Here are our picks for the six best free POP and IMAP email services.
IMAP and POP are email protocols that help you access your email.
Email clients use a number of protocols to send and receive emails.
Best Overall: Gmail
Excellent malware and virus checks.
Very fast delivery time.
15GB of free online storage space.
iOS and Android apps.
Uses labels instead of folders.
Hasn’t increased free storage capacity since 2013.
Gmail is Google’s approach to email and chat.
Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.
Download For:
Best for Business Users: Zoho Workplace
View attachments without downloading them.
Chat capability with other Workplace users.
5GB free on a personal account.
Mail rules are limited.
Free plan is limited to five users and web access only.
You’ll need to pay for additional storage.
There’s also some helpful integration with instant messaging and online office suites.
Best for a Sleek Interface: Outlook.com
Clean user interface.
15GB of free email storage.
Add emojis and GIFs to messages.
Daily email sending limits.
Attachment file size limit of 34MB.
Outlook.com is Microsoft’s free webmail service.
It’s not as full-featured as Microsoft’s paid services, such as Outlook forMicrosoft 365or Outlook 2019.
Still, Outlook.com is a sleek, easy-to-use, and secure webmail service.
Best for Organization and Efficiency: Yahoo Mail
1TB online storage.
Attach or share files saved to any cloud storage service.
Block messages from specific senders.
Read, send, and organize email from all your email addresses.
Subscription need for ad-free experience.
Yahoo Mail is a streamlined, free email app that offers 1TB of free storage.
Best for Customization: AOL Mail
Unlimited inbox storage.
Fast upload speed for large attachments up to 25MB.
Easy to use and personalize.
No way to create alias accounts.
Saving drafts isn’t automatic.
Can’t import social media contacts.
It’s easy to useuse POP with your AOL accountoruse IMAP to sync AOL Mailwith your email client.
Lengthy account setup process.
Not accessible via POP.
