Traditional mail management can suck up a lot of time for busy businesses — especially those that handle high volumes of mail. It can also complicate operations for remote and distributed companies with no centralized system to send or receive mail.
Virtual mailboxes are a great way to tackle these issues.
If you're looking to modernize and streamline your mail management processes, you may be wondering which virtual mailbox service to choose. Below, we’ll go up close and personal with one popular digital mailbox service — Earth Class Mail — and see how it stacks up to another leading virtual mailbox service: Stable.
Earth Class Mail digitizes and automates mailing processes. By providing easy online access to your mail, it helps ease some of the hassles of traditional mail management.
This service is especially useful for individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and virtual office setups in need of easy and secure digital mail management.
While virtual mail services typically share some core functionalities, some are a better fit for digital nomads, while others are well suited for larger companies that handles hundreds of mail items a week. Let’s take a look at ECM’s key features to see how they measure up.
By automating physical check deposits, Earth Class Mail’s remote check deposit service has the potential to save you time while conserving vital human resources.
After a check is received and scanned at a secure processing facility, recipients select what to deposit and where the funds should go via a convenient online review process. Earth Class then completes the process by endorsing checks, finalizing deposit slips, and forwarding them electronically to banks for deposit into your bank account.
While this feature is a desirable one, some users have expressed issues with the service being somewhat unreliable and prone to occasional delays.
With Earth Class Mail's automatic mail scanning feature, postal mail is converted into color PDFs, which are accessible via a virtual mailbox’s account dashboard. You can also search, sort, sync, share, recycle, or shred.
While this feature may be ideal for remote operations and for those that prefer a paperless approach, slow upload times detract from its value. If you’re waiting for a critical piece of mail and it’s stuck in the Earth Class Mail queue for days or weeks, you’ll be out of luck — especially if customer service is equally slow.
Nearly 28% of work now happens remotely and this number is only expected to climb. In addition to choosing remote jobs, more workers are pursuing careers that allow them to work from the location of their choice.
While not being tied to a physical office has many benefits, remote work is complicated by the question of what to do with your mail. With Earth Class Mail's mail forwarding service, you can have your mail forwarded to any physical address of your choice.
With both physical and digital mail, security is a top priority to protect both physical and digital data. Earth Class Mail’s secure shredding feature lets you designate digitized mail for shredding and disposal.
Some ECM customers have complained about delays here, too, with one user reporting having mail pending shredding for two weeks.
Earth Class Mail’s many integrations with cloud-based applications, including Bill.com, Dropbox, Google Drive, Quickbooks, Xero, and Box, allow users to seamlessly connect their virtual mail with existing workflows.
Not only have mobile phones surpassed desktops in terms of how people use the internet in 2023, but the average mobile user spends up to five hours per day on apps — including busy business owners! Earth Class Mail has a convenient mobile app that lets you access your digital mail via your preferred device so you can stay connected when you’re away from your computer.
A major difference between virtual mail management services is cost. Here’s a look at Earth Class Mail’s pricing plans for individuals and small offices:
Designed for expats and remote professionals, the Personal MailMox plan comes with basic features for $19 a month. It includes:
Expect to pay additional fees for extra items or add-ons.
Focused on families and groups of travelers, this is their most cost-effective plan, at $29 a month for up to five people. Like a Personal MailBox, your address is limited to Beaverton, Oregon.
Built for small organizations and offices with higher mail volumes and/or more extensive needs, a Premium MailBox starts at $79 a month for 20 users. It includes enhanced features and flexibility, including your choice of more than 80 virtual addresses.
Furthermore, Earth Class Mail offers MailRoom Plans for businesses and enterprises, as well as Business Address options for businesses that just need an address for registration purposes.
When it comes to getting a true understanding of the benefits of a particular digital mail management provider, third-party review ratings offer authentic insights. While overall ratings for ECM are pretty good, reviewers didn’t hesitate to voice feedback about the software’s drawbacks.
Earth Class Mail has an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars on G2. Users have shared the following experiences:
Earth Class Mail also has a presence on Trustpilot, although its 2.7 out of 5 rating indicates some user experience issues. Here’s what some reviewers had to say:
On Sitejabber, Earth Class Mail has an average rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars. Users are generally dissatisfied; comments include:
In a competitive landscape of virtual mail management providers, how does Earth Class Mail measure up against an industry-leading service like Stable?
As an alternative to Earth Class Mail, Stable offers several specific advantages beyond its user-friendly interface and excellent customer service. While Earth Class Mail users consistently express frustration about delays, Stable’s same-day turnaround times are a major highlight.
While Earth Class Mail users also complained about high costs and limitations, Stable comes with no unpleasant surprises thanks to transparent pricing, unlimited cloud storage for scanned documents, and no hidden fees.
Other benefits to Stable over competitors like Earth Class Mail include:
Given that Earth Class Mail customers expressed issues with getting up and running with the platform, Stable’s care and attention to customer service comes with unparalleled peace of mind.
It’s important to practice due diligence when choosing any product or service — especially a mail management company. They handle important, time-sensitive, and private information.
Ultimately, while Earth Class Mail may suit your digital mail management needs, the edge goes to Stable among all of today’s digital mailbox providers.
Thanks to its intuitive interface, advanced features, and affordable pricing, Stable is the best mail management solution for individuals and businesses. If you’re still attempting to get by with a P.O. Box, there’s no better time than now to revolutionize your business mail management process than with Stable.
Get started in minutes: Create your Stable address today.
