Email clients are software applications you install onto your computer to manage the email you send and receive. To access this email, the client interacts with a remote email server. If you want to access this type of email from the web rather than the client's computer application, the email client uses one of the email protocols described below. For example, although you might have Outlook installed on your computer, you can also log in to your email account via outlook.
Webmail is a form of email you access exclusively from the internet and therefore exists primarily on the cloud rather than your computer. Instead of an installed application fetching your email, you manage your inbox right from your internet browser. Webmail providers you've likely heard of include Gmail, Yahoo!
Mail, and AOL all of which have made our list of best free email accounts below. If you want to access your webmail from a mail app on your mobile device rather than your desktop web browser, your webmail provider can use one of the email protocols described below. Email protocols are the systems that actually retrieve your email for you. They can fetch email client accounts on the internet and webmail accounts on a mobile app. Here are the three main types of email protocol your account can use.
POP stands for "post office protocol" and is best suited for people with just one email account and email client. POP3 is the latest version of this email protocol and allows you to access email while offline. It, therefore, requires less internet bandwidth. IMAP stands for "internet mail access protocol. IMAP4 is considered the latest version, and unlike the POP protocol, you do not download your email to your offline email client. Instead, all your email stays online while you're accessing and managing it.
IMAP is particularly useful for people who have more than one email account and access them from multiple devices or locations.
This protocol allows you to not only access your email over the internet from multiple devices, but also tasks, calendars, and contact information tethered to that email address. For this reason, it's beneficial to organizations whose employees share many types of information and collaborate remotely. Now, take a look at seven of the best free email service providers and 5 of the best email accounts for privacy you can get your hands on today — both webmail and email clients included.
For each email service provider, we highlighted a unique feature to help you find the best fit. Who should use it: Anyone who already uses and loves the rest of Google's products. It might seem like an obvious top pick, but Gmail is just too versatile not to get our first slot. According to Litmus Labs, Gmail has the second-highest email provider market share behind Apple iPhone's native email app. Ironically, one of the reasons Gmail has become so popular is because of all the communication options in your inbox that don't involve email.
Gmail is a regular email inbox tool you can access once you have a Google account. Google Hangouts, available from your inbox's left sidebar or the right — you can customize how your inbox is displayed , lets you text and video chat with other Gmail users for the things that might not warrant an email message. Like most other email accounts today, Gmail also has an intuitive calendar where you can set meetings and reminders.
Pro Tip: You can also use a free product like HubSpot Meetings to easily schedule meetings without back-and-forth emails. Unlike other email accounts, you can use your Gmail address to log into and manage your YouTube account, as well as collaborate on shared documents and spreadsheets right from a cloud-based Google Drive. Offering a generous 15 GB of free email storage, Gmail does everything it can to make your inbox less chaotic, including advanced filters that automatically push emails into separate folders as they arrive.
And none of these functions costs a dime. America Online I feel nostalgic just typing those words has quietly kept up with today's standards for a good user experience and is now once again one of the best free email accounts available to you.
Purchased by Verizon in , AOL delivers your email from its classic news-driven homepage and comes with the contemporary spam filters and virus protection you'd expect from your email provider. You can also send text and instant messages from specific windows in your email inbox.
AOL does have something over Gmail, though: unlimited storage. Who should use it: Anyone who uses many different platforms to connect with others. If you ever cringed at the sight of a "Hotmail. But there's good news: Microsoft has reinvented its longstanding email service, and your free Outlook. While it touts a calendar and message filter similar to Gmail, Outlook also integrates with several other popular communication apps.
For example, you can connect Skype, Facebook, PowerPoint, PayPal, and even task-management software such as Trello — making it very easy to reach and work with non-Outlook users without leaving your inbox. Who should use it: Creatives and anyone who sends and receives attachments frequently via email. Mail, another well-known platform, sits just behind AOL in storage space with a whopping 1 TB that's a terabyte for free, along with a few key social media integrations.
While webmail appears to be more common, there are benefits to using email clients as well. An email client is a software program installed on your computer to access and manage an email account. Email clients can be beneficial for businesses. They often offer more advanced mailbox management functionality than webmail, and they may integrate more efficiently with other software the company uses.
A webmail account is created online, and messages are sent and received via the internet through a web browser instead of installed software. Opening a webmail account is generally free, and webmail can be accessed from any location with an internet connection. Regardless of which type of email account you use, tools and protocols are available that also let you check messages from your phone and other devices. What exactly are email protocols?
Simply stated, an email protocol is a method or system to retrieve or access email. Email messages are then deleted from the server and can only be accessed from that same computer. Rather than downloading email messages directly onto your computer, IMAP lets you access and manage your email from any device and any location by logging in to your account online. This protocol is best for people with different email accounts who wish to access them from multiple devices.
It utilizes a server where email accounts are configured, allows you to sync email messages across multiple devices, and lets you access your email account via the internet. Exchange also enables you to sync calendars, tasks, and contacts with co-workers, making this protocol especially beneficial for businesses and institutions. Which is the best email service provider for your business? Below is a brief review of each of the email providers that offer free mail service.
Some also offer a paid plan. Gmail is accessible from any device and lets you live chat and join meetings right from your inbox!
Sign up for Gmail here. AOL Mail is a classic, free mail service that includes a news hub on its homepage and provides the simple functionality of sending and receiving email. AOL offers spam filters, virus protection, spell-checker, sorting filters, folders, calendar, and a to-do feature. You can also choose themes, create and manage folders, customize panels, and change the way messages are displayed. Outlook formerly Hotmail is the free web version of email client Microsoft Outlook that provides email service, calendar, contact and task management , and search bar.
Sign up for Outlook here. Sign up for Mail. Sign up for Yahoo! Mail here. Proton Technologies is a global leader in online security, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, that provides a secure, open-source, private email service with end-to-end encryption. ProtonMail is easy to use, can be used on any device, and is optimized for productivity and organization. Instead of organizing messages into folders, for instance — a simple metaphor which just about every user understands — you must filter them using a custom labelling system.
This works, and has some advantages, but isn't popular with all users. Still, Gmail is an excellent service overall, and a good first choice for your email provider. Google makes a paid business-oriented version of Gmail available in the shape of its Google Workspace product. This more professional product drops the ads and allows using a custom email address on your domain yourname yourcompany.
Business-oriented migration tools can import mail from Outlook, Exchange, Lotus and more. Storage space doubles to 30GB on the Basic plan, and you get unlimited group email addresses, Google Workspace is Google's answer to Microsoft Office, so of course you also get apps for working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
You're getting a lot for your money, though, and if you'll use Google Workspace's features then it could be a smart choice. A day free trial provides an easy way to help you find out. Outlook's web interface follows the same familiar style as its desktop incarnation, and most other email clients: folders and organizational tools on the left, the contents of the current folder in the center, and a simple preview pane on the right with adverts in the case of the free account.
A toolbar gives you speedy access to common features, and right-clicking folders or messages shows you just about everything else. If you've ever used another email client, you'll figure out the key details in moments. Despite the apparent simplicity, there's a lot going on under the hood.
The service automatically detects important emails and places them in a Focused Inbox, keeping any distractions out of sight. Events including flights and dinner reservations can automatically be added to your calendar.
It's easy to share that calendar with other Outlook. In addition, there are some interesting features too, like the ability to add polls directly to your Outlook emails. Excellent attachment support includes the ability to directly share OneDrive files as copies or links. You can also attach files directly from your Google Drive, Dropbox and Box accounts, and a chunky 15GB mailbox allows storing plenty of files from other people.
This all worked just fine for us, but if you're unhappy with the service defaults, there's a chance they can be tweaked via Outlook. This doesn't have quite as many options as Gmail, but they're well organized and give you plenty of control over layout, attachment rules, message handling and more.
Extras include offline working, professional message formatting tools, phone or chat-based support, file recovery from malicious attacks like ransomware and more. Oh, and the latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Yahoo Mail doesn't make the headlines so much, these days, but its latest version is a polished and professional service which stands up well against the top competition.
The well-designed interface resembles Gmail, at least initially, with a large view of your inbox, one-click filters for common messages and content Photos, Documents, Travel , and easy browsing of all the emails in a conversation. But you can also organize mails into custom folders, and the layout can be tweaked to display a message preview in a couple of clicks.
Mobile users have some additional features like the option to unsubscribe to newsletters and such, without ever leaving the Yahoo Mail inbox.
Valuable extras include disposable email addresses to protect your privacy, and a mammoth 1TB of mailbox storage means you can keep just about everything you receive, for a very long time. Demanding users might find issues, over time. Mail organization can't quite match the flexibility of Gmail's labelling scheme, for instance, and there aren't nearly as many low-level tweaks, settings and options as you'll often see elsewhere.
But overall, Yahoo Mail is an appealing service which needs to be on your email shortlist. As with other providers, Yahoo offers a Business Mail plan with more features. The highlight is an option to use the service with a custom domain yourname yourdomain.
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