Looking for something different from Gmail? Check out these popular email providers that offer different benefits that may be better than Gmail for some users.
Gmail was launched in 2004 and is considered to be the most popular email provider in the world. Today, the service has more than 1,5 billion users and shows no signs of slowing down. But what other free email providers are on the market? If you no longer want a Gmail account, here is a list of the best email services to choose from.
The term "Outlook" is confusing. Microsoft has done a bad job of distinguishing between its free email accounts, the free Windows application, and the Office 365 application. Fortunately, if you just want a free email account, you do not need to block details. Just go to outlook.com and sign up for a style address at_your_name@outlook.com.
The service has surpassed Yahoo to become the second most popular free email provider in the world. There are significant benefits to using an Outlook account. Because it is run by Microsoft, it integrates well into the Windows 10 operating system. It also runs seamlessly with Outlook Office 365.
2. Yahoo
Yahoo is also one of the first free emails launched in 1994. It also provides other services such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News and Yahoo Groups.
The Yahoo Mail as a service has good spam blocking capabilities. It also provides a TB of storage. Its advantages include spam filters, search, allows you to create 500 disposable addresses without containing your personal data, can import contacts from a file, Facebook, Google or Outlook account, provides calendar, block senders and more.
Its disadvantages are that compared to others, it has fewer filters or rules, to attach a file, it must be available locally on your device as it does not support the attachment of online files, it has ads in the Inbox.
The email address format is: your_name@yahoo.com and is quite popular in the US. It is currently No. 3 on the list of the most popular email providers with 250 million users worldwide.
Zoho Mail is one of the newest providers. It has been around since October 2008. In a short period of time, the service has quickly evolved into one of the top free email providers (apart from the Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook troika). It provides services without ads, even for free users and has more than 12 million active users in a few years.
The app offers everything you would expect from a free email provider, including multilevel folders, chat views, inbox and storage organizer, and filters. Zoho Mail also allows you to combine free emails with your domain.
Zoho Mail is part of a larger office productivity suite. The service is fully integrated with Zoho Documents - an alternative to Microsoft Office that lets you create, edit, and collaborate on text, presentation, and spreadsheet documents.
ICloud represents Apple's venture into free email. Most Mac, iPad and iPhone users have an account. ICloud itself is a holistic cloud service. It supports other Apple services, such as Find My iPhone, Photo Stream, Keychain and iCloud Drive. Correspondence is just one aspect of the application.
The app has 850 million users, but it is not clear how many of them use an email address @ iCloud.com.
Like Outlook.com and Microsoft, iCloud integrates seamlessly with Apple's default mail client on macOS and iOS. On mobile, you can add any number of email providers to the app. Your web client can only access @ icloud.com.
All iCloud users get 5GB of free storage. In addition to documents, photos and other data, any emails you receive count against the limit. Therefore, you may have to pay for more storage if iCloud is your provider choiceς σου.
AOL Mail is your grandfather's free email service. It first appeared in March 1993, and is three years older than Hotmail, four years older than Yahoo Mail, and almost ten years older than Gmail.
Due to its age, it has a huge user base. However, the numbers have been declining in recent years. In 2006, it had 50 million monthly active users and in 2010 alone it was the third largest email provider in the world. Today, the number of active users is less than five million.
On the other hand, although AOL Mail is a recognizable brand with millions of users, existing since 1996, it may not be as popular in a commercial transaction. If you want to get a job and give AOL Mail to your contact information, potential employers may think so if they see that you got stuck in 1996.
Although the Protonmail is a relative newcomer to the email world, it has quickly grown into a popular provider thanks to its strong focus on confidentiality.
The company was founded at CERN in Switzerland in 2014 and still remains there. It therefore benefits from the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and the Federal Data Protection Ordinance. Both provide some of the most powerful privacy protections.
Most importantly, however, ProtonMail uses encryption on the client side to protect the content of a message before it reaches the company's servers. Indeed, the way ProtonMail designed its systems means that the company does not have the technical ability to access your messages.
This eliminates the risk of being forced to hand over the content of an email to a third party face the service. It's a very different approach than most major providers, such as Gmail and Outlook.
There are other features, such as submitting the minimum information required during registration, without monitoring or recording your sessions, and self-destructive messages.
GMX Mail is a subsidiary of United Internet, one of the largest Internet service providers in Germany. The free mail service has been gaining popularity in recent years.
Despite having only about 15 million active monthly users, it still comfortably makes the top ten free email providers in terms of user numbers.
Functionality-wise, you'll get 1GB of file storage, a 50MB attachment limit, and support for both IMAP and POP. Most interestingly, it offers 65GB of email storage which is enough to never run out of space. Unfortunately, it does not have an RSS reader and projection conversation.
Which email provider do you prefer?
What is the best alternative to Gmail? Each has different benefits, but they all have the common feature of being very popular among certain subgroups of users.
Ultimately, it depends on the operating system you use, the applications you use, the features that are important to you and the fashion that prevails in your country. As always, the best approach is to try some of the different services before committing.
