Email is the most important form of communication for businesses. It is versatile and quick, allowing anything from a quick chat to finalise a plan to a long-form explanation of a service with multiple attachments. But are the most common email domains, and what are the pros and cons to each one?
Gmail.com (18%)
With over a billion users across the globe, Gmail has taken over the free email space since its launch in 2004. It has a streamlined interface without too much clutter, and lets you organise your emails into different folders which helps you to focus on your priorities. It works with a Google account, which has a fleet of features such as Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Calendar, making file sharing and time-management simple.
Yahoo.com (17%)
Although it isn’t as much as a household name as Gmail, Yahoo offers a professional email service with some useful features unavailable with its competitor. Yahoo allows you to organise your emails into custom folders, and the free version has a terabyte of storage.
Hotmail.com (16%)
It may be one of the top three most popular email domains, but you can’t get one anymore! In fact, Hotmail used to be a part of Microsoft, which has had a couple of rebrands and is now Outlook. This means that if you created your account before 2012, then you will still have the @hotmail.com address, but if you want to create a new one, then you will get an address ending in @outlook.com. Just like Gmail, Outlook offers extra features such as a calendar and access to online Microsoft Office products.
These are the top three email providers, as after this the percentage of users drops off sharply to under four per cent. Bear in mind that using an @gmail.com or @outlook.com email address is fine for personal use, but doesn’t look very professional if you want to use that for a business account.
If you’re looking for business emails, then it’s much better to have an email address that matches the name of your website domain, as this adds extra credibility to your company. Go Sitebuilder gives you a personalised website domain name as well as five unique business emails for you to use. Sign up for our 14-day free trial and see just how easy it is to get your business online.