Broadband ISP Plusnet Gives Up on Free UK Email and Webspace Features
Internet provider Plusnet recently began notifying customers that they “will no longer be offering an email service to new or existing” users of their broadband service, and have instead begun the process of migrating users of their legacy services (inc. webspace and domains) to a new platform. But the new service won’t remain free.
The change, which appears to have begun around mid-April 2025, largely slipped under our radar – until now. This is possibly because only a smaller portion of Plusnet’s customers actually still use their legacy webspace / email services, and they’ve since been gradually informing them about it in phases (usually just before each group is due to be migrated). Credits to Paul for notifying us.
The migration, which will also impact a variety of Plusnet’s older brands/domains (e.g. Madasafish, Callnetuk, Care4free, Dialstart, Freenetname, Globalnet, IC24, ICScotland, Totalserve and Totalise, and Metronet), will see customers having their related accounts, addresses, folders and settings migrated to a new platform delivered by Greenby – part of the Enix Group.
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Greenby will provide the migrated users with a double their current mailbox storage (2GB), a dedicated support team and a “modern Email platform with excellent reliability” (as above, domains, webspace and DNS services are also being included/migrated). According to Plusnet, this move “will allow us to continue to focus on doing what we do best, delivering straight forward broadband” (translation: cost-cutting). But the catch is that the new service won’t remain free.
Greenby Statement
If you’re an active Plusnet Broadband customer, the email service with Greenby is provided for the next 2 years free of charge. After which you’ll have the option to pay to continue using your mailbox and webspace. For everyone else, the service will remain active for 30 days after your migration, and after this will cost £15 per year. This covers all your existing mailboxes, plus any new ones you choose to create.
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Providing a reliable and secure email service requires significant resources. For customers without an active Plusnet broadband package, we’ve kept the price as low as possible to ensure we can continue delivering a high-quality service and keep your email running smoothly. We understand that many people rely on email addresses they’ve used for years, and it’s important that those who want to keep using the service can do so with confidence in its reliability.
In terms of customers who have a domain attached to their website, Greenby states that Plusnet will honour any free domains where applicable and renew them for the next 2 years. All other domains will be charged at Greenby’s standard renewal rates: £7 per year for .co.uk, .org.uk, or .uk domains, and £12 per year for .com, .net, or .org domains. More details on this migration can be found here and here.
Customers can of course elect not to be migrated to the new platform provider, but that will mean losing access to their legacy email and webspace accounts. In fairness, Plusnet is one of the last ISPs to go through this sort of process, with many others having long since jettisoned the baggage of their bundled email and webspace services or converted to more of a paid solution.
As we’ve said many times before, it’s always wise to use a separate email service from the one provided by your ISP, not least because it can make it harder for you to switch broadband providers (i.e. you run the risk of losing access to your address) and Ofcom doesn’t regulate email services (i.e. there isn’t much support for those who experience difficulties). In general, it’s often far better to sign-up with one of the many free email providers.
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The issue of webspace is somewhat more complex, although you can still find some “free” webspace providers dotted around the internet (e.g. InfinityFree), but they’ll often be from unfamiliar organisations and may attach other caveats (e.g. a few others will attach a requirement to show their adverts on your site).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Having been a PlusNet customer for 22 years probably one of thier longest serving customers now!, ther has been zero communication as my Dad is still using the free email as it was easiest when we got him properly online a few years back, although we have a seperate service some things still need migrating over but there has been nothing from PlusNet.
I cannot fault PlusNet over the time we have been with them but since the mergers certain things are not their strong point anymore.
If you haven’t heard anything yet then it’s probably because you’re not going to be migrated just yet; “gradually informing them about it in phases (usually just before each group is due to be migrated”.
22 years? That is a long time to stay with one provider, I thought I was there a long time for almost nine years.
I am actually really pleased that Plusnet are hiving off the email to make it independent of the associated broadband account. My parents still primarily use a “free-online.co.uk” based email address (which became Plusnet) and I have been struggling to get them to migrate existing contacts to gmail. This keeps them tied to Plusnet as an ISP and phone provider and would also make things difficult for me when it comes to having to manage their estate at some point down the line.
I also had to go through the “fun” of unpicking my own online life from Plusnet in 2021. I was with Force9 (became Plusnet) from 1997 for over 24 years. I was broadly happy with them. I made use of their additional servies of web and domain hosting plus email. All quite convenient until you want to move ISP to make use of the newly installed CityFibre connections in the street for decent upload speeds for home working (Openreach only installed FTTP here this year).
I was fortunate to have abandoned the freebie “force9.co.uk” based email address a very long time ago which helped.
Hello Matt, sorry I have to beat your claim to being a long plusnet member, I joined in 2001 24 years go I also used ic24 dial up prior to that, like yourself plusnet has served me very well with only a few minor issues along the way, nice to see another long service happy customer, Derek
Don’t think I’ve used an ISP supplied email address since I left AOL dial up in 2002. Anyone with an Android phone is nearly certain to have a Gmail address anyway.
AOL dial up. Those were the days lol
Not everyone! You can create a Google account using any other email address too. Google without Gmail account I think they call it.
That’s what I’ve done. Probably not a huge amount of people that have done that though.
I would suspect that a good proportion of the remaining email users are using it with a domain also provided by Plusnet. That’s my use case and also everyone else I know with Plusnet.
Years ago, most of us had an email address linked to our ISP, then there were the free ones from Yahoo, AOL, MS and others, I think even Apple have free email, not that I have bothered to look.
I still have AOL and Yahoo ones, not that I use them very often, also got a Google one by all accounts. I did have a Hotmail one, but dropped it years ago.,
Been using Ionos for a few years for email, cost a few quid a year
Not a good idea to have email linked to ISP these days, so many free and better ways.
With the ending of PSTN it’s probably a good idea to decouple all other services from your ISP. Should make it a lot easier to change ISP in the future. I will be doing so when my contract is up this year.
@Big Dave, I don’t have a landline, got rid of it when I changed from Plusnet to Zzoomm. I never used it anyway, I do have a VoIP phone, I got it when I was on a Wireless network, so my Dad could phone me instead of paying high costs to phone mobile. I don’t use the VoIP either these days, It don’t cost me anything, apart from, the fiver that is in their account. I am surprised they have not emailed me and asked me if I am going to use it.
Gone are the days of Geocities, but if you’re looking for (ad-free) free webhosting there’s a few options that will require reading some instructions: Github Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Azure Static Web Apps
Does Greenby do anything other than email for Plusnet?
No,they will only be doing the email and domain managing and hosting when it eventually goes across, whilst it’s starting around now it’s going to be some time before everyone goes over, be a good time to check emails if you don’t use them often especially for domains etc.
Will be a good thing though from a customer perspective to have a dedicated company to look after these and .uch better from a service perspective if things go wrong like the recent outlook issues that sent all emails clients haywire.
It makes sense for Plusnet as from experience, trying to talk end users through setting up email clients can be very time consuming to the sheer number of different clients and devices in use. By offloading them, the email queries will hopefully have a dedicated support team more adept with those queries.
TOTALISE!!!
There’s a name I have not seen in decades.
Hi
I have lost my Plusnet e mail account , But if i try to log into Greenby site it says my details not recognised , And i cant find a way to contact Greenby provider
I got an email about this a while back. To be honest, I was surprised that said Force 9 dialup account still existed. I obviously hadn’t dialled in to it in a very long time. What’s more surprising is that at some point since 2008 I obviously did log in to it and tell them my ‘new’ email address.
Anyway, having not used that account since the early 2000s I think I’ll let it expire.
Strange how so many peeps these days think is fine for companies to stiff their customers. These origional ISP emails were never ‘free’, you did not get them without your ISP service/contract – arguably, despite how legaise may spin it, it was an inclusive service, the fact that it was bundled in rather than a sparate charged line item was the ISS choice.
Given the fickleness of constant ‘switching’, again arguably totaly unnecessary if providers povided reasonable service for reasonable cost, and didn’t choose to be uncompetitve or enshitification of their customer. Jsut think of all the cost savings if ‘swtiching’ wasn’t a thing, all the staff, systems support and not forgetting having to pay for the likes of OfCon etc.
And as for anyone that advocates the like of Googel and microsoft havign access to individuals email, micht as well not bother with your data security!