Email services have become a part of our daily lives. Be it for business, personal use, or anything. They are also pretty useful as a second layer of authentication for our online accounts.

Picking a bad email client would be disastrous and we’re here to avoid that. Doesn’t matter if you’re creating a new account or just switching to a new one.

Without any further ado, in no particular order, here are 5 of the most popular email services.

Summary

All in all, these are the services that we’ll be looking at:

  1. Mail.ru
  2. Outlook
  3. Yahoo Mail
  4. AOL Mail
  5. iCloud

1. Mail.ru

This is one of our Russian friends. Mail.ru is by far the most widely used email service in Russia.

Apart from being an email service, Mail.ru also offers a newsfeed platform with categories such as general news, auto, sports, movies, etc.

Other than that, it also offers a search engine. The only problem with this service is that numerous people have reported that it can get into a computer as a browser hijacker.

If you were unfortunate enough to experience Mail.ru in this form, then you can learn how to remove it over here.

For those of you who don’t know, a browser hijacker is a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program).

It gets installed to your computer without your permission, changes some of your settings, replaces your home screen, forcefully displays ads on your screen, and refuses to get uninstalled with traditional methods.

You normally wouldn’t expect that from such a big company, but you could say that everything is possible in this world.

2. Outlook

Outlook, which was also known as “Hotmail” in the past, is owned by Microsoft and is one of the biggest email services in the world. There was also a time when it used to dominate the email client market.

This program is pre-installed on Windows 10 devices. The design is kind of minimalistic and easy to use.

However, if you’re not used to Microsoft’s style, then you might find Outlook a bit confusing to use at first or maybe even overwhelming. Especially if you’re coming from Gmail.

The Windows client features a calendar in which you can set up events, appointments, and stuff like that.

Other than that, you can also find your contacts, and a “To do” task list on the bottom left panel of Outlook.

With that being said, this email client is absolutely tidy, and the potential to add more things from the Microsoft Store makes things even more interesting.

3. Yahoo Mail

One does not simply mention popular email services without including Yahoo. And it’s more than just an email.

Yahoo also features several other platforms such as Yahoo answers, search engine, messenger, and more.

The UI is as simple as it can get without too much fancy stuff to it. I find it easier to use than Outlook but it’s all a matter of personal preference.

Truth be told, it’s much easier to learn how to fully use Yahoo Mail compared to Outlook. Maybe even compared to any other email service as well.

Other than that, just like with Outlook, Yahoo features its own contact application, a calendar which allows you to add events or anything similar to it, and a notepad.

All in all, the basic features of Yahoo Mail are more or less the same with those of Outlook with the main difference that Outlook actually allows you to add even more to it.

4. AOL Mail

AOL is nowhere as big as Yahoo and Outlook, but it’s still a viable option. It’s free to use and easy to set up. It took me less than 10 minutes to create a secured account from scratch.

One thing that I specifically liked about AOL mail, is that it’s not as spammy as its “competitors”.

The first thing that I see upon opening Outlook is the premium option right into my face. As with Yahoo, I get a big welcome screen which prompts me to make some extra setups and install the application on my phone. Not to mention the sponsored ads.

None of that with AOL. There is a very small ad right in the inbox, but that’s all there is to it.

The features are exactly the same as those of Yahoo. A calendar, contacts, and a notebook.

5. iCloud

iCloud mail is free to use and it integrates very well with Apple devices and services as it was originally made for them.

It’s extremely simplistic as it only offers the absolute basics. But, if you have an Apple device, then I don’t see a reason as to why you shouldn’t use it.

True, those who seek a lot of options from email clients will not find iCloud adequate. But, on the other hand, those who look for simplicity will love it.