The Hidden Cost of ‘Free’ Email Services

For example, an Oxford University study by the Department of Computer Science found that 90.4% of free apps sell users’ data to at least one external company.

So, it’s not a stretch to say that users signing up for email services are at risk.

Even if there are no red flags at first, you’ll eventually encounter various hidden costs like email privacy violations and a loss of control over your own data.

Free subscriptions are an amazing and efficient marketing tactic for luring people into using a product or service, and most of us fall for them sooner or later.

It sometimes even sounds too good to be true – and that’s because it is.

More often than not, behind the curtain, we’re having our personal data scanned and possibly sold to third parties.

One good example is free email providers like Gmail, which scan users’ emails to target ads. Even though Google says it doesn’t read email body text anymore, it still collects enough metadata (sender, destination, timestamps, etc.) to build a detailed behavioral profile.

Another case in point is Yahoo’s data breaches in 2013 and 2014, which impacted more than three billion users. The leak included encrypted and unencrypted names, email addresses, birthdates, passwords, and other confidential information.

Since free email services’ privacy can’t be guaranteed (and I don’t want my communications tracked and my information exposed), I started looking for secure email providers with a strong privacy policy.

Free email services are massive honeypots for cybercriminals, primarily due to the number of users subscribed to them. One data breach can impact millions of accounts simultaneously, and the aftermath is the worst part.

Unfortunately, getting help with a free email provider after having your email account exposed is like searching for water in the desert. You can expect ultra-slow response times or no help at all.

Ultimately, you can get locked out of all your communications overnight with no way to restore access.

Email addresses are important when it comes to how we come across to other people, especially for businesses.

They might seem irrelevant, but sending business proposals from generic email providers (for example, @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, and @yahoo.com) can influence your credibility, prestige, and reputation.

Adestra’s 2023 survey proves my point by finding out that 68% of consumers find custom company email addresses more credible than generic ones.

Free email solutions make looking credible nearly impossible, as they don’t offer enough customization and branding options to establish trust and reliability.

If you want to make a good first impression, we recommend moving to an email provider like Fastmail that offers custom domains, email aliases, and email masks.

There’s no need to explain why something being free is highly convenient. But if you take a closer look, you’ll soon question whether that’s the case.

For example, it doesn’t take long for power users to get critical notifications about storage limits, leading to tenuous manual tasks like archiving old emails to free up space. So, you’re not spending money, but you’re wasting your time.

On top of that, you’ll only get basic features, severely limiting your email management experience. This means no advanced search, no calendar integration outside of Google or Microsoft, no powerful filtering, no device synchronization, and no custom branding.

Another not-so-convenient aspect is how difficult it is to migrate from a free email management service. Unfortunately, the lack of support and features for this task can make the process extremely nerve-wracking.

One of the most significant shortcomings is how easily you can be locked out of your inbox if the service goes down.

While downtime can happen on free or paid services, customer service and support options are often limited and slower for free users.

The final straw is the constant visual clutter of ads and promotional pop-ups, which completely turns free email services into billboards, impacting your concentration while going through your inbox.

I researched email services that prioritized security and privacy and evaluated the available options, considering usability, features, encryption, and customer support.

Ultimately, my research led me to Fastmail – which I tested and reviewed here on Best Reviews.

Fastmail is an Australian email management service available for desktop, iOS, and Android, with strong privacy laws and highly attractive pricing.

It doesn’t scan your emails to deliver targeted ads and includes encrypted storage, custom domains, email aliases, email masking, and fast, real human customer support – all of that condensed into a modern and intuitive interface across desktop and mobile.

Migrating to a different email service is often stressful, but with Fastmail, that wasn’t my experience at all. Thanks to its migration tools, I could migrate years of communication in a few clicks.

In the end, switching from a free to a paid email service like Fastmail was clearly the right choice. It allowed me to enhance my email experience, knowing that my data is secure and that I can get actual customer support if I ever need it.

The truth is that spending a few dollars on an email service is not an expense but an investment.

Signing up for free email management solutions can be compared to buying a megaphone that also records every word you say.

The main takeaway from changing from a free to a (paid) secure email service is that it allowed me to manage emails seamlessly without worrying about annoying ads or being tracked.

If you’re curious, we suggest trying Fastmail via its 30-day free trial that doesn’t require your credit card to see what it’s like to have an inbox that works for you, not for data brokers.

Remember, the real cost of free email isn’t money – it’s your privacy, time, security, and peace of mind.