01
A standby inbox for every address
Each person gets a second inbox for the same email address, on mail servers that do not depend on your provider. It stays switched off until it is needed.
Standby email for UK businesses
Email down. Your team still working.
A standby inbox for your business. When Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or any other email provider goes down, your team keeps reading and replying from their own addresses.
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- any email provider
09:02New enquiry: a quote for 40 licences, reply needed today.
09:05Your quote sent, from your usual address.
09:11Supplier: delivery moved to Monday, please confirm.
09:12Your confirmation sent, from your usual address.
- Usual email provider
- Down since 17:45 yesterday
- Standby inbox
- On: receiving and sending
What a day without email costs
When email stops, most of the working day stops with it.
Customers hear nothing
A customer who gets no reply does not know your provider is down. They only know you did not answer, and another supplier is one search away.
Staff are paid to wait
Quotes, orders, bookings and approvals all travel by email. A team that cannot open its inbox loses the day, then loses the next morning catching up.
Work leaks into personal accounts
People reach for personal Gmail and WhatsApp to keep things moving. Customer details end up in places your business does not control.
What you get
One standby. Four jobs. Your email keeps moving.
Your email stays with the provider you use today. The standby sits beside it, ready, and takes over only while that provider is down. Less time lost waiting for a status page to turn green, and new enquiries still get an answer.
02
A switch when your provider fails
When your provider stops working, you tell us and we redirect your incoming email to the standby. New messages keep arriving, typically within minutes of the switch.
03
Replies from your own address
Staff read and reply in a browser or a phone mail app, from their normal addresses. We set up your domain's sender records in advance, so replies go out signed as genuinely yours.
04
Everything put back afterwards
When your provider recovers, email is switched back and everything received and sent on the standby is copied into your normal mailboxes.
Pricing
One monthly price, by the size of your team.
Set-up is £149, once. There is no contract: stop any time and nothing else about your email changes. More than 75 mailboxes? We give a fixed quote on the call.
Small team
Up to 10 mailboxes
£29/moNo contract
- Standby inboxes for up to 10 mailboxes
- The switch during an outage, and the switch back
- Standby email copied into your normal mailboxes afterwards
- £149 set-up, once
For a small office where every missed email is a missed customer.
Book a free 30-minute callGrowing team
Up to 30 mailboxes
£59/moNo contract
- Standby inboxes for up to 30 mailboxes
- The switch during an outage, and the switch back
- Standby email copied into your normal mailboxes afterwards
- £149 set-up, once
For a firm with several teams and shared addresses such as info@ and accounts@.
Book a free 30-minute callLarger team
Up to 75 mailboxes
£99/moNo contract
- Standby inboxes for up to 75 mailboxes
- The switch during an outage, and the switch back
- Standby email copied into your normal mailboxes afterwards
- £149 set-up, once
For a larger office. Above 75 mailboxes we give a fixed quote on the call.
Book a free 30-minute callHow it works
From outage to inbox. Four steps, nothing hidden.
You should know exactly what happens to your email before, during and after an outage. This is the whole sequence.
01
We set it up, once
On a short call we list your addresses and prepare your domain. We agree who can order the switch, and every person gets standby sign-in details to keep on their phone. Your normal email does not change.
02
Your provider goes down
You call us, or we call you if we have seen it first. We switch your incoming email to the standby and tell your team it is on.
03
Your team carries on
Staff open the standby in a browser or a phone mail app and work as usual: read, reply and send, from their own addresses.
04
Your provider comes back
We switch email back, then copy everything received and sent on the standby into your normal mailboxes, so the record is complete in one place.
What it does not do: it cannot show email that was already inside your provider when it failed, and it does not cover calendars, Teams or shared files. It needs email on your own domain name, so it cannot stand in for a free @gmail.com or @outlook.com address. On a normal day it changes nothing about your email.
It keeps happening
Three long Microsoft 365 outages have hit email since July 2025.
Microsoft is a very good supplier on most days. These are the other days, and every provider has them. We followed the November outage as it happened on our live status page.
Why Code2Box
Set up by engineers who watch outages as they happen.
We build systems that keep working when a supplier does not. Standby email is the same idea applied to the tool your business uses most. How we work, start to finish, is on our approach page.
- We watch Microsoft ourselves
- Our own systems test their connection to Microsoft every five minutes, and our live page followed the November 2026 outage with regular checks of Microsoft's status.
- Separate servers
- The standby runs on mail servers outside Microsoft and Google, so one provider's bad day stays one provider's bad day.
- No lock-in
- Your email never moves. Stop the standby and nothing else about your email changes.
- Fixed price
- The prices on this page are the prices. No surprise invoices.
- Direct line
- You deal with the engineers who set it up. No tickets, no call centre.
- UK-based
- Cardiff engineers, in the same time zone as your team and your customers.
Honest answers
Common questions, straight answers.
Do we have to leave Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?
No. Your email stays exactly where it is and works the way it does today. The standby sits beside it and is only used while your provider is down.
Which email providers does it work with?
Any provider that runs email on your own domain name: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, a hosting company's mailboxes or your own mail server. The standby runs on separate mail servers. At set-up we check that your domain's settings can still be changed while that provider is down.
How quickly does the standby take over?
Switching is one change to where your domain's email is delivered. We prepare your domain in advance so that change typically takes effect within minutes. From then on, new email arrives in the standby inboxes. Email that had already reached your provider before the switch stays with them and appears in your normal mailbox when they recover.
Can staff see their older emails in the standby?
No. The standby holds email from the moment of the switch onwards, which is what keeps the day moving. Older email stays with your provider and is there again when they are back. If your team also needs recent history during an outage, say so on the call and we will tell you what that would take.
What happens when our provider comes back?
Email is switched back to your provider, and everything received and sent on the standby is copied into your normal mailboxes, so the record is complete in one place.
Does it cover calendars, Teams or shared files?
No, it covers email. In the November 2026 outage Microsoft said most core Teams features, such as calls, meetings and chats, were not affected, while email was. Email is also the part your customers see, which is why it is the part worth protecting first.
What does standby email cost?
£29 a month for up to 10 mailboxes, £59 a month for up to 30 and £99 a month for up to 75, plus £149 to set it up. There is no contract, so you can stop any time. For more than 75 mailboxes we give a fixed quote on a free 30-minute call.
Is this the same as an email backup?
No. A backup keeps a copy of old email so it can be restored. Standby email keeps new email arriving and replies going out while your provider is down. They solve different problems.
Ready before the next outage?
30 minutes, free, direct with us. We look at how your email is set up and tell you what a standby would take.