Email Services
AOL
AOL email has come a long way, tied for third place behind Gmail and Inbox for security, features and user friendliness. You no longer have to have an expensive AOL ISP account to get AOL mail. AOL now supports AOL, AIM and customized domain name addresses, unlimited storage space, 25 MB attachments, both spam and virus protection, spell checker (boy, is THAT needed!), transfer your address book and emails from your old email account, calendar, notes, AIM integration, WYSIWYG HTML composer, games, and all the expected features of a quality email provider.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: All browsers, most email programs
DCemail
DCemail is a basic webmail service with 1 GB of storage, 25 MB file attachment limitations, basic spamming and virus protection, personal calendar and address book, and registered email. Inbox folders and message filing is just like Outlook, but saved messages are deleted after 60 days of inactivity. Email interface includes limited, non-intrusive advertisements.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: All popular browsers
Fastmail
FastMail is an Australian commercial email service with a free option which provides a limited but adequate subset of their services. They provide both encrypted and normal email, basic spam and virus filters, collection of your mail from other POP3 email boxes as well as Hotmail, customized "From" address, and extremely fast loading pages. They are comparatively weak in several areas, foremost from our viewpoint are very light spam, malware and virus protection, no black/white lists, the inability to import adress books, no calendar, RSS reader or notifier, and limiting storage to 25 MB and attachments to 10 MB. There are advertisements on the interface and occasional ads in email, but these have been minimized. The account is free in perpetuity unless you do not log-in every 45 days. FastMail was recently acquired by Opera Software and we expect improvements.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: All popular browsers
Gmail
The folks at Google know how to do many things right, and we rated their Gmail as the best of the free email services. Gmail provides about 8 GB of disk space (this increases frequently) and allows 20 MB attachments. You can access your account either with a browser, a POP3 email client or a mobile device, create folders and custom filters, create or import an address book, search mail, set an auto reply, set personal signatures, view emails in a conversationally linked window, and topically sort mail. The program has spam, virus and phishing protecton, black/white lists, image blocking, restricted automatic downloads, a WYSIWYG HTML composer, plain text editor, spell checker, calendar, notifier, customizable home page, instant messenger, and RSS reader. Gmail is ad-supported, and ads are context-relevant to the email you are reading. We find this preferrable to the senseless ads pushed by some services. Currently, graphical ads are not allowed, which is also a blessing.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 2+, Google Chrome, Safari 3+, Opera 9.5; there is limited functionality with Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Firefox 0.8, Safari 1.3 and some other browsers.
Hotmail
Technically called Windows Live Hotmail, Hotmail is one of the most subscribed to webmail services in the world despite the fact that its Ajax programming is supported by Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera; we are not sure about Safari and other programs. Hotmail offers 25 GB of storage that expands as necessary. On June 15, 2010 Microsift rolled out a new vwesion of Hotmail that offers features such as one-click filters, active views, inbox sweeping and 10 GB attachments. It also includes social networking and recreational uses as well as integration Windows Live SkyDrive (see Windows Live SkyDrive at Offsite Backup and Data Storage Services) and Windows Live Office, a free version of Microsoft's Office Web Apps suite.
Hotmail has had some serious security issues in the past and probably has learned to tighten the code. But it still has not come up to the standards Gmail has set for features, although it has certainly improved with its latest release. We rate Hotmail fourth among those we evaluated, but please remember there was a tie for third.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: Just about everything (but not sure about Safari)
Hushmail
Hushmail is based in Vancouver, British Columbia and well-known for offering PGP-encrypted email and storage and SSL access, although the free storage is only 2 MB. Web access is by desktop, laptop, notebook, iPhone, Blackberry or other mobile device. Spam and virus protection combined with white/black lists are standard, but hidden IP addresses in the message headers are a bonus. The main draw to the service is privacy. The small storage allotment encourages you to upgrade to a paid plan, but the free allotment might be manageable.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: Most
InBox
Inbox is a mighty surprising email service. Since we had never heard of it before we started hunting down, signing up for and evaluation email services, we were completely taken aback by this entry. It starts with 5 GB of email storage (2 GB outside the US, UK and Canada) plus 5 GB of online storage, up to 20 MB attachments, absolutely stellar spam blocking, antivirus, notifier, conversational message viewing, and archival search engine. It comes with applications for changing the viewer's skin, reading the news, playing games, downloading screensavers, sending e-cards, managing a photo album, and HTML and plain text composers. Of course you can create folders for your email, but you can populate them based on sorting your email by the from, to, subject, message body and attachment fields. Finally (we are sure we left out a dozen features!), you can program your from address to appear as if it originated from another email account you own (Hotmail, Yahoo) and all replies will be addressed to that email addy but will be delivered to your Inbox.com account. Very cool. It doesn't have everything or it might have beat out Gmail for our number one pick, but it sure has an awful lot. Specifically, if lacks mobile access and an instant messenger, both of which we could live without, but we do wish it had an RSS reader and built-in protection against phishing emails. But best of all, it doesn't assault us with ads -- especially graphic ads -- and that just fills us with amazement.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: Internet Explorer 6+ for Windows, Firefox 1+ (any OS), Netscape, Mozilla, AOL, Camino, and other Gecko-based browsers (any OS), Opera 8+ (any OS); partial support for many others (see website)
Lycos Mail
We have had a Lycos email account for about 14 years and have always considered it to be bare bones email, and yet we like the service because we accept it for what it is. It provides 5 GB of mail storage, adequate spam and virus protection, address and domain blocking, image display blocking, restricted automatic downloads, basic folders without filters, and little else. But (and this is important), it comes without ads, and for that we keep it as one of our several accounts.
Download: Here
Systems: Just about everything
Would you like an email address of (yn = yourname) yn@mail.com, yn@email.com, yn@usa.com, yn@beatlesfan.com, yn@europe.com or any one of 245 other domain names? Mail.com offers these and unlimited storage, basic spam and virus protection, address blocking, organizing folders, contacts transfer from other services, address book importing, auto replies, spell check, calendar, notes, and games. Naturally, this free service is ad supported.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: All browsers
Mail2World
Mail2World offers a wopping 2,000 domain names to personalize your identity and over 500 internet themes and skins to personalize your email experience. It offers unlimited storage space, bookmark and contacts importing, calendar, notifier, and support for very large (40 MB) attachments. Security features are impressive: full spam and virus protection, customizable filters, and secure, online storage of your contacts. The service is ad supported, both in the inteface and in messages. You must check in every 30 days to keep the account.
Sign-up: Here
Systems: Just about everything