Your Favorite Email - iCloud vs Gmail vs Outlook vs Yahoo vs FastMail vs Custom

[Photography]

There are hundreds of email services out there. Vote on your favorite email service, and also that you use as your primary personal email address. Discuss why you voted for what you did.

Among the choices (in no particular order):

• iCloud (also includes Me.com and Mac.com)
• Gmail
• Outlook.com (also includes Hotmail.com and Live.com)
• Yahoo
• FastMail.com
• Custom Domain (for example, your own business domain or personal domain)
• Other (specify the email service)

 

[exi]

None of them is "best." Just a matter of what you want.

iCloud: great integration with Apple products. Potentially not as reliable; silent filtering seems to still be a problem for a minority of users.

Gmail: reliable and with the most powerful filters available. No ActiveSync for free users on newer devices like we all used to have.

Outlook.com: UI a plus/minus depending on your perspective; ActiveSync available, which is nice.

And so on.

Used Gmail for many years. Went back and forth between it and iCloud for awhile. Currently using iCloud because I am a minimalist, and I would sooner have everything on one service than use iCloud for contacts and other services for mail, etc.

 

[johannnn]

Have had custom lastname domain hosted at gmail for years. Sadly, iCloud doesn't allow your own domain. So the only solution was to forward all mail to iCloud, but that just brings another layer of complexity (e.g. non-spam that gets stuck in first mail server and never reaches you) and iCloud doesn't provide the feature of choosing the sending email adress like Gmail has. So as of now, I'm still using the Gmail app on iOS and Mailplane on OS X.

But also, I don't like getting my small MBA drive crippled with thousands of messages and attachments, I'd rather have them online (and the Gmail web site is awesome but the iCloud web site is horrible).

 

[Primejimbo]

I use iCloud for personal (friends and family) and Outlook for all my iTunes (since apple won't let me use my @me/iCloud for my Apple ID), banking emails, forums, Facebook, and so on.

I ditched gmail for Outlook because I wanted push on my iPhone and I was really starting to hate the UI on the web version. I really like the UI for Outlook a lot, for me it's much better than Gmail.

 

[reese2147]

But also, I don't like getting my small MBA drive crippled with thousands of messages and attachments, I'd rather have them online (and the Gmail web site is awesome but the iCloud web site is horrible).

I'm an Outlook.com guy, but 100% agree on the UI of the iCloud.com email!

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I ditched gmail for Outlook because I wanted push on my iPhone and I was really starting to hate the UI on the web version. I really like the UI for Outlook a lot, for me it's much better than Gmail.

My only gripe with outlook.com email is that when I setup the email on my iPhone, I cannot use any of my aliases, only the primary email address.

 

[Primejimbo]

I'm an Outlook.com guy, but 100% agree on the UI of the iCloud.com email!

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My only gripe with outlook.com email is that when I setup the email on my iPhone, I cannot use any of my aliases, only the primary email address.

I like the UI of icloud.com, to me it's very simple looking, but agree that outlook.com is very nice too. When I 1st went to outlook.com, I signed up and started to drop gmail. Gmail use to be my Apple ID, but I switched it to Outlook very soon after making account.

I just found out about the aliases issue about a week ago, not a game killer, but would be nice.

 

[reese2147]

I like the UI of icloud.com, to me it's very simple looking, but agree that outlook.com is very nice too. When I 1st went to outlook.com, I signed up and started to drop gmail. Gmail use to be my Apple ID, but I switched it to Outlook very soon after making account.

I just found out about the aliases issue about a week ago, not a game killer, but would be nice.

I should take that back... the UI of iCloud.com email isn't bad... its the fact that messages cannot be grouped by conversation is the deal breaker for me. I'm forced to use the web version of iCloud while at work and cannot stand the non-conversation view.

 

[Primejimbo]

I should take that back... the UI of iCloud.com email isn't bad... its the fact that messages cannot be grouped by conversation is the deal breaker for me. I'm forced to use the web version of iCloud while at work and cannot stand the non-conversation view.

I never tried that view (assuming that's the same as thread view?). Another issue is the 5GB limit. Now I don't save emails much in it and $0.99 a month for 20GB is very cheap, but I wish they at least gave 10GB.

 

[reese2147]

I never tried that view (assuming that's the same as thread view?). Another issue is the 5GB limit. Now I don't save emails much in it and $0.99 a month for 20GB is very cheap, but I wish they at least gave 10GB.

Yup, same thing as threaded view. The 5GB free is sub-par, but 12 bucks for an extra 15GB isn't breaking the bank (if you prefer iCloud for email)

 

[impaler]

I have iCloud, Gmail & Outlook accounts, and use them all for different reasons. I tend to use iCloud for personal email, as I have an old .mac account I still use.

 

[Menel]

What about custom domain on gapps?

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Have been using Yahoo for many many years.

 

[370zulu]

I have iCloud and Outlook.com addresses. Couldn't wait to dump gmail. I currently use iCloud for everything and Outlook for my Apple account. I'd love to have custom domain but don't want the expense and hassle. I am a bit concerned about the security of most providers so it seems the lesser of the evils is the best.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Any cloud provider that does not provide custom domains is simply out of the question.

The fact that Google's spam filters are far superior to any others is also a deciding factor for me.

Purchased Google Apps for business several years ago and have never looked back. Works reliably on every device I use.

 

[satcomer]

I found the secret to email a long time ago. Use several accounts, one got business, one for home, one for questionable web sites. Plus in Gmail I use Inbox zero method to use OS X Mail with it.

 

[0x100]

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[Photography]

Has anyone here made the move from Gmail to Outlook.com? If so, what were the primary reasons for doing so? I've been contemplating a switch from Gmail to Outlook. Been a user of Gmail since it was in beta, and I've been a Hotmail user since it was released, but Outlook seems impressive now.

 

[Primejimbo]

Has anyone here made the move from Gmail to Outlook.com? If so, what were the primary reasons for doing so? I've been contemplating a switch from Gmail to Outlook. Been a user of Gmail since it was in beta, and I've been a Hotmail user since it was released, but Outlook seems impressive now.

I have and I am very happy with outlook. I got sick of gmail UI on their web, it just looks so busy. And I also wanted push to my iPhone thay Gmail doesn't do anymore. I know there are work abounds, but I didn't want to do it.

 

[reese2147]

Has anyone here made the move from Gmail to Outlook.com? If so, what were the primary reasons for doing so? I've been contemplating a switch from Gmail to Outlook. Been a user of Gmail since it was in beta, and I've been a Hotmail user since it was released, but Outlook seems impressive now.

My primary reason for switching from GMail to Outlook is because I use OneDrive for my cloud storage solution. I wanted an "all-in-one" solution for cloud, email, calendar and contacts..... Outlook's integration with Office and their top notch cloud solution was the selling point for me.

 

[AGX]

But it's not better use @icloud.com?

do you use icloud or outlook for contact and calendars?

 

[reese2147]

But it's not better use @icloud.com?

do you use icloud or outlook for contact and calendars?

I use Outlook.com for contacts and calendars.

 

[Primejimbo]

But it's not better use @icloud.com?

do you use icloud or outlook for contact and calendars?

That's all opinion.

I think it's very close and on some levels I think Outlook is better. The main reason I use iCloud is because I have all Apple stuff. If I ever switch, I will probably use my Outlook for everything.

 

[mattdocs12345]

I use runbox because it is a non-American, privacy oriented email provider. I have almost completely abandoned gmail, after over 10 years of usage.

 

[jimthing]

I have found over the years, THE most important thing to do is keep a list (eg. 1Password or a secure text doc) EVERYTIME you sign-up for a service/site.
Then if you decide to change emails, you can fairly simply, login and change them all over the course of an afternoon.

All services eventually get superseded or bettered (or ruined, in the case of Gmail/G-Apps Mail re. "push" fiasco – only after millions had signed-up for free push email accounts do they stop the service for clients, forcing most users to use Google's own ad-supported apps or ad-supported webmail instead!).

This way, if you want to make that change, you can, then track the old email for ~12 months to check old contacts aren't still using to contact you, before shutting it down. I tend to store all emails on ONE email provider's IMAP servers (ie. all folders are on iCloud in my email clients, with all three of my email addresses messages from different providers sorted by dragging into those folders), thus moving the archive is as simple as dragging to the new provider using an email client in the future, should I want to.

 

[edmtechnole]

Mine is pretty much a mess. I haven't found any that is the best at everything so I have everything parsed out right now.

Email - I use Outlook.com because I like the ActiveSync feature and the UI. It's also fast and responsive through the web UI (a complaint that is preventing me from using iCloud email exclusively).

Cloud Storage - I save my photos on OneDrive because it is pretty easy to view them. This is as stopgap until Apple releases the revised version of Photos. I then store all of my docs with Google Drive because I am a huge fan of the indexing. It makes it so much easier to find files.

Calendar and Contacts - I store these in iCloud because I like the UI and responsiveness. You still can't add a photo to your contacts, outside of syncing with Facebook or Google in Outlook. I thought this was 2015?