Comparison of webmail providers

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.

General information

Name	Owner	First public release date	Cost (US$)	Storage	Attachment limit	Languages supported	Browser(s) supported	IMAP or POP3 support7	Account deactivated if not logged in	Filters out emails with executable attachments
Mybetamail	Mybetamail, USA	Feb 2009	Free	Unlimited	50 MB	English	All	POP3	Never	No
Rackspace Email	Rackspace, USA	1999	$1 per mailbox/month - (10 user minimum)	10GB	50 MB	8	All	Both	Never	Yes, unless packaged in a .zip file
AOL Mail	AOL, USA	23 August 2004	Free (text ads added to the signature of every outgoing email, ads in interface. paying members can disable ads in signature)	Unlimited	16 MB	26	All	Both	3 months (without fee)	No
FastMail.FM	Messaging Engine Pty Ltd Parkville, Victoria, Australia	00 Jan 1999	Free (ads in emails and interface) $4.95 yearly (Ad Free) $14.95 yearly (Full) $34.95 yearly (Enhanced) (Also various other service levels in 'Business' and 'Family' group accounts)	10 MB - 8 GB (depending on service level)	10 MB - 50 MB (depending on service level). 2	English		IMAP for all accounts, POP3 for Full and Enhanced accounts	45 days (Guest) None (Ad Free, Full, Enhanced)	No (unless discarded by virus scanner, if enabled)
Gawab	EgyptHome IT, Egypt	Officially in November 2000	Free (ads in emails and interface)	10 GB	50 MB	18 languages	All	Both	2 months
Gmail	Google, USA	1 April 2004	Free (Optional text ads seen when viewing mail, not in messages)	7.4 GB "and counting"	25 MB	52	All (some issues with Opera)	IMAP, POP, POP+TLS, Microsoft Exchange	9 months	Yes, including .exe files in zip files
GMX Mail	United Internet AG, Germany	00 Jan 1997	Free (ads at the end of messages, sometimes in inbox)	5 GB	20 MB FreeMail, 50 MB ProMail	English, German, Spanish, French	IE, Firefox, Safari 3	Both	6 months
Hushmail	Hush Communications Ltd Vancouver, Canada	00 May 1999	Free (text ads in messages) $2.50 monthly (Premium)	2 MB	1.5 MB (free) 250MB (Premium)	English			3 weeks
Lavabit	Lavabit LLC, USA	00 June 2004	2 Free options and 2 Paid	128MB	1GB Message size varies according to option	English	All	Both (SSL optional)	4 months	No
LuxSci	Lux Scientiae, Inc., USA	Dec 1, 1999	$9.99 monthly	2 GB+	100 MB	Any/Unicode	Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Chrome	IMAP, IMAP+SSL, IMAP+TLS, POP, POP+SSL, POP+TLS, Alternate Ports	No	Yes, with Premium Filtering
Lycos	Daum, Korea	00 Jan 1995	free/$19.95	5 GB of storage	Unlimited	Any
Mail.com	MMC, USA	N/A	Free (text ads added to the signature of every outgoing email, ads in interface) or $29.99/yr	3GB		English		Free: None Pay:Both	120 days
Mail.ru	Mail.ru, Russia	00 Jan 1998	Free (ads in interface) $5 monthly (without ads)	Unlimited	30 MB6	Russian		Both	3 month
Mail2World	Mail2World, Inc., USA	00 Jan 2000	Free & $19.95 (Premium)		40 MB	13 languages		Both	30 days
MobileMe	Apple Inc, USA	July 2008	$99 / £59 per year (60-day free trial)	20 GB/Unlimited MB shared between file storage and email (user customizable ratio).		4	Safari 3+ / Firefox 2+ / IE 7 8	IMAP (POP3 optional) 9	Never
MyWay	IAC Search & Media, USA	Unknown	Free	125 MB	10 MB	English		Unknown
O2 Webmail	Telefónica O2, UK	N/A	Free	20MB		English		POP only	6 months
Runbox	Runbox AS Oslo, Norway	1999	$49.95 per year for email, email hosting, and web hosting (30-day free trial)	10 GB + 1 GB file storage	100 MB	English, Norwegian	All	IMAP4 and POP3 with SSL support	Never	If discarded by virus scanner
Seznam.cz	Seznam.cz	1998	Free	Unlimited	13 MB	Czech	All	POP3	6 months
Windows Live Hotmail	Microsoft	4 July 1996	Free (basic with ads in: interface, inside emails, msn IM services. text ads added to the signature of every outgoing email; these are removed for paying members) $19.95 yearly1	5 GB(initial, with "ever-growing storage")	10 MB (basic) 10 GB/20 MB1	35	IE, Firefox, Google Chrome (Some issues with Safari)	POP3	270 days
Yahoo! Mail	Yahoo!	8 October 1997	Free (basic with banner ads and text ads in interface. text ads are no longer added to the signature of outgoing emails) $19.99 yearly (Plus version)	Unlimited	25 MB (basic with ads in interface and e-mails)5 25 MB (Plus version)5	27	IE, Firefox, Google Chrome	POP3 (In most countries, or with Plus); or with YPOPs!	4 months (basic)

Note 1: Hotmail Plus, Outlook Live, MSN Premium, and Windows Live Hotmail

Note 2: Additionally there are monthly total transfer ("bandwidth") limits. E.g. 80 MB/month for the free account (as of September 2009).

Note 3: Help information in Russian only.

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 .

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

Note 7: In addition to the POP3 support listed here, almost all webmail providers can be accessed with POP3 using the third-party tool FreePOPs.

Note 8: "You may also use Internet Explorer 7 or later with Windows XP or Vista, but some features may not be available."

Note 9: Only IMAP is enabled by default, but POP access will be enabled upon request

Features

Service name	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 Postpone/scheduled message sending
Mybetamail	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP,SMTP)	Yes (POP3 only)	Yes	No	HTML/JavaScript/CSS/Ajax	No	Yes
Rackspace Email	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP,SMTP)	Yes (POP3 only)	No	Yes	HTML/JavaScript/CSS/Ajax	Yes	Yes Editable while composing + saved personalities
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)	XMPP	Enhanced accounts only	HTML/JavaScript/CSS/Ajax	Paid accounts (ClamAV)	Yes Editable while composing + saved personalities
Gmail	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP,SMTP) SSL/TLS supported	Yes (POP3 only)	Google Talkbeta (XMPP), AOL Instant Messenger	Yes (Google Apps)	HTML/JavaScript/Ajax2	Yes	Yes
GMX Mail	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP17,SMTP) SSL/TLS supported	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	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP, SMTP) SSL supported	No	No	Only for premium accounts		Yes (ClamAV)	No
LuxSci	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP, SMTP,LDAP) SSL/TLS supported Alternate ports supported	Yes (POP3 or POP3+SSL) Free bulk email migration via IMAP or IMAP+SSL	No	Yes	JavaScript/Ajax or Simple HTML16	Yes, Basic ClamAV or Premium Multi-Vendor Filters	Yes
Mail.ru	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP)	Yes (POP3 only)	Mail.ru Agent	?	HTML/Ajax (Beta)	Yes (Kaspersky)	Yes
Mail2World	Yes	Yes (POP3,IMAP)	Yes (POP3 only)	No	Yes	HTML/JavaScript/Ajax	Yes	Yes, using aliases.
rediff	No	Plus members only	?	Rediff Bol	Yes	JavaScript/Ajax2	Yes	Yes
Runbox	Yes	Yes (IMAP, POP, SMTP) SSL/TLS supported	Yes (POP3, Hotmail, Gmail) SSL/TLS supported	XMPP/Jabber, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, ICQ, IRC	Yes	HTML/JavaScript/CSS/Ajax	Yes (ClamAV)	Yes Selectable while composing; saved identities
Seznam.cz	Yes	Yes (POP3)	Yes (POP3 only)	No	?	HTML/JavaScript	Yes (ESET-NOD32)	Yes
Windows Live Hotmail (replaced MSN Hotmail)	Partial13	Partial (POP3)3	Yes (POP3 only)	Windows Live Messenger	Yes4	HTML/JavaScript/ CSS/Ajax	Yes (Windows Live OneCare)	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)	only Plus members15 & only 10 addresses
Service name	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: Since March 12 2009, POP3 technology rolled out to Hotmail customers worldwide. Additionally, the proprietary DeltaSync-protocol is available.

Note 4: Through Windows Live Custom 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) [1]; or through YPOPs!

Note 12: Free of charge, but web-mail only.

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

Note 16: Mobile-compatible, simplified HTML interface available for legacy browsers, users with Javascript disabled, and users with mobile devices.

Note 17: IMAP only available for paid accounts.