Best Email Services, Compared
Ten email providers, one honest table: storage, pricing, aliases, custom domains, protocols and security — so you can pick the right mailbox without opening ten pricing pages.
- No ads, ever
- Hosted in Canada
- From $2.95/mo
How the best email services compare, feature by feature
Choosing an email provider usually comes down to a handful of practical questions: how much storage you get, whether you can use your own domain, how many aliases are included, and whether the service reads your mail to sell advertising. The table below compares those details across ten well-known providers so you can see the differences at a glance rather than piecing them together from separate pricing pages.
Most of the services listed are paid. Many people use a free Gmail or Yahoo account, but free plans are generally funded by advertising and come with limits on custom domains and support. We keep this page updated as providers change their plans. If you spot something out of date, or think a provider should be added, please let us know.
| Feature / Provider |
Our pick
TX
Thexyz
|
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (per email account) | from $2.95 | $8.95 | from $2.95 | $8.33 | $7.00 | Free | $3 | $11.99 | $4.99 | $6.00 |
| Mailbox storage space | 10GB – 50GB | 30GB | 10GB – 25GB | 5GB | 100GB | 20GB | 10GB | 10GB | 15GB | 60GB |
| Max attachment size | 50MB | 25MB | 50MB | 20MB | 150MB | 25MB | 30MB | 20MB | 35MB | 50MB |
| Messages per day | 300 – 1,200 | 2000 | 300 – 1,200 | 1000 | 500 | 500 | 200 | 350 | 1000 | 4000 |
| Email aliases | Unlimited | 30 | Unlimited | 3 | 200 | 1 | 30 | 10 | 600 | |
| No domain required (@provider address) | ||||||||||
| Custom domain email address | ||||||||||
| Supports multiple domains | ||||||||||
| MobileSync (ActiveSync) | ||||||||||
| CalDAV / CardDAV | ||||||||||
| IMAP | ||||||||||
| POP3 | ||||||||||
| SMTP | ||||||||||
| SSL encrypted email | ||||||||||
| Two-factor authentication | ||||||||||
| Email filters | ||||||||||
| Import contacts | ||||||||||
| Free trial or money-back guarantee | ||||||||||
| Open source | ||||||||||
| FISMA compliant | ||||||||||
| Based in the United States |
How to read this table. Where a provider offers several tiers we list its entry-level paid business plan, except Yahoo Mail and iCloud Mail, which are shown on their free consumer tiers. Storage is per mailbox unless the provider pools it across users. OX App Suite is licensed through hosting providers rather than sold directly; the figures shown are for the OX App Suite plans sold by Thexyz, hosted in the United States. Providers change plans often, so please confirm current figures on their own pricing pages before deciding. In the trial row, Thexyz plans carry a 5-day money-back guarantee rather than a free trial.
Pricing and storage last reviewed August 2026How to choose an email service
The ten providers above are all capable of sending and receiving mail reliably. What separates them is the business model behind them and the assumptions they make about how you work. Before comparing feature checkboxes, it is worth settling four questions.
Do you need email on your own domain?
An address like you@yourcompany.com is the single biggest difference between a personal account and a professional one. It also protects you commercially: because the domain is yours, you can change providers later without telling every customer you have a new address. Free consumer accounts generally do not allow this, which is why most of the paid plans in the table are built around custom domains.
Is your mail being scanned for advertising?
Free email is usually paid for with attention. The provider's revenue comes from advertising, and the contents of your mailbox are one of the signals that makes that advertising valuable. Paid services are funded by subscriptions instead, which is a meaningfully different relationship with your data. If this matters to you, look at how each provider describes scanning and profiling in its privacy policy rather than relying on marketing language.
Will it work with the apps you already use?
Protocol support decides whether you can keep using Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or your phone's built-in client. IMAP keeps messages on the server and in sync across devices; POP3 downloads and is largely a legacy option; ActiveSync additionally syncs calendars and contacts. Some privacy-focused providers deliberately restrict standard protocols because end-to-end encryption is difficult to reconcile with them, so check this before committing if you are attached to a particular mail client.
What happens when something goes wrong?
Deliverability problems, a compromised mailbox or a misconfigured DNS record are the moments when support quality actually matters. Large providers route you through documentation and community forums before a human; smaller providers are often quicker to reach but have shorter hours. Neither is automatically better, but it is worth knowing which you are buying.
The providers at a glance
Short summaries of who each service suits best. Specific storage limits and pricing are in the table above, since those change more often than the underlying positioning does.
Thexyz
Our pickAn independent provider focused specifically on email rather than a wider software suite. Mailboxes sit on your own domain, there is no advertising and no scanning of message content, and calendars, contacts, tasks and mobile sync are included rather than sold as an upgrade. Servers are located in Canada. It suits businesses and families who want a straightforward paid mailbox with a person to talk to, rather than a productivity platform. Migration from an existing provider is handled for you.
Google Workspace
SuiteGmail sold as part of a wider suite with Docs, Drive and Meet. The interface is familiar to almost everyone and the collaboration tools are genuinely strong, which is why it is the default choice for many startups. The trade-off is that you are buying into an ecosystem, and the consumer version of Gmail operates on a very different data model to the paid business tiers.
OX App Suite
Via hostsA webmail and collaboration platform from Open-Xchange in Germany, licensed to hosting providers and ISPs rather than sold directly to end users. Its open-source core powers the mail offering of many large hosts, and Thexyz is one of them: the figures in the table are for the OX App Suite professional email plans we sell, hosted in the United States. We compare it against the other webmail platforms we offer on our email platform comparison.
Microsoft 365
SuiteOutlook mail bundled with the desktop Office applications. The obvious fit for organisations already standardised on Windows, Teams and Excel, particularly where staff expect the full Outlook client. It is a large platform, so it brings both capability and administrative complexity that smaller teams may not need or want to manage.
Proton Mail
EncryptionA Swiss provider built around end-to-end encryption, aimed at people whose primary requirement is confidentiality. The encryption model is the point of the product, and it constrains other things: standard protocol access is limited compared with conventional providers, because messages are encrypted in a way ordinary mail clients cannot read directly. Best suited to those who will use its own apps.
Fastmail
IndependentA long-established independent provider from Australia with a strong reputation among people who care about standards support and a fast, uncluttered interface. Like Thexyz it is subscription-funded with no advertising, and it is a common recommendation for individuals and small teams who want a dependable paid mailbox without a surrounding suite.
Zoho Mail
PlatformPart of a broad and competitively priced business software range covering CRM, accounting and project tools. That breadth is the attraction: if you expect to adopt several Zoho products, having mail in the same account is convenient. If you only want email, you are buying into a larger platform than you need.
iCloud Mail
Apple usersTightly integrated with Apple hardware and included with an Apple account. It is a comfortable choice for households already using Macs, iPhones and iPads, and custom domains are supported on paid iCloud tiers. Administration features are limited compared with services designed for business use.
Hushmail
ComplianceAimed squarely at regulated professions, particularly healthcare and legal practices, with encrypted forms and compliance-oriented plans. If your requirement is driven by a regulator rather than preference, this focus is the reason to look at it; for general business email it is a narrower fit.
Yahoo Mail
FreeA free consumer service with generous storage, funded by advertising. Fine as a personal mailbox, but the advertising model and the limited support and administration options make it a poor match for business use.
Which email service is best for you?
Best for business email on your own domain
Any of Thexyz, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail or Zoho will do this properly. Choose on whether you want a focused mail service or a whole productivity suite, and on how much administration you want to take on. If email is the thing you actually need, a dedicated provider is usually simpler and cheaper than a suite you will only partly use.
Best for privacy
If your requirement is end-to-end encryption specifically, Proton Mail is built for that and accepts the protocol limitations that come with it. If your requirement is more simply that nobody reads your mail to sell advertising, any subscription-funded provider — Thexyz, Fastmail, Hushmail — meets that without giving up standard mail clients.
Best for working with Outlook and mobile apps
Look at the IMAP and ActiveSync rows in the table. IMAP support is close to universal among the conventional providers; ActiveSync, which also syncs calendars and contacts, is much less common and is the row worth checking if you want your phone's built-in calendar to stay in step with your mail.
Best free email service
Yahoo Mail and the free tiers of Gmail and Outlook.com are the realistic options, and they are perfectly good personal mailboxes. Be clear about the trade-off: advertising funding, no custom domain, and no support commitment if something breaks. For anything representing a business, a paid mailbox on your own domain is worth the few dollars a month.
Why choose Thexyz over Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace?
No contracts
None of our services require a contract. You pay monthly or yearly, you can change plan whenever your needs change, and you can leave at any time without a cancellation fee. Because your mailboxes sit on your own domain, moving providers later never means changing your email address.
Cost savings
Thexyz gives you the same core service — mail, calendars, contacts and mobile sync on your own domain — at a lower per-mailbox price than Microsoft or Google. For a small team the difference adds up to hundreds of dollars a year, without giving up migration help or personal support.
Complete spam protection
Gain full control of blocking emails and safelisting domains or IP addresses with a managed email firewall. All inbound email passes through our four spam filters to keep your inbox free of spam, with the security features needed for secure email and encrypted messages.
Privacy and real support
Thexyz is 100% ad free, so there is no reason to scan or read your email. Your data is not an input to an advertising business. And when something does go wrong, you reach the team that runs the platform — not a phone tree or a community forum.
Frequently asked questions
More email comparisons
Email you can feel good about
Thexyz is the provider in the first column: your own domain, large mailboxes, real aliases, and no advertising business reading your mail. Two easy ways to start:
