very helpful with problems even though they were not caused by them. I have never noticed downtime.
David on February 26th, 2010 at 2:25 am
Everything is working good. I don't like paying $20 a month for a single email account though.
My company (we have 30 users) have used Thoughtbus.com for 3+ years and we have always been incredibly impressed with the level of service we get. We use almost all of their services - blackberry, sharepoint, goodlink and anti-spam - and think it is a great service for the money! The costs are really reasonable, especially when compared with what it would cost if we had to support everything in-house. We've just upgraded to Exchange 2007 and I wanted to write the review because of how seamless (and free) the transition was.
Another Satisfied Customer! We have two accounts whth Thoughtbus using Exchange 2007 and BES. They have bee very helpful with problems even though they were not caused by them. I have never noticed downtime.
Everything is working good.
I don't like paying $20 a month for a single email account though.