One mailbox per person or one shared mailbox: what works for a small team

Comparisons and alternatives·· 89 views· 3 min read

The short answer: anyone who writes on behalf of the company should have their own mailbox. The public addresses (general enquiries, sales) can be a shared mailbox, if replies must come from that address, or a simple forwarder to the personal mailboxes, if they only need to alert people. What goes wrong is the whole team in one mailbox with a password everybody knows: nobody knows who replied, and nobody controls who can still log in.

The ways to organise it

Way Good for What goes wrong
One mailbox per person Everyone answers for what they write, with their own password and history. When someone leaves, you change one password and the mailbox stays with the company. If the person is away, nobody sees their mail, unless they leave an out-of-office reply or a forwarder.
One shared mailbox, everyone with the password Everyone sees everything, and replies come from the public address. No record of who replied or deleted. A message one person read looks handled to the others. The password spreads over many devices.
A role address that forwards to personal mailboxes Alerting several people at once. Replies come from personal addresses. Everyone has a copy and nobody knows who answered. Forwarding outside the domain can end up in spam.
A mailing list Announcements and internal group conversations: mailing lists in cPanel. Not made for serving customers.

The mix that works

1 Create a mailbox for each person who writes on behalf of the company: how to create an e-mail account in cPanel. Which addresses to create is covered in which e-mail addresses a business should create.
2 Decide what each public address is. If replies must come from it, it is a shared mailbox. If it only alerts people, it is a forwarder: catch-all, forwarders and aliases.
3 On a shared mailbox, agree the rules: who handles it each day, and moving answered mail to a “Done” folder. With IMAP everyone sees the same Sent folder and the same Done folder.
4 Sort what comes in with filters, for example by subject or sender: filters in Roundcube.
5 Change the shared mailbox password whenever someone leaves the team, and never reuse it elsewhere: how to change the password.
6 Check how many mailboxes your plan allows before creating one per person: it is on the e-mail page.
A password that goes round a team ends up on old phones, in notes and with people who have left. That is how many mailboxes get broken into without anyone noticing. If you suspect it, follow your e-mail account has been hacked.
IMAP folders are the team’s dashboard. On a shared IMAP mailbox, moving a message to the “Done” folder shows on every device at once. That simple rule ends most of the “has anyone answered this?”.

Want help organising your team’s mailboxes? Tell us how many people there are and which public addresses you use.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Which e-mail addresses a business should create: role addresses and personal ones

Catch-all, forwarders and aliases: the three that get confused

Mailing lists in cPanel: one address for a whole group

How to create an e-mail account in cPanel?

How to create e-mail filters in Roundcube

How to change an e-mail account password

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