Switching to a better email service: some Options

Cable company-provided email services are far from the best on the block, and in some cases, they may even disappear if you move or switch to a different internet provider, taking years of history and saved emails with them. You would almost certainly be better served by a more modern, feature-filled email service. Most people will probably want to go with one of the following.

GMAIL: Google’s Gmail has a ton of features, a friendly conversation-focused interface, powerful search and best-in-class spam and malware filtering on top of tight integration with other Google services like Google Drive. Gmail is, however, well known for collecting a lot of user data, though it does offer some control through its privacy settings.

OUTLOOK.COM: Microsoft’s Outlook.com is the successor to Hotmail. It comes with 15 gigabytes of storage, just as Gmail does, and integrates with Microsoft’s online Office tools like Word and Excel. In 2013, Microsoft made a big deal about the fact that doesn’t scan your emails in order to serve you ads, though it still does do so to filter spam and malware.

ICLOUD: Apple’s free email service integrates with Macs and iPhones and doesn’t contain any ads, though it isn’t as feature-rich as other options. It also comes with only 5 gigabytes of storage, which is shared with other Apple products.

FASTMAIL: Fastmail is a paid service that bills itself as being for those who want more privacy and control. Because you pay a subscription fee (between $3 and $9 per month), there are no ads, and you can create an email account at any domain you want (like john@johnsmith.com).

PROTONMAIL: ProtonMail is a bit more complex than Fastmail, but cranks the privacy knob up to 11, offering end-to-end encryption when you want your emails to be truly hidden from the Company’s servers. Just remember that just because your email service isn’t scanning your email doesn’t mean your friends’ email service isn’t scanning the emails you send to them.

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