One of the first decisions when setting up business email is how to structure your addresses. Does sales@ need its own mailbox, or will an alias do? Should announcements go to a group or a shared address? Get it wrong and you either pay for mailboxes nobody logs into, or you lose customer messages in a pile of forwarded copies that nobody owns.
Aliases, mailboxes, and groups look almost identical from the outside. They behave very differently underneath, and that difference drives your bill, your security, and how fast your team replies.
Mailbox: a real inbox with its own login and storage. One per person who sends and receives.
Alias: an extra address that delivers into an existing mailbox. No login, no storage, no extra cost. Good for role addresses.
Group: one address that distributes copies to several mailboxes. Good for departments and announcements.
Shared mailbox: one inbox several people work from together. Good for a support queue.
Rule of thumb: mailboxes for people, aliases for functions, groups for distribution, shared inboxes for queues.
The Four Address Types at a Glance
Mailbox | Alias | Group | Shared mailbox | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Has its own login | Yes | No | No | Accessed by named people |
Stores mail | Yes | No | No (members store copies) | Yes, one shared copy |
Typical cost | Paid per mailbox | Included | Included | Varies by provider |
Can reply from that address | Yes | Only with send-as support | Usually not | Yes |
Best for | A person | sales@, billing@, info@ | Departments, announcements | support@ with several handlers |
Survives staff changes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
How Each One Actually Works
A mailbox is a storage container. It has a login, a storage quota, and its own sending identity. Providers charge per mailbox because each one consumes storage. On NevTan Mail, each mailbox gets 5 GB on the free plan, with paid tiers from 35 GB up to 250 GB.
An alias is a pointer. Mail arriving at the alias is delivered into a mailbox that already exists. Because there's no storage and no login, aliases are normally free. The catch is replies: unless your provider supports "send as," a reply goes out from the underlying mailbox, so a customer who wrote to sales@ gets an answer from priya@, which looks inconsistent and breaks the thread. Check your provider's support for this before building a workflow on aliases.
A group is a distribution list. One address fans a copy out to every member's own mailbox. Groups can often be restricted so only internal senders can post. They're excellent for announcements and terrible for customer support, because every member gets their own copy and nobody can see who replied.
A shared mailbox is one queue several people work. Everyone signs in with their own credentials and sees the same messages, replies, and history. That's what you want for support@ once more than one person handles it. Our beginner's guide to shared team inboxes covers how to run one without collisions.
How to Choose: A Seven-Question Framework
Work through these in order:
Does a human need to log in and send from this address? Yes means a mailbox.
Is the address tied to a function rather than a person? sales@, billing@, info@ are classic aliases.
Does one message need to reach several people at once? That's a group.
Will someone need to reply as that address? Then you need a mailbox, a shared mailbox, or an alias with confirmed send-as support.
How many people will handle it? One person: alias into their mailbox. Several people managing a queue: shared mailbox, not a group.
What does it cost? Aliases and groups are normally included; mailboxes are what you pay for. Don't buy a mailbox to get an address.
Will the address outlive the person? Role addresses should, which is exactly why they shouldn't be someone's personal mailbox with a nickname.
Most teams need all four types, just not for the same address. For help sizing the whole set, see how many business email accounts your company needs.
A Worked Example
A 12-person agency ends up with:
12 mailboxes, one per person.
Aliases: hello@ and info@ pointing to the office manager's mailbox; press@ pointing to the founder's.
A shared mailbox for support@, worked by three people.
Groups: team@ for everyone, design@ and accounts@ for departments.
That's 12 mailboxes plus one shared address, not 18 paid seats. The aliases and groups cost nothing extra. On NevTan Mail, where up to 10 mailboxes are free and paid mailboxes are billed per mailbox per year starting at $2, the whole structure costs very little. See the pricing page for current tiers.
Security Implications
Address structure is a security decision, not just a billing one.
Aliases limit exposure. If info@ starts drawing spam or phishing, you can retire it without touching anyone's mailbox.
Groups need posting rules. An unrestricted group address is an open door for spam and spoofed internal mail. Restrict who can post.
Shared passwords are the real danger. Never hand one password for support@ to four people. Give each person their own access so you can enforce two-factor authentication and remove one person without disrupting the rest. Our business email security best practices and 2FA rollout guide cover this.
Role addresses attract targeted attacks. Addresses like billing@ and accounts@ are exactly what attackers aim at; see how to protect your company from business email compromise.
Every address needs authentication. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC apply to your domain as a whole, so aliases and groups are only as deliverable as your DNS setup. See why business emails land in spam.
Common Mistakes
Buying a mailbox just to get sales@. That's a paid seat doing an alias's job.
Using a group as a support queue. Copies fan out, nobody owns the reply, and customers get two answers or none.
Building on aliases without checking send-as. If replies go out from a personal address, the illusion breaks and threads get messy.
Never auditing aliases. Old ones accumulate, attract spam, and route mail to people who left. Review quarterly.
Turning a departing employee's mailbox into an alias too quickly. Preserve and export the mailbox first; only then repoint the address. See what to do with an employee's email when they leave.
Letting role addresses live as personal nicknames. If invoices go to "ravi@" instead of "billing@," the address leaves when Ravi does.
FAQ
What's the difference between an email alias and a mailbox?
A mailbox has its own login and storage; an alias is just an extra address that delivers into an existing mailbox. Aliases are normally free, mailboxes are what you pay for.
Can an alias send email as itself?
Only if your provider supports "send as" for aliases. Some do, some only forward incoming mail. Confirm before you build a client-facing workflow on it.
When should I use a group instead of a shared mailbox?
Use a group when every member should receive the message, such as announcements or a department list. Use a shared mailbox when several people work one queue and need to see the same replies and history.
Do aliases cost extra?
Usually not. Most business providers include them, which is why paying for a mailbox to get a role address is wasted money.
How many aliases can I create?
Limits vary by provider, so check the documentation for yours. Running into a cap is a signal to restructure, not to buy more mailboxes.
What happens to an alias when someone leaves?
Aliases aren't tied to a person, so you repoint them to whoever takes over. That continuity is their biggest advantage over routing client mail to individual addresses.
Are aliases and groups secure?
Yes, when maintained. The risk is neglect: stale aliases forwarding to nowhere useful, and open groups collecting spam. Audit both quarterly and keep 2FA on every mailbox.
Does NevTan Mail support aliases and groups?
Yes. Admins manage mailboxes, aliases, and groups from one console. See the features page.
Structure Your Team's Email the Right Way
Mailboxes for people, aliases for functions, groups for distribution, shared inboxes for queues. Get that right at the start and you avoid both overspending and the "who's answering this?" problem.
NevTan Mail gives you secure, ad-free email on your own domain with mailboxes, aliases, and groups in one admin console, plus a calendar and meetings, guided SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup, and two-factor authentication. Up to 10 mailboxes are free forever, with paid mailboxes from $2 per mailbox per year.
