Comparison of webmail providers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
[edit] General information
| Maintainer | First public release date | Cost (USD) | Storage/Attachment size | Languages supported | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIM Mail [1] | AOL | May 11, 2005 | Free | 2 GB/16 MB | 5 |
| Everyone.net [2] | Everyone.net, Inc. | 1998 | Free (ads in emails and interface) Group Mail: $99.90 yearly (50 accounts) Personal Mail: $34.99 yearly (5 accounts) Business Mail: $199.99 yearly (5 accounts) |
25 MB (Free) 25 MB 100 MB 1 GB |
English and Spanish |
| FastMail.FM [3] | Messaging Engine Pty Ltd Parkville, Victoria, Australia |
1999 | Free (ads in emails and interface) $14.95 one-time (Member) $19.95 yearly (Full) $34.90 yearly (Enhanced) |
10 MB/40 MB bw/month2 (Free) 16 MB/80 MB bw/month (Member) 600 MB/300 MB bw/month (Full) 2 GB/1 GB bw/month (Enhanced) |
English |
| Gmail [4] | April 1, 2004 | Free2 | 2.8 GB+/10 MB3
4 bytes added every second. |
40 | |
| Hushmail [5] | Hush Communications Ltd Vancouver, Canada |
May 1999 | Free $2.50 monthly (Premium) |
2 MB/1.5 MB (free) 240MB (Premium) |
English |
| Litepost [6] |
Litepost Interactive | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | English |
| LuxSci [7] | Lux Scientiae, Inc. | December 1, 1999 | $9.99 monthly | 1 GB+/50 MB | Any/Unicode |
| mail.com [8] | Mail.com Corp. [9] (Net2Phone Inc.-owned) |
1997 | Free with ads Premium $9.95+ yearly |
100 MB (free) 1 GB+ Premium |
14 |
| MSN Hotmail [10] (to be replaced by Windows Live Hotmail) |
Microsoft | July 4, 1996 | Free (basic) $19.95 yearly1 |
1 GB/10 MB (basic) 4 GB/20 MB1 |
17 |
| NetZero [11] | NetZero - a United Online Company | January 2001 | Free (basic) $9.95 yearly (Platinum) |
1 GB/2 MB (basic) 2 GB (Platinum) |
14 |
| Thinkpost [12] | ThinkPost Communications | October 2005 | Free (US ONLY) (with 1-2 ads forms) Advantage $5.00 |
1 TB/15 MB (1000 GB) |
26 |
| Windows Live Hotmail [13] (soon to replace MSN Hotmail) |
Microsoft | November 1st, 2005 | Free4 | 2 GB/10 MB4 | 35 |
| Yahoo! Mail [14] |
Yahoo! | October 8, 1997 | Free (basic) $19.99 yearly (Plus version) |
1 GB/10 MB (basic)5 2 GB/20 MB (Plus version)5 |
17[citation needed] |
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 announced free storage space for all its members [15].
[edit] Features
| Forwarding | E-mail client access | client E-mail for other server | Integration with IM service | Domain Name customization | Interface script technique | Virus scanning | Custom "From:" Address | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIM Mail | No | Yes (IMAP only) |
? | AOL Instant Messenger | Yes1 | JavaScript/Ajax | Yes (McAfee) |
|
| Amazemail | No | Yes (IMAP, POP3) |
? | No | Yes (Using identities) |
JavaScript/Ajax | Yes (Clamav) |
|
| Everyone.net | Yes | Yes (IMAP, POP3) |
? | No | Yes (Own Domain) |
HTML/JavaScript/Ajax | Yes | Yes |
| Fastmail.FM | Paid accounts | Yes7 | ? | No | Enhanced accounts only | HTML/CSS/JavaScript | Paid accounts (ClamAV) |
Yes |
| Gmail | Yes | Yes (POP3 only) |
Yes (POP3 only) |
Google Talkbeta (Jabber) | Yes6 | JavaScript/Ajax2 | Yes (Sophos Anti-Virus) |
Yes |
| Hushmail | No | Available8 | ? | Hush Messenger | $1.99/$3.99 monthly through Hushmail Business | Java or HTML | No but the text based email stops most viruses, PGP encryption | |
| rediff | Yes | Yes (POP3,IMAP,SMTP,LDAP) |
? | No | Yes | JavaScript/Ajax2 | Yes | Yes |
| LuxSci | Yes | Yes (POP3,IMAP,SMTP,LDAP) |
? | No | Yes | JavaScript/Ajax2 | Yes | Yes |
| mail.com | Platinum members only9 | Platinum members only9 | ? | AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ | Available | HTML / Beta / Ajax Beta (premium users only) | Yes | |
| MSN Hotmail (to be replaced by Windows Live Hotmail) |
No | Partial3 | No | Windows Live Messenger | Yes4 | HTML | Yes (Trend Micro) |
Yes |
| Windows Live Hotmail (soon to replace MSN Hotmail) |
No | Partial3 | No | Windows Live Messenger | Yes4 | Ajax/CSS/HTML/JavaScript | Yes (Trend Micro) |
Yes |
| Yahoo! Mail | Plus members only10 | Yes (POP3 only)10 |
No | Yahoo! Messenger | $35 yearly | HTML5 | Yes (Norton AntiVirus) |
Yes |
| Netzero | Paid accounts11 | Paid accounts11 | ? | NetZero Voice | Available | JavaScript/Ajax | Yes (Norton AntiVirus) |
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 Windows Live Mail Desktop 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)
Note 11: Through NetZero MegaMail ($9.96 or 24.96 yearly)
[edit] Gallery
 Yahoo! Mail beta |
 Yahoo! Mail Beta Inbox under Firefox |
 Hushmail Inbox |
