You are looking for your own free email address?
Here you will find a comparison of the most popular and well-known freemail providers 2021. In the table you can compare the most important criteria of the individual email providers with each other.
- No costs
- Quickly set up
- Fixed domain
- Your emails will be read
- A lot of spam
Our recommendation:
- Server in Germany
- 2 GB of memory
- SSL encryption
Provider comparison for a free e-mail address:
Alias
Storage space
Online storage
attachment size
Mobile version
Native App
Signature
Calendar
Contacts
Country
Why not have your own email address?
For only 0,49€ in the month you already get your own email address with own domain (z.B. [email protected])
- private e-mail address with own .de domain
- No advertising!
- private, serious and individual
Free email accounts
What does freemail mean?
Since the word freemail contains the words "free" and "e-mail", it is easy to guess that this is a free message sent electronically.
Strictly speaking, freemail is defined as the free use of an e-mail address and a mailbox on the part of a provider (freemail provider). In German-speaking countries the services of mail.de, GMX, web.de, t-online and freenet very popular. Many also use global providers such as Gmail and Yahoo. Thanks to freemail, anyone with Internet access can create an account and communicate with other email users around the world – as long as they know their address.
Your freemail address
You define your e-mail address directly during registration, which is usually completed very quickly. Basically you are allowed to choose your address – with minor restrictions. Because what is behind the "@" is already predefined: Here is the name of the freemail provider. Also the part in front of the "@" is usually not completely free to choose: Since there are now billions of people who use freemail, the desired combination ([email protected]) are most likely already taken. This makes it more and more difficult to register an original and easy to remember email address. Often freemail users have to compromise and "complicate" the name with additional numbers or letters ([email protected]) or come up with creative variations or. come up with imaginative terms ([email protected]).
Features of a freemail account
Which functions the free email services offer in detail, differs of course from provider to provider. Usual storage space is between 1 and 15 GB, while the attachments of the sent and received e-mails may have a maximum of about 20-25 GB. Signatures, out-of-office notifications, spell checker, calendars and address books are included in most free packages.
Classically, the management of the email account takes place on the provider’s website (webmail), but most providers allow the account to be linked to an email client. Nevertheless, every now and then users have to log in directly to the website so that their membership does not expire due to "inactivity". Most freemail providers have established this rule for two reasons: First, they make sure that users see the advertisements they display from time to time (which, after all, is how they finance themselves), and second, they locate unused email accounts, can deactivate them, and then reassign the email address elsewhere.
How freemail providers are financed?
Of course, the companies behind GMX, Aol, mail.de and freenet earn some extra money – they do not provide any charitable services, although many people around the world also benefit from the free service. Freemail providers are usually financed by advertising and paid upgrades.
The advertisements are mainly placed on the provider’s website, which you visit to log in to the mailbox. After logging in, you can see further displays at the edge of the screen. The providers are paid for this by the advertising companies or can even look forward to commissions when the e-mail users click on a corresponding link.
Paid upgrades are another important source of income for freemail providers. So-called premium accounts entice z.B. with more storage, larger email attachments, an ad-free mailbox interface, multiple email addresses, sending greeting cards and other interesting features and gimmicks.
Freemail providers
Mail.de
Shortly after Mail.de went online in 2011, the company expanded its product line to include the freemail offering. Although the provider with 2 GB of combined storage space at least can’t compete with the American giants, it offers the best conditions in terms of the allowed attachment size of 60 MB. The domain extension "mail.de" is also pleasantly easy to remember and you may set up up to ten alias addresses for yourself. Mail.de attaches particular importance to data protection, privacy and encryption/security.
Yahoo.de
Yahoo Mail is an American freemail provider and one of the most used email services in the world. With an impressive total storage of 1 TB (which corresponds to 1.000 GB) you will never have to worry about a full mailbox again. Attachments, on the other hand, are "only" allowed to be 25 GB. YAHOO has recently come under fire for its lack of data protection: e-mails are read for targeted advertising purposes.
Gmail
Gmail has been on a global roll since 2007 and has become almost ubiquitous – the mail service recorded 1 billion customers in 2016. You get 15 GB of total storage and don’t have to worry about your membership expiring after months of inactivity like with other providers. Although the range of functions and handling are very positive, there are some shortcomings when it comes to data protection and encryption.
Outlook
Microsoft’s mail service replaced Hotmail in 2013 and has over 400 million customers. Outlook presents itself as an organizational miracle: you can integrate the Microsoft Office applications and thus edit files directly in the inbox, link social networks to your mailbox, send large attachments using Microsoft OneDrive and receive and send e-mails from other accounts – so you have everything combined in one mailbox. However, Outlook also scans e-mail content; security standards are generally mediocre.
AOL once epitomized the Internet, but lost its global popularity after 2002. However, the web portal and the free messaging service still exist. The big advantage of AOL is the unlimited storage space for e-mails. However, there is no cloud storage and you cannot receive emails with attachments over 16 MB. There are clear weak points in the functions, the service and the security, so that AOL cannot convince in many a provider test.
T-Online
With t-online, your attachments can be up to 32 MB; larger files up to 500 MB are easy to send via link. The online storage is 10 GB. The special thing about t-online is that here you can have up to ten different e-mail addresses ending in "@t-online.de" – this is by no means common with freemail providers. You’ll find the messages all grouped together in your inbox.
GMX has been operating as an e-mail provider since 1998 and is very popular in Germany. Free users have access to 1 GB of email storage (which you can expand by 0.5 GB for free), 2 GB of cloud storage and all the important basic functions. It is also possible to add up to two additional e-mail addresses ending with "@gmx.de" or "@gmx.net" account. Along with Web.de and T-online, the service launched the "E-Mail made in Germany" initiative in 2013, which ensures that your e-mails are always transmitted in encrypted form and that your data is stored exclusively in secure, German data centers. Nevertheless, this type of encryption has major disadvantages compared to secure email providers.
Web.en
Web.de was founded back in 1995 as a web portal and gradually expanded to include communication services. Nowadays, it is the most used email provider in Germany, next to GMX – according to a survey from 2013, 26% of Germans have an account with Web.de your main e-mail address. Otherwise, the scope of services covers all standard functions, including 2 GB cloud storage, calendar, address book and greeting cards.
Freenet
Also at Freenet your e-mails are encrypted by means of the "E-Mail made in Germany" initiative. The free basic package includes 1 GB email storage, 2 GB online storage, an attachment size of 20 MB (for this you can receive emails with attachments of up to 100 GB!) and the possibility to manage messages from up to three other providers in your freenet mailbox.
* The listing takes into account the mail providers contained in the database of this page and their tariffs contained therein. All information without guarantee. The prices shown are inclusive of VAT. All logos, trademarks and brands used are the property of their respective owners. This page is protected by copyright. Copyright 2021.