How many email accounts should you have?

[212rikanmofo]

Right now I have about 5 email accounts and I think its a little too much. What would be the most efficient and organized way to setup and categorize each account? I currently have one for:

1. Work
2. Personal
3. Spam (Use this primarily to sign up for deals, promotions, etc)
4. iCloud
5. my web host email account

It's a bit overwhelming to me and I'd like ideas or advice on how to consolidate on all these email accounts to keep things more organized. I definitely need a separate account for Work and Personal though. But since iCloud is offering us a free xxx@me.com email account I may switch from my personal account which I'm using gmail currently to iCloud and just eventually get rid of #2 altogether and make #4 as my new Personal account. Since iCloud is more closely integrated with the Mac ecosystem, I'd expect it to work better in an all Mac environment. And #5 I have setup for professional use, such as job hunting and linkedin, etc., so I'm not sure if I should have a dedicated email account for this or not. I hate having too many accounts and would like to simplify things. Any advice is appreciated.

BTW, does iCloud email support PUSH?

 

[Jessica Lares]

I only have my one GMail account. It's so easy to filter things so the personal stuff goes into my personal label, my work related stuff goes into the work label, etc, etc.

As for iCloud, I think it's too unstable for primary use. It goes down A LOT apparently.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

depend on how much time you want to waste. What I have is a webhoster who offer me a IMAP mail server. So I have more or less full control on my email adresses.
This lead to having service-dependent email adresses: like ebay201208@<mydomain>. build from service name and year/month of creation ( not consistent used, but unique ).

But actually those are just alias email still pointing to the mail inbox so I get them deliverd. some are routed to a service-related IMAP-inbox folder. quite flexible but take some time.

of course I also collect as much as possible the same base ID in .me, .live, .gmail, etc

 

[miles01110]

You should have as many as you need.

 

[roadbloc]

I have three emails on my own domains (@fragged.me, @danielroebuck.co.uk and @axewolf.co.uk). I also use iCloud mail for certain things, but it is very unreliable.

 

[DoNoHarm]

I'm currently attempting to prune my emails to rely more on my @me.com email these days. I just don't like the idea of Google knowing so much about me!

 

[ruvil]

1 should be enough but well yeah i have about 2-3 accounts atm.

1: Main gmail account
2: iCloud
3: Secondary gmail

 

[lewis82]

-Old Hotmail account
-Semi-old Gmail account
-Own domain general purpose account
-Own domain work-related account
-University account

 

[Shrink]

Forget all those perfectly reasonable suggestions above, There is only one right answer to your question.

You need NINE email accounts.

That's it...NINE.

Trust me...

 

[ChristianVirtual]

There is only one right answer to your question

42

sorry, couldn't resists; please downvote me

 

[ixodes]

42

sorry, couldn't resists; please downvote me

It's apparent I've been confused, thinking I had the proper approach to email by using 41.

No wonder my friends emails have not been getting through. I'm missing email box 42. Thanks for the clarification

 

[SpyderBite]

I have several mail accounts. Each assigned a different purpose for both security & spam avoidance.

1. Strictly personal mail for family & friends
2. Spam - used to sign up for contests & other one time registrations that require an email address.
3. Secure - bank, credit & other accounts of sensitive nature (password changed monthly)
4. Shopping & Casual - all my receipts for online purchases as well as registration for sites/forums that I regularly visit.
6. Work - work related email exclusively

Helps to keep my mail organized. For example I only need to scan my Spam account once a week and usually wind up cleaning it out with one click. The spam account is usually a free account such as gmail or yahoo as they tend to generate spam even if they're inactive anyways.

The rest are hosted mail accounts on my own co-located server so that I have control over all the incoming filters and I can provide mail accounts to my family so they don't have to inform their entire contact lists when/if they change their ISP.

 

[boss.king]

I have:
-primary Gmail account
-spam Gmail account
-troll Gmail account
-Yahoo acount
-Hotmail account
-Facebook account (if that counts)

I use:
-primary Gmail account

 

[Shrink]

42

sorry, couldn't resists; please downvote me

It's apparent I've been confused, thinking I had the proper approach to email by using 41.

No wonder my friends emails have not been getting through. I'm missing email box 42. Thanks for the clarification

Sorry, both of you are wrong.

See Post# 9 for the correct number of email accounts.

Trust me on this...

 

[mobilehaathi]

Ummm let's see, I can't say what you should have, but this is what I manage...


1. Main, non-academic email
2. Main, academic email
3. Old academic email address #1
4. Old academic email address #2
5. Alternate gmail address
6. Business email address
7. Spam email address

All except #7 are managed through a central client though, so it isn't as hard as it seems. bleh.

 

[talmy]

I don't really think you can have too many. Mail.app handles them just fine. I've got (in roughly age order):

1.2. Employer's email account. I've got two jobs. These things change (even keeping the same employer) plus can't be used for private mail anyway. I've had email this way for 30 years.
3. Former ISP account. I got it back in 1999 and keep the email only (at $40/year) because too many things are tied to it. Not a good idea to rely on an ISP account. By 1999 I was on my 3rd provider.
4.5.6. Account using my own domain since 2003. I got smart and bought a domain name. I can keep the same email address forever. Second mailbox for my website, third for "vendors".
7. Gmail
8. Separate email account for my ipod touch on my domain. (No iPhone here)
9.10.11.12.13.14. Started small software business. Two new domains and 6 email addresses (4 forwarders and 2 mailboxes)
15.16.17.18. I teach and wanted homework assignments submitted to accounts for each of the course numbers. There are four of them. One new domain and 4 email addresses that are forwarders.
19. Current ISP account. I don't use it at all.
20. iCloud gives me yet another email address.

I think I've got them all listed.

 

[ChristianVirtual]

Sorry, both of you are wrong.

See Post# 9 for the correct number of email accounts.

Trust me on this...

now the really scary thing is that in my own Adress record on my iPad I have 11 eMails stored (all non-alias); subtracting two mail adresses from my company I have 9 eMail adresses.

YOU SCARE ME

 

[S.B.G]

Sorry, both of you are wrong.

See Post# 9 for the correct number of email accounts.

Trust me on this...

Haha... I actually do have nine different email accounts! I use Gmail and have all of them forward into one account and I have labels and filters set up to organize them.

So yes, I concur, nine email accounts is the right answer.

 

[Shrink]

now the really scary thing is that in my own Adress record on my iPad I have 11 eMails stored (all non-alias); subtracting two mail adresses from my company I have 9 eMail adresses.

YOU SCARE ME

Haha... I actually do have nine different email accounts! I use Gmail and have all of them forward into one account and I have labels and filters set up to organize them.

So yes, I concur, nine email accounts is the right answer.

Take care, folks...I know things...and I'm watching!!!

 

[rhett7660]

Forget all those perfectly reasonable suggestions above, There is only one right answer to your question.

You need NINE email accounts.

That's it...NINE.

Trust me...

That is a lot of porn one is hiding!

 

[smoledman]

25,000 email accounts.

 

[malman89]

- Personal gmail
- Old university account that just gets sent (and can reply from) gmail, but I even did that while in college
- Work email
- Yahoo email for spam

Then about 10 other random emails I have, but don't use. A bunch were from exploiting free Netflix trials - same credit card info/address every time, but a new email and voila. I eventually got sick of resetting preferences every month and ponied up for the streaming version about a year ago.

 

[_Matt]

I have one email account. @me.com

I switched over from Gmail and I'm very satisfied.

 

[jpyc7]

It depends on how paranoid you are.

Technologically, it seems there are different ways to consolidate email accounts. One is having your own email server (possibly paying someone) so that you can have multiple accounts like personal@mydomain.com, work@mydomain.com, etc. The other is to use multiple email servers with forwarding setup so that all your email ends up on one email server. There is a third way for an email client to "pull" email from multiple email servers.

However, if you're paranoid, then any consolidation means that a "hack" of the consolidation point could mean someone gains access to all of that information. Also, having multiple email providers means that if one goes out of business, you still have an email. Probably not a big deal nowadays when it's easy to sign up for new free emails.

The right number to have depends on your preference and who provides you your email account. For example, an employer probably has a policy that you cannot use a non-employer-provided email account for work-related messages. They may or may not care about consolidation onto a personal computer. It's a bigger deal for government jobs where there may be legal requirements.

 

[mrsir2009]

I have a primary, secondary, work and several others for the purposes of Facebook and fake IDs.