As of 13 August 2026, AI can choose the right business email software for your business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a note and record your current user count, expected growth, domain registrar, existing email host, required addresses, shared mailboxes, aliases and forwarding rules.
   2. Gather your current contract or renewal date, recent invoices, device list, integrations, migration constraints and any internal security or data-handling requirements.
   3. Paste those details into the prompt, replacing every bracketed slot, and run it in an AI research tool that can provide source links.
   4. Ask the model to turn the result into a comparison table with each claim linked to the relevant vendor plan, feature page or legal document.
   5. Open the cited vendor pages and compare the drafted prices, limits, security controls, migration options and data-processing terms against the current pages.
   6. Send the unresolved vendor questions to the shortlisted providers, then update the table with their written answers before selecting a plan.
   7. Run the proposed test plan with a small set of accounts, including sending, receiving, forwarding, shared access, multi-factor authentication and migration of representative mail, before moving everyone.

   Prompt

   Help me choose business email software for a UK business.
   
   My requirements:
   - Business type: [brief description]
   - Number of users now: [number]
   - Expected users in the next few years: [number or unknown]
   - Need for shared mailboxes, aliases and forwarding: [details]
   - Existing domain and email setup: [details or none]
   - Devices and operating systems: [details]
   - Required integrations: [details or none]
   - Calendar, contacts and collaboration needs: [details]
   - Security requirements, including multi-factor authentication and admin controls: [details]
   - Data location, retention or UK GDPR requirements: [details or unknown]
   - Migration requirements and tolerance for downtime: [details]
   - Maximum acceptable cost: [amount and whether per user or total, if known]
   - Must-have features: [list]
   - Deal-breakers: [list]
   
   Research suitable current providers using primary vendor pages and other reputable sources. Compare at least three genuinely suitable options. Do not invent features, prices, limits, certifications or legal terms. If a fact is unavailable or may have changed, mark it as unverified and give me the source link and the date checked. Separate included features from add-ons and state which plan each claim applies to.
   
   Return:
   1. A short recommendation and the conditions under which it would change.
   2. A comparison table covering price, mailbox and storage limits, domain support, aliases, shared mailboxes, forwarding, multi-factor authentication, admin controls, spam protection, mobile and desktop access, calendar and contacts, integrations, migration tools, support, service status, data handling and contract terms.
   3. The main risks and the vendor questions I still need answered.
   4. A practical migration checklist and a low-risk test plan.
   5. A final list of every claim I must verify on the vendor's current plan and legal pages before buying.
   
   Do not make the decision for me on unknown facts. Ask only the essential follow-up questions if the information above is insufficient.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.