Where would we all be without the thing that started it all? The email. I am here to take you through the ups and downs of the flagship email service providers. From Outlook to Zoho mail, here’s my countdown of the top eight free mail providers.
Outlook
I might be biased here, but firstly is our hero, Outlook. Outlook has grown rapidly over the recent past, refining its “older” email client Hotmail.com it’s shifted from 5th to 3rd in the market shares.
One of Outlooks biggest attractions is the abundance of Add-Inns available. Its integration with social networks is also second to none. The world of work is changing. As more companies increasingly hire employees remotely, the importance of an efficient instant messaging system is astronomical. Here Outlook sits way out in front and is forever evolving to keep up with the future.
Mail.com
Everything you could ever want in a free email service provider. The security protects you wholly from spam and viruses and is the obvious choice for an SME.
The best part? Mail.Com offers over 200 different domain names which allow you to create the most appropriate email domain for your business without forking out a fortune. In addition to this. Mail.Com also provide unlimited data storage and allow up to 50MB to be sent per email – this is the best we’ve come across so far.
All in all, this ESP is great for companies just getting their feet off the ground and can help you excel into the wider world.
Yahoo Mail
You know what they say… 3rd the one with the hairy chest. This couldn’t be truer with Yahoo Mail coming in 3rd in our review. This big daddy dwarfs it’s younger brother Gmail, offering a killer 1TB of free storage.
Being one of the oldest email service providers on the internet, it comes with a wealth of experience. If you’re a Yahoo Mail member, you also get access to an abundance of Yahoo resources like news portals, sports and entertainment features.
Being the devil’s advocate, Yahoo’s ad placement could be improved which could be a massive drawback for a lot of users.
Gmail
One of our front runners in the email game. Gmail. Android users are ever-increasing, and Gmail has firmly got their foot in that game. It’s free and its interface is extraordinarily user-friendly. Alongside its smooth interface, Gmail integrates beautifully with a variety of different apps such as Calendar, Google Docs and the Google suite. Making it a popular choice for the modern-day executive.
With 15GB of storage available for its users, Gmail is an excellent match if you’re someone with a high volume of incoming and outgoing emails. It has an excellent spam filter with multiple levels of security which fits in nicely with today’s sensitive, GDPR type culture.
Hey, if videos are your thing Gmail has a brilliant partnership with YouTube, creating a Gmail account can make managing your YouTube account blissfully simple
iCloud Mail
The obvious choice if you’re someone who adorns their self in Apple-related products. There is a seamless connection between your Mac, iPhone and iPad where the email app is pre-loaded. All you must do is log into your iCloud account and everything is right there at your fingertips. Including having all your phone contacts right there in the app!
On the other hand, if you are not already registered, in order to get yourself iCloud mail you must create an iCloud account. This may be a drawback for some users.
As any Apple user preaches, their security is second to none and their email provider is no exception. iCloud Mail has a security verification feature alongside a fantastic spam protection making it an obvious choice for those more-sensitive emails.
AOL
Does anyone else hear the deafening connection squawk and squeak when someone mentions AOL? For me, that just proves how long they have been in the game for and therefore can only be a bonus!
AOL’s email provider becomes so attractive with its free unlimited storage. Not even Yahoo or Gmail can compete here. It is also famous spam and virus protection. This gives it bonus points in our eyes!
For us marketers, who are a stickler for attention to detail. We love the way AOL supports a multitude of different domain names giving AOL that creative flare.
Zoho Mail
Much like Outlook, a big plus of Zoho Mail is its Ad-free environment. This solidly secures your security and privacy. It’s great for professionals offering a wealth of services from Calendar to Task Manager with Instant chat readily available. Making those “Out of the Office Days” far less stressful.
Zoho is ahead in its field when it comes to very useful features. It provides analytics and reporting tools and customizable branding which could be a marketer’s dream. For all these funky features though you’ll have to start splashing the cash at £2.40 per month.
Proton Mail
It’s a well-known fact that Proton mail is the one to go for if a bullet-proof, hyper-secure email provider is what you’re looking for. With Proton’s end-end encryption and hardware-level security, Proton takes its privacy VERY seriously. Constantly developing their SSL connections in order to deliver essential features to protect you online.
HOWEVER, with its free version only offering 500MB of storage and limiting you to 150 emails a day, the secure connection seems to come with a raft of limitations. If they were to loosen the boundaries on the free versions, I think they’d be in for a shot at the top spot!
Signing Off
Every company is much like a fingerprint – each one unique in a very special way. Choosing an email service to fit the evolution of your business in the most efficient way can be extremely daunting. I hope we’ve managed to clear some of the email fog and given you a better understanding of which email provider will serve your business to the best of its ability.
If you enjoyed this, you might like to take a look at our CRM comparisons too!
