A comparison of free online mail services [updated]

[Update on 13/7/2009. Added 1 comparison point, and corrected some mistakes. Corrected things are crossed out, in bold and red]

Description: Lately, I have had a lot of people asking me which online mail service I think is best and they said they would create an account using that service, so I have decided that I would write this post to compare some free online mail services. The compared services are: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail classic, Hotmail (MSN), AIMMail (AOL) and Fastmail Free Email. If you want these services. check out this review!

Account creation: (rates easy, medium and difficult)

• Gmail: easy (best choice)
• Yahoo Mail & Classic: easy
• Hotmail: medium (if you need hotmail.com domain, you need to sign up at a specific, different page)
• AimMail: medium (the recaptcha took me 3 times to get it correct)
• Fastmail: Difficult (requires you to confirm in another email account)

Email address choice:

• Gmail: [all letters (lower case), 0~9, underscore (_)]@gmail.com
• Yahoo Mail & Classic [same as Gmail, including fullstop (.)]@ymail.com, yahoo.com.[your area extension] or rocketmail.com (I had to laugh at the last one!) (best Choice)
• Hotmail: [Same as Gmail]@hotmail.com/@msn.com
• AimMail: [3~16 letters or numbers, must start with a letter]@aol.com
• Fastmail: [all letters and numbers]@(too many choices to list, see screenshot)

UI (ratings out of 10)

• Gmail: 7
• Yahoo Mail: 9
• Yahoo Mail classic: 5 (very sluggish interface, but after all it’s supposed to be for slower computers)
• Hotmail: 7
• AimMail: 9.5 (best Choice)
• FastMail: 6

Features:

• POP3 support
  • Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AimMail: Yes
  • Yahoo Mail Classic, FastMail: No
• IMap support
  • All: Yes
• Built in messenger (im)
  • Gmail, Yahoo Classic, AimMail, Fastmail: No
  • Yahoo Mail, Hotmail: Yes
• Custom Folders:
  • GMail, Yahoo Mail & Classic, Hotmail, AimMail: Yes
  • FastMail: No
• Drag and drop email organization
  • Gmail, Yahoo Mail Classic, Hotmail, FastMail: No
  • Yahoo Mail, AimMail: Yes
• Tab viewing of email
  • Gmail, Yahoo Mail Classic, Hotmail, FastMail, AimMail: No
  • Yahoo Mail: Yes
• Auto saving of drafts (real time)
  • GMail, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Classic, Hotmail: Yes
  • AimMail, FastMail: No
• Auto Refresh
  • GMail, Yahoo Mail: Yes
  • HotMail, Yahoo Classic, FastMail, AimMail: No
• Preview Pane
  • Yahoo Mail, AimMail: Yes
  • GMail, HotMail, Yahoo Classic, FastMail: Yes
• Search inbox
  • Yahoo Mail, GMail, HotMail, Yahoo Classic, AimMail: Yes
  • FastMail: No
• Keyboard Shorcuts:
  • Yahoo Mail, GMail, HotMail, AimMail: Yes
  • Yahoo Classic, AimMail, FastMail: No
• Smart Folders
  • GMail, HotMail, AimMail: Yes
  • Yahoo Mail & Classic, FastMail: No
• Optimization for slower pcs and older browsers: Yahoo Classic is best. Others are quite slow, GMail AimMail is unbelievably sluggish.
• [UPDATE] New function comparison suggested by reader Matthew. Spam Filtering (scores out of 10)
  • GMail: 8
  • Yahoo Mail: 7
  • Yahoo Classic Mail: 5
  • HotMail: 8
  • AimMail and FastMail: 6

Attachment access

• Download All (in zip file)
  • Yahoo Mail: Yes
  • GMail, HotMail, Yahoo Classic, AimMail, FastMail: No
• Photo slideshow
  • GMail, Yahoo Mail: Yes
  • Yahoo Classic, HotMail, AimMail, FastMail: No

Inbox storage space

• GMail: 7.3 GB (ever growing)
• Yahoo Mail & Classic: Unlimited
• Hotmail: 6.5 GB (ever growing)
• AimMail: Unlimited
• FastMail: 10MB (WTF??)

Added features, additional services

• GMail: (see screenshot), most notably Google docs, Youtube, FeedBurner, Google Maps, etc
• Yahoo Mail & Classic: Again, see screenshot, most notably toolbar, bookmarks, blog, etc
• HotMail: (see screenshot) most notably, Windows Live
• AimMail: too much to list, see their website

Verdict: GMail, HotMail and Yahoo Mail are very common because they are the best in opinion of most people. I am not biased to these programs, but I agree with them.

PS This post took a whole lot of time to write, any suggestions for more comparisons would be welcome.