best e-mail service

The 3 Best Email Services To Use

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The Best Email Service for your business

Email services are nothing new. You’ve probably used one or more of the different email clients out there. But do you really know which one is the best? Let’s take a step back; do you even know what constitutes of the best email service client?

Other than sending and receiving emails, there is so much more that you need to look for in an email service provider. Whether you are in the market looking for a personal or business email client, you need to make sure that you are getting more than just the basic functions. First, how secure is it? Can you rely on the client to keep your emails and data in general private? Security is the one aspect that you cannot afford to compromise. If the data in your emails leak, how long do you think it will take before vital personal information, including your credit card and other financial details, end up in the wrong hands?

An email service provider should also block spam and virus. The best email services usually employ encryptions and other security protocols to keep you free from spams and virus attachments. This is vital because your antivirus might not always protect you from infected file attachments and hence having a provider that prevents the infected attachments from getting into your inbox in the first place is paramount.

Available storage is another key factor, especially if you are looking for the best email service for business. How big of a file attachment can you send in the email and is it in line with your expected needs? What’s the overall size of data storage provided and is sustainable in your unique situation?

Most email services have free plans, but these usually come with some limitations like small available storage and ads. If you were to upgrade for better services and an ad-free experience, how much will you have to pay?

Finally, you can go ahead and look for several other factors like ease of use, customer support, and the email service’s integration with other apps. 

After checking out the email services against the above guide, identifying the best service should become a bit easier.

What’s the best email service?

Microsoft Outlook is the best email service in the market. The service packs so much in terms of features, yet it still remains very user-friendly. Keeping your stuff organized here is easy, and using the email daily is effortless with numerous options such as auto-reply at your disposal.  It’s integration with the host system, and third-party apps are also seamless, and hence, your everyday interaction with this service should be smooth.

The following is a deeper dive into Microsoft Outlook and two other incredible email services:

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook has millions of users worldwide. This extremely popular email client has so much going for it. Its interface is friendly and looks amazing with several beautiful themes to choose from. It does take some time getting used to the UI though. Its integration with other apps and software will make your work very easy. The client can be synced with Office Online, Skype, PayPal, Uber, Evernote, Yelp, and other apps helping you to access most of your details from a single platform. Being a Microsoft product, you can also expect to access documents and spreadsheets much easier from the client. Microsoft Outlook also allows you to connect up to 20 other email accounts. This gives you access to all the emails coming in from the other accounts via your outlook account.

If you are using the standard Microsoft Outlook through your browser, you will get 15GB of storage. This allows you to send emails with attachments as big as 50MB. Oh and you can attach files directly from your cloud storage accounts such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. That’s a lot more than what other web-clients are offering. You could also download office 365 – which is available on both Windows and Mac – and get 50GB of storage space and 1TB OneDrive storage. Through Office 365, you will also get an ad-free Outlook account and lots of other tools including the latest Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, professional message formatting, file recovery after a malware attack, Offline Working and many more. There is a catch though; the Office 365 can be quite expensive with the cheapest plan starting at $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year.

The Microsoft Outlook also performs really well in terms of security. Other than the basic password protection, you will also get protection against spam, ransomware, and other malicious issues. The Office 365 users will also enjoy free file recovery should their mailbox be corrupted with ransomware or other malware issues.

 Some of the additional features of Microsoft Outlook include:

  • Inserting a signature is super easy
  • Manage your appointments through a calendar, and you can even share it with your family
  • Create tasks
  • The social connector will keep you in touch with your social life
  • Voice mail transcripts
  • Zoom slider
  • Quick view
  • Spell checks
  • Archive your files in .OST and .PST either manually or automatically
  • Third-party support

Drawbacks

  • Using Microsoft Outlook through office 365 offers vast features, but it is expensive

Gmail

Google’s Gmail is the most popular email client in the world. It has millions of users, and part of the reason for its popularity is how easy it is to use. The service can classify your emails for you, or you can decide to do it yourself. You could categorize the emails into various groups such as Social, Forums, Promotions, Updates, and Primary. This makes organization a lot simpler plus you’ll never have to deal with the issue of a crucial email getting lost in the midst of non-vital promotional or social mails.

Other than being very organized, Gmail also allows you to customize how most of the stuff should be laid out. You can choose to have a panel view with horizontal or vertical split, or you can go for a list view. It all comes down to your preferences. You can personalize the interface even further with the numerous Gmail themes available to keep things looking interesting.

When it comes to security, Gmail is one of the best around. Its spam blocking capabilities are very powerful. Gmail can automatically block spam emails and contacts. You can also dig into the customization section and red flag any contacts you want to block manually or unblock contacts that might be blocked by mistake. Gmail also offers excellent protection against phishing websites and viruses. The two-factor authentication should also keep unauthorized people from accessing your mailbox.

You can use Gmail for free utilizing the company’s domain, and you will receive 15GB of storage space. In case you need more in space, you’ll need to subscribe for their paid plans that start for as low as $1.99 per month which offers 100GB in storage or up to $300 per month for 30TB of data!

Advanced users and business can get even more from Gmail through G-suite. The G-Suite plans offer so much more. Other than the business email, you will also get video and voice conferencing, shared calendars, secure team messaging, Create spreadsheets, documents and presentations, 24/7 customer support, security and admin controls and so much more. G-Suite plans start at $6 per month per user for the Basic plan, $12 per month per user for Business Plan and $25 per month per user for the Enterprise option. Of course, the more you pay, the more the features you’ll receive.

Other Features

  • Built-in language translator
  • You can import contacts directly from social media
  • Attach files as big as 25MB
  • Powerful search engine
  • Frequent updates
  • Reliable
  • You can set vacation responders
  • Sync with other Gmail accounts and receive your emails from one place

Drawbacks

  • Although it still offers Google Sheets and Google Docs, they’re no match to Microsoft’s

ProtonMail

ProtonMail is nowhere as popular as Outlook, Gmail, and other email clients, but surprisingly, it is hands down the most secure client in the market. This makes it an appealing option for everyone who is security or privacy-conscious. ProtonMail offers end-to-end encryption to all the emails you send. This essentially means that no one – not even the client – can intercept the mails you are sending. Security leak can only happen on either end. The privacy of this client is boosted even further by the fact that their servers are found in Switzerland where privacy laws are very clear and strict. This is one of the reasons why the email client is recognized by popular print media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and even Forbes.

ProtonMail won’t require any of your personal information to set up an account for you. Therefore, you can create an email anonymously, and you will still enjoy end-to-end encryption, and no records on your IP logs are retained.

Other than being a security-tight client, ProtonMail is also quite easy to use. The interface is unique, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of moments to get the hang of it. The layout and customization options also make it easier to stay organized. You can sync the client with other email accounts from other providers to check all your emails from one place.

ProtonMail is an Open Source and community software that relies on its commercial plans to generate revenue and stay afloat. You can, therefore, rest easy knowing that none of your private data will be sold to any third parties, and neither will you have to deal with any ads.

With that in mind, it reasonable to see that the free version doesn’t offer as much as what you can get from other clients in the market. For instance, the storage space here is just 500MB, and you will have to subscribe to get more. Their first commercial package – Plus – starts at $5 per month or $48 per year, Professional Plan goes for $8 per month per user or $75 per year while the ultimate Visionary plan is going for $30 per month or $288 per year.

Some of the features that you can get from the paid ProtonMail plans include:

  • 10 Custom domains
  • ProtonVPN
  • Catch-All Email
  • Autoresponders
  • Email filters
  • Multi-user support
  • Priority customer support
  • Unlimited messages per day
  • Up to 50 addresses

Drawbacks

  • Can be expensive
  • The free ProtonMail limits you to just 500MB in space which is small and 150 messages per day