# Who offers web-based email for pay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346 "2003-03-22T12:07:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/1 "2003-03-22T12:07:48Z")
Who offers web-based email for pay? I want to pay for email service via some web site (not through my isp, as isp’s sort of come and go and I want a permanent address). I don’t want a zillion advertisements and I don’t want the mailbox to turn into a pumpkin if I check it infrequently. I don’t want a free mailbox where somebody is doing me a favor - I want to pay the few bucks and have it my way. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/2 "2003-03-22T12:41:02Z")
I use the free version of [Opera mail](http://www.operamail.com) but they offer a premium version for USD29.99 per year. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/3 "2003-03-22T13:30:44Z")
I think most of the free ones have premium versions. Yahoo! mail gives you more space and probably POP access for a some bucks. Similar deal with [mail.com](http://mail.com), where they also have many different domains, like [engineer.com](http://engineer.com) and other professions/places/hobbies. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/4 "2003-03-22T13:42:03Z")
A lot of the free ones and popular ones and paid ones that also have free ones and are popular are spam magnets. I have a .Mac account which give you: [ul] [li]web email (which also works with POP and IMAP clients).[/li][li]gives you 100 megs online storage[/li][li]online storage is WebDAV accessible!!![/li][li]the standards let it work with any platform (Win2K at work, in my case).[/li][/ul] The thing I _don’t_ know is if you actually need a Mac in order to sign up – at one point you did, but maybe not now. Oh, and it’s $100 per year and that only gets you a single email address. Alternatively, domains are so dang cheap these days, you can register your own and have your ISP setup a POP account for you using that domain. Costs vary, but it’s yours for life – even changing ISP’s. Downside is that you can get spammed easier, but nothing like HotMail. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/5 "2003-03-22T16:26:50Z")
Get yourself webhosting. Many hosts offer webmail access, popmail access, numerous email addys and of course your file/web hosting for a set fee. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/6 "2003-03-22T17:01:05Z")
For the low-low price of about 5000$ per year, you can get a convenient email address from an accredited Canadian University, just like I did! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-offers-web-based-email-for-pay/163346/7 "2003-03-22T18:32:08Z")
Ditto what everyone’s said about webhosting. I went through a two-month ordeal with BellSloth DSL and AT&T Broadband where I didn’t have a standard POP3 email account, so I went ahead and signed up with [www.aletiahosting.com](http://www.aletiahosting.com) (now owned by [www.jaguarpc.com](http://www.jaguarpc.com)). For $95/year I got 200 MB of storage space, 10GB of bandwidth a month, my own domain name (registration fees included in yearly fee) and also unlimited POP3 accounts. I believe that Jaguar has a cheaper account that offers less space, which is cool for you as you don’t seem to be interested in a website. I not only have webmail with this package, I have my choice of front-ends (NeoMail or Horde). The only catch I can think of is to make sure that _you_ own the domain if you sign up for a domain through your host. That way you can move to another webhost if dissatisfied with the one you sign up with. Lastly, since I can easily create any number of email accounts, I have one called [public@mydomain.com](mailto:public@mydomain.com) for all “public” uses. Only my friends and family have my [firstname@mydomain.com](mailto:firstname@mydomain.com) address. Cheers! Rex