ProtonMail
Pros
- End-to-end encryption
- Secure file storage
- Message expiration
- Privacy
Cons
- Limited number of daily messages
Minimum Project Price
$5+ [Free Version Available]
When looking for free, secure, and private email providers, ProtonMail is the best service out there. It protects your archive and provides encryption for all sent and received messages. ProtonMail is as simple to use as the email providers listed before.
Pricing Plans
Although it comes with a free version, Protonmail pricing has numerous options to choose from.
ProtonMail Free
- 500 MB of inbox storage
- 150 daily messages
- Three folders
- Limited support
- Most secure email services
ProtonMail Plus — a monthly subscription of $5
- 5 GB of inbox storage
- 1,000 daily messages
- 200 folders
- Standard support
- Only one custom domain
- Email filtering
- Autoresponder
ProtonMail Professional — a monthly subscription of $8
- 5 GB of inbox storage
- Unlimited daily messages
- Unlimited folders
- Priority support
- Two custom domains
- Email filtering
- Autoresponder
- Catch-all email
- Multi-user support
ProtonMail Visionary — a monthly subscription of $30
- 20 GB of inbox storage
- Unlimited daily messages
- Unlimited folders
- Priority support
- Ten custom domains
- Email filtering
- Autoresponder
- Catch-all email
- Multi-user support
- ProtonVPN
You can pay more money to add extra storage, domains, and addresses if needed.
Features
- No Access to User Information: The encryption doesn’t allow ProtonMail or third parties to access personal user data.
- Self-Destructing Messages: Once emails reach their expiration date, ProtonMail will automatically eliminate them from the inbox.
- End-to-End Encryption: ProtonMail is among the most secure email providers, and for a good reason. It stores messages in an encrypted format, reducing or eliminating the possibility of intercepting conversations.
- Domain Email Addresses for Business: Businesses can get custom domain email addresses for all employees.
Customer Service
ProtonMail has well-organized customer support that enables its users to reach the company by submitting a request via a form. The customer support will reply as soon as possible. If you need an immediate response, email support is available 24/7.
Read our full, comprehensive ProtonMail review.
Gmail
Pros
- Simple and reliable
- Synchronization across all devices
- Google integrations
Cons
- Passwords are hard to recover
Minimum Project Price
$6+ [Free Version Available]
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Gmail is the most popular email provider in the market, and for a valid reason. This email service can offer everything you are looking for in a provider: good storage for a reasonable price, collaboration with other tools, and much more.
Pricing plans
Unlike the personal plan, Gmail for business is not free. It is just one of the tools included in Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), a collection of office tools designed solely for businesses. Here are Google’s best deals:
Business Starter — a monthly subscription of $6
- Video meetings with 100 participants
- Safe business emails
- Security and management checks
- 30 GB of cloud storage
- Standard support
Business Standard — a monthly subscription of $12
- Best email service for small business
- Secure business emails
- Video meetings with 150 participants + recording
- 2 TB of cloud storage
- The control of security and management
- Standard support (can be upgraded to Enhanced Support)
Business Plus — a monthly subscription of $18
- Secure business emails + retention and eDiscovery
- Video meetings with 250 participants + attendance tracking, recording
- 5 TB of cloud storage
- The enhanced control of security and management, including Vault and advanced management
- Standard Support (can be upgraded to Enhanced Support)
Enterprise — the price is variable
- Secure business email + retention, eDiscovery, and S/MIME encryption
- Video meetings with 250 participants + recording, noise cancellation, attendance tracking, in-domain live streaming
- Unlimited storage
- Advanced security, management, and compliance checks, including Vault, DLP, data regions, and enterprise management
- Enhanced support (paid upgrade to premium support)
Overall, Gmail email service pricing adapts to any business’ needs.
Most Notable Features
Here are some of the best features of one of the most used email providers worldwide.
- Easy Email Filtering: Gmail helps its users manage their inboxes better by setting up filters.
- Multiple Accounts Use by Providing Access: Companies can grant their employees access to business accounts without having to log out from their personal ones.
- Mute Conversations: Gmail allows its users to mute a conversation they are not interested in, so the thread won’t bounce back to their inbox whenever they receive new messages.
- Use Gmail Offline: Users can check their email updates, even without Wi-Fi access.
- Advanced Search: Gmail advanced search is one of the most valuable features. It helps users look for messages sent or received a long time ago by inserting dates or specific keywords.
- Schedule Emails: Thanks to this feature, users can schedule emails to be sent at their preferred time.
- Smart Compose: When composing an email, this simple email service will automatically write suggestions to optimize messages.
Customer Service
Gmail customer support is open and enthusiastic to help its users. By clicking on “Contact Us” on its support page, a customer support executive will contact the user as soon as possible.
Outlook
Pros
- Cost-effective
- Easy to access files
- Scalability
- Storage drive
Cons
- Data security
Minimum Project Price
$5+ [Free Version Available]
When you think of what email service is owned by Microsoft, Outlook comes right to your mind. The mobile app is way more accessible and easy to use than the desktop version you might be used to. Although Gmail is a giant in the email providers market, Outlook is one of its fiercest competitors.
Pricing Plans
Regarding personal use, here are the two memberships users can choose from:
Microsoft 365 Personal — a monthly subscription of $6.99
- For one user only
- 1 TB of inbox storage
Microsoft 365 Family — a monthly subscription of $9.99
- Perfect for up to six people
- Up to 6 TB of cloud storage (1 TB for each person)
- Premium safety features in a mobile app
Besides being the best email service for personal use, Outlook also comes with business email. Users can pick one of the four different monthly memberships:
Microsoft 365 Business Basic — a monthly subscription of $5.00
- Collaboration tools
- Web and mobile versions of Office apps
- Email and calendaring
- File storage and sharing
- Security and compliance
- Support and deployment
- Tools for building and managing your business
Microsoft 365 Business Standard — a monthly subscription of $12.50
Same as in Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Desktop versions of Office apps
Microsoft 365 Business Premium — a monthly subscription of $20.00
Same as in Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- An advanced threat protection
- PC and mobile device management
Microsoft 365 Apps — a monthly subscription of $8.25
- Includes only Office apps
Like other email providers, Outlook offers a free 30-day trial.
Most Notable Features
- Email Flagging: A user can pin the most important emails on top of the inbox by clicking on the flag.
- Spam Filter and Folder System: Outlook comes with effective spam, junk filtering features, and a folder system. Users can move emails from a specific recipient or date to a particular folder with just one click.
- Calendars and Task Management : The calendar feature makes it easy to schedule appointments, events, and daily tasks.
- Multiple Accounts: Users can manage multiple accounts. IMAP, POP3, Exchange, and MSN are some of the most popular Microsoft products.
- Easy Collaboration: Business managers and employees can easily share files with their work team and use collaboration tools such as OneNote, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and more.
Customer Service
Outlook offers free and fast customer support by downloading the Get Help app. The app is intended to provide the most reliable and efficient assistance for its users. Customer support is also available on the following number: 1 (800) 642-7676.
Yahoo! Mail
Pros
- Plenty of free storage
- Hard drive space
- Free calendar
- Scan email for viruses
Cons
- Grouped emails
Minimum Project Price
$3+ [Free Version Available]
Although Yahoo! Mail is still broadly considered one of the top email providers, it doesn’t grab so much attention anymore.
Nevertheless, there’s a valid reason users still adopt Yahoo! Mail today. The highly professional service makes this email provider a formidable competitor against giants like Gmail and Outlook.
Pricing Plans
Users can pick one of the two different plans to manage their personal or business emails.
Yahoo! Mail Pro
Yahoo! Mail Pro’s cost is only $3.49 per month.
- No ads
- Priority customer support
- Fast performance
- Keeps email records
- Auto forwarding
Yahoo Business Email
- One mailbox for $3.19 per month
- Five mailboxes for $1.59 per month
- Ten mailboxes for $1.19 per month
- 20+ mailboxes for larger businesses. The price is variable.
Taxes and fees will apply for annual prepaid subscriptions. All in all, Yahoo! Mail offers the best email service for business.
Most Notable Features
- Spam Filtering: Yahoo! Mail recognizes spam messages and automatically highlights them in the inbox.
- Capacious Storage: The provider offers a whopping 1 TB of storage—an enormous capacity that most computers don’t possess. According to the company, this inbox can cover the average email user’s needs for about 6,000 years.
- Phishing Alerts: Yahoo! Mail detects and marks email addresses that look fishy.
- Unsubscription from Newsletters: It’s simple to unsubscribe from an unwanted mailing list or newsletter.
- No Ads for Pro: One of the main Yahoo! Mail Pro features involves the absence of ads in the inbox.
Customer Service
Yahoo doesn’t offer bots like many other email providers out there. Users can benefit from a helpful team of live agents, available at any time of the day. Yahoo! customer support is committed to helping their customers with their account issues.
Zoho
Pros
- Generous storage
- Collaboration tools
- No display advertising
Cons
- Confusing app navigation
Minimum Project Price
$1+ [Free Version Available]
Zoho is widely recognized as one of the top business email service providers. This business-oriented provider includes Zoho Mail and other valuable tools such as document management and collaboration services. Nowadays, Zoho is as competitive as more famous names like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo! Mail.
Pricing Plans
Unlike many other email providers, Zoho Mail does not come for free. It offers three eye-catching and affordable paid memberships for businesses.
Mail Lite — a monthly subscription of $1 (billed annually)
- 10 GB per user
- Email hosting for multiple domains
- Email and folder sharing
- Offline access
- Tasks, notes, and bookmarks
- IMAP/ POP access
- Attachments of up to 250 MB
- Group calendars
- Appointment scheduling
Mail Premium — a monthly subscription of $4 (billed annually)
Everything as in Mail Lite plus:
- 50 GB per user
- Attachments up to 1 GB
- Archival and eDiscovery
- Email backup
- White labeling
- S-MIME
- Resource booking
Workplace — a monthly subscription of $3 (billed annually)
- A secure business email
- An online file manager
- An online word processor
- An online spreadsheet
- Presentation software
- An instant chat communication
- Online meeting software
- Intranet and collaboration
- Online training software
Zoho Mail pricing, Mail Premium, is probably the best paid email service, as it offers a 15-day free trial without entering any credit card data.
Most Notable Features
- Excellent Filtering: Users can create rules to move emails to specific folders, highlight particular emails, and automate irksome tasks.
- Night Mode: Tired eyes are not an issue anymore with Zoho’s “Night Mode” feature. Users can scroll their emails at night without hurting their eyes.
- Scrub: Thanks to the Scrub feature, users can bulk delete or archive emails.
- Folder Notifications: Zoho helps reduce the number of notifications by selecting only the most important folders.
- Advanced Search: Looking for an email in an overflowing inbox can be a tiresome and time-wasting task, but Zoho Mail is the best email service provider for that. Its advanced search feature makes this much easier. Users can personalize their search, narrowing it down to folders, dates, and even attachments.
- Global Search: Global Search helps find out a client’s name across all Zoho products—Zoho CRM, Zoho Mail, Zoho Docs, Zoho Chat, and Zoho People.
- Out of Office: When on vacation, users can set up automatic responses to notify other people that they won’t be able to get back to them right away.
Customer Service
Zoho is dedicated to helping its users as the company offers 24/7 assistance. Depending on their urgency, users can reach customer service by submitting a form, writing an email, or directly calling the service.
Yandex Mail
Pros
- User-friendly
- Unlimited free storage
- Spam filtering
Cons
- Limited for American users
Minimum Project Price
Free Version Available
Yandex offers the free email provider Yandex Mail. Yandex Mail provides its customers with the best email service for iPhone and Android. Also known as Russian Gmail, Yandex Mail has a relatively broad user base. In fact, this email provider has gained the trust of millions of users worldwide.
Pricing Plans
Free Plan
- 1,000 mailboxes
- 10 GB of storage in Yandex Disk
- Collaboration with Yandex Telemost, Yandex Messenger, Yandex Calendar, Yandex Notes, and Yandex Documents
If you are a small business, you can easily get a business email at an affordable price. Here are three memberships you can choose from:
Basic — $2.05 per user per month
- 100 GB of storage in Yandex Disk for each employee
- Online editing of text documents, tables, presentation in Yandex Documents
- Unlimited mailboxes
- No ads
- Data stored for 90 days
- Priority support for chat and email
Standard — $4.18 per user per month
- Yandex Basic features
- 1 TB of storage in Yandex Disk for each employee
Professional — $11.09 per user per month
- Yandex Standard features
- 3 TB of storage in Yandex Disk for each employee
When you choose a membership for the first time, you can try out the service for free for 30 days.
Most Notable Features
- Security and Filtering: Yandex Mail is the best email service provider for email filtering. It quickly redirects potentially dangerous emails to the spam folder.
- User-Friendly: Thanks to Yandex Mail’s easy interface, users can find tools, folders, and services in the blink of an eye.
- Easy Setup: Users can create and arrange multiple folders for personal and business use.
- Generous Storage: Compared to other email providers, Yandex offers generous free storage space for its users.
- No Ads: Unlike Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, Yandex Mail is a completely ad-free platform.
Customer Service
Yandex email provider offers plenty of support to its consumers. You can request to be contacted via phone or email. Yandex Direct can assist on the spot if you need urgent assistance. Get in touch with a Yandex specialist on-site or over the phone: +7 (495) 780-65-20.
AOL
Pros
- Choose levels of spam filter
- 250 GB storage space
- Mobile apps
Cons
- No importing contacts from social media
Minimum Project Price
Free Version Available
Even though AOL Mail’s popularity has been overshadowed by other email providers such as Gmail and Outlook, it’s still widely considered a fierce competitor in the market. AOL Mail has a cloud-based mail server entirely for free.
Pricing Plans
AOL free mail comes with plenty of features. However, if you want to add more security to your email, you should invest in one of the following memberships.
ID Protection — $9.99 per month
- ID theft alerts
- Monitor online reputation
- Manage online passwords
Data Secure — $9.99 per month
- Establish a firewall
- Virus and malware protection
- Encryption of wireless data
Complete — $14.99 per month
- ID theft alerts
- Remove viruses & malware
- Manage online passwords
Most Notable Features
- Email Storage Space: AOL Mail offers unlimited email storage for personal and business use. This way, users shouldn’t worry about deleting old messages anymore.
- Attachment Size: Like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Outlook, AOL Mail is one of the email service providers that allow its users to attach documents for a maximum of 25 MB.
- Automatic Email Filtering: These convenient filters can save up plenty of time. AOL Mail’s filters automatically sort emails into folders.
- Spam Filter: AOL’s free tool makes sure that spam and junk emails do not compromise users’ security.
- Text Messages: Instant and text messages via cell phone can be easily sent directly from the email.
Customer Service
AOL Mail offers professional help to its customers for every kind of issue with your email account. Account support is available via phone on 1-800-827-6364 from Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 12 AM ET and Saturday from 8 AM to 10 PM ET.
Picking the Best Email Service: Buyer’s Guide
The following buyer’s guide will help you choose the email service that fits your personal and business needs.
How to Choose the Best Email Service Provider: Step by Step
Cost
Small and medium businesses do not want to invest a large amount of money in email services. Finding an affordable provider is not the most challenging part, yet looking for the most convenient features is.
So, we have selected the best providers for your needs. While some offer priority customer support and more inbox storage, others focus on enhanced security and end-to-end encryption. Moreover, the best free email service offers free unlimited email accounts.
Usability
In today’s digital era, all email service providers must have an intuitive mobile app and a cloud-based platform that makes a copy of your data.
The most trusted email services such as Gmail and Outlook have strong backing from their creators, easy-to-use navigation on mobile, and a practical and spacious cloud platform.
Customer Support
Customer support is a critical factor for email service provider comparisons. People easily get stressed out over account and email security issues, expecting customer service to be effective, fast, and helpful. Every user is entitled to know there’s someone ready and capable of fixing their problems any time they need.
Features
From an operational standpoint, features are the most crucial consideration for any business. Besides large storage, intuitive navigation, and standard limitations regarding file size, many other features are worth considering. Spam filters, integration with other products, and excellent security are some of the most remarkable features all email providers should have.
Summary: Best Email Service
Despite being one of the oldest channels, email is still widely used. Businesses value this type of communication more than any other. That’s why choosing the most convenient email service for your business is not an easy task.
The best service should make your work and life way easier—excellent spam filters, end-to-end encryption, spacious internal storage, cloud-based platform, and efficient collaboration tools are some of the most remarkable features listed above.
Hopefully, our list of email providers will make you consider your priorities to get the best experience from the product you’ll pick.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the safest email provider?
Many consider ProtonMail the best secure email service as it ensures fully encrypted messages to its users. Thanks to end-to-end encryption, no third parties, including ProtonMail itself, can break into your inbox.
Unlike other email providers, ProtonMail does not share your information on the internet, making it one of the safest providers in 2021.
What is the best free email service?
Defining the best provider is not as easy as it seems. However, Gmail is the most trusted email service out there. The provider counts 1.8 billion active users, including personal users and businesses.
The second most used email product that comes immediately to mind is Outlook, with 400 million active users.
What can I use instead of Gmail?
Although Gmail holds the title of the most popular email provider worldwide, others have not been resting on their laurels either.
When it comes to unlimited storage, seamless integration with other accounts, and productivity tools, Outlook is arguably the best alternative to Gmail. Regarding business, another valid alternative is Zoho that offers a well-organized calendar system, tasks, notes, and bookmarks to both individual users and teams.
Is Gmail secure in 2021?
Even though nothing is 100% safe, Gmail uses TLS encryption while transferring data. It makes sure that personal data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. However, hackers are not the only thing you should worry about. Even your email provider might be secretly reading your emails, and this best email service has done that in the past. Now, it is possible to enhance your Gmail security by using the two-factor authentication feature.
What is the most used email service in 2021?
Overall, Gmail is the most used service out there. In the second quarter of 2020, Gmail surpassed 1.7 billion users. The Chinese mail provider NetEase ranks second, while Outlook takes the third position. Unfortunately, Yahoo! Mail is not as used as it was in the past, but it made itself a name among the email giants.