What is the difference between free and paid email?
The options available when considering an email account are numerous. You have the freedom to choose from free providers, including Yahoo! and Gmail, or paid providers like Net Zero, AmericaOnline, Apple, Earthlink, and Webmail.
Often times, the benefits of paid email providers are close to those of free email providers, who are constantly working to improve their service. But there are some important differences. Read on to discover the difference between free email provider services and paid email provider services.
Personalize your email
The biggest difference between paid and free email services is the degree of customization available with the service. For example, if you are paying for your email address, you are more likely to get a custom email address like
Next comes the available online storage space. Generally speaking, paid email service providers provide a greater amount of online storage than free email providers. With the exception of Google’s Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, free email providers give you a limited amount of storage space.
Email Ads
Free email providers make money from free email accounts through advertising. Businesses will pay for the free email service to place banner ads and buttons that are displayed when the free user opens their account. In a kind of reverse way to make money, many free services have plans where customers can pay to remove those ads from their account.
Size of emails sent
With a free account, you probably can’t send really large files in one go. However, many paid accounts allow you to do this. What you’re paying for is the ability to send files that are 20MB or even larger, which is a considerable convenience when it comes to large files of art, photos, and more.
Portability, reliability and support
There are three other things to consider when signing up for an email account: portability, reliability, and support. Most free email services tend to offer some assistance, but you may have to wait a bit for an answer to a technical question. Paid services tend to spend more money on support, which means you can call at any time and call someone to answer your question. Also, if you sign up for a paid account, make sure you can access your email account from anywhere, as long as you have internet access. Some paid services do not offer this.
And lastly, make sure your email service provider has a history of having your site active the vast majority of the time. Generally, both paid and free email accounts tend to perform equally well in this department. So whether you buy a paid account or sign up for a free one, just make sure your service provides the extras you need. And if you’re not sure what you’ll need in an email account, sign up for a few free ones to narrow down the features you’ll definitely be using.