The best free email providers: a comparison

The big advantage of Mail.com is the many domains you can choose from. Instead of only using the brand name as the second part of the email address, as is the case with most free mail providers, Mail.com lets you choose from over 200 different domains. For example, in addition to ‘example@mail.com’, you can also choose ‘example@myself.com’ or ‘example@planetmail.com’. In addition to these rather generic examples, there are also some domains that refer to specific industries. Thus, free mail addresses from Mail.com are sometimes even suitable for professional communication.

With Mail.com, you have up to 65 GB of free storage space in your mailbox. In addition, you can send attachments with a size of up to 30 MB. If needed, you can store larger files in the cloud and then just send a link via email. Here you have 2 GB of storage space included. What’s also interesting is that you can connect up to 10 email addresses under one account. Mail.com also offers the possibility to create a professional account - also for free. Here you have the same features, but the maximum size for file attachments is 100 MB.

Mail.com uses a variety of techniques to ensure the best security. On the one hand, your mailbox is protected against threats by an antivirus scan. On the other hand, an effective spam filter ensures a clean mailbox. To prevent unauthorised third parties from gaining access to your account, access is secured with two-factor authentication.

When it was launched in 2004, Google’s email service shook up the whole industry: For the first time in history of free email, a provider offered users an inbox size of 1 GB. This marked the beginning of a head-to-head race between free email providers as to who could offer the most storage space; a race that continues today. In line with this, the launch of Gmail has also seen storage space become a decisive factor in this competition. The result of this is that more free email providers, along with larger inboxes, are also offering cloud services when it comes to file storage. This means that Google can now offer a total storage capacity of 15 GB across all the connected Google services, including Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. The maximum size of email attachments has also increased in proportion to this growth, and now stands at 25 MB. Alternatively, the provider lets users send large files via Google Drive.

Just like Gmail, Yahoo Mail is another free email provider with huge amounts of storage space – a record-breaking 1,000 GB (i.e. 1 TB). This has meant that deleting emails is very much a thing of the past. The flip side, though, is that there is no cloud storage service offered. Connecting to external services like Dropbox or Google Drive is possible although a separate account is required. In 2017, the provider launched Yahoo Mail Pro, a paid alternative to the basic version, which features an ad-free interface and prioritised customer support.

For a long time, ‘Outlook’ was the name of the Personal Information Manager (PIM) developed by Microsoft. It is part of the whole Microsoft 365 package. But since early 2013, the very similar sounding web email service “Outlook.com” has replaced Microsoft’s previous free email software “Hotmail”. With ’Outlook.com’, Microsoft now provides serious competition to the free email providers such as Yahoo and Google.

The first and most important advantage is its perfect integration into the Microsoft universe. By simply registering on Outlook.com, you will have access to other services offered by Microsoft. These include the video call and chat service Skype, the cloud storage service OneDrive, Office Online, and OneNote. Thanks to the presence of office interfaces, Outlook.com is also suitable for more complex work environments, and even comes with a similarly intuitive and trustworthy user interface. With regards to storage space, Outlook.com is on a similar level to Google’s Gmail service: With over 15 GB, there is more than enough space for all emails. Additional storage is available for files of a different kind with Microsoft’s integrated cloud storage solution OneDrive, which is available for free. Attachments can be up to 34 MB in size.

GMX is not as well-known as the free email providers discussed above, but still conveniently manages to meet all your basic email requirements. One of the biggest selling points for GMX is its 65 GB of storage space. Your attachments can be up to 50 MB in size. If you need to send larger files, you can turn to the in-house cloud. Here you have 2 GB of storage space at your disposal.

Another major upside of GMX is its Online Office feature. Without installing additional software, you can easily edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations in the browser. GMX offers apps for Android and iOS. Thanks to this wide range of apps, all emails and mailbox folders are always available, even when you are on the move. Additionally, GMX offers MailCheck, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that helps you to never miss an incoming email again.

In terms of security, GMX impresses with modern encryption, antivirus technology and intelligent spam filters that you can influence yourself. In addition, this provider gives you the option to set up two-factor authentication. In addition to their own password, users identify themselves with a one-time-password (OTP), which is obtained via the app. This makes it very difficult for attackers to access your account.

Many years ago, America Online was one of the biggest email programs, but it has since slipped down the ranks and is no longer one of the most prominent email services. However, this does not mean that it isn’t an adequate free email provider. A while back, AOL realised the need for it to offer more. Today, the web portal offers 250 GB storage space and up to 25 MB attachment size.

AOL Mail gives you the option of choosing the strictness level of your spam filter: Low, Medium, or High. AOL themselves recommend setting it to ‘Medium‘ , as they find that that is the right level of security without the risk of losing any important mails to your spam folder.

Zoho is an email service aimed at both private users and businesses. The free package is therefore aimed at individual users, and while being quite basic, still manages to cover all the major criteria that you might look for in a free email provider.

Zoho, similarly to Microsoft, offers a whole range of software programs. Alongside email, it also offers instant messaging, a writer, calendar, document sharing, as well as several other features. Together these are known as the ‘Zoho Workplace’. In addition to the free account, there are also paid packages. The more money you spend on a package, the more storage space you get and the more MBs your attachments can be. Outside of this, you will also have access to additional features as part of the Zoho Workplace.

One major upside of Zoho is that it is completely ad-free. The software seems to pride itself on this fact, stating in the ‘Features’ section of its website that: ‘this means total respect for user privacy as your messages are not scanned for keywords to feed you ads. However, freedom from annoying ads is not the stand-out feature in Zoho Mail’. This in turn provides a certain peace of mind when it comes to security and privacy policy.

In terms of storage space, it offers 5 GB space and a maximum email attachment of 25 MB. The storage is all cloud-based and there is also the option of Dropbox integration. Security wise, the software requires two-factor authentication. Fundamentally this is a free email provider but given that it also has a range of fee-based services, the basic, free of charge version will be restricted in certain ways. Unfortunately, none of the packages offer the possibility of automatically integrating contacts from a social media account or accounts. This must be done manually.

ProtonMail is a great email option for the security-conscious user. It’s an open-source, encrypted provider based in Switzerland. It boasts end-to-end encryption. Its PGP encryption standards are said to be fairly robust.

A free plan includes on email address but has a limit of up to 150 messages a day to avoid spam. Users do not need to provide much personal information when they sign up for an account.

With a free plan, users get 500 MB of storage, which isn’t a lot compared to other providers like Gmail. But users can upgrade to a paid plan if they require more storage space.

Different paid packages are available. The Professional package provides 5 GB of storage and priority customer support. The Visionary package boasts up to 20 GB in storage and up to six email accounts. ProtonMail also has options for businesses.