# Best Email Archiving Software for Small Business *By [Tian Lin](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/tian-lin)* Products classified in the overall Email Archiving category are similar in many regards and help companies of all sizes solve their business problems. However, small business features, pricing, setup, and installation differ from businesses of other sizes, which is why we match buyers to the right Small Business Email Archiving to fit their needs. Compare product ratings based on reviews from enterprise users or connect with one of G2's buying advisors to find the right solutions within the Small Business Email Archiving category. In addition to qualifying for inclusion in the Email Archiving Software category, to qualify for inclusion in the Small Business Email Archiving Software category, a product must have at least 10 reviews left by a reviewer from a small business. ## How Many Email Archiving Software Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 54 ### Category Stats (Jun 2026) - **Average Rating**: 4.33/5 The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings - **New Reviews This Quarter**: 2 - **Buyer Segments**: Small-Business 100% Represents the distribution of reviewers across all products in this category. - **Top Trending Product**: CyberSentriq (+0.02%) - Among all products in this category, CyberSentriq recorded the largest rating increase compared to last month *Last updated: June 09, 2026* ## How Does G2 Rank Email Archiving Software Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 1,600+ Authentic Reviews - 54+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. --- **Sponsored** ### Zenzap Zenzap is a professional work chat app that helps you separate work from personal life by providing a secure, organized space for team communication. It’s built for companies that want the speed and simplicity of text messaging but need the structure, security, and control required for a business. Instead of mixing important updates with personal texts or getting lost in complicated software, Zenzap offers a straightforward way to keep teams connected and aligned. Zenzap lets you create specific group chats for different topics, projects, or locations, ensuring that information is always easy to find and that conversations stay organized. Zenzap also bridges the gap between talking and action; users can turn a message into a task instantly, within the chat. To prevent burnout, Zenzap offers working hours settings, that let you automatically pause notifications when an employee is off the clock. You need your work chat app to protect company data and be GDPR compliant. Unlike personal chat apps, where contacts, chat history, and files live on an employee's personal phone, Zenzap keeps all data in the business's control. Admins can add or remove staff in a single click, ensuring they don’t take data with them when they leave the company. Additionally, Zenzap streamlines daily operations by integrating with the tools you already use, preventing the need to switch between different apps just to stay updated on statuses, updates, and events. If you’re looking for a team chat app, you will find that Zenzap removes the noise of email and the risk of texting. It is a solution for managers who want to lead with clarity and teams who want to communicate without barriers. Key features and value propositions include: - Organized Work Chat: Conversations are organized into dedicated topics, replacing messy large group texts so teams can actually find what they need. - Business-Grade Security: The platform ensures that all chat history, files, and contact lists belong to the company, not the employee. - Respect for Personal Time: Stop notifications when the workday ends, helping staff switch off and maintain a healthy work-life balance. - Tasks within Chat: Users can turn messages into to-dos directly within the chat, keeping the team accountable and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. - System Integrations: Connects with other tools to get automated updates right in the team chat, keeping workflows smooth. [Visit website](https://www.g2.com/external_clickthroughs/record?secure%5Bad_program%5D=ppc&secure%5Bad_slot%5D=category_product_list&secure%5Bcategory_id%5D=1672&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_id%5D=2181&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bmedium%5D=sponsored&secure%5Bplacement_reason%5D=retargeted_product&secure%5Bplacement_resource_ids%5D%5B%5D=1354845&secure%5Bprioritized%5D=false&secure%5Bproduct_id%5D=1354845&secure%5Bresource_id%5D=1672&secure%5Bresource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bsource_type%5D=category_page&secure%5Bsource_url%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fcategories%2Femail-archiving%3Fpage%3D3&secure%5Btoken%5D=23a925f546219b65d3891f67a7aa67e65a2e31e418448e9e7487a5e0c0ec7ee3&secure%5Burl%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zenzap.co%2F%3Futm_source%3Dg2paid%26utm_medium%3Dg2alt&secure%5Burl_type%5D=custom_url) --- ## What Are the Top-Rated Email Archiving Software Products in 2026? ### 1. [Paubox](https://www.g2.com/products/paubox/reviews) Paubox is a HIPAA compliant email security platform designed for healthcare organizations. It provides outbound email encryption and AI-powered inbound email protection, helping organizations safeguard protected health information (PHI) without changing how staff or patients use email. Email remains a critical communication tool in healthcare, but standard platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are not HIPAA compliant on their own. Paubox makes compliance automatic and enhances security to defend against evolving phishing and malware attacks, all while maintaining a seamless user experience. Paubox serves small to mid-sized healthcare organizations, clinics, and IT teams seeking reliable compliance, reduced risk, and simple management. Key capabilities: - Automatic outbound encryption: Every message is encrypted by default; recipients read emails directly in their inbox, without portals or passwords - AI-powered inbound email security: Detects and blocks phishing, spoofing, and malware using generative AI analysis - Seamless integration: Works with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Exchange without new workflows or domain changes - Compliance and control: Supports HIPAA compliance and minimizes human error in handling PHI - Additional tools: Archiving, Data Loss Prevention, Paubox Email API, and Paubox Marketing Benefits: - Simplifies compliance management and reduces IT workload - Improves patient and staff experience with frictionless secure email - Strengthens protection against modern email threats Paubox enables healthcare organizations to confidently use email as a secure, compliant, and user-friendly communication channel, eliminating guesswork for staff and helping IT teams protect against data breaches and compliance risk. **Average Rating:** 4.9/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 573 **How Do G2 Users Rate Paubox?** - **Quality of Support:** 9.8/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 9.6/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Paubox?** - **Seller:** [Paubox](https://www.g2.com/sellers/paubox) - **Year Founded:** 2015 - **HQ Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Twitter:** @PauboxHQ (16,579 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/4821384/ (46 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Who Uses This:** Owner, CEO - **Top Industries:** Mental Health Care, Hospital & Health Care - **Company Size:** 84% Small-Business, 14% Mid-Market #### What Are Paubox's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Ease of Use (216 reviews) - Security (169 reviews) - Customer Support (146 reviews) - Email Security (138 reviews) - Setup Ease (137 reviews) **Cons:** - Expensive (50 reviews) - Email Issues (32 reviews) - Difficult Setup (25 reviews) - Email Encryption Issues (17 reviews) - Encryption Issues (13 reviews) ### 2. [Dropsuite](https://www.g2.com/products/dropsuite/reviews) Dropsuite, a NinjaOne company, is an award-winning cloud software platform enabling businesses and organizations globally to easily backup, recover and protect their important business information. Dropsuite’s commitment to advanced, secure, and scalable cloud technologies keeps them at the forefront of the industry and makes them the preferred choice of leading IT Administrators and Managed Service Providers globally. Try Dropsuite for free at dropsuite.com/try-it-free. **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 75 **How Do G2 Users Rate Dropsuite?** - **Quality of Support:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Dropsuite?** - **Seller:** [NinjaOne](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ninjaone) - **Year Founded:** 2013 - **HQ Location:** Austin, Texas - **Twitter:** @NinjaOne (3,598 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/6436301/ (2,121 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer & Network Security - **Company Size:** 80% Small-Business, 15% Mid-Market #### What Are Dropsuite's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Ease of Use (13 reviews) - Easy Setup (11 reviews) - Backup Solutions (5 reviews) - Reliability (5 reviews) - Simple (4 reviews) **Cons:** - Poor Interface Design (4 reviews) - Limited Options (3 reviews) - Restore Difficulties (3 reviews) - Backup Issues (1 reviews) - Billing Issues (1 reviews) ### 3. [Smarsh](https://www.g2.com/products/smarsh-smarsh/reviews) Smarsh’s Connected Archive is inclusive of capture, Archive, supervision and e-discovery capabilities across 80+ communication channels. It delivers unparalleled efficiency for small to mid-sized organizations, global enterprises, and US Federal Agencies. Connected Archive empowers you to efficiently review and search all of your electronic communications with full conversational context in one place, by leveraging Smarsh’s Supervision and e-Discovery Apps. This product suite is built to weather any regulatory change and evolves seamlessly alongside your organization. **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 28 **How Do G2 Users Rate Smarsh?** - **Quality of Support:** 8.0/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 8.5/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 9.0/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 7.7/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Smarsh?** - **Seller:** [Smarsh](https://www.g2.com/sellers/smarsh) - **Company Website:** https://www.Smarsh.com - **Year Founded:** 2001 - **HQ Location:** Portland, OR - **Twitter:** @SmarshInc (5,683 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/127745/ (1,602 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Financial Services - **Company Size:** 57% Small-Business, 25% Mid-Market #### What Are Smarsh's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Ease of Use (10 reviews) - Customer Support (6 reviews) - Search Efficiency (6 reviews) - Features (4 reviews) - Review Efficiency (3 reviews) **Cons:** - Learning Curve (5 reviews) - Poor Customer Support (4 reviews) - Slow Performance (4 reviews) - Insufficient Training (3 reviews) - Not User-Friendly (3 reviews) ### 4. [N-able Mail Assure](https://www.g2.com/products/n-able-mail-assure/reviews) N-able™ Mail Assure is cloud-based email security helps you and your customers stay in control and protect inbound and outbound email using collective threat intelligence, 24/7 email continuity, and long-term email archiving. Proprietary filtering technology, combined with real-time pattern threat recognition and machine learning technology, helps protect users against advanced phishing attacks, ransomware, malware, spam, and other email-borne threats. N-able™ Mail Assure offers: • Advanced threat protection for inbound and outbound email • Built-in 24/7 email continuity to maintain business productivity • Encrypted, long-term email archiving • A Private Portal for specifically business-critical emails • 99.99% malware catch rate, as certified by Virus Bulletin: https://www.virusbulletin.com/virusbulletin/2022/06/vbspam-comparative-review/ • A multitenant web interface designed for your technicians and end-users • Seamless integration with Microsoft 365™ • Quarantine reports to give users visibility over email flow **Average Rating:** 4.0/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 67 **How Do G2 Users Rate N-able Mail Assure?** - **Quality of Support:** 8.0/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 7.7/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 8.1/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 7.9/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind N-able Mail Assure?** - **Seller:** [N-able](https://www.g2.com/sellers/n-able) - **HQ Location:** Morrisville, North Carolina - **Twitter:** @Nable (15,862 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/n-able (2,287 employees on LinkedIn®) - **Ownership:** NYSE: NABL **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer & Network Security - **Company Size:** 69% Small-Business, 24% Mid-Market #### What Are N-able Mail Assure's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Email Security (3 reviews) - Security (2 reviews) - Customization (1 reviews) - Dashboard Features (1 reviews) - Dashboard Updates (1 reviews) **Cons:** - Poor Customer Support (2 reviews) - Slow Performance (2 reviews) - Email Issues (1 reviews) - Limited Customization (1 reviews) - Limited Features (1 reviews) ### 5. [Cryoserver](https://www.g2.com/products/cryoserver/reviews) Launched in the UK in 2003, Cryoserver has customers in 28 countries around the globe. It serves a large client base across all sectors, including financial, industrial and government. Cryoserver email archiving technologies are one of the pioneers of email archiving; with many years’ of experience, investment and development, the Cryoserver technologies deliver highly complex and ultra-secure systems with simplistic and easy-to-use interfaces allowing for expert archiving solutions that everyone can benefit from. Delivered either as an onpremise or as a cloud solution. Cryoserver helps organisations and individuals to find emails in a secure tamper evident archive in split seconds. **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 53 **How Do G2 Users Rate Cryoserver?** - **Quality of Support:** 9.3/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 9.4/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 9.5/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Cryoserver?** - **Seller:** [Cryoserver](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cryoserver) - **Year Founded:** 2003 - **HQ Location:** London - **Twitter:** @Cryoserver (457 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/62552/ (22 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services - **Company Size:** 52% Mid-Market, 28% Enterprise ### 6. [CyberSentriq](https://www.g2.com/products/cybersentriq/reviews) CyberSentriq is an integrated cybersecurity and data protection platform, leveraging solutions from two best-of breed vendors in the MSP space. Partnering with over 3,000 MSPs and protecting over 150,000 SMBs globally, CyberSentriq provides an unmatched combination of proactive AI-driven email and web security, advanced data protection, and operational resilience. The CyberSentriq platform offers: - Data backup & recovery for Microsoft M365 & Entra ID, Azure, Google workspace and more - AI-driven threat intelligence and detection - Advanced email security at both the Mail Exchange (MX) and Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES) layers. - Security awareness services - Phishing simulation - Email archiving and encryption **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 379 **How Do G2 Users Rate CyberSentriq?** - **Quality of Support:** 9.1/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Email Storage:** 10.0/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) **Who Is the Company Behind CyberSentriq?** - **Seller:** [CyberSentriq](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cybersentriq-d38aeb75-bc88-459b-a2d2-16ccbed4d6c5) - **Company Website:** https://cybersentriq.com - **Year Founded:** 2025 - **HQ Location:** Galway ,Galway - **Twitter:** @Redstor (1,949 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/cybersentriq/ (198 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Who Uses This:** IT Manager, Director - **Top Industries:** Information Technology and Services, Computer & Network Security - **Company Size:** 48% Mid-Market, 41% Small-Business #### What Are CyberSentriq's Pros and Cons? **Pros:** - Ease of Use (58 reviews) - Backup Solutions (45 reviews) - Backup Ease (38 reviews) - Backup Features (36 reviews) - Backup Frequency (27 reviews) **Cons:** - Backup Issues (18 reviews) - Inadequate Reporting (17 reviews) - Poor Reporting (15 reviews) - Backup Failures (12 reviews) - Reporting Issues (12 reviews) ### 7. [Gmail Backup Tool](https://www.g2.com/products/cigati-solutions-gmail-backup-tool/reviews) A Gmail Backup Tool is a specialized software solution designed to securely download and save emails from your Gmail account to a local system or external storage. It helps users create a complete backup of their mailbox, including emails, attachments, contacts, calendars, and other data. This tool is especially useful for data protection, migration, and offline access. Users can export Gmail data into multiple file formats such as PST, MBOX, EML, PDF, and more, making it easier to access emails across different email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail. Key Features: - Backup Gmail emails with attachments - Export data into multiple file formats - Maintain folder hierarchy and email properties - Selective backup using date filters - Remove duplicate emails during backup - Support for bulk Gmail account backup **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 38 **How Do G2 Users Rate Gmail Backup Tool?** - **Quality of Support:** 8.3/10 (Category avg: 8.5/10) - **Archive Backup:** 8.8/10 (Category avg: 9.2/10) - **Email Storage:** 8.6/10 (Category avg: 9.1/10) - **Email Analysis:** 8.7/10 (Category avg: 8.7/10) **Who Is the Company Behind Gmail Backup Tool?** - **Seller:** [Cigati Solutions](https://www.g2.com/sellers/cigati-solutions) - **Year Founded:** 2018 - **HQ Location:** Noida, Uttar Pradesh - **Twitter:** @Cigatisolution (11 Twitter followers) - **LinkedIn® Page:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/cigati-solutions/ (5 employees on LinkedIn®) **Who Uses This Product?** - **Company Size:** 50% Mid-Market, 37% Small-Business ## What Is Email Archiving Software? [Data Recovery Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/data-recovery) ## What Software Categories Are Similar to Email Archiving Software? - [Enterprise Information Archiving Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/enterprise-information-archiving) - [Cloud Email Security Solutions](https://www.g2.com/categories/cloud-email-security) - [Email Backup Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/email-backup) --- ## How Do You Choose the Right Email Archiving Software? ### What You Should Know About Email Archiving Software ### What is Email Archiving Software? Email archiving software compresses, stores, and indexes emails for future referencing or legal auditing. As emails transfer, the archive solution copies each email and stores them in an on-premise server, cloud server, or both (hybrid). Email users can delete their old emails to save space since they can retrieve old emails anytime in the email archive. Email archiving is an ongoing process, so users don’t have to worry about data loss at any point. From an organization's perspective, they can keep full records of any email transactions without consuming significant storage. Even though emails are compressed, companies and legal entities can still search, index, and audit employee email conversations, sales email interaction histories, and conversational histories. Stored emails are usually read-only, and their access is monitored and logged by administrators. This prevents unauthorized access and protects the integrity of the email history. Email archiving is not only beneficial to individual users, but also to companies that need to be compliant with regulations. Financial services companies, healthcare organizations, legal firms, and other regulated organizations are legally required to keep copies of their email. Regardless of which industries the user works with, email archiving is important and beneficial to everyone. #### What Types of Email Archiving Software Exist? **On-premise email archiving** On-premise email archiving software stores all the emails in physical servers on the premises of the organization. Started in the 2000s, this type of solution has been very reliable and can be fully customized to different needs. However, it requires a high initial investment to build up the servers and the IT team to manage it.  **Cloud email archiving** Cloud email archiving software stores all the emails in a remote physical server managed by a third-party vendor. It is charged based on a subscription so it doesn’t require initial investments and maintenance. Reputable vendors offer reliable, inexpensive, and easy management archiving services that are compliant with legal requirements. However, migration to the cloud is still a big hurdle.  **Hybrid email archiving** The hybrid solution enables email archiving on-premises and on the cloud. It is a solution for businesses that are in the migration process or don’t want to commit to a full cloud solution.  ### What are the Features of Email Archiving Software? The following are some core features within email archiving software that can help users manage their email retention and e-discovery policy: **Email journaling:** Every email, calendar, and event transaction must be copied and stored in the archive server in real time. Archived emails should never be replaced or modified for their integrity. This is necessary to keep in compliance with any legal requirements because the information stored must be 100% true to its original source. **Email compression:** All copied emails are compressed to save space on the archives. This saves server space and money. **Email retrieval:** Email account owners and administrators should be able to retrieve all of their emails within the retention period. This also means the email archive server should have a high availability so that the retrieval process is not constantly interrupted. **Administrative dashboard:** Administrators should be able to control user access to email archives and custom policies through a dashboard. The dashboard needs to generate accurate data tables and visualization so decision-makers can be informed about space used and access control. Advanced reporting tools in email archiving solutions can also identify inappropriate or sensitive email exchanges. This alerts administrators about usage patterns and user behaviors that violate corporate policy. **Electronic discovery (****eDiscovery):** eDiscovery is a legal requirement to search and recover electronic data for litigation or legal compliance. Companies should be able to set up tags and attributes to search emails based on sender/receiver information, dates, keywords, and so on. Multiple search query management is also recommended to speed up the search. Users can save or modify the searches without going through every individual search. ### What are the Benefits of Email Archiving Software? **Storage cost savings:** Depending on the size of a company, the amount of storage space they need for email can grow quickly. Archiving old emails can free space and increase email server performance.  **Policy compliance:** Email archiving ensures that an organization follows the proper email retention policy automatically. A complete solution allows users to retrieve their email from a secure server with ease. This saves money from paying auditors and lawyers when they spend time digging into all the emails. Those emails will be tamper-free because no employee can edit them on the storage server. It’s important to check with the local laws on the retention and security policy of email before buying the software. **Disaster recovery:** While email archiving is not email backup, it can be used as a disaster recovery option. When companies experience email systems data loss such as hardware malfunctions or cyberattacks, they can recover their email quickly. If only part of the emails got lost, they can recover that specific part instead of restoring the whole system.  **Email security:** The best email archive solution protects email messages through a mail server. Data archiving doesn't always have to do a fast search, but it does have to encrypt email communications to prevent cyberattacks. **Business continuity:** When the email exchange server is down, some solutions allow the user to send and receive emails from their server. This acts as a business continuity email service so users don’t miss important email exchanges online. ### Who Uses Email Archiving Software? **Employees:** Anyone in the organization should be able to use this tool to retrieve their emails. **Email managers:** Email managers should be able to set archiving permissions and policies through this software. They can also prevent inappropriate email exchange by analyzing risky user patterns and irregular content reports. This could save the company from potential competitive intelligence or espionage.  **Legal entities:** Court, lawyers, and auditors need to use e-Discovery tools for litigation and legal purposes. It saves them time to find the necessary documents because email archiving solutions can filter and search based on names, email addresses, keywords, and so on. ### Challenges with Email Archiving Software Email archiving solutions can come with their own set of challenges.  **Slow email retrieval:** Since the email is saved on archive servers, it can be slow to download and upload from that server. Archive storage is inexpensive because it is compensated by a slow transfer speed. Multiple users retrieving at once also slows the server. Buyers need to make sure that the email archive solution server ensures a specific data transfer speed according to the requirement. **Email retrieval access:** Unauthorized email access to the archive server can leak important company trade secrets and sensitive information. Email managers need to set the right access for each account on day one.  **Redundancy with other backup software:** Companies today have other disaster recovery and backup solutions that do similar things as email archive software. While the email archive has its own unique functionality and use case, the cost to store multiple copies of emails with different software can rise significantly with time. Buyers need to make sure that the future storage cost doesn’t exceed the budget.  ### Which Companies Should Buy Email Archiving Software? While all companies that use email should consider email archiving solutions, below are the two industries that especially need the software: **Finance industry:** The financial industry is heavily regulated so it requires email archiving to meet local laws. There are incentives for companies and employees to alter email copies for financial gains. Email archiving solutions prevent that by guaranteeing tamper-free email copies. Also, financial documents have industry words and numbers that are hard to discover. Many email archiving solutions provide search options that can include keywords and similar terms to find the right content quickly. Generic email searches often lack this functionality, making them inferior solutions that fail to meet the industry needs. **Healthcare industry:** Sensitive email exchanges between healthcare providers and patients are regulated by governments and targeted by cyberattacks/ransoms. Having an archive solution prevents unauthorized temperament of emails, ensures compliance, and provides business continuity. Since patient care can be very time sensitive, sending and receiving emails on time may save lives.  ### How to Buy Email Archiving Software #### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Email Archiving Software Buyers may be tempted to create long lists of detailed requirements or ones that are too vague. Ideally, an RFI should be detailed enough to cover the essential requirements but not too long to discourage employees and vendors from using it. Since not all requirements have the same importance, buyers should assign them priorities and focus on the most important ones.  Must-have features are critical features that the company needs to run its daily operations based on their industry. For example, financial companies need software that can process financial search terms and secure email temperament policy.  Important requirements should have a high priority but aren’t necessarily deal breakers if there is a replacement. For example, advanced analytics and dashboards to predict user patterns are important but not critical when the buyer already uses employee monitoring software that can analyze email content.  Nice-to-have features may vary by department and team. For example, mobile apps that can retrieve email on a phone instead of a PC are useful but oftentimes unnecessary. #### Compare Email Archiving Software Products **Create a long list** When making a long list, it should have no more than 10 products selected by eliminating all options that are not a good fit for the buyer. An easy start is to check what email software the company is using. The email archive software needs to be compatible with the company’s email software. If a company is using Gmail, they shouldn’t buy an archiver that focuses on on-premises since Gmail is a SaaS product. Also, users need to look into the legal requirements (such as GDPR data protection) for their company and industry. Some software solutions ensure regulatory compliance with specific laws, but that doesn’t guarantee that they always do. Email archiving software is changed by the number of users and/or space used for storage. Users can calculate an ideal budget based on that and filter out companies that don't meet it.  **Create a short list** The products in the long list can be very similar at first sight, so buyers need more details about the products and the vendors to create a short list. This is where the requirements list comes in handy. Decision makers use this list to generate RFIs, which ask vendors to provide detailed information on how they deliver the features needed by the buyer. Some vendors may decline to respond to RFIs, which automatically disqualifies them from the selection process. Others are eliminated because they provided unsatisfactory responses. Vendors also provide testimonials, customer references, and technical documentation to prove that they have the qualifications and expertise to deliver the product on time and within budget. **Conduct demos** Demos should be conducted live, not with slide decks or screenshots. Vendors should follow a script with scenarios created by the buyer. An example of a scenario would be to show how the system can save copies of emails, search specific emails based on industry terms, and retrieve the email on time. Buyers should take notes of the speed of data transfer and space used to store emails, as not all compression, data transfer, and storage options are created the same. All email archive vendors should use the same demo script, and buyers need to rate each criterion and scenario using a rating system such as scores from one to five (where one is the lowest rating and five the highest). All members of the selection team who attend demos should rate the functionality being demonstrated. The results can then be combined and analyzed to identify the main strengths and weaknesses of each product.  #### Selection of Email Archiving Software **Choose a selection team** IT managers, auditors, lawyers, and some end users should be included in the selection team. External consultants and outsourced IT teams may also provide a neutral perspective or help with negotiation.  **Negotiation** Understandably, companies want to reduce costs during pricing negotiations, but this should not happen to the users' detriment. Instead, it is preferable to focus on getting the most value for the money. An example is customer support, which is included in the software's price but is usually limited to working hours and weekdays. Global companies may require 24/7 follow-the-sun support, which means that issues can be passed between teams in different time zones, so the users do not have to wait too long for a resolution.  Negotiation also includes legal and contractual terms, as well as service level agreements (SLAs). One example is cloud uptime, which guarantees that SaaS archiving products are operational. Most vendors provide an uptime of 95% and higher, but even a few hours a month can be very disruptive for regulated companies in finance and healthcare. **Final decision** The final decision should be made by a team, not a single person. It is also essential to use a structured approach and the data gathered during the previous phases. Decision support systems can prioritize requirements, identify the strengths and weaknesses of each product, and create various buying scenarios.