9 Best Free Email Service Providers

You aren’t still using your old AOL email address, are you? Regardless of what your current email situation is, it’s always a good time to switch to a better email service provider. In this article, we introduce and compare 9 popular free email service providers to help you decide what is the best email service currently available.

How Do I Keep Multiple Email Accounts Organized?

Before we get to the meat of this article, we would first like to talk about email organization. You see, when you register a few new email addresses and use them to subscribe for a handful of newsletters, it doesn’t take much time at all before you find yourself staring at a huge, steaming pile of junk emails mixed with a few important messages buried somewhere deep below the stinky stuff.

After comparing a number of inbox cleaning methods and solutions, we’ve found Clean Email to be, by far, the easiest and most effective way how to maintain clean inbox. Clean Email automatically organizes all your emails into easy to review bundles by analyzing email headers that contain subject line, sender and recipient information, dates, email size, and similar metadata. You can then easily remove, archive, move, label, and do other things with your emails to keep your inbox organized and clean.

Clean your inbox with Clean EmailClean your inbox with Clean Email

To use Clean Email, you simply sign in with your email service of choice and let Clean Email take care of the rest for you.

1. Gmail

  • Mailbox size: 15 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 25 MB

With over 1.2 billion users around the world, Gmail is by far the most popular email service in the world. It started in 2004, and quickly developed a dedicated following of avid users, most of whom appreciate its simplicity, strong spam and malware protection, and seamless integration with other Google services, including Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Calendar.

Gmail best free email service provider in 2023

A Gmail account is a must-have for all Android users who wish to download apps from Google Play Store, a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google that serves as the official app store for the Android operating system. One negative consequence of the global demand for Gmail accounts fueled by Android’s growing adoption is the fact that all the best email accounts are already taken. If your last name is Smith, good luck trying to register a nice-looking email address with Gmail.

Even though Gmail is one of the most user-friendly email services, it has a lot to offer to more experienced users as well. Its keyboard shortcuts allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard when composing and managing email messages, and its advanced search with support for many of the same search operators you may already be familiar with from Google Search makes it easy to find specific emails regardless of their age.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Seamless integration with other Google services
  • Polished mobile apps
  • Plenty of email storage space
  • Great uptime
  • Rich text editing
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Excellent spam protection
👎🏼   Cons:
  • All nice-looking email addresses are already taken
  • Email storage space is shared with other Google services

2. Outlook.com

  • Mailbox size: 15 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 10 MB

Founded in 1996 as Hotmail, Outlook.com is Microsoft’s web-based suite of webmail, contacts, tasks, and calendaring services and arguably Gmail’s biggest competition in the West (check out the comparison of Outlook vs. Gmail). Today, Outlook.com has over 400 million users, some of which use it to get the most out of Xbox, Windows, Skype, and other Microsoft Products.

Outlook best free email service provider

Unlike Gmail and several other best free email services, Outlook.com doesn’t scan the content of users’ emails for advertising purposes. “For example, if you're emailing back-and-forth with a family member about a trip to go hiking, Gmail will simultaneously surface text ads for things like Rocky Mountain vacations, hiking boots, and protein bars,” explains Jason Hiner for TechRepublic. The fact that Outlook.com doesn’t do this alone is a good enough reason to give it a try and see what it has to offer.

The most marketed feature of Outlook.com is called Focused Inbox. When you activate it, Outlook.com will use machine learning to analyze incoming email messages and rank them according to their importance. It will then show the most important email messages in the Focused tab and hide all less important email messages under the Other tab. You can switch between the two tabs with a simple click.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Great integration with other Microsoft products
  • Apps for all popular platforms
  • Easy to use
  • Uses machine learning to sort your email messages
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Legitimate emails are sometimes marked as spam

3. Neo

  • Mailbox size: up to 50 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 30 MB

For entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking a professional email address, Neo offers an email platform that includes a free Neo domain for those who don’t own one and a free one-page site to establish their brand and build credibility. Neo's setup process is swift and effortless and the platform is equipped with user-friendly tools that empower its users to expand and fortify their brand.

Neo fine free email service provider

With useful built-in features such as Free Domain Name, One-page website, Read Receipts, Email Templates, Schedule Send, Follow-up Reminders, and more, Neo provides the tools needed to help small businesses focus on growing their business.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • A co.site domain name, a one-page website, and an email address are all included free of charge
  • The sole major email provider that offers read receipts
  • It is possible to view several accounts simultaneously
  • Features designed specifically for small business success
  • It is compatible with both mobile and desktop platforms
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Email does not have offline functionality

4. Titan

  • Mailbox size: 50 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 30 MB

Titan is an innovative business email platform designed specifically to enable professionals and small businesses to develop more meaningful relationships with their customers. Founded in 2018, it is the highest-rated email product on G2 with a rating of 4.8 and ranks in the top 5 for business email.

Titan best email service provider

With useful built-in features such as Read Receipts, Email Templates, Schedule Send, Follow-up Reminders, and more, Titan provides the tools needed to help small businesses focus on growing their business. Titan’s calendar, contacts, and storage offer efficiency from right within the inbox. Their Priority Inbox feature will automatically sort the important emails from the rest for you so that you save time and focus on the right things.

Titan also allows you to import contacts from other email platforms and manage multiple accounts within a single interface. Additionally, their friendly and knowledgeable customer support team is available 24/7 for any assistance. With a 99.99% uptime guarantee, small businesses can be rest assured their emails will always be received.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Cost-effective business email solution
  • Support for custom domain names
  • Multiple accounts can be viewed at the same time
  • Works across all mobile and desktop platforms
  • Designed specifically for small businesses
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Doesn’t provide email marketing services

5. ProtonMail

  • Mailbox size: 500 MB
  • Maximum attachment size: 25 MB

We live in the day and age of government and corporate surveillance and big data analytics. Everything you type, like, or search for, is collected, analyzed, and sold to the highest bidder by corporations who care about their shareholders first and ethics second. If you’re tired of being part of the system and allowing technocrats to exploit your personal information to make a profit, we recommend you sign up for a free ProtonMail account.

ProtonMail best email service provider

Launched in 2014 at the CERN research facility by Andy Yen, Jason Stockman and Wei Sun, ProtonMail is a privacy- and security- conscientious email service that uses client-side encryption to protect email contents and user data before they are sent. ProtonMail is based and incorporated in Switzerland, a country with strong privacy laws, and its code is open source and publicly available. Unlike many other encrypted email services, ProtonMail is surprisingly easy to use and optimized for productivity. Even if you don’t speak the language of technology, you’ll be able to use ProtonMail and reclaim your personal information.

ProtonMail offers a highly rated app for Android and iOS. The app has been designed from the ground up to provide maximum privacy and security when reading, composing, and managing email messages on the go. It’s also the only way how to comfortably access ProtonMail apart from ProtonMail’s web app. That’s because this email service doesn’t integrate with third-party email clients (IMAP/SMTP) due to its unique design, which prioritizes security over interoperability.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Free privacy-oriented email service
  • Open source
  • Passed multiple independent security audits
  • End-to-end encryption
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Limited mailbox size with the free plan
  • Poor customer support
  • Doesn’t integrate with third-party email services

6. iCloud Mail

  • Mailbox size: 5 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 20 MB

If you’re heavily invested in Apple’s vast ecosystem and/or own Apple devices, you should consider signing up for iCloud Mail, a free email service from Apple. To use it, you must set up an @icloud.com email address, which you can do either on an iOS device or Mac computer by going to iCloud and selecting the Mail option.

iCloud Mail best free email service provider

The best thing about iCloud Mail is how seamlessly it’s integrated with both macOS and iOS. Just like with virtually all Apple products and services, everything just works. Does it rival some of the other best email services described in this article in terms of features? No, but the target audience of iCloud Mail most likely won’t care because iCloud is intended to be a personal email service—not a professional one.

iCloud Mail users get 5 GB of email storage for free, and they can upgrade to a larger storage plan at any time and for reasonable prices. 50 GB of additional storage space costs just $0.99 a month, 200 GB cost $2.99 a month, and 2 TB cost $9.99. The 200 GB and 2 TB plans can be shared among family members, making the deal even sweeter.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Fantastic integration with Apple devices
  • Good value
  • Customer support provided via live chat
  • Easy to use
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Not suitable for users who are not invested in Apple’s ecosystem
  • Limited features

7. GMX Mail

  • Mailbox size: unlimited
  • Maximum attachment size: 50 MB

GMX (Global Mail eXchange) is a free email service provided by GMX in four languages: German (the primary language of the service), English, Spanish, and French. GMX stands above all other email services on this list with its surprisingly large maximum attachment limit of 50 MB. “We give you the opportunity to send large files: up to 50 MB! It is much more than other email providers can offer you. With 50 MB attachments you have the possibility to email large files like documents, lots of photos, and videos!” writes GMX on its website.

GMX best free email service provider

Besides the ability to send large attachments, GMX also offers unlimited storage space, allowing you to keep your emails in one place without worrying about running out of space. Still, we recommend you keep your mailbox organized with Clean Email, the best inbox cleanup solution on the market.

There are actually two versions of GMX Mail: one available to German users and one available to international users. For some reason, the international version doesn’t support two-factor authentication. In the era of large-scale security breaches, not supporting two-factor authentication in addition to password protection seems unjustifiable, and we don’t understand why GMX Mail wouldn’t enable its international users to secure their accounts better.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Supports large file attachments
  • Unlimited email storage space
  • Mobile apps
  • Based in Germany
👎🏼   Cons:
  • The international version of GMX Mail doesn’t support two-factor authentication
  • The free version doesn’t support POP and IMAP access

8. Yahoo Mail

  • Mailbox size: 1 TB
  • Maximum attachment size: 25 MB

Launched in 1997, Yahoo Mail is one of the earliest top email services. The most recent version offers a web interface with a minimal look, support for keyboard shortcuts, and plenty of other features that make it a great free email service provider.

Yahoo email provider

All users get 1 TB of email storage space for free, which is significantly more compared with what all other best free email services on this list offer. Yahoo can afford to give so much email storage space free of charge for two reasons. First, it knows that most users won't ever use even a fraction of it. Second, it displays marketing ads in the inbox to generate additional revenue.

You can get rid of the ads by purchasing a Yahoo Mail Pro subscription. For as little as $3.49 a month, you can enjoy not just an ad-free mail experience but also priority customer support, better performance, and email archiving without any time limits. If you're a business owner, you should also consider Yahoo's business plan because it lets you easily set up a branded email address to make a lasting impression on your customers and business partners alike.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Comes with a lot of email storage space
  • Support for keyboard shortcuts
  • Integrated SMS messaging
  • Pretty user interface
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Multiple security incidents in the past
  • Spam filter leaves a lot to be desired

9. Zoho Mail

  • Mailbox size: 5 GB
  • Maximum attachment size: 25 MB

Zoho Mail is a professional email service and a member of Zoho’s cloud-based office suite. It delivers top-notch security and surveillance, with a reliable 99.9% uptime and end-to-end encryption. Zoho Mail makes it very easy to get a professional domain name that stands out and immediately attracts clients.

Zoho Mail free email service provider for 2023

With the free plan, you get 5 GB of email storage space for up to five mailboxes. For €4 a month, you can upgrade to Zoho’s Mail Premium plan and increase your email storage space to 50 GB. Additionally, the Mail Premium plan introduces support for huge file attachments (up to 250 MB), email backup and restoration, white labeling, and several other useful features. You can try the premium plan for 15 days without sharing your credit card details with Zoho.

In addition to business-ready email, a Zoho account allows you to organize your calendar appointment, take notes, create tasks, and manage your contacts from one place. Thanks to the Zoho Mail app for Android and iOS, you can enjoy everything Zoho Mail has to offer on the go. All in all, Zoho Mail is an excellent alternative to more popular free email service providers, one that fully meets the needs of business owners and entrepreneurs.

👍🏼   Pros:
  • Integrates with Zoho’s cloud-based office suite
  • POP and IMAP access
  • Comprehensive email organization options
👎🏼   Cons:
  • Not the largest amount of email storage space with the free plan
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