Top 20 Best Free Email Service Providers & Resources

Electronic mail, most commonly referred to as EMAIL or e-mail since ca. 1993, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to a mail server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

Historically, the term electronic mail was used generically for any electronic document transmission. For example, several writers in the early 1970s used the term to describe fax document transmission. As a result, it is difficult to find the first citation for the use of the term with the more specific meaning it has today.

An Internet email message consists of three components, the message envelope, the message header, and the message body. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually descriptive information is also added, such as a subject header field and a message submission date/time stamp.

MAIL ENCRYPTION is encryption of email messages to protect the content from being read by entities other than the intended recipients. Email encryption may also include authentication.

Email is prone to the disclosure of information. Most emails are currently transmitted in the clear (not encrypted) form. All emails sent using Gmail or Outlook are encrypted by default. It is possible to send an unencrypted email using Gmail but a warning icon will appear in the address bar. By means of some available tools, persons other than the designated recipients can read the email contents.

Email encryption can rely on public-key cryptography, in which users can each publish a public key that others can use to encrypt messages to them, while keeping secret a private key they can use to decrypt such messages or to digitally encrypt and sign messages they send.

Email Service News, Reviews & Resources

• 4 ways to avoid being a victim of Russian cyberwarfare - "Follow these four simple steps to outflank Putin’s digital foot soldiers."
• 5 Best Email Client Apps for iPhone - "Stay on top of your inbox with the right iPhone app: 1. Apple Mail: For the Best iCloud Mail Experience. 2. Gmail: For Google Power Users. 3. Microsoft Outlook: For Microsoft Power Users. 4. Proton Mail: For the Best Privacy and Security. 5. Twobird: To Make Your Inbox a To-Do List."
• 5 ChatGPT Prompts To Send Hours Of Email In Seconds: Master Your Inbox - "Batch your responses once every few days and let ChatGPT help you out. Don’t be at the mercy of unread emails; craft perfect responses in a fraction of the time. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through."
• 10 Best (Free) Email Service Providers for Your Business - Envato Tuts+.
• 11 Email Security Gateways - "Discover the top 11 best Email Security Gateway platforms. Examine their features such as phishing protection, reporting and admin controls."
• 11 of the Best Free Email Service Providers for 2019 - TechNorms.
• 14 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Sent The Most Important Email in the History of Business - "A simple, one-sentence email turned Apple into the most valuable business of all time."
• 51 Email Service Providers of Today to Save Your Lot of Time & Money - Hotmail Logins.
• Airmail for iOS is here: the email app that can do everything - The Verge.
• Airmail might be the perfect email app for your iPhone - engadget.
• An Old Scam With a New Twist - "If you have gotten a message from someone who claims to have dirt on you - and shows off, as proof, a password you’ve previously used - here’s what happened."
• Anti-spam techniques - Wikipedia.
• Apple Confirms New Warning Affecting Almost All iPhone Users - "Apple has already released the best iPhone of 2020, but now millions of iPhone owners - both old and new - need to be careful because the company has just confirmed a massive iOS security hole which impacts almost every iPhone on the planet."
• Apple iPhone at risk of hacking through email app - "A flaw in Apple's mobile operating system may have left millions of iPhone and iPad users vulnerable to hackers."
• Apple’s software update lets users create burner email addresses - here’s how to do it - "These burner emails are good for signing up in forms on the web that you might not want to share your main email address with."
• Are you short on personality? These email-writing apps can fix that - "Struggling to hit the right notes over email and chat? Perhaps you need the ‘sarcasm converter’."
• Astro email app now includes a built-in calendar - The Verge.
• BEC or Business Email Compromise hacking - "One of the most common types of cyber-attack, which the FBI says costs more than £6 billion a year - and experts say Nigeria is its epicentre."
• BEST EMAIL APP FOR IOS & ANDROID - "You’ve got mail."
• Best Email Security Software 2019 - "Find the best Email Security Software for your business. Compare product reviews and features to build your list."
• Check if your email has been compromised in a data breach - "Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address has been compromised."
• Clean Out Your Google Drive or Gmail, You Won't Regret It - "No need to buy more space, just use these simple tips."
• Comparison of webmail providers - Wikipedia.
• Disposable email address - "Also known as DEA or dark mail, refers to an approach which involves a unique email address being used for every contact, entity, or for a limited number of times or uses. The benefit is that if anyone compromises the address or utilizes it in connection with email abuse, the address owner can easily cancel (or 'dispose' of) it without affecting any of their other contacts."
• Do You Ever Ignore Text Messages? - "Is choosing not to respond to texts, emails and other digital messages rude? Or is it sometimes necessary?"
• Elon Musk claims he's creating a Gmail rival dubbed 'XMail' - "In an exchange on his social media platform X, Musk has revealed that a product called 'XMail' is 'coming'. He's offered no more details about the service, so it's unclear when it may be available, although it's expected to be integrated within the X app."
• EMAIL - Wikipedia.
• Email Attack Hits Google: What to Do if You Clicked - The New York Times.
• Email encryption - Wikipedia.
• Email Is Slow & Creates Distance. That's Why It's Great - "Perhaps email will never again be the preferred form of digital communication, but much like vinyl records, it may be able to provide a pleasant ritual that slows down the flood of notifications, if only for a moment."
• Emoji - ideograms or smileys used in Japanese electronic messages and webpages, whose use is spreading outside Japan.
• Even Gmail has blue verification checks now - "Google says they should help you determine whether a sender is the real deal."
• Forward this or you’ll die in seven days: On the persistence of chain letters - "They’ve been around forever, and we’ll never get rid of them."
• Everyone Wants Your Email Address. Think Twice Before Sharing It - "Your email address has become a digital bread crumb for companies to link your activity across sites. Here’s how you can limit this."
• Gmail app takes calls now, too, because Google wants it to do everything - "Google has turned its email app into a communication suite."
• Gmail continues to define email 15 years on - "The service celebrates its 15th birthday a day before it kills off Inbox."
• Gmail finally works with the iPad’s split-view multitasking - "The feature is available immediately to all users."
• Gmail now allows you to share files from Adobe Creative Cloud - "With a few important caveats."
• Gmail Now Has More Than 1B Monthly Active Users - TechCrunch.
• Gmail now supports multiple signatures - "You don't have to share the same signature with everyone."
• Gmail on iPhone should now finally be a lot easier - "New updates and features arrive for Google Meet and Gmail on iPhone."
• Gmail’s auto-reply is perfect for the lazy emailer - Google’s mail app now offers a range of AI-generated responses.
• Gmail’s new look is about to appear for more people, even if they didn’t ask for it - "The new UI lines up Gmail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet in their own side rail."
• Gmail’s new look is now rolling out to everyone - "It’s not that different."
• Google might delete your Gmail account if you haven’t logged in for two years - "The old policy would wipe data from unused personal accounts, but now, the entire Google account is at risk of deletion."
• Google shows off astonishing vision for how AI will work with Gmail, Photos & more - "A day after OpenAI impressed with a startlingly improved ChatGPT AI model, Google showed off an equally stunning vision for how AI will improve the products that billions of people use every day."
• Google Warns Gmail & Photos Content Deletions To Start December 2023 - "There are a staggering 1.8 billion Gmail active users, according to the latest statistics. Regarding Google Photos, there are an estimated 2 billion active users. Google has recently warned that starting in December, inactive accounts will be purged on security grounds. But how does Google define an inactive account, and how can you prevent emails, photos, and other content from being deleted?"
• Google’s Gmail Decision - Why You Need A New Email Address - "A huge update for 2 billion Gmail users has suddenly leaked; here's what you need to know."
• Guide: Extreme online security measures to protect your digital privacy - The Guardian.
• Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I'm Sorry I'm Leaving You - "There is no end of theories for why the internet feels so crummy these days. Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another. A few months ago, I euthanized that Gmail account. I have more than a million unread messages in my inbox. Most of what's there is junk. But not all of it. I was missing too much that I needed to see."
• Here are the email apps iOS 14 now lets you set as default - "Including Outlook, Hey, and Spark."
• Hey email app open to all after Apple 'definitively' approves it - "Basecamp skirted Apple’s requirement that developers use in-app purchases."
• HEY IS A WILDLY OPINIONATED NEW EMAIL SERVICE FROM THE MAKERS OF BASECAMP - "Get less email, and respond to it faster - for a price."
• Hit delete, ditch reply-all & other ways to manage your work emails - "It’s easy to feel swamped, but how do you decide what to keep and what takes priority? And should you be checking out of hours?"
• How can I stop someone else from using my Gmail account? - The Guardian.
• How different cultures sign off emails - "Depending on where you live, the words you use to sign off your email could be just as important as the content."
• HOW EMAIL OPEN TRACKING QUIETLY TOOK OVER THE WEB - Wired.
• How private is your Gmail, and should you switch? - "You might be surprised how much Google’s email service - and others - know about you. Here’s how to set some boundaries."
• How smart are Gmail’s ‘smart replies’? - "When Seamas O’Reilly responded to all his emails for a week using only Smart Reply, our columnist’s messages suddenly became spookily jaunty. Did his friends spot the difference?"
• How 'smart' email could change the way we talk - "Smart email systems that use artificial intelligence to predict what will type next can make it quicker to write messages to our friends, colleagues and family, but do we risk losing something in the process? Start typing a reply in Google’s Gmail and it might feel like it is reading your mind. Tap out the letters "tha" and up pops the rest of a sentence in greyed out letters. Press tab and your sentence completes itself."
• How to Back Up Your Emails in Gmail, Outlook & iCloud - "Yes, you should back up your most important emails. Here’s how to do it, whether you use Google, Microsoft, or Apple."
• How to change the side panels in Gmail’s new view - "You can have one or two side panels, depending on how you use Gmail."
• How to change your Gmail name - "There are many reasons why you may want to change your name in Gmail. Some people made their first Gmail account in middle school and no longer wish to be identified with the embarrassing username they signed up with. Some people wish to change their last name after they marry. We have developed a short and easy guide for those of you who wish to change your username in Gmail."
• How to cope with email overload - "Andrew Crosby has 7,000 emails in his inbox. To some that might not sound like many, but he's only been at Relax Gaming for a year, so there's not been much time for the inbox to get out of control."
• How to create stickers on the iPhone using your photos in iOS 17 - "You can even send animated stickers with Live Photos in iMessage."
• How to Cut Down on Unwanted Junk Mail - The New York Times.
• How to declutter your inbox & unsubscribe from unwanted emails - "Free yourself from junk mail."
• How to enable & use Gmail’s AI-powered Smart Reply & Smart Compose tools - "Time-saving tools for writing on the go."
• How to Get Every Email Returned - "Or at least how to try."
• How to get rid of promotional emails using Gmail - "Unsubscribe from and trash all those unwanted messages."
• How to get rid of that irritating Meet tab in Gmail for Android & iOS - "Reclaim your email space."
• How to mass-delete all your emails on Gmail at once - "Knowing how to mass-delete all your emails in Gmail is a great way to keep your inbox tidy and easily readable. It also helps maximize your storage space by clearing out old emails, spam, and conversations you no longer need a record of. Here are the best ways to mass-delete your emails in Gmail to clean out your inbox."
• How to schedule an email in Gmail - "Send messages when you like with Gmail’s new built-in scheduling tool."
• How to see your mail before it arrives - "Set up the USPS’s Informed Delivery service to know what’s coming in the mailbox each day."
• How to set up & use email templates in Gmail - "So you don’t have to write the same email over and over again."
• How to set up a Slack account - The Verge.
• How to Set Up Gmail With Aliases & Import Other Inboxes - Wired.
• How to Stop Email Trackers on Your iPhone, iPad & Mac - "Stop emails from pixel-tracking your personal data."
• How to Stop Slack From taking over your life - "Slack is a useful tool - until its pings and notifications turn ever-present and irritating. Here’s how to take back control."
• How to stop Spectrum junk mail - "Opt out of spam calls and ad targeting while you’re at it."
• How to stop your emails from being tracked - "Pixel trackers can hide in your email images."
• How to tame your Gmail inbox with labels - "Help keep your email organized. Let’s face it - if you’re using your Gmail account for more than occasionally contacting friends and relatives, it’s likely that it’s spinning out of control. Between work-related emails, online events, invitations, advertising from your favorite retailers, and just plain spam, you’re going to find it difficult to keep track."
• How to Tell a Secret in the Digital Age - The New York Times.
• How to tell if someone has read your email on Gmail - "To find out when an email you sent was opened, you can request a read receipt. A read receipt is sent to you as an email with the time and date of when your message was opened."
• How to Write the Perfect Email, According to Experts - "Crafting a good email - setting the tone, making your point and coming across professional but not out of touch - is no easy feat."
• I don’t want to log in to your website - "There is a new trend among websites where they want my email address before I’m allowed to read their free content. While I sympathize with the struggles of the media business, I am just going to point out something obvious: not reading is easier than reading - and way easier than logging in."
• IFTTT - "Put the onternet to work for you." Web-based service which allows other services (e.g., Gmail, Google Reader, Instagram, Craigslist) to be programmed by means of simple conditional statements (called "recipes"). An example of such a program is one whose effect is to sent an e-mail message if the IFTTT user tweets a certain hashtag. Or, if the user's photo is tagged by someone on Facebook then that photo will be added to the user's cloud-based photo archive.
• iOS 17 Messages - 8 biggest changes coming to your iPhone - "Messages is one of the more popular built-in apps for the iPhone, so it's no surprise that it's seeing some pretty substantial changes with iOS 17. In fact, of all the current iPhone apps, it's hard to think of one getting a bigger refresh in iOS 17 than Messages, outside of maybe the Phone app."
• Judging Others by Their Email Tics - The New York Times.
• Junk mail: how one click can lead to a deluge - "When piles of unsolicited mail and catalogues thud through the letterbox, ask yourself: how do they get your details and how can you stop it?"
• Keep the Clowns Out of Email - "Also insider trading, sardines and long-termism."
• MailChimp - "Send Better Email." Online email marketing solution to manage contacts, send emails and track results. Offers plug-ins for other programs. Easily manage email campaigns. Get your free account today!
• Mailchimp Sends a Billion Emails a Day. That’s the Easy Part - Wired.
• Master Your Inbox With These 6 Gmail Tips From Google’s Own Productivity Expert - "For Gmail's 15th anniversary on Monday, Google announced some important updates to its email service, some of them long-desired features that can change how to visit your inbox."
• Microsoft has turned Outlook into a Progressive Web App (PWA) - "You can now install Outlook.com as an app. This allows any Outlook user to install the web app into Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, and other platforms that natively support PWAs. It’s a useful alternative to the cluttered Outlook Windows desktop app or the Windows Mail client that ships as part of Windows 10."
• Mimestream is the Mac app every Gmail user needs - "It’s not an email app; it’s a Gmail app. And as long as you use Gmail and a Mac, that’s really great news."
• New Gmail Attack Bypasses Passwords & 2FA To Read All Email - "Among the best practice items for Gmail security protection, strengthening your login credentials and enabling two-step verification are high on the list, as I mentioned in an article over the weekend. But what if I were to tell you that security researchers have now uncovered evidence of one likely state-sponsored attack group that has found a way to bypass even these protections?"
• Now Is a Good Time to Update Your Recovery Email Addresses - "You know those 'emergency' email addresses you can use to get into your email and other accounts in case you're locked out? Make sure they're up-to-date."
• On Vacation? Here’s How to SET AWAY MESSAGES ON YOUR PHONE - Wired.
• One ping after another: why everyone needs a notification detox - "They tell us when someone has called, texted and WhatsApped us - even to drink water and exercise. Is it time to turn them all off for good?"
• Ray Tomlinson, email inventor & selector of @ symbol, dies aged 74 - The Guardian.
• Restoring That Email You Just Deleted Accidentally - The New York Times.
• Signal, secure messaging app: a guide for beginners - Freedom of the Press Foundation.
• Slack is ruining my life and I love it - CNN Business.
• Slack Wants to Replace Email. Is That What We Want? - "As the office chat start-up prepares to go public, some of us are still figuring out how available we want to be - and whether it’s O.K. to ping the C.E.O."
• 'Spy pixels in emails have become endemic' - "The use of 'invisible' tracking tech in emails is now 'endemic', according to a messaging service that analysed its traffic at the BBC's request."
• Stop writing 'I hope you're well' in emails - here's what to say instead - The Telegraph.
• Switch From Your Internet Provider’s Email to Something Better - "When you signed up for internet access, you probably got an email address. That’s fine, but you can do better. Here’s how to move to a good one."
• Telegram’s Premium subscription is here & it costs $4.99 / month - "Introducing bigger uploads, faster downloads, and exclusive stickers."
• The Art of Emailing During the Coronavirus Pandemic - "When the pandemic hit this March, the normal rules about social interaction went out the window."
• The Art of the Out-of-Office Reply - The New York Times.
• The Emoji Mashup Bot Is Creating Fun, Weird, and Useful New Emoji. Meet the 18-Year-Old Developer Behind It - "An 18-year-old developer created the Emoji Mashup Bot, a Twitter account that combines different emoji at random with delightful results."
• The most annoying phrases in emails - "Why we all need to be a little more zen about grating corporate language."
• The single most valuable writing skill - "How mastering this will make your writing compelling and authoritative."
• The tyranny of messaging & notifications - The Verge.
• The Wired Guide to Your Personal Data (and Who Is Using It) - Wired.
• Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done - Amazon.com.
• Users flock to encrypted email service after Trump win - The Verge.
• Why am I so terrible at email? - engadget.
• Whoever Wins White House, This Year’s Big Loser Is Email - The New York Times.
• Why does everyone get so worked up over Gmail’s Smart Reply feature? - "So many hot takes about automated replies."
• Why email loses out to popular apps in China - "Email has never been huge in China, and it’s down to a combination of cultural factors and timing."
• Why emails always seem negative - "'Negative intensification bias' can leave us offended by an innocent work email - but there are ways to avoid it."
• Why I turned on iMessage "Encrypted chat is a moral imperative."
• Why You Suddenly Need To Delete Gmail On Your iPhone - "Gmail has already come under attack for its alarming privacy labels. But a new update from Apple, combined with a privacy backlash this month against 'creepy' mail tracking, should now be the final convincer for millions of users to delete their Gmail apps, ensuring that their data is not being secretly harvested."
• Why you're suddenly getting spammed with privacy emails - "This holiday season, inboxes have been filled not only with promotional emails but also dozens of privacy notes."
• Yes, there's an iPhone trick to ditch Apple's Mail & Safari apps - "Want to use Gmail, Google Chrome or a third-party email or web browser on your iPhone or iPad? We'll walk you through how to set those as the default."
• You Already Email Like a Robot - Why Not Automate It? - The New York Times.
• You can't kill email. It's just too intimate - Wired.
• YOU CAN SEND INVISIBLE MESSAGES WITH SUBTLE FONT TWEAKS - Wired.
• You Can't Go Back to 'Classic' Gmail. But You Can Get Close - Here's How - TIME Magazine.
• You won't believe what gets an email flagged at Goldman - CNBC.

Top 20 Best Free Email Service Providers

• AOL MAIL - since 1993. "Get a free email address from AOL now! You no longer need to be an AOL member to take advantage of great AOL Mail features such as industry-leading spam and virus protection, anytime-access on your mobile device, flexibility to work with other email clients using IMAP and more." Available in 54 languages.
• GMAIL - since 2004. Free advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well as via POP3 or IMAP4 protocols.
• GMX Mail - since 1997. Free webmail service provided by GMX (Global Mail eXchange, in Germany: Global Message eXchange).
• Hey - since 2020. "We didn’t reinvent the wheel, only email." Email as you know it is out the door. Email as you want it just arrived. HEY’s totally familiar, but completely different.
• Hushmail - since 1999. "Enhanced email security to keep your data safe." Hushmail is like your current email service – you can read and compose your email on the web, smartphone, and everywhere you work – but we’ve added important security features to help keep your data safe.
• iCloud Mail - since 2011. "Using your @icloud.com email address." Learn how to send and receive email using your @icloud.com email address. You get a 5 GB storage with the free email account that can be accessed online and can sync to your Apple devices.
• INBOX.COM - since 1995. "Premium email." Get your premium email@inbox.com. No ads, no tracking. Just email.
• Lycos Mail - aince 1995. Premium web-based email service that offers 5 GB of storage, POP3/IMAP access, advanced spam filtering, and domain and address blocking.
• Mail.com - since 1995. Web portal and web-based email service provider owned by the German internet company United Internet. It offers news articles and videos and a free webmail application with unlimited storage.
• Neomailbox - since 2001. "Free your email with Neomailbox." Protect yourself from the serious and growing risks of profiling, identity theft and privacy invasion online. Join thousands of individuals and organizations who have benefited from our Internet privacy services for over 20 years.
• Outlook.com - since 1996. Free web-based email service run by Microsoft. One of the world's first webmail services, it was founded in 1996 as Hotmail (stylized as HoTMaiL).
• Proton - since 2013. "Secure email without compromises." ProtonMail is an open source secure email service, brought to you by CERN and MIT scientists. We provide free and easy-to-use encrypted email. Over one million people in 150 countries use ProtonMail to securely email friends, family, and colleagues. We protect your privacy and ensure that nobody, not even us, can read your communications. Our end-to-end encryption is completely seamless so there is nothing to install and no extra steps before you can start emailing securely.
• SAFE-MAIL - since 1999. FREE high security web-based e-mail system which extends considerably the communication system to much more than currently exists.
• SaneBox - since 2010. "AI For Your Email." SaneBox identifies important messages, hides distractions, has Do Not Disturb, banishes annoying senders, reminds you to followup and more...
• Telegram - since 2013. "A new era of messaging. The world's fastest messaging app. It is free and secure." Cloud-based instant messaging service. Telegram client apps are available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows NT, macOS and Linux. Users can send messages and exchange photos, videos, stickers, audio and files of any type. Messages in Telegram are server-client encrypted by default, and the service provides end-to-end encryption for voice calls and optional end-to-end encrypted "secret" chats. In March 2018, Telegram stated that it had 200 million monthly active users.
• Thunderbird - since 2003. Free, open source, cross-platform email, news, and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.
• TorGuard - since 2012. "Online privacy protection services." Anonymous VPN Service: Anonymize and Encrypt all web Traffic through Private VPN Service. Anonymous Proxy: Keep Your Personal Identity Anonymous & Private on Bittorrent. Stealth VPN: Bypass DPI Firewalls and VPN Blocks with TorGuard Stealth VPN. Private Email: Communicate in Complete Security with OpenPGP email Encryption.
• Tutanota - since 2011. "Get your free, encrypted mailbox today." Secure email: Tutanota makes free encrypted emails easy. Tutanota is the secure email service with automatic encryption. We protect your emails from everyone - even us!
• TwoBird - since 2005. "Your inbox is a to-do list. Twobird makes it the only one you need. Clear the clutter, focus on what matters." Juggling conversations, tasks, and collaboration in different apps creates extra work. Twobird brings everything together in one place and identifies your most important to-dos. Your inbox can be overwhelming. Twobird helps you focus and respond effortlessly. Low Priority and Reminders set aside things that can wait. Smarter notifications prevent distraction. Unsubscribe quickly cleans up unwanted subscriptions. And Twobird’s chatty design keeps conversations efficient and natural.
• YAHOO! MAIL - since 1997. Free email service (except for Yahoo! Mail Business Email Plans) offered by the American company Yahoo!
• Yandex Mail - since 1997. "Free, reliable email." New accounts get 10 GB of cloud storage with Yandex.Disk. Protects against spam and fraud. Log into the app with your PIN and fingerprint. Put messages on a timer so you can write them in advance and send them when it's time. Incoming mail is checked for viruses, and suspicious messages are sorted into the Spam folder.
• Zoho mail - since 2005. "Secure business email for your organization." Host your business email on a secure, encrypted, privacy-guaranteed, and ad-free email service, and add a professional touch to every email that goes out.