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Comparison of webmail providers
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The following tables and gallery compare general and technical information for a number of webmail providers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date.
General information
| Service name |
Owner |
First public release date |
Cost (USD) |
Storage/Attachment size |
Languages supported |
IMAP or POP3 support |
Account deactivated if not logged in |
| ThinkPost Communications |
ThinkPost |
Aug 23, 2001 |
$4/month |
2GB /50 MB |
26 |
Both / OTA BlackBerry Sync (Complete) |
No |
| AOL Mail |
AOL |
Aug 23, 2004 |
Free |
Unlimited Storage/16 MB |
26 |
Both |
3 months (without fee) |
| FastMail.FM |
Messaging Engine Pty Ltd
Parkville, Victoria, Australia |
1999 |
Free (ads in emails and interface)
$14.95 one-time (Member)
$19.95 yearly (Full)
$39.95 yearly (Enhanced) |
10 MB/40 MB bw/month2 (Free)
16 MB/80 MB bw/month (Member)
600 MB/300 MB bw/month (Full)
6 GB/1 GB bw/month (Enhanced) |
English |
IMAP for all accounts, POP3 for Full and Enhanced accounts |
45 days (Guest account)
4 months (Member account)
None (Full and Enhanced accounts) |
| FuseMail |
Fusemail |
Oct, 2003 |
$0.99 per mailbox / month
$0.99 per GB / month
Minimum $10 spend per month. |
50 MB attachment limit. |
English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic |
Both |
|
| Gmail |
Google |
April 1, 2004 |
Free (text ads seen when viewing mail, not in messages) |
6.9 GB+/20 MB3
~1500 bytes added every second.
|
52 |
Both |
9 months |
| GMX Mail |
GMX Internet Services, Inc. |
2007 |
Free (no ads, sometimes in inbox, not in messages) |
5 GB3 |
English |
Both |
6 months |
| Hushmail |
Hush Communications Ltd
Vancouver, Canada |
May 1999 |
Free
$2.50 monthly (Premium) |
2 MB/1.5 MB (free)
250MB (Premium) |
English |
|
3 weeks |
| Lavabit |
Lavabit LLC |
2004-06-01 |
Free
Ad-supported
Paid $8/y
Paid $16/y |
128 MB
1024 MB
1024 MB
8192 MB |
English |
Both |
4 months |
| Lycos |
Daum Communications |
1995 |
Free & $19.95 (Premium) |
In USA 3 GB of free storage 5 GB of storage for (Premium), Unlimited file attachment size |
Any |
|
1 month (free) |
| LuxSci |
Lux Scientiae, Inc. |
December 1, 1999 |
$9.99 monthly |
2 GB+/50 MB |
Any/Unicode |
Both |
|
| Mail.ru |
Mail.ru |
1998 [1] |
Free (ads in interface)
$5 monthly (without ads) |
Unlimited/30 MB6 |
Russian, English |
POP3 |
|
MSN Hotmail
(replaced by
Windows Live Hotmail) |
Microsoft |
July 4, 1996 |
Free (basic)
$19.95 yearly1 |
5 GB/10 MB (basic)
10 GB/20 MB1 |
17 |
|
|
| NetZero |
NetZero - a United Online Company |
January 2001 |
Free (basic)
$9.95 yearly (Platinum) |
1 GB/2 MB (basic)
2 GB (Platinum) |
14 |
|
2 months (email) |
| O2 Webmail |
Telefónica O2 |
N/A |
Free |
20MB |
English |
Both |
|
| Runbox |
Runbox AS |
2000 |
49.95$/year
19.95$/additional accounts
|
10 GB / 100 MB
|
English, Norwegian |
Both |
None (subscribers)
1 month (free trial) |
Windows Live Hotmail
(replaces
MSN Hotmail) |
Microsoft |
November 1, 2005 |
Free (ads added to the signature of every outgoing email)
$19.95 yearly (Plus)4 |
5 GB/10 MB
10 GB/20 MB (Plus)4 |
35 |
Offers POP to Hotmail Plus users only. Also offers DeltaSync to sync e-mail and contacts (and calendar for Hotmail Plus users) with Outlook or Windows Live Mail. |
2 months (free) |
| WP Mail |
Wirtualna Polska |
N/A |
Free |
3GB/50MB |
Polish |
POP3 |
|
Yahoo! Mail
|
Yahoo! |
October 8, 1997 |
Free (basic)
$19.99 yearly (Plus version) |
Unlimited/10 MB (basic)5
Unlimited/20 MB (Plus version)5 |
27citation needed |
POP3 (Plus only); or with YPOPs! |
4 months (basic) |
| Service name |
Owner |
First public release date |
Cost (USD) |
Storage/Attachment size |
Languages supported |
IMAP or POP3 support |
Account deactivated if not logged in |
Note 1: Hotmail Plus, Outlook Live, MSN Premium, and Windows Live Hotmail
Note 2: Text message signup (some countries only)
Note 3: Bandwidth is limited rather than attachment size
Note 4: Subscription-based upgrade is in development
Note 5: Yahoo! Mail had announced free, unlimited storage space for all its members, starting May 2007 [2].
Note 6: Mail.ru mailboxes start out at 10 GB; if the user needs more space, they can increase storage 2 GB at a time by solving a captcha [3]
Features
|
Automatic forwarding |
E-mail client access14 |
client E-mail for other server |
Integration with IM service |
Domain Name customization |
Interface script technique |
Virus scanning |
Custom "From:" Address |
ThinkPost[1] |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP)
SSL/TLS supported |
No |
|
Yes |
HTML/JavaScript/CSS |
Yes |
Yes |
| AOL Mail |
No |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP) |
Yes0 |
AOL Instant Messenger |
Yes1 |
JavaScript/Ajax |
Yes
(McAfee) |
| Fastmail.FM |
Paid accounts |
Yes
(IMAP)7 |
Yes
(POP3, hotmail) |
No |
Enhanced accounts only |
HTML/JavaScript/CSS |
Paid accounts
(ClamAV) |
Yes
Editable while composing + saved personalities |
| Fusemail |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP, SMTP,LDAP) |
Yes |
Internal Jabber-based Client |
Yes |
HTML/JavaScript/Ajax2 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Gmail |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP) |
Yes
(POP3 only) |
Google Talkbeta (Jabber), AOL Instant Messenger |
Yes6 |
HTML/JavaScript/Ajax2 |
Yes
(Sophos Anti-Virus) |
Yes |
| GMX Mail |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP) |
Yes
(POP3 only) |
No |
Yes |
HTML/JavaScript/Ajax |
Yes
(McAfee and Symantec) |
Yes |
| Hushmail |
No |
Extra cost8 |
? |
Hush Messenger |
$1.99/$3.99 monthly through Hushmail Business |
Java or HTML |
No but the text based email stops most viruses, PGP encryption |
Yes, unlimited email aliases for Premium members |
| Lavabit |
All except Basic |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP) |
? |
No |
? |
? |
Yes |
? |
| LuxSci |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP, SMTP,LDAP) |
Yes
(POP3 only) |
No |
Yes |
JavaScript/Ajax2 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Mail.ru |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP) |
Yes
(POP3 only) |
Mail.ru Agent |
? |
HTML/Ajax (Beta) |
Yes
(Kaspersky) |
Yes |
MSN Hotmail
(replaced by
Windows Live Hotmail) |
Yes |
Partial3 |
No |
Windows Live Messenger |
Yes4 |
HTML |
Yes
(Trend Micro) |
Yes |
| Netzero |
Paid accounts11 |
Paid accounts11 |
? |
NetZero Voice |
Available |
JavaScript/Ajax |
Yes
(Norton AntiVirus) |
| rediff |
No |
Plus members only |
? |
Rediff Bol |
Yes |
JavaScript/Ajax2 |
Yes |
Yes |
| Runbox[2] |
Yes |
Yes
(POP3,IMAP,SMTP)
SSL/TLS supported |
Yes |
Jabber, IRC, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ |
Yes |
HTML/JavaScript/CSS |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows Live Hotmail
(replaces
MSN Hotmail) |
Partial13 |
Partial3 |
No |
Windows Live Messenger |
Yes4 |
HTML/JavaScript/ CSS/Ajax |
Yes
(Trend Micro) |
Yes |
| Yahoo! Mail |
Plus members only10 |
Plus members only In some countries free accounts
(POP3 only)10 |
Yes
(POP3 only) |
Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger |
$35 yearly |
HTML/JavaScript/ CSS/Ajax |
Yes
(Norton AntiVirus) |
Plus members only15 |
|
Automatic forwarding |
E-mail client access14 |
client E-mail for other server |
Integration with IM service |
Domain Name customization |
Interface script technique |
Virus scanning |
Custom "From:" Address |
Note 0: Through AOL Easy Transfer
Note 1: Through AOL My eAddress
Note 2: HTML interface available for legacy browsers or users with Javascript disabled
Note 3: Legacy, Hotmail Plus, Outlook Live, and MSN Premium members only. All account types can use the Windows Live Mail client.
Note 4: Through Windows Live Custom Domains
Note 6: Beta phase and only for existing domains
Note 7: IMAP only for free and Member accounts, IMAP and POP for Full and Enhanced
Note 8: IMAP access available for $14.99 for the first year and $29.99 yearly thereafter
Note 9: Forwarding and POP3 access with "Platinum" ($34.95 yearly) and above
Note 10: Through Yahoo! Mail Plus ($19.99 yearly) [3]; or through YPOPs!
Note 11: Through NetZero MegaMail ($9.96 or 24.96 yearly)
Note 12: Users can add their own e-mail accounts. One email address is included with every Magnus mail subscription. Users must use their own POP3 and SMTP servers for non Magnus mail e-mail addresses.
Note 13: Forwarding to other Windows Live Hotmail accounts is free for all users. Premium/paid accounts can forward to any other third party email accounts.
Note 14: Most mail services that do not support POP3 access can be accessed through the FreePOPs mail proxy software.
Note 15: Yahoo! Mail Plus ($19.99 yearly) features [4]
References
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