You’re searching for the best email services, and you’ll get them.
And hey, most other similar lists out there just get you the “Email features”.
I won’t. Simply “features” do not make a company great now, do they? So, I’ll get you a complete overview of the companies.
This will include their take on user privacy, any previous or present security flaws, and then the features.
My aim here isn’t to make money off your signups. It truly is to get you a comparative insight into these supposedly best email services. And then, feel free to do your own research and go with the company which appeases you most.
Best Email Services
Based on privacy, security, and features (exactly in that order), I believe these are the best email services that normal users mostly use in their daily digital life.
| Name | Website | Storage | 2FA | E2E Encrypted | IP Logs | Open-Source | Based in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protonmail | https://protonmail.com/ | 500 MB | YES | Yes | No | Yes | Switzerland |
| Tutanota | https://tutanota.com/ | 1 GB | YES | Yes | No | Yes | Germany |
| Gmail | https://gmail.com/ | 15 GB | Yes | No | Yes | No | USA |
If you need instant answers, I’ve extremely simplified this entire review in the final verdict section at the end.
Protonmail
Website: https://proton.me
- E2E Encrypted: Yes
- Free plan: 500 MB storage
- Based in: Switzerland
- IP Logs: No.
- Open-source: Yes
- Ad-One Services: Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, ProtonVPN
- Security: 2FA, PGP Encryption
Get Your Anonymous Inbox With Proton.me
Hey, I love my privacy, don’t you love yours?
Protonmail is the most anonymous and privacy-respecting email service out there. But in last couple years, getting huge popularity in normal user community.
Protonmail doesn’t need any identity-proof, or personally-identifiable data from you.
It simply doesn’t care who you are. It’s also one of the very few email providers which do not log your IP address.
It’s completely End to End encrypted. In other words, Protonmail at no time has access to any of your mails, messages or any other data.
It encrypts not just mails to other Protonmail accounts, but also those sent to non-Protonmail accounts.
Additionally, it does support 2-FA for added protection. Furthermore, it’s based in Switzerland. You do know how it’s a lot more privacy-respecting nation than the rest of the world, don’t you?
And hey, how many email service providers can claim of having nuclear-protection?
Protonmail does. Its datacenter is literally located in an underground bunker, safe even from Nuclear attacks.
It also has this self-destruct feature for emails. I love this feature but it works only between proton to proton users.
Additionally, it supports custom domains and additional addresses which can be connected to the same primary email.
It’s free (500 MB storage), although optional paid plans exist. They increase storage space, enable autoresponders and offer access to other features.
Even payments for the paid plans can be made using Bitcoins if you wish to remain completely anonymous.
Or, PayPal, Bank accounts, and even cards can be used. And finally, It’s open-source.
Meaning, all of its claims of not logging IP addresses, being E2E encrypted, and not having backdoors can be independently verified by you (or anyone else).
It even has a .onion version, accessible on the Tor network. That completes your anonymity-cycle making you truly impossible to track. Both Android and iOS versions available for mobile devices.
Get Your Anonymous Inbox With Proton.me
Tutanota
Website: https://tutanota.com/
- E2E Encrypted: Yes
- Free plan: 1 GB storage
- Based in: Germany
- IP Logs: No.
- Open-source: Yes
Another anonymous email service for those who seek anonymity and privacy. It too is open-source which does boost trust, doesn’t it?
Tutanota mails too are E2E encrypted. The sender/receiver’s name, subject, header and body of the emails are encrypted.
Being zero-knowledge, alike Protonmail, Tutanota too doesn’t have access to your mails or other data.
The IP addresses aren’t logged either. No phone numbers, other emails or any other such info demanded.
Aliases can be created to send/receive emails without revealing the primary email ID. Custom domains too available.
Is largely free, optional paid plans start at €12.00/year.
The paid plan offers more storage, calendars, and users.
The plans are 100% customizable, you can choose the space, no. of aliases, and other features manually. Pay only for what you use.
Accepts Monero for the payments, again, 0 identity leak.
However, unlike Protonmail, Tutanota doesn’t have .onion access.
Tutanota is based in Germany. After Switzerland, Germany’s user-data protection laws are without doubt one of the best and most privacy-respecting.
Gmail
Website: https://gmail.com/
- E2E Encrypted: No
- Free plan: 15 GB storage
- Based in: United States.
- IP Logs: Yes.
- Open-source: No.
We’re talking of the best email services, aren’t we? You’ll crucify me if I skip Gmail. So here it is.
And, it even is the most popular, successful, and best email provider by some definitions. Especially, if you need the most advanced and useful features.
You can schedule emails, snooze them, access your mails offline, set passwords, expiry dates, restrict downloads. This is just a fraction of the available features. One of the primary Gmail benefits is, it’s a Google-product.
Being so, one Gmail ID gets you access to every other Google product, and nearly every other website which allows social logins. I personally love Gmail’s auto-complete feature.
Type a sentence, and in most cases it would guess what the rest of the sentence should be, and auto-fills.
Then, “Canned responses” let you automate replies if you need to send the same response/email over and over again. (E.g. People asking for your company’s address maybe?)
You can even “unsend” an email within 30 seconds of sending it!
It’s free, however, a paid version called the G Suite is available. It’s not exclusive to Gmail, and offers benefits and features for a dozen other Google apps as well.
You do want me to be honest, don’t you? It’s not your best friend if you need privacy and anonymity.
Did you know that Gmail can actually “read” your emails?
Note that they don’t, and won’t without reason, but they “can”. It’s clearly not End to End encrypted.
But, if you need features, and don’t need absolute privacy, feel free to join the 1.5 Billion+ users who use Gmail today.
Outlook (formerly Hotmail)
Website: https://outlook.live.com/
- E2E Encrypted: No
- Free plan: 15 GB storage
- Based in: United States.
- IP Logs: Yes.
- Open-source: No.
Just like Gmail is from Google, Outlook is from Microsoft. It was formerly known as Hotmail.
It offers `15 GB of free storage, in addition to 5GB storage on OneDrive. Paid plans start at around $55.58.
It also supports custom domains on the paid plans, alike all the other best email services.
Alike Gmail, Outlook too grants you access to a number of other apps, such as MS-Word, Ms-Excel, MS-Powerpoint etc.
Web and Android app versions available. Some of its other features include Proxy support, meeting tracking, and reminders.
BCC Warning is one of my personal favourite features. It lets you reply to BCC-emails (where you’re included as a BCC) without actually revealing your identity to the other recipients of the e-mail.
Only the original sender sees your name. On the Windows version, the interface resembles quite a bit to MS-Word making it different and unique from most other options on this list.
Mail.com
Website: https://www.mail.com/mail/
- E2E Encrypted: No
- Free plan: 2 GB storage
- Based in: United States.
- IP Logs: Yes.
- Open-source: No.
You’ll love Mail.com if you’re creating an email ID for a very specific purpose.
It’s the only service which offers over 200 custom domains to choose from.
Meaning, you don’t have to get yourname@mail.com
Rather, you can choose from yourname@minister.com , yourname@counsellor.com, yourname@chemist.com yourname@journalist.com and so on.
It even has categorized its domains, so you can choose music, hobbies, USA, profession etc. And then, it shows you the domains in that category.
Then, it offers aliases. All of the emails from these aliases arrive in the same inbox.
It also supports “filter rules”. So, you set a trigger, and an action. Whenever the trigger is activated (e.g. email size), the action is initiated (e.g. move to thrash).
It has an in-built virus and spam filter. Attachments up to 30 MB are supported.
Well yes, it too is free. And yes, again, the premium plan does grant access to other advanced features.
These include Ad-free experience, delayed sending, email forwarding, and even read receipts!
It’s based out of the United States of America, however, is still more privacy-respecting than other mail giants.
Both Android and iOS apps available
Zoho Mail
Website: https://www.zoho.com/mail/features.html
- E2E Encrypted: No
- Free plan: 5X5 GB storage
- Based in: United States.
- IP Logs: Yes.
- Open-source: No.
Zoho Mail too is a popular name in the email industry.
A Zoho Mail account also grants you access to notes, bookmarks, calendars, and other Zoho products.
It too allows filter rules to be created. Or, just use one of the pre-defined rules.
Not a major feature, yet, it too allows signatures.
Custom domains, actually, multiple custom domains can be set.
There also is an E-mail recall feature, alike Gmail’s unsend feature which lets you delete mails sent by you from recipients’ inboxes.
Offline access too is available.
It’s primarily made for business, hence, it allows sharing emails as well as entire folders with other members of your team.
Meaning, the entire email thread is shared with multiple users. No forwarding required!
Even E-mail drafts can be shared so everyone gets a vote before the send button is hit.
Zoho claims strongly on its Privacy policy. It may not be E2E encrypted, but, it still is GDPR compliant.
The forever free plan allows five users for each account, and each user gets 5GB space. Attachments are limited at 25MB.
The paid plans start at less than a dollar a month!
iOS and Android apps available.
Yahoo Mail
Website: https://mail.yahoo.com/
- E2E Encrypted: No
- Free plan: 1 TB storage
- Based in: United States.
- IP Logs: Yes.
- Open-source: No.
Yahoo Mail is one of the pioneers of the email industry, isn’t it?
At a time, it even was more popular and widely used than Gmail!
Why then, at the bottom of this list?
Well, it has been in over a dozen privacy and security breaches.
And as I mentioned earlier, your privacy is my first concern, features come second.
However, as of 2022, it’s extremely secure, feature-rich and has become more considerate towards user privacy.
My personal favourite feature with Yahoo is its “file-type” organization.
Meaning, every photo, video, document you’ve ever shared over email with others, can be accessed separately in their respective folders, for each email ID.
You can also create disposable email addresses!
Yahoo has integrated itself with a number of third-party apps and websites.
Hence, your Yahoo Mail account also lets you track deals, orders, avail coupon codes etc.
It also allows setting up autoresponders. Automated e-mails, which are sent out without requiring any manual intervention.
The one feature which thrusts it above all of its other competitors is its 1TB storage for all users! That’s just massive.
The regular account is free. Paid accounts start at $3.49/month.
Final Verdict:
So, which is the best email provider of them all? I’d say it depends on two primary factors.
Ask yourself, do you need utmost privacy/security, or is it “features” you need more. If you need anonymity and Privacy then you need to use anyone anonymous email services like PrivateMail, Skiff.com, Mailfence, Protonmail, Countermail or etc.
If you need features, Gmail is the undisputed monarch, more alternative your can check out, my other content piece Gmail Alternatives.
If you need something in-between, try going with Mail.com. It offers advanced features, as well as anonymous signing up.
I do believe that’s as simply as I can explain these email services.
But hey, it’s all about you today. Why don’t you let me know which of these best email services you feel is truly “the best”?
