In the 21st century, it takes just minutes to set up an email account on the web. A simple Google search will yield a myriad of results providing users with a huge spectrum of different service providers to choose from.
Alongside blocking distracting websites, having an easy-to-manage email inbox is essential for improving productivity.
On the surface, it appears that each of these providers offers roughly the same service by allowing us to seamlessly send, receive, accept and store emails online. In fact, there is often more than meets the eye here, and various considerations come into play when selecting a platform that best suits the needs of a business or individual user.
This blog will look at the most popular email service providers of 2020-2023, highlighting their distinctive features and discussing how each platform aims to satisfy its increasingly demanding users.
Want to prevent the use of unauthorized email platforms?
Learn how to block employees from using personal email.
Hey is the new player in town, having just launched in June of 2020. Hey is made by Basecamp, a project management and internal communications Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company.
Since it’s inception in 2004, Google’s Gmail has reached over a billion users and become the global leader in email services.
Exceedingly rich in features, Google’s interface offers a great deal of flexibility and customizability to its users. Users can arrange their inbox with filters and labels, import emails from external accounts, and utilize the wide range of third-party add-ons that extend Gmail’s functionality.
Want to prevent the use of unauthorized email platforms?
Learn how to block employees from using personal email.
Outlook is the current evolution of “Hotmail”, which was acquired by Microsoft on December 31, 1997 for $500 million – its largest acquisition at the time. It offers a clean and effective interface for it’s 400 million users.
Matching Gmail with similar message filtering, integrated calendar and free storage, Outlook can be singled out for the attachment support provided, which gives users the ability to attach OneDrive files (including PowerPoints, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets) as either links or copies which can be viewed and edited internally.
Rather controversially Yahoo Mail has announced (sort of? It was buried in their knowledge base) that beginning January 1, 2021 automatic forwarding of emails from your Yahoo inbox to another email account will no longer be a feature of free Yahoo Mail accounts. Users who still want email forwarding will need to pay $3.49 USD per month for Yahoo Mail Pro or $12 USD per year for a forwarding service add-on.
This unexpected change is certain to be a preview of many changes from Yahoo Mail coming into 2021. You can expect that Yahoo will continue to make changes to their current service and introduce new features in order to gain a greater appeal for business users.
As with Outlook, strong attachment support is a key feature of Yahoo’s service. In the case of Yahoo Mail, users can benefit from a unique ability to find every photo, video, and document that they have historically shared via email.
For creatives who frequently share documents, this may seem greatly appealing. It is also seamlessly easy to switch file attachments to inline attachments that are embedded in the email (or vice-versa).
Perhaps most impressively, Yahoo offers an enormous 1TB of storage capacity on free accounts, allowing users to keep everything they receive.
Want to prevent the use of unauthorized email platforms?
Learn how to block employees from using personal email.
Zoho Workplace offers a business email service amongst a suite of applications that includes tools for document management, expense tracking, and collaboration.
With a free plan that supports up to 5 users, Zoho Mail is popular with small and home-based businesses. These companies are able to make great use of the platform’s integrated spreadsheet, word processor, and presentation software.
Most appealingly, Zoho’s service offers users with their own registered domain the ability use their domain names for their emails. As a feature that is typically restricted to paid commercial services, this feature can be described as the main draw for many of Zoho Mail’s 15 million users.
Whilst Zoho’s basic plan omits some fundamental features such as email forwarding and desktop app/offline access, upgrading to the “Standard Plan” for $3 per month/user provides a solution to these issues.
ProtonMail provides an ideal solution for users seeking privacy and encryption. Whilst most other service providers will request personal details or scan messages to enable automation, ProtonMail is open-source and maintains the anonymity of its users.
Founded at the 2014 CERN research facility in Geneva, the company uses end-to-end encryption alongside IP address protection to ensure that each email is secure and cannot be read or tracked.
The basic plan provides just 500MB of storage space whilst limiting accounts to a maximum of 150 emails per day. Organizational folders, labels, and smart filters are also absent from the free service.
For $5 per month, subscription to a ProtonMail Plus account increases the allowance to 1,000 emails per day, provides 5GB of storage, supports folders and labels, and facilities custom domain names.
Business users may also be interested in their Professional and Visionary plans that offer unlimited messages, unlimited folders/labels, priority support, and other bonus features.
Want to prevent the use of unauthorized email platforms?
Learn how to block employees from using personal email.
There are a large variety of free and paid email service providers out there. This comparison of the top providers is a great way to get started. If you are looking for other communication and collaboration tools for your business check out 5 Communication Apps To Keep Distributed Teams Engaged and Essential Tools for WFH Employees
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