Are there any free Microsoft Exchange hosted solutions? I understand that Microsoft Exchange is a paid/licensed product, but I was curious if there might be a host that has a free hosting model (e.g. for <= 3 mailboxes per domain)? Larger mail boxes per domain == cost. ??
Finally, please refrain from suggesting other mail services (eg. sendmail, etc).
No free ones. SPLA (the only valid licensing agreement) from Microsoft has no provision for that. I can give you mailboxes for free for a limited time (IIRC 90 days), but after that it is "pay per mailbox" for me.
So, not only would Ih ave to pay the (non trivial) hardware requirements, but I also would have to pay the license costs for your mailboxes. Sorry, won't work.
Your options:
I don't know of any services that offer Exchange for free. SPLA licencing costs for Exchange run at about $5-$7 per mailbox, so any service would be making a resonable loss doing this.
Mail2Web offer the cheapest hosted Exchange I know of, 60 day free trial and then about $5 a month.
Appriver.com is also a low cost choice for Exchange hosting. One of the nice features that seaperates Appriver from other Exchange hosting providers is that each mailbox has unlimited storage.
I don't know of any free ones, but Mailtrust is a paid service, run by Rackspace.
