Gmail surpassed Hotmail as the most used email service in the world in 2012. It has shown no signs of slowing down since capturing the throne. More than 1.5 billion people utilize the service now.
Yahoo Mail is another popular free email service. Even though its user base pales in comparison to Gmail (approximately 250 million active users), it remains one of the most famous global email brands.
But are there any other free email services available? If you don't want to use Gmail or Yahoo, here's a list of the top email services available.
1. Microsoft Outlook
The vocabulary used in Outlook is perplexing. Microsoft has done an inadequate job of distinguishing between its free email accounts, free contemporary Windows app, and Office 365 software. You don't need to get mired down in the intricacies if all you want is a free email account; simply go to outlook.com and sign up for a @outlook.com email address.
The service has overtaken Yahoo as the world's second most popular free email provider. Having an Outlook account has a lot of advantages. It's heavily interwoven with the Windows 10 operating system because it's run by Microsoft. It also syncs with the Outlook Office 365 mobile app.
2. GMX Mail
You'll be in good company whether you use the web client or the desktop client. One of the two apps is used to open 16 percent of all emails sent.
United Internet, one of Germany's leading internet service providers, owns GMX Mail. The free mail service has grown in popularity in recent years, but it has been in existence since 1997.
Despite having only about 15 million monthly active users, it comfortably ranks in the top ten free email providers in terms of user counts. It's a startling figure, and it demonstrates the near-invincible popularity of services like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.
In terms of features, you can expect 1GB of file storage, a 50MB attachment limit, and IMAP and POP support. Most notably, it provides 65GB of email storage, which is more than enough to ensure that you never run out of space. It does not, however, include an RSS reader or a chat view.
3. Zoho Mail
One of the most recent additions to the list is Zoho Mail. It has only been around since October of 2008.
Outside of the Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook troika, the service has quickly turned into one of the top free email providers. It has expanded to over 12 million active users in just a few years, thanks to an ad-free web client (even for free users).
The software includes multi-level folders, conversation views, drag-and-drop inbox organization, and filters, as well as everything you'd expect from a free email provider. Although Zoho Mail allows you to set up email at your domain for free, it lacks an integrated video chat tool.
Zoho Mail is part of a bigger suite of productivity tools for the office. Zoho Docs, a Microsoft Office alternative that enables you create, edit, and collaborate on text, presentation, and spreadsheet documents, is intimately linked with the service.
4. iCloud
Apple's foray into free email is known as iCloud. Almost everyone who owns a Mac, iPad, or iPhone has an account. iCloud is a comprehensive cloud service in and of itself. Other Apple services such as Find My iPhone, Photo Stream, Keychain, and iCloud Drive are built on top of it. Mail is only one of the app's features.
Although the app claims to have 850 million users, it's unclear how many of them utilize a @iCloud.com email address.
iCloud, like Outlook.com and Microsoft, works flawlessly with Apple's default mail client on macOS and iOS. You can add as many email providers as you want to the app on mobile. Only your @icloud.com address is accessible via the web client.
All iCloud customers get a free 5GB of storage. Any emails you receive, in addition to documents, photographs, and other data, count towards the limit. As a result, if you use iCloud, you may need to pay for additional storage.
5. AOL Mail
The granddaddy of free email services is AOL Mail. It was launched in March 1993, three years before Hotmail, four years before Yahoo Mail, and nearly 10 years before Gmail.
It has a large user base due to its antiquity. Nonetheless, in recent years, the numbers have been declining. It had 50 million active monthly users in 2006, and it was the world's third-largest email provider as recently as 2010. The number of active users has decreased to less than five million now.
You shouldn't rush into signing up for AOL Mail just because it's a well-known brand with millions of customers. Several studies have suggested that "email prejudice" exists in recent years. If you have an AOL or Hotmail address, companies are less inclined to hire you because it signals you're trapped in 1996.
6. ProtonMail
Despite being a relative newcomer to the world of email, ProtonMail has quickly increased in popularity because to its strong focus on confidentiality.
The company was created in 2014 at CERN in Switzerland and is still registered there. As a result, it is protected by Switzerland's Federal Data Protection Act and Federal Data Protection Ordinance, which give some of the world's most stringent privacy regulations.
ProtonMail, on the other hand, uses client-side encryption to protect a message's contents before it reaches the company's servers. Indeed, ProtonMail's systems are structured in such a way that the company lacks the technological ability to read your messages.
This eliminates the possibility of being forced to reveal the contents of an email to a third party. It's a totally different approach than Gmail and Outlook, which adopt a more conventional approach.
