An email hosting service is an Internet hosting service that runs e-mail servers.

Email hosting services, private Internet service providers, usually offer premium email at a cost, as opposed to advertising supported free email or free webmail, such as those offered by Google or Yahoo.

Email hosting services thus differ from typical end-user e-mail providers such as webmail sites. They cater mostly to demanding email users and small and mid-size businesses that do not want to administer their own email servers, usually for administrative reasons, although cost can be a contributing factor. Email hosting providers allow for premium email services along with custom configurations, large number of accounts and use of own domain name.