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› Email Account in epost.plus Domain
¶ Email Account in epost.plus Domain
SmartXHosting's Private Email on the epost.plus domain is a personal mailbox — no advertising, UK data centre, UK GDPR-compliant. An address like [email protected] is available free, or with a cleaner prefix on paid tiers. This reference covers the account tiers, prefix options, what you get with the service, and how it compares to free consumer webmail from Gmail and Outlook.com.
When you order an epost.plus account, you choose:
- A username — the bit before
@epost.plus.
- An account tier — Basic, Premium or VIP. Determines storage, send limits and extra features.
The domain epost.plus is shared across all Private Email users — you do not need to register or configure your own domain. Sign-up takes minutes.
Once active, you use your account via:
- Webmail at https://mail.epost.plus.
- IMAP and SMTP in any mail client — eM Client, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook, iOS Mail, Gmail app.
| Feature | Basic | Premium | VIP |
|---|
| Price | Free | £6/year | £12/year |
| Mailbox storage | 2 GB | 10 GB | 50 GB |
| Send limits | Conservative | Higher | Highest |
| Attachments per message | 15 MB | 25 MB | 40 MB |
| Anti-spam & anti-malware | Yes (Bitdefender) | Yes (Bitdefender) | Yes (Bitdefender) |
| Webmail & IMAP/SMTP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UK data centre | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ad-free | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2FA / MFA | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar and contacts (CalDAV / CardDAV) | No | Yes | Yes |
| ActiveSync push mobile sync | No | No | Yes |
Basic is genuinely free. No credit card required to sign up. Use it as long as you like and upgrade later if your needs grow — all data preserved.
Alongside the account tier, you choose the kind of prefix — the part before @epost.plus. Prefix style affects pricing:
Total annual price = account tier price + prefix style price. Example: a Premium account (£6) with a VIP prefix (£6) = £12/year, or £1/month.
Availability of prefixes varies — short names tend to be taken early. Check your desired address availability during sign-up. Suggestions are offered if your first choice is unavailable.
Every Private Email account — regardless of tier — includes:
- An @epost.plus address ready to send and receive immediately after sign-up.
- Webmail access via any browser at mail.epost.plus.
- IMAP and SMTP for any mail client. Settings listed in how to configure email in an IMAP client.
- Bitdefender anti-spam and anti-malware filtering every inbound message and every attachment.
- SSL/TLS encryption of all protocol traffic.
- UK data centre hosting — no routing through US or Asian infrastructure.
- No advertising, no content scanning for marketing purposes.
- English-language support from UK-based staff via the Client Area.
- UK GDPR compliance with published Data Processing Agreement.
- Forwarding, filters and auto-responder configurable in webmail Settings.
- Two-factor authentication with TOTP apps and WebAuthn keys supported.
Free Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail and similar services finance themselves through advertising, bundled services, or data licensing. Private Email on epost.plus uses a different model:
- No advertising or profiling. Your messages are not scanned to build a marketing profile.
- UK data residency. Servers in a UK data centre, not the US or Ireland.
- UK GDPR is native. Data controller subject to UK jurisdiction.
- Enterprise-grade Axigen platform. ISO 27001-certified infrastructure shared with SmartXHosting's business-email product.
- No CLOUD Act exposure. SmartXHosting Technologies Ltd is UK-owned with no US corporate parent.
Trade-off: you pay £6-12/year for a paid tier versus £0 for free Gmail. For most UK users valuing privacy, sovereignty and an ad-free experience, the small annual fee pays off quickly.
- Password policies. Minimum 12 characters enforced at sign-up. Common-password lists blocked.
- MFA available on all tiers. TOTP, WebAuthn. Strong protection against credential-stuffing attacks.
- Session management. Visible in Settings; revoke sessions remotely if a device is lost.
- Anti-phishing banners. Axigen flags inbound messages failing SPF, DKIM or DMARC with a visible warning in the message view.
- Attachment scanning. Bitdefender scans every attachment in real time; known-malicious files are blocked server-side.
- Rate limits. Account-level rate limits prevent compromised accounts from being used for spam.
- Audit log. Admin-accessible log of sign-ins, session starts and security-relevant events.
- Personal primary email. Banking, shopping, household correspondence, family contact.
- Professional sidecar. A freelancer or contractor keeping a clean personal inbox separate from client-facing business email.
- Gmail alternative. People concerned about Gmail's ad-driven model, US data routing, or account-suspension risk.
- UK data sovereignty preference. Anyone wanting their correspondence on UK infrastructure rather than a US-owned cloud.
- Back-up email address. A second mailbox used for security-critical accounts (banking, domain registrar) separate from the high-volume primary.
- Estate and legacy considerations. A stable address that family can be given access to in succession, with SmartXHosting's UK jurisdiction simplifying estate administration versus overseas providers.
Private Email is designed for personal use. Features that Business Email has and Private Email does not:
- Custom domain (you use
@epost.plus, not your own).
- Multiple mailboxes under shared administration (each Private Email is a stand-alone account).
- Shared folders for team collaboration.
- Centralised admin panel for managing users.
- Invoicing options suited to VAT-registered businesses (Private Email is a consumer service; invoices are personal-use format).
If you operate a business, even a one-person consultancy, Business Email gives you a domain-based address. Private Email is for non-commercial personal use.
- Order your epost.plus account.
- Use the IMAP import tool in webmail to pull your Gmail or Outlook.com history. All messages, folders and labels (mapped to folders) copy over.
- Set up a forwarder on your old account to your new epost.plus address. Forward everything or selectively.
- Update your address with key contacts — banks, utilities, subscriptions, social networks.
- Keep the old account live as a backstop for 6-12 months during the transition.
- After the transition, deactivate the old account if desired.
Typical total time for a personal migration: an afternoon of setup plus ongoing background forwarding for a few months.
Start with a free address today. epost.plus Private Email starts genuinely free with no credit card required. Upgrade to a nicer prefix or more storage any time without re-provisioning.
Q: Can I keep my Gmail address as well?
A: Yes. Nothing stops you holding two or more personal addresses. Many people use Gmail for social accounts and epost.plus for personal correspondence.
Q: Does free Basic stay free forever?
A: Yes. No bait-and-switch. Basic is a genuine free tier, continuously supported.
Q: Can I send from my epost.plus address via Gmail's interface?
A: Yes, configurable via Gmail's "Send mail as" SMTP feature. But you will get more value from using webmail or a dedicated client like eM Client.
Q: How does storage work — is there a trash size penalty?
A: Trash counts towards quota until auto-purged (30 days by default). Empty it manually to reclaim space quickly.
Q: Can my family access my account if something happens to me?
A: Via the Client Area estate procedure, SmartXHosting can transfer access to named next-of-kin following documented procedure. Contact support for details.