Mailcow email hosting
Mailcow is the mail platform Broadbent Host runs. Webmail is https://webmail.broadbent.host. The platform names are mail.broadbent.host and mail.broadbent.email. Your addresses live on your domain, once that domain is on the platform. Each domain has a quota, a default mailbox quota, a maximum quota and a mailbox limit. Each mailbox has a quota and an active flag. Aliases are separate. Quarantine notification is set per mailbox. That is what the mail service keeps in step with Mailcow.
The plan you buy is still email hosting, described as Plesk, because Plesk is the panel. Mailcow is the store underneath. This page is for the store: quotas, webmail, aliases and the address to open. The panel page is Plesk. The long article is Mailcow email hosting. The decision guide is Plesk or Mailcow.
Plans and limits
Basic is 5 GB and 10 mailboxes, with standard spam and virus protection. Business is 20 GB and 25 mailboxes. Enterprise is 50 GB and unlimited mailboxes on the plan. Those limits are the pool and the count. They are enforced as domain quota and mailbox limit on the platform. Ten mailboxes on Basic do not each get 5 GB. Extra storage is an add-on. A notice is sent as you approach the limit. A full mailbox refuses new mail. Inactive mailboxes still consume quota if the messages remain.
IMAP and POP3, and SMTP for sending, are how phones and Outlook connect. The setup mail carries the server names. Auto-configuration covers common clients. Webmail at webmail.broadbent.host is the browser path, including when you are proving a password before a desktop profile exists. The product also names Roundcube, Horde, Plesk Webmail, SquirrelMail and Afterlogic WebMail Pro. Use IMAP if the phone, the laptop and webmail should agree. POP3 that deletes from the server will empty the others.
Aliases, leavers, and quarantine
An alias delivers one address to mailboxes that already exist. It does not have its own password. A mailbox is what a person signs in to. A shared mailbox is one password among several people, which has to change when the group changes. Prefer an alias when each person already has an account. Set a leaver inactive on the day they leave. Export or delete when you know what must be kept. The platform will keep accepting mail for an active address and will keep it inside the quota.
Quarantine notification tells the mailbox that something was held. Someone still has to look. Spam and virus protection is the protection on the email plan. It is not a Cisco firewall and it is not Exchange Online. Held mail that sits for a fortnight is a message you did not answer. Check it with the same regularity as the junk folder.
DNS and moving mail
Mail arrives only when DNS says it should. If we hold the DNS, the panel and the UK team set the records. If DNS is elsewhere, the records change there. Webmail can succeed while delivery still goes to the old host. Test from an outside mailbox into webmail, reply, and confirm the thread on the phone. Do not cancel the old host before that test.
Migration assistance can move mail, contacts and calendar data, with the aim of little disruption. It needs access to the old system and a quota that fits the history. Mailcow does not pull the old server by itself because the domain name now exists. Agree the window. Leave the old host able to receive until the new one is seen to receive.
What this is not
This is not Microsoft 365 and not Google Workspace. Those are administered, when you want that, on IT and server management: users, licences, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Gmail, Drive, Meet. Outlook over IMAP is still this platform. A Kubernetes namespace does not include a mailbox. Website maintenance does not set email up. A hardware firewall does not write mailbox rules.
Backups of mail on UK servers are the hosting backups described on the email service. They are not a private archive of a folder someone deleted. Ask what can be restored before you rely on it. Keep your own export when a mailbox is about to be removed.
Order Basic, Business or Enterprise for the count and the storage you measured. Open webmail.broadbent.host. Point the domain. Keep the panel for the clicks, and use this page when you need the platform named correctly. Support is quickest with the domain, the address, whether webmail accepts the password, and whether one mailbox failed or all of them did.
How a domain is recorded
A customer domain on the platform is stored with its quota, its default mailbox size, its maximum quota and its mailbox limit, and with an active flag. Platform domains, mail.broadbent.host and mail.broadbent.email, are the service names and are not where you create staff addresses. Matching a domain to a registration we already hold is how the mailbox is tied to a name you bought or transferred. A domain that is only typed into a mail client, with no DNS and no place on the platform, will not receive mail.
Quotas are the practical half of that record. Basic's 5 GB is the pool for up to 10 mailboxes. Business's 20 GB is the pool for up to 25. Enterprise's 50 GB is the pool, with the plan's unlimited mailbox count. A single mailbox can still be capped by its own quota. Extra storage is how the pool grows without changing the shape of the product. The notice exists so a full disk is not the first symptom. When the mailbox is full, senders retry and then stop. That is a quota incident. Check webmail size before you change DNS or open a wider fault.
A normal month
New starters get a mailbox, a password, and IMAP on the phone after webmail has worked once. Shared addresses become aliases onto those mailboxes unless a single shared login is a deliberate choice. Leavers are set inactive the same day. Their mail stays in the quota until you export or delete it. Once a month someone looks at the domain quota and at quarantine. Quarantine notification can tell the user. It cannot decide the message was wanted. Spam and virus protection on the plan is the filter. The notification is the nudge.
If one address fails, look at that mailbox: quota, inactive, or a client on POP3. If every address fails, look at whether the domain is active and where DNS points. If the website loads and mail does not, the two were pointed at different places. That is allowed. It is also how a redesign loses the mail records. Write the mail records down when the site records change.
Beside the other Host services
Plesk remains the panel for shared hosting and the name on the email plan. Mailcow remains the store and the webmail at webmail.broadbent.host. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace remain the IT management plans when the office lives there. A Broadbent mailbox does not become Exchange because Outlook is the client. Website maintenance will not create the mailbox. The maintenance FAQ lists email setup as outside the plan. Kubernetes will not create it either. Order the email plan, then use the panel and this platform.
Backups described for the email service are the hosting backups on UK servers. Take an export when you are about to delete a mailbox you might regret. Ask what a restore can return before you promise a folder back to someone. Keep the old host online until an outside sender can reach webmail and the phone shows the same thread over IMAP. Migration assistance is there for mail, contacts and calendar data. It is a planned window, sized to the quota you bought, not a background sync that ignores a 5 GB ceiling.
When you write to support, include the domain, the address, whether webmail.broadbent.host accepts the password, and whether the failure is one mailbox or the whole domain. Say where DNS is. Those facts separate a client, a quota, an inactive flag and a record that still points at the previous provider. That is the whole operating picture for Mailcow on Broadbent Host. The articles go further. The plan page is where the mailbox count is bought.
Clients, DNS, and a move that can be reversed
Set the phone and Outlook to IMAP unless you have a reason to download and delete. The server names are in the message sent after purchase, and the panel can auto-configure the common clients. Webmail at webmail.broadbent.host is the referee: if the message is there and not on the phone, the phone is wrong; if it is on neither, the platform or DNS is wrong. Roundcube, Horde, Plesk Webmail, SquirrelMail and Afterlogic WebMail Pro are the browser clients named on the email product. You do not need all of them. You need one that accepts the password, plus the phone.
DNS is the other half of delivery. MX and the related records have to reach this platform, whether our team sets them because we host the zone, or your current DNS host sets them because they still hold it. A website record can move on Monday and the mail records on Thursday, on purpose, so the site launches without interrupting mail. Write that down. An accidental version of the same split is how orders go missing. Leave the old host accepting mail until an outside test lands in webmail and a reply leaves again.
Quota maths is simple and often skipped. A Basic domain of 5 GB shared by 10 mailboxes cannot absorb a 15 GB export from the previous host. Business at 20 GB and 25 mailboxes, or Enterprise at 50 GB with the plan's unlimited count, is the conversation to have before the import, not after it fails. Additional storage exists. Archiving exists. A notice exists. A silent increase does not. Inactive mailboxes count toward the pool. Delete or export them when the retention you actually need has been met. The plan page does not publish a separate legal retention period. A technical quota is not a records policy.
Treat Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace as a different product even if one person in the office uses Outlook or a browser for both. IT management is where those suites are administered. This platform is where a domain mailbox on Broadbent Host is stored. Mixing them on one domain needs a list of which address lives where. Support can help a mailbox on this platform. They cannot infer an Exchange tenancy from the word Outlook. Bring the domain, the address, the webmail result and the DNS host, and the fault is usually one of the four things those facts distinguish.
What to have ready when the mail moves
Have the domain, the list of mailboxes, and the size of the mail you intend to keep. Match that size to Basic at 5 GB and 10 mailboxes, Business at 20 GB and 25, or Enterprise at 50 GB with unlimited mailboxes on the plan, and add storage if the history is larger than the pool. Have access to the old host for the migration window, and have DNS either on our nameservers or with someone who can change the mail records while you watch. Decide aliases before you create a pile of shared passwords. Decide who is set inactive rather than deleted. Then run the outside test into webmail.broadbent.host, the reply, and the phone on IMAP. That sequence is the move. Skipping the size check is how a 5 GB domain rejects the history. Skipping the DNS check is how webmail works and the world still delivers elsewhere.
Keep the old mail host in place until that outside test has succeeded. A mailbox that works only from inside webmail, and not from the public internet, is still a DNS job, not a new licence. Once the test passes, the plan you bought is the quota you live with, and the panel is how you add the next person.