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Over the past week I’ve reviewed the top three Web Based Email Providers, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Live Mail/Hotmail. In my opinion they are all good providers have their pluses and minuses. For example; Hotmail/Live Mail is the most user friendly and has the most stylish layout, whereas Yahoo! Mail has unlimited storage space, although with a gmail account you can use loads of great features like Calender, Documents, Photos, Reader, Images, Maps, Books, Shopping and much much much more! In this last review I’m going to do a comparison between the three providers. To save all the confusion, I am only going to refer to the free editions unless I mention otherwise.

Free Space

• Live Mail/Hotmail provide at this moment in time 5GB of storage space.
• The basic Yahoo! Mail package you receive unlimited storage space!
• Gmail claim that their storage space is always increasing and at time of writing the storage space is around 6.75GB.
• The winner of the ‘Free Space’ award must be Yahoo! Mail simply because the space is unlimited!

Is there a paid for upgrade?

• Gmail provide two upgrades, one that you must pay for (Premier Edition) and the other which is free (Education Edition). The Premier Edition is aimed at Small Businesses and Enterprises. It costs £25 a year.
• Live Mail/Hotmail have no upgrades which is a huge shame.
• Yahoo! Mail have 3 upgrades, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Yahoo! Mail Personal Address and Yahoo! Business Email. Yahoo! Mail Plus is around £10 a year (under £1 per month). Yahoo! Mail Personal Address is around £17.50 per year (under £1.50 per month). Yahoo! Business Email costs just under £5 a month plus a month of set up fee of £12.50.
• I personally haven’t used any of the upgrades because the basic packages are perfectly adequate for me, however from looking at all the details of the packages I think that Gmail provides the best upgrade packages. Therefore Gmail wins the ‘Upgrade’ award!

Features-There are hundreds of features that all of the free packages provide and if I was to write about all of them you’d be here for hours, so click on the following applicable link for each provider to find out more about the features of, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail and Live Mail/Hotmail.

• My favourite feature of Yahoo! Mail is that on the main screen you have tabs for the different folders/messages etc that you have open. Also there is a home tab which has the latest news/sport/entertainment and finance news.
• My favourite feature of Gmail is the fact that you can use so many applications with just one account. It’s worth getting an account just to use the applications!
• And finally my favourite feature of Live Mail/Hotmail is how easy it is to connect with Microsoft Office Outlook.

Easy to use/Stylish interface -

• In my opinion Windows Live Mail/Hotmail has a very easy to use interface and it is quite stylish too! You can change the colour of your account to your own preference.
• Yahoo! Mail is easy to use too and since its recent face lift is far more stylish but you don’t have the option to personalize it like Live Mail/Hotmail.
• I feel that Gmail is easy to use but is in need of a redesign to keep up with the trends as some people judge things on looks and Gmail certainly would not win!
• The winner of the ‘Easy to use/Stylish Interface’ Award is Windows Live Mail/Hotmail!

Is it cluttered with Ad’s? - So often you go into an email account you get annoying.

• Gmail has no adverts at all which is very good.
• Yahoo! Mail has one large advert and two very small adverts, none of them are in the way but they’re still there!
• Live Mail/Hotmail has on very large advert going across the screen which is distracting.
• Therefore Gmail wins the ‘Ad’ Award!

Are there many addresses free? -

• Yahoo! Mail and Gmail have a limited number of addresses left compared to Live Mail/Hotmail.
• Live Mail has recently been released so there are loads of address names still free!
• Live Mail/Hotmail has to win the ‘Addresses Free’ award!

Can you access your mail from your mobile?

• With a Gmail account you can access your mail very easily. You can also access other Google applications, for example: Search, Maps, Picasa, You Tube, Calender and News. If you’re interested visit ‘Google Mobile‘.
• You can get Live Mail/Hotmail on your mobile, however it costs you to send emails on top of your mobile Internet providers charges (£1 for 8 Emails). If you’re interested visit ‘Mobile Hotmail‘. You can also get MSN Messenger on your mobile phone.
• Yahoo! Mail also is available via your mobile. It looks very similar to the web based version which you’re used to. Like Gmail and Live Mail/Hotmail you can also get many applications on the internet too. For example, Messenger, Flickr, News, Sports and Entertainment. For more info visit ‘Yahoo! Mobile‘.
• I think that it is a joint win for Gmail and Yahoo! Mail for the ‘Mobile Access’ award.

In conclusion, it all comes down to personal choice and what you really need. If your computer skills are very limited and need something simple go for Gmail. If you want something stylish and also very simple to use go for Live Mail/Hotmail. If you want an account which is easy to use and you feel in the future you may want to upgrade go for Yahoo! Mail.

If there are anymore areas that you’d like us to compare please let us know!