Top 10 Free Email Services

1. Gmail - Free Email Service

Gmail is the Google approach to email, chat and social networking. Practically unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail's simple but very smart interface lets you find mail precisely and see it in context without effort. POP and powerful IMAP access bring Gmail to any email program or device.

Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.

Pros

• Gmail offers continuously growing storage, free IMAP or POP access and sending from any address
• Smart sorting, searching and starring let you find and organize emails and chat conversations
• Gmail's web interface is both fast and rich, Gears lets you read and write mail offline

Cons

• Gmail does not support secure (signed and encrypted) email natively
• Searching mail in Gmail is not nearly as smart and comfortable as searching the web with Google
• Gmail does not offer unlimited online space

Description

• Gmail offers free email with growing storage space. Additional storage can be purchased and shared among Google services.
• Next to mail, Gmail shows contextual ads machine-matched to keywords found in messages.
• Starring and custom color labels let you neatly organize threads (conversations) and precise search options find emails fast.
• Gmail's filters can organize, forward and respond with a canned reply. You can use templates for new messages as well.
• IMAP, POP, forwarding, ActiveSync and web apps bring Gmail to many a device and program. Gears offers offline browser access.
• Google Buzz integrates social networking and sharing with email; Buzz as well as Gmail are available in mobile versions.
• Gmail retrieves mail from up to 5 POP accounts and lets you use these email addresses (or others) in the From: line of mail.
• Connecting to Google Talk, you can IM and group chat. Integration with Google Calendar lets you create events and invite.
• Gmail supports rich text formatting and can display many attachment types (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.).
• A spam filter tries to sort out the junk and fraud, and Gmail scans for viruses and worms, too.

Guide Review - Gmail Review - Free Email and Chat Service

hat do you expect from Google? Search, simplicity and speed? That's what you can get from Gmail, Google's approach to email, instant messaging, social networking and group video chat. Gmail's interface is simple and elegant, but also remarkably clever with useful keyboard shortcuts and speedy operation.
Of course, Gmail boasts a search box, which usually returns useful results; Gmail's search is still a far cry from the smarts of common web searches with their word stemming, spell checking, suggestions and understanding of synonyms, for example. In any event, finding single emails precisely is not the best thing about Gmail: smarter still is its keeping everything in context.
With nary a miss, Gmail identifies the relationships between emails to construct "conversations". You can quickly see what has happened previously, or whether somebody has already replied. Gmail also offers "stars" for quick flagging and free-form color labels that can work wonders to organize an inbox.
If a contact is currently online in either Gmail or Google Talk, you can chat right from Gmail, with the conversation archived and indexed. Turning emails into Google Calendar events is just as easy.
In addition to instant messaging and a calendar, Gmail integrates milliblogging with social network underpinnings. In Gmail's Google Buzz, it's easy to share thoughts, links, photos and videos with both select friends and the world. Of course, Buzz lets readers comment and discuss. Personal messages and replies, by default, show up in the Gmail inbox like email conversations.
All this makes no sense if you can't keep all relevant data, of course. So Gmail grows as you use it, and you can purchase additional storage. To avoid the truly unneeded mail, Gmail sports efficient and effortless spam and virus filters.
If you do not like the idea of Google displaying ads next to emails based on keywords found in the messages (the emails themselves remain private), you can use encryption or access your Gmail using POP and IMAP. (You can also put Gmail's web interface in offline mode with Gears and read as well as compose mail while disconnected.)
If, conversely, you want to use the Gmail web interface for all your email, you can have it collect mail from up to five POP accounts automatically and put these accounts' email addresses (and all your others) in the From: line of messages you send.

 

02.AIM Mail - Free Email Service

 AIM Mail, AOL's free web-based email service, shines with unlimited online storage, very good spam protection and a rich, easy to use interface.
AIM Mail lacks a bit in productivity (no labels, smart folders and message threading), but makes up for some of that with IMAP (as well as POP) access and integrates chat as well as social networking services.

Pros

• AIM Mail has stellar spam protection and solid security features
• A rich interface makes AIM Mail easy to use, and integrates calendar, chat and social networking
• AIM Mail offers unlimited online email storage space and POP or IMAP access

Cons

• AIM Mail does not thread messages, offers no labels or smart folders and does not support encryption
• Email search could be more flexible and efficient in AIM Mail
• AIM Mail support can be tricky to reach, its help puzzling to search

Description

• AIM Mail is a web-based email service offering unlimited online mail storage plus POP and IMAP access.
• Using AOL spam filtering, AIM Mail rejects unwanted mail altogether or puts it in your "Spam" folder.
• AIM Mail lets you compose emails using rich HTML formatting.
• AIM Mail can check display and audibly announce new messages automatically and filter them to folders using rules.
• Using WAP, POP, IMAP or Mobile AIM Mail software (available for certain carriers), you can use AIM Mail from mobile phones.
• AIM Mail includes a fully featured address book and a browser-based AIM instant messaging client.
• You can set up an auto-reply, notifying senders that and how long you are away.
• AIM Mail includes a calendar and lets you turn emails into events or to-do items easily.
• Blocking remote images and links in emails from unknown senders, AIM Mail protects your privacy and your computer's security.
• AIM Mail Lifestream puts updates from many social networks right into AIM Mail and lets you post to these services, too.

Guide Review - AIM Mail - Free Email Service

AIM is not just instant messaging. AIM is email as well, and it is very good at it. AIM Mail gets you unlimited online storage to keep all your messages and AOL My eAddress throws in a free domain name for good measure. AOL's sophisticated and very efficient spam filtering makes AIM Mail a smooth experience. Built to look and work like a desktop application, AIM Mail is easy to use and offers a rich though unobtrusive interface (you can drag and drop messages to move them, for example), but it could be a bit snappier in places. Fittingly, AIM Mail includes an AIM client that lets you exchange instant messages right in your browser — and archive them to AIM Mail folders, too.
Searching mail for various criteria works nicely in AIM Mail, and you can flag messages for follow-up. Unfortunately, that's about all AIM Mail has to offer when it comes to helping you cope with the daily avalanche of email. You cannot set up labels or smart folders, and AIM Mail's filtering incoming mail is limited to filing mail.
In a welcome move, AIM Mail compensates for this lack of web-based power with very functional IMAP access, which provides seamless access to your AIM Mail account and all its folders from many email programs. If you prefer POP to download your mail, AIM Mail can do that, too.
Some compensation also comes from the nicely integrated calendar, which lets you create events and to-do items from emails fast. Of course, AIM Mail integrates with AIM instant messaging, too. An AIM panel shows you online contacts, and you can chat right in your browser, from within AIM Mail.
All in all, in spite and partly because of its lack of organizing talent, AIM Mail is a very friendly, clean and usable email service.

 

03.GMX Mail - Free Email Service

 GMX Mail is a reliable email service filtered well of spam and viruses whose 5 GB of online storage you can use not only through a rich web interface but also via POP or IMAP from a desktop email program.
More and smarter ways to organize mail could be nice.

• GMX Mail offers a rich web interface as well as POP and IMAP access in desktop programs
• 5 GB online storage and messages up to 50 MB allow for lots of mail and large attachments
• GMX Mail can retrieve mail from your other accounts (including Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail)

Cons

• GMX Mail does not support encrypted mail and cannot display remote images per sender
• You cannot label mail, find related messages fast or set up smart folders in GMX Mail
• GMX Mail cannot sort mail based on past actions

Description

• GMX Mail offers email accounts including 5 GB of online storage and POP as well as IMAP access.
• You can read mail from other email accounts (including Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail) in GMX Mail.
• All mail is scanned for viruses, and a learning spam filter keeps GMX Mail Inboxes clean.
• Flexible filters can sort incoming mail into custom folders or forward it, for example.
• GMX Mail's rich web interface includes drag and drop ease as well as rich-text email formatting.
• While you're away from computers, GMX Mail can send a vacation auto-reply.
• You can have GMX Mail delete mail from any folder (not just "Spam" and "Trash") after a certain number of days.
• In addition to an address book, GMX Mail also includes a calendar and online storage.

Guide Review - GMX Mail - Free Email Service

GMX Mail opens in a new browser window — and into an experience much owed to desktop email programs. You get toolbars and drag-and-drop and menus and panes and folders and rich-text editing and keyboard shortcuts (which can be a tad cryptic). Behind GMX Mail's polished interface are robust underpinnings: GMX Mail is highly reliable and comes with 5 GB of online storage. Its virus scanning is exemplary, and a host of spam filters perform solidly — albeit not perfectly. You can mark mail as junk easily, though, and the filters should learn.
If the GMX Mail web interface is not your thing or, maybe even more importantly, to get your mail into and out of GMX Mail, both POP and IMAP access are available. GMX Mail reaches out in the other direction, too: you can set it up to retrieve mail from multiple POP or even Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts. Of course, you can send mail with your any address in the From: line.
True to its solid desktop email program roots, GMX Mail gives you folders and filters for sorting mail. You cannot, alas, apply free-form labels or use search folders for even more flexible organizing. GMX Mail does include a handy and fast search feature, of course, including a few search operators. Shortcuts to finding related messages — in the same thread, for example, or mail exchanged with a sender — would be nice.
GMX Mail's address book works well and a lot like the Outlook contacts you love — or at least know. In addition to email and contacts, GMX Mail offers a mature calendar and file storage. The parts could integrate better, though.

04.Yahoo! Mail - Free Email Service

 Yahoo! Mail is your ubiquitous email program on the web and mobile devices with unlimited storage, SMS texting and instant messaging to boot.
While Yahoo! Mail is generally a joy to use, free-form labeling and smart folders would be nice, and the spam filter could catch junk even more effectively.

• Yahoo! Mail integrates email, instant messaging and SMS text messaging
• Keyboard shortcuts, a desktop-like interface and attention to detail make Yahoo! Mail a joy to use
• Yahoo! Mail comes with unlimited online storage

Cons

• Yahoo! Mail's spam filter could be more effective
• You cannot label messages freely (and with multiple tags) and lacks smart folders
• Yahoo! Mail does not offer IMAP access for desktop email programs

Description

• Yahoo! Mail offers free email accounts with unlimited online storage at the yahoo.com, ymail.com and rocketmail.com domains.
• In addition to email, you can send SMS messages and exchange instant messages with Yahoo! and Windows Live contacts.
• Yahoo! Mail automatically collects junk emails in a "Spam" folder, and you can report unwanted emails the filter missed.
• Up to 15 filters automatically file incoming mail. You can also block email addresses and instant messaging contacts.
• Yahoo! Mail allows you to collect mail from additional POP accounts, and you can send from their addresses, too.
• Acting as a social network, Yahoo! Mail lets you connect to Yahoo! and Facebook users, whose mail then gets extra treatment.
• Virus scanning and Yahoo! Mail's not downloading remote images or other content in emails protects you from much online harm.
• Keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop, tabs, address auto-completion and more lend Yahoo! Mail desktop-like qualities.
• On mobile devices, Yahoo! Mail offers slick web-based (iPhone) or powerful native (Android) applications.
• Applications can expand Yahoo! Mail to let you edit pictures, for example, or send money and big files easily.

Guide Review - Yahoo! Mail - Free Email Service

Space, with Yahoo! Mail, is no issue: you can accumulate as much email as "unlimited" storage will hold. Of course, you'll want to organize all that mail. Yahoo! Mail offers folders (to which you can drag and drop messages) to hold and decent search (you can use a number of operators to specify senders or dates, for example) to find mail. All folders let you focus on mail from people you've befriended via Yahoo! profile connections easily — and their emails appear on the "Welcome" page, too.
Unfortunately, search categories cannot be saved as smart folders — Yahoo! Mail does come with filters that automatically file incoming mail, though — and you cannot freely apply multiple labels to messages. You have to put emails into multiple folders for that kind of organization.
Speaking of filters and folders, Yahoo! Mail comes with solid but, alas, not stellar spam control. It could do better in that area. Of course, Yahoo! Mail scans for viruses and will protect you from web-bugs in unknown senders' messages.
While Yahoo! Mail Plus comes with a few goodies such as POP access and larger messages, IMAP access is missing from all but iPhone Mail. Instead of reaching out to email programs, Yahoo! Mail integrates instant messaging (Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger) and SMS messages.
On iPhones, Yahoo! Mail also offers a rich web-based application that allows for full archive search and some offline search, for example. Android devices get a native applications with these features, phone contact integration, support for photos and other attachments, and more.
In day-to-day use, it is the details that make you love or loathe an email service, of course. Yahoo! Mail not only brings a sleek interface and tabs and drag-and-drop oomph but also keyboard shortcuts around every (round) corner and well-thought-out solutions to many a practical program (such as addressing messages).

05.Gawab.com - Free Email Service

Gawab.com is a speedy, stable and very usable free email service with 10 GB online space, POP and IMAP access as well as many a web-based goodie.
It's a pity Gawab.com's IMAP implementation does not give you access to labels, and full message search is missing from the web interface.

Pros

• Gawab.com offers just shy of 10 GB of online storage as well as free POP and IMAP access
• You can label, search mail fast and save search criteria as handy smart folders
• Gawab.com lets you send mail from other accounts and can retrieve their mail, too

Cons

• Gawab.com's spam filter could be even more effective does not offer IMAP access
• Gawab.com lacks full message search

Description

• Gawab.com offers free web-based email accounts with 9.77 GB of online storage.
• You can access a Gawab.com account in any desktop email program using IMAP or POP.
• Conversely, Gawab.com can download mail from existing POP and IMAP accounts and lets you send mail from these addresses.
• In Gawab.com, you can sort your mail using folders and free-form labels.
• Labels, sender, date, subject, size and other criteria can be used to search once — or automatically in smart folders.
• You can compose messages in plain text or using a rich-text editor — but also inserting HTML code manually.
• Gawab.com can track mail you've sent and let you know, by way of an web beacon placed in your message, when it is opened.
• A spam filter moves obvious junk out of your Gawab.com inbox and you can report spam (or false positives) easily.
• Mail filters can file or forward messages automatically, and an out of office auto-responder replies while you're away.

Guide Review - Gawab.com - Free Email Service

From the Middle East, Gawab.com makes it easy to compose emails in Arabic script even if your operating system and browser do not. That is by far not all Gawab.com does — and not all it makes easy either. It's easy, for example, to move mail to folders in Gawab.com or to add a label: all it takes is dragging and dropping. Not only can you set up labels freely and apply them to messages swiftly, you can also include them in Gawab.com's clever search folders together with other attributes (including size, date, subject and sender).
That, together with a swift search field for each folder, makes spotting important mail real simple. You cannot search your messages' full text however — either once or in a smart folder. It's also a pity that Gawab.com's filters can only move messages to folders and not, for example, label them. Gawab.com does filter out spam in quite effective a manner, but it could catch even more junk.
If you want your messages not only in a rich web environment but also on your desktop (in addition to Gawab.com's just shy of 10 GB of online storage), you can use POP to download them and IMAP to access them seamlessly. Unfortunately, Gawab.com does not offer access to labels via IMAP, only to Inbox, trash, sent and spam. It's great how can fetch mail from IMAP (and POP) accounts itself, though, and you can send mail using your any email address using Gawab.com on the web.
When composing mail, not only can you use rich text editing, a virtual Arabic keyboard and direct access to the HTML code behind your mail; Gawab.com lets you track message delivery with a small hidden image (not transparent to the recipient).

06.Inbox.com - Free Email Service

 

Inbox.com not only gives you 5 GB to store your mail online but also a highly polished, fast and functional way to access it via either the web (including speedy search, free-form labels and reading mail by conversation) or through POP in your email program. Unfortunately, IMAP access is not supported by Inbox.com, and its tools for organizing mail could be improved with smart or self-teaching folders.

Pros

• Inbox.com offers 5 GB of online mailbox space as well as POP access
• The fast web interface includes rich text editing, threading and free-form labels
• Inbox.com includes solid spam and virus filtering

Cons

• Inbox.com does not offer IMAP access
• You cannot set up smart folders in Inbox.com
• Inbox.com does not support encrypted mail and digital signatures

Description

• Inbox.com offers free web-based email with 5 GB (US/CA/UK) or 2 GB online storage and POP access.
• You can organize mail using stars, custom folders, free labels and filters.
• Inbox.com filters spam using varying aggressiveness or a challenge/response mechanism.
• Remote images in emails can be blocked from automatic download to protect your privacy.
• Inbox.com lets you view mail in threads and supports rich HTML formatting in outgoing messages.
• You can send messages up to a size of 30 MB.
• For a fee, Inbox.com offers up to 30 GB storage and daily backups.
• Email integrates to some degree with Inbox.com calender, notes, file storage and photo galleries.

Guide Review - Inbox.com - Free Email Service

With 5 GB of free space, Inbox.com can also comfortably be your Archive.com, but the size is not the only argument in favor of making Inbox.com your email service of choice. For starters —and for everyday pleasure —, there's a web interface that is both fast and functional. It could be a tad more simple and offer even more convenience (drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts), though.
Finding all that archived mail works nicely using Inbox.com's search engine, and usually sufficient filters sort mail to custom folders. It's a pity the filters do not integrate with another great organizing feature, labels.
Color-coded, Inbox.com's free-form labels help you organize mail in flexible ways, and conversation view brings together related emails easily. Smart folders and better integration of address book and email messages would be great, though.
Inbox.com's spam filters perform reasonably well with little false positives and very little spam coming through. For even more protection, you can set up a convenient challenge/response filter that lets only authorized senders reach your Inbox.com Inbox.
When viewing any mail, Inbox.com protects you privacy not downloading remote images automatically. When writing any mail, you can make use of rich formatting using the functional editor, which lets you put any of your email addresses in the From: line, too.
You can also access your Inbox.com account with a desktop email program using POP and SMTP. With all of Inbox.com's web-based splendor, IMAP access is not a must, but it would be nice to have.

07.FastMail Free Guest Account - Free Email Service

FastMail is a great free email service with IMAP access, useful features, and a stellar web interface.
It's a pity FastMail does not offer truly effective spam filtering for free accounts, and more storage space for all users.

• FastMail offers elegant, powerful and flexible web-based access to email
• Free IMAP access is included, too
• You can retrieve other email account's mail and send emails from any address

Cons

• FastMail does not offer labels or smart folders to organize mail
• Online storage space could be granted more generously, and free accounts include ads in sent mail
• FastMail lacks a calendar and task manager or integration with third-party services

Description

• FastMail offers a free email account with 10 MB mailbox size and IMAP access (paid FastMail accounts include up to ~6 GB).
• The fast and highly customizable web interface can compete with many an email program. Keyboard shortcuts make it fast.
• FastMail makes it easy to write both plain-text and rich HTML emails properly.
• You can create flexible custom filters and vacation auto-replies in FastMail.
• FastMail also includes basic protection from spam and viruses. Paid accounts use personal Bayesian filtering.
• Counteracting phishing attempts, FastMail disables links that can be identified as misleading.
• You can collect mail from other POP accounts and send messages using their addresses right from FastMail.
• FastMail includes a fully featured address book as well as file hosting and a notebook (but no calendar).

Guide Review - FastMail Free Guest Account - Free Email Service

Free email services are great, but they often come at the price of tons of ads crowding a slow-loading and all-around cumbersome web-based interface. Not so with FastMail. FastMail shows ads sparingly, and you get IMAP access from any email program that makes up for the limited online mailbox size of free FastMail accounts.
Do try FastMail's web-based interface, though, and you'll fall in love with its flexibility and power. Keyboard shortcuts take you everywhere in seconds: to the search box, for example, which turns up just the right emails fast; to the folder list, from which you can select with auto-completion; or to the message editor, which can juggle plain text and HTML expertly.
If you like FastMail enough to make it your main email service, you can have it retrieve mail from other mailboxes using POP (unfortunately it does not function as an IMAP client) — and send with the right address in the From: line, too, of course.
FastMail's filtering interface may look confusing at first, but it is quite sensible and versatile. Unfortunately, free FastMail accounts do not enjoy the best level of spam and virus filtering. Basic junk dumping is in place, though.
While operating FastMail's folders is a pleasure, the freedom of multiple labels per message is lacking. While finding messages with FastMail's search offers swift satisfaction (and search terms can be saved for one-click repetition), the courteousness of smart folders that update in real time and go bold upon new mail would be nice.

08.Windows Live Hotmail - Free Email Service

Windows Live Hotmail is a free email service that gives you unlimited storage, fast search, solid security, POP access and an interface easy as a desktop email program.
When it comes to organizing mail, Windows Live Hotmail does not venture far beyond folders (to saved searches and tags, for example) — though its ways to spot photos or sort out social networking updates are nice —, and IMAP access to all online folders would be nice.

Pros

• Windows Live Hotmail is a simple and easy to use free email service akin to desktop email
• You can send from other email addresses using Windows Live Hotmail and access your account via POP
• Windows Live Hotmail helps you find important mail and lets you send files up to 10 GB per email

Cons

• Windows Live Hotmail does not offer IMAP access
• You cannot tag mail freely in Windows Live Hotmail to organize it or save searches as folders
• Windows Live Hotmail has lost emails at least once in the past (11/03/2009)

Description

• Windows Live Hotmail offers free email with unlimited storage and support for attachments up to 50 MB each (10 GB per email)
• Scanning for phishing attempts, viruses and spam, Windows Live Hotmail protects privacy, security and sanity.
• You can set up Windows Live Hotmail to accept mail only from people in your address book.
• A reading pane, drag-and-drop ease and rich text editing lend Windows Live Hotmail a desktop-like handling.
• Quick views and filters let you focus on mail from contacts, social updates, emails with photos, Office documents, and more.
• You can set up additional addresses to send with from Windows Live Hotmail and retrieve mail from POP accounts.
• Windows Live Hotmail offers fast search; filters move or delete new mail but can be applied to the inbox swiftly, too.
• Optimized versions of Windows Live Hotmail provide access using various browsers and mobile devices.
• You can have Windows Live Hotmail forward incoming mail to any other email address.
• A vacation auto-responder answers emails in your absence, and integrated Live Messenger lets you chat with contacts.

Guide Review - Windows Live Hotmail - Free Email Service

Slow-loading pages and clumsy operation: the memory of what used to be web-based email — Hotmail — quickly fades as you drag and drop messages in Windows Live Hotmail, swiftly navigate its "Quick" views and reading pane or compose rich emails. Starting with the interface, Windows Live Hotmail is simple in both a very good and not so good a manner. You can search all your mail easily and use custom folders in tandem with filters to sort it. Automatic folders collect all emails containing photos or Office documents attached, and you can zoom in mail from contacts or sort out social networking updates and discussion groups fast in any folder.
Windows Live Hotmail does not bother you with labels, search folders and the like, though. Trying to organize your messages your way, such tools might be handy.
Organized or not, Windows Live Hotmail comes with solid security and privacy — it scans for viruses and does not display privacy-infringing images unless authorized, for example. Windows Live Hotmail's spam filter performs reasonably well, erring towards the odd junk in your inbox rather than letting a good email disappear in the "Junk Mail" folder. You can also allow only mail from known senders into your Windows Live Hotmail Inbox.
If Windows Live Hotmail still feels too much like web-based email to you, you can use Windows Live Mail and Outlook for yet more Windows-like experiences or download your messages to other email programs and mobile devices via POP. IMAP access, alas, is missing. Of course, you can also opt for the Windows Live Hotmail web interface as your email program, downloading mail from other POP accounts and sending using any of your email addresses.
While Windows Live Hotmail does include solid address book and calendar components, the latter in particular seems secluded and not interested in too much interaction with Windows Live Hotmail qua email.

09.Yahoo! Mail Classic - Free Email Service

Yahoo! Mail Classic is a comfortable, reliable and secure email service with unlimited storage. A pretty good spam filter keeps the junk out, and you can send rich emails using Yahoo! Mail's HTML editor.

• Yahoo! Mail Classic scans for spam and viruses effectively
• Yahoo! Go Mail brings rich and always up to date email to mobile phones
• Yahoo! Mail Classic offers unlimited storage for free

Cons

• Yahoo! Mail Classic lacks a powerful plain text editor
• Digital signatures and message encryption are not supported
• Yahoo! Mail Classic does not thread messages and lacks virtual folders

Description

• Yahoo! Mail Classic offers email accounts with unlimited online storage.
• Junk emails are automatically filed in a special folder by Yahoo! Mail's SpamGuard.
• You can turn off automatic downloading of remote images in Yahoo! Mail Classic for enhanced privacy.
• Yahoo! Mail Plus users can use disposable email addresses to stop spam in its tracks.
• Yahoo! Mail Classic offers mail filters and views, message flags and powerful mail search across folders.
• It's accessible via mobile phones, but Yahoo! Mail Classic can send automatic vacation replies, too.
• A WYSIWYG HTML message editor (requires Internet Explorer on Windows) lets you compose rich emails.
• PhotoMail, integrating Yahoo! Photos with Yahoo! Mail Classic, makes it easy to upload and share photos.
• Using Yahoo! Go Mail, you can access your Yahoo! Mail account comfortably from cell phones.
• Yahoo! Mail Classic can be set as the default email client for Windows.

Guide Review - Yahoo! Mail Classic - Free Email Service

Reliability, storage space, security and precise spam filtering are the features you should look for in a free email service. Yahoo! Mail Classic offers most of them.
While it lacks digital signatures and message encryption, you get automatic virus protection, and Yahoo! Mail's pretty effective "SpamGuard" junk mail filters moves spam to a special folder.
Yahoo! Mail Plus users can set up disposable email addresses for used instead of their real Yahoo! Mail address. As soon as spam is received through one of them, it can be thrown way easily.
All Yahoo! Mail Classic accounts come with unlimited space for all your mail. The web-based interface — the place where Yahoo! Mail users probably spend most of their time — is comfortable and efficient (many useful keyboard shortcuts). Yahoo! Mail Classic's mail views that let you concentrate on particular messages in a folder are useful, but could be more flexible.
Of course, Yahoo! Mail Classic also offers filters to automatically sort incoming mail. Unfortunately, it does not thread messages, though. An easy to use HTML message editor lets you compose and send emails with rich formatting easily, and in Yahoo! Mail Plus you can even use stationery.
Yahoo! PhotoMail, available for everyone, makes it easy to share photos from your computer, Yahoo! Photos and the web by storing full copies on Yahoo! servers while mailing only thumbnails.

10.BigString.com - Free Email Service

BigString.com is a free 2 GB email service that includes rich secure and certified mail services and lets you password-protect, expire or edit sent messages, for example.
Unfortunately, BigString.com is not equally well equipped for handling incoming mail and lacks organizing tools.

• BigString.com offers certified email functions (read receipts, editing and expiring of sent mail)
• You can send emails from any address using BigString.com
• BigString.com lets you send secure and password-protected messages

Cons

• BigString.com includes POP access only as a premium feature
• You cannot label messages or sort them in smart folders
• BigString.com lacks keyboard shortcuts

Description

• BigString.com offers free email accounts with 2 GB of storage space (2 GB and POP access for paying users).
• You can send from any of your addresses using the BigString.com web interface.
• BigString.com messages can auto-destruct, and you can edit mail after it has been sent.
• You can also track whether your messages are read with BigString.com, and make printing or forwarding difficult.
• Secure and password-protected messages sent from BigString.com can only be opened through an SSL-encrypted web page.
• Of course, BigString.com can also send and receive regular rich text email messages.
• Message templates (in which you can allow for editable areas) make frequently sent messages a snap.
• BigString.com can highlight mail containing your keywords and includes a spam filter.
• You can record and send short video emails right inside BigString.com.

Guide Review - BigString.com - Free Email Service

Have you ever wanted to unsend an email, or to edit it — maybe add an attachment that you forgot — after it has been delivered. Couldn't it be useful (or at least fun) to write emails that self-destruct after they have been opened? With BigString.com, you can do all that and track whether and when the messages you send have been opened, too. You can even make it hard to forward or print what you send. BigString.com also lets you send normal, rich emails (including video mail) using any of your addresses in the From: line.
BigString.com does not integrate S/MIME or OpenPGP email encryption and digital signatures, but you can send password-protected messages that can only be opened by the intended recipient using a secure SSL-encrypted web page. Using BigString.com's certified email services, you can prevent forwarding or even multiple openings by the recipient, of course.
Unfortunately, BigString.com is not quite so powerful when it comes to handling incoming mail. You can set up custom folders, flag messages and search your mail using a simple and appealing field, but you cannot set any advanced search criteria, save them as virtual folders or label messages freely. Overall, the BigString.com web interface is functional and quite fast. Keyboard shortcuts would be great, though.
On the plus side, again, are BigString.com's email templates. A bit clumsy, they let you create and use templates with editable areas for frequently sent by maybe slightly changing messages.

Note: Resource  from www.about.com