What are the best email account providers for your needs?
There are basically two types of email account providers:
- Accounts that give you their own email address, like me (at) mycompany.com, and that generally involve the purchase of a domain name and / or a hosting fee.
- Accounts provided by web-based email account providers, such as Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo, providing you with an address such as me (at) yahoo.com. and they are usually free.
Key factors for choosing an account provider:
- Is it important to have a professional sounding email address?
- How do you want to view and manage your emails?
- Do you need to access your email from multiple locations?
- Is it likely to change provider or address?
- Do you need a lot of storage space?
- What about security?
And now let’s look at the options for each of these factors so you know what you need to find out from potential email account providers.
Do you need an email address that sounds professional?
NO: If you only need email for personal use or are happy enough with an address like I (at) gmail.com, I advise you to stick with a free webmail email account provider.
Why? First of all, they are free! They usually give you a very large storage capacity (Gmail is 7.5GB, Yahoo is unlimited, Hotmail is 5GB) and of course you can access your account from any computer over the Internet. They also offer you a free webmail email client. (To avoid confusion, I will refer to email clients that need to be installed on a particular computer, such as Outlook or Live Mail, as installed clients.)
YES: If you need a professional sounding address, you can opt for a hosting option from a third-party provider or you can have your own server. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will generally host your email as well. Rates are generally based on a hosting package plus the space you use in your mailbox. Once you reach the package limit, you pay an additional fee per MB stored. (That’s why if you’ve ever worked at a large company, they continually send requests for you to clean up your email!)
Alternatively, you can use a free Gmail account as a server. This is particularly good for small businesses or entrepreneurs who work from home. You can buy a domain name that comes with multiple email addresses for less than $ 10 per year. Check with your favorite domain name provider for pricing. This way, you can forward your email address with professional sound or send it to Gmail and use Gmail’s free email client to manage your emails. You can set it up to make it look like the emails you send from Gmail are coming from your business address.
How do you want to view and manage your emails?
Again, there are big differences between using a webmail client and an installed client. To manage emails like me (at) mycompany.com, most people install an email client on their computers. Many people use Outlook or Windows Live Mail simply because this is the program that comes with their computer package. You can also find free email programs that will do the job just as well and that can work on Linux, Windows, and Apple, so if you use different types of computers, you can have the same client on all of them.
This email client regularly downloads emails from the mailbox, allowing you to work on your emails offline. A great trick is to sync your webmail with an installed client so you can work online or offline, but still receive your emails from any computer.
Do you need to access your email from multiple locations?
It’s rare these days for someone to access their email from a computer. The standard setup is to download emails to a particular computer and view them through an installed program like Outlook or Live Mail, etc. but you can also choose to leave the emails on the server. This means that you will be able to view them from other computers when you are traveling.
Most email account providers allow a webmail option so that you can view any email that has not been downloaded to the computer directly from the mailbox. Be sure to check with your email provider if webmail is part of the offer.
And, as mentioned above, you can sync your emails between webmail and an installed client so you can access your emails anywhere, from any computer with internet access.
Is it likely to change direction?
Many Internet Service Providers give you a webmail address when you set up your Internet account. It’s usually something like me (at) verizon.com or me (at) bigpond.com From personal experience, I recommend staying away from these addresses because as soon as you move or change your ISP, you need to change your address from email. A webmail address or a business address is much more portable, as it can be used with any provider.
Do you need a lot of storage space?
If you are an entrepreneur or run a small business, you can probably avoid the cost of owning and managing your own server. Most email account providers offer a variety of plans you can choose from, so you can start small and grow your storage over time. Tip: Be wary of plans that are relatively cheap for small amounts of storage (many come with 1GB as standard), but then charge you a hefty price per MB after that. Consider your needs over time, not just when starting out.
Safety
Unwanted mail it is a big problem for many people, so a good spam filter is necessary. If you are using an installed client, you may need to purchase an additional spam filter. If you use Gmail to manage your emails, the included spam filter will take care of it for you.
Unauthorized access to your email. By downloading the emails to your own server, you have more control over the access that is given to this email. Many companies do not allow employees to store their email on third-party servers for this reason.
I hope I have given you something to think about and now you are better equipped to make a decision about which email account providers to use.