Choosing a LocalSMTP tier when procurement is watching

Start with the published tier table rather than a sales call. LocalSMTP lists Starter at five mailboxes, Studio at fifteen and Floor at fifty, and each one is a lifetime tier by mailbox count. For a team buying once and owning it, that shape matters more than the headline figure, because there is no seat count to recalculate when headcount moves.

Procurement will ask what recurs. Under this model the answer is the tier itself, not a quarterly seat charge, and the mailbox count is fixed by the tier you choose. If your team grows past the count, the next tier is the route rather than an automatic uplift. Put that in writing so nobody assumes seats scale silently.

What the money buys is working mail. Standard SMTP and IMAP mailboxes you can configure, browser webmail for the people who prefer it, and the warm-up and authentication checks that run alongside setup. Read the table against that list and ask which tier gives your team enough mailboxes without buying a count you will not use.

Which tier suits you depends on how many people need their own sign-in. A small operations or outreach group inside a larger company often fits Studio at fifteen mailboxes, while a wider function that expects to add people over time leans towards Floor at fifty. Starter at five is usually too tight once a team shares work across roles.

Count mailboxes, not staff. A mailbox is a working account with SMTP and IMAP access, not a seat that everyone shares, so roles that need their own inbox each take one from the tier. Map the roles first, then match the count to Studio or Floor, and keep the difference as headroom for the next person who joins.

Buying the larger tier once usually reads better to procurement than returning for an upgrade within the year, because the purchase stays a single approval. Choose the tier that covers your team plus a role or two, and record the mailbox count in the purchase note so the decision is auditable when someone asks later why that tier.

Before anyone signs, check what the tier does not do. A mailbox is not a contact list, so no tier supplies recipients, and every address your team writes to remains your own research. If a colleague expects a list of prospects bundled in, correct that expectation early rather than after the invoice clears.

Check placement expectations too. The warm-up and authentication checks help your mail behave properly, but they do not promise a place in the inbox, so some messages will still be filtered. Set that expectation with the people who will send, because procurement will hear about it if results are described as certain during the buying conversation.

Check the scope of the price as well. Extra services sit outside the mailbox tiers and are priced on their own, so confirm what your chosen tier includes and what would be quoted separately. Ask for that split in writing, ideally against the published table, so the approval covers the whole picture rather than the mailboxes alone.

Compare Studio against Floor and the difference is the mailbox count: fifteen against fifty. Both are lifetime tiers, both include the standard SMTP and IMAP mailboxes, browser webmail and the warm-up and authentication checks. The question is whether your team will stay inside fifteen sign-ins or outgrow it within the period you are planning for.

Against Starter, Studio already looks different for an enterprise team. Five mailboxes leaves little room for a shared function, and the moment a sixth role needs its own account you are back to procurement for the next tier. Buying Studio at the start avoids that second approval and keeps the mailbox count in step with the team you described.

Weigh the jump from Studio to Floor on roles rather than on ambition. If your team maps to more than fifteen people who each need a working inbox, Floor is the tier that fits, and the extra mailboxes become headroom you own outright. If the team is smaller, Studio holds, and you can revisit the count when the roster changes.