Introduction
To succeed with cold email outreach, it’s not enough to have a great message; you also need to understand the technical landscape of your recipients. To shed light on this, we conducted a large-scale analysis of the email hosting infrastructure used by companies worldwide. We processed approximately 2 million companies from our contacts database, queried the MX (Mail Exchange) records for their primary domains, and aggregated the results by the top-level corporate domain. This data reveals a clear picture of the major players, the critical security layers B2B emails must pass through, and significant regional differences that every sender should be aware of.
The Global Landscape: A Two-Horse Race with a Security Moat
Globally, the corporate email hosting market is dominated by two tech giants: Microsoft and Google. Together, outlook.com (Microsoft 365) and google.com (Google Workspace) handle the email for nearly half (48.51%) of all companies in our study. This duopoly underscores their immense footprint in the business productivity space.
However, the story doesn't end there. The next most common MX records don't point to another inbox provider, but to specialized email security gateways. Services like Proofpoint (ppe-hosted.com, pphosted.com), Mimecast (mimecast.com), and Barracuda (barracudanetworks.com) are the digital gatekeepers for a substantial portion of corporate inboxes. Their primary role is to filter out spam, phishing, and malware before an email ever reaches the recipient's server. For anyone sending cold emails, this means your messages are often scrutinized by a sophisticated third-party filter before they even get a chance to be seen.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 31.73 |
| google.com | 16.78 |
| ppe-hosted.com | 1.91 |
| mimecast.com | 1.70 |
| barracudanetworks.com | 1.42 |
| pphosted.com | 1.19 |
| secureserver.net | 0.63 |
| arsmtp.com | 0.62 |
| emailsrvr.com | 0.56 |
| oxcs.net | 0.51 |
| ovh.net | 0.50 |
| locaweb.com.br | 0.44 |
| cloudflare.net | 0.43 |
| mailspamprotection.com | 0.43 |
| zoho.com | 0.40 |
| hornetsecurity.com | 0.38 |
| ionos.de | 0.37 |
| hostinger.com | 0.34 |
| rzone.de | 0.29 |
| yahoodns.net | 0.28 |
| ionos.com | 0.28 |
| ionos.co.uk | 0.28 |
| serverdata.net | 0.27 |
| iphmx.com | 0.26 |
| stackmail.com | 0.26 |
| sophos.com | 0.24 |
| spamexperts.com | 0.22 |
| one.com | 0.21 |
| mailchannels.net | 0.20 |
| trendmicro.com | 0.19 |
| hostedemail.com | 0.19 |
| mailanyone.net | 0.17 |
| serviciodecorreo.es | 0.17 |
| carrierzone.com | 0.15 |
| mtaroutes.com | 0.14 |
| qq.com | 0.14 |
| kasserver.com | 0.14 |
| registrar-servers.com | 0.14 |
| yandex.net | 0.14 |
| emailservice.io | 0.13 |
| titan.email | 0.13 |
| trendmicro.eu | 0.13 |
| ionos.es | 0.12 |
| mailinblack.com | 0.12 |
| register.it | 0.12 |
| infomaniak.ch | 0.12 |
| above.com | 0.12 |
| jellyfish.systems | 0.12 |
| livemail.co.uk | 0.11 |
Country-Specific Analysis
While global trends provide a great overview, the picture changes significantly when we zoom in on specific countries. Local providers and regional preferences play a huge role in shaping the email infrastructure.
United States: The Duopoly Strengthens
In the US, the dominance of Microsoft and Google is even more pronounced, with their combined market share exceeding 52%. The email security layer is also incredibly strong here, with Proofpoint (ppe-hosted.com), Barracuda, and Mimecast rounding out the top five. This indicates that a majority of US-based corporate email is protected by an enterprise-grade security gateway, a critical factor for deliverability.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 32.59 |
| google.com | 19.60 |
| ppe-hosted.com | 4.09 |
| barracudanetworks.com | 2.58 |
| mimecast.com | 2.44 |
| pphosted.com | 1.79 |
| arsmtp.com | 1.41 |
| oxcs.net | 1.11 |
| emailsrvr.com | 1.04 |
| secureserver.net | 0.88 |
| serverdata.net | 0.63 |
| ionos.com | 0.55 |
| yahoodns.net | 0.49 |
| mailspamprotection.com | 0.49 |
| cloudflare.net | 0.48 |
| zoho.com | 0.36 |
| carrierzone.com | 0.33 |
| emailservice.io | 0.32 |
| iphmx.com | 0.29 |
United Kingdom: A Microsoft Stronghold
The UK market shows a remarkable preference for Microsoft, with outlook.com handling nearly 40% of corporate email—a significantly higher share than the global average. While Google is still number two, its share is smaller. The UK also shows a strong presence for UK-specific providers like ionos.co.uk, stackmail.com, and livemail.co.uk, demonstrating a healthy local hosting market alongside the global giants. Mimecast, a company founded in the UK, also enjoys a particularly strong market share here.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 39.47 |
| google.com | 11.59 |
| mimecast.com | 4.56 |
| ionos.co.uk | 2.52 |
| barracudanetworks.com | 1.61 |
| stackmail.com | 1.46 |
| secureserver.net | 1.03 |
| ppe-hosted.com | 1.00 |
| livemail.co.uk | 0.99 |
| pphosted.com | 0.78 |
| mailspamprotection.com | 0.66 |
| hornetsecurity.com | 0.62 |
| hosts.co.uk | 0.62 |
| cloudflare.net | 0.59 |
| mailanyone.net | 0.59 |
| emailsecurity.app | 0.48 |
| emailsrvr.com | 0.44 |
| mtaroutes.com | 0.42 |
| arsmtp.com | 0.42 |
Germany: The Power of Local Providers
Germany presents the most significant deviation from the global trend. While Microsoft is still the leader, its dominance is heavily challenged by a powerful contingent of local German hosting companies. ionos.de, rzone.de, and kasserver.com hold prominent positions in the top 10. Most strikingly, Google's market share is less than 4%, far below its standing in any other major market we analyzed. This suggests a strong preference for local providers, possibly driven by factors like data privacy regulations (GDPR) and customer support in the native language.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 30.21 |
| ionos.de | 7.99 |
| rzone.de | 4.96 |
| hornetsecurity.com | 3.78 |
| google.com | 3.76 |
| kasserver.com | 2.88 |
| ispgateway.de | 1.45 |
| agenturserver.de | 0.98 |
| your-server.de | 0.94 |
| sophos.com | 0.93 |
| antispameurope.com | 0.87 |
| pphosted.com | 0.82 |
| secure-mailgate.com | 0.55 |
| trendmicro.eu | 0.51 |
| mimecast.com | 0.50 |
| barracudanetworks.com | 0.43 |
| kundenserver.de | 0.41 |
| udag.de | 0.41 |
| t-online.de | 0.38 |
France: OVH Challenges the Giants
The French market features a powerful national champion in ovh.net, which stands as the clear number two provider, nearly matching Google's market share. This shows that a strong regional cloud and hosting provider can compete effectively with the global titans. France also has a unique set of email security providers like mailinblack.com and vadesecure.com, which hold significant shares, indicating a distinct local security ecosystem.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 31.73 |
| ovh.net | 12.08 |
| google.com | 11.47 |
| mailinblack.com | 3.94 |
| ionos.fr | 2.35 |
| vadesecure.com | 1.93 |
| gandi.net | 1.72 |
| pphosted.com | 1.47 |
| infomaniak.ch | 1.18 |
| hornetsecurity.com | 1.11 |
| mimecast.com | 0.54 |
| securemail.pro | 0.52 |
| altospam.com | 0.43 |
| trendmicro.eu | 0.41 |
| online.net | 0.38 |
| iphmx.com | 0.37 |
| xefi.fr | 0.34 |
| cloudflare.net | 0.34 |
| lerelaisinternet.com | 0.25 |
Spain: Global Trends Meet National Champions
Spain's email hosting market more closely resembles the global distribution, with Microsoft and Google firmly in the top two spots. However, local providers have carved out substantial niches. serviciodecorreo.es is a remarkably strong #3, followed by the Spanish branch of IONOS (ionos.es). This demonstrates a blended market where global solutions are popular, but strong national alternatives command a loyal user base.
| Domain | Share, % |
|---|---|
| outlook.com | 24.99 |
| google.com | 13.96 |
| serviciodecorreo.es | 5.71 |
| ionos.es | 4.09 |
| ovh.net | 0.99 |
| nominalia.com | 0.99 |
| pphosted.com | 0.98 |
| mailspamprotection.com | 0.65 |
| buzondecorreo.com | 0.56 |
| dondominio.com | 0.55 |
| hornetsecurity.com | 0.49 |
| hostinger.com | 0.45 |
| cloudflare.net | 0.45 |
| iphmx.com | 0.42 |
| rzone.de | 0.40 |
| barracudanetworks.com | 0.38 |
| 1and1.es | 0.34 |
| loading.es | 0.33 |
| ppe-hosted.com | 0.31 |
About Us
Sellvance is a B2B (Business-to-Business) sales outreach platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), sales teams, and founders. Our platform provides an integrated suite of tools including a B2B contact database, AI-powered data enrichment, and an automated multi-step campaign manager to help our customers find and engage with potential leads.