There can be a couple of dozen free or freemium email services, although for most people, it boils down to Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Outlook.com.
Of course, some people want particular features, and may be willing to pay for them. Those can include privacy, encryption, more storage space, the ability to use your own domain name, support for the IMAP and Microsoft EAS (Exchange ActiveSync) email protocols, add-on services such as instant messaging and calendars, and companion apps for smartphones and tablets. Some people would not want Google scanning their emails for its targeted advertising. Such considerations provide opportunities for smaller services which include FastMail and ProtonMail - the latter offers extra security and end-to-end encryption.
Think very carefully about your priorities before you come to a decision. Changing email addresses involves some work and can be a chore for your contacts.
Registering your own domain and using that for your email address: it makes it possible for you to switch email providers while retaining the same myemail@mysite.com email address. Unfortunately, both Gmail and Outlook.com have stopped offering that service for free, though you may find it elsewhere. (Try GMX Mail, Rackspace or Runbox, for example.) It’s more common with paid-for/business accounts, including Gmail and Zoho Mail.
Importing your emails and contacts One of the most useful features of a new mail service is the ability to import all the emails and contacts from your old one. Both Gmail and Outlook.com seem to do this pretty well, though it can take a few days or even weeks to collect everything. In Gmail, click the cogwheel and select Settings, go to the tab that says “Accounts and import” and click on “Import mail and contacts”. In Outlook.com, click the cogwheel and select “Connected accounts” (or if not there, “Options”). Next, under “Add a connected account”, select “Other email accounts”. Outlook.com lets you import your old email straight into your new inbox or into a new folder, with subfolders like your old account. Gmail can’t do folders.
Google provides 15GB, shared with Gdrive, which should be enough. (Having used Gmail since it opened, I’ve had to delete emails with large attachments to stay under the limit.) Outlook.com provides infinite space, but the actual space expands slowly from 5GB, so a flurry of large emails can lead to “mailbox full” messages.
Both Gmail and Outlook.com allow mail forwarding, which means you can have all incoming emails automatically forwarded to another email address.
After using both systems for more than a decade, Gmail faster, more powerful, and easier to use, so that’s what It is recommended. Generally, they are not too far apart on features, but Gmail is more configurable. Either way, the latest version of Outlook.com has “infinite pages”, and the search/move operation is a nightmare.
After using both systems for more than a decade, Gmail faster, more powerful, and easier to use, so that’s what It is recommended. Generally, they are not too far apart on features, but Gmail is more configurable. Either way, the latest version of Outlook.com has “infinite pages”, and the search/move operation is a nightmare.