The Bottom Line
- HotPOP offers free ad-supported email accounts you can access in any email program using POP/SMTP
- You can also forward HotPOP mail to up to three alternate email addresses
- HotPOP lets you remove problematic messages using a web interface
- HotPOP lacks a full web interface to reading and sending mail
- Even paid premium HotPOP accounts are a bit short on online storage space
- HotPOP does not include IMAP access, and free accounts could offer better spam filtering options
Description
- HotPOP offers free POP3 and SMTP email accounts.
- In addition to accessing HotPOP mail in your email client, you can forward it to up to three other email addresses.
- Free HotPOP accounts will receive up to 1000 and allow you to send up to 500 messages per day.
- Paid accounts offer larger quotas as well as more control over spam filtering (including unlimited email aliases).
- HotPOP may deliver ads to free accounts, and outgoing mail carries a tag line advertising HotPOP.
Guide Review - HotPOP - Free POP3 Email Service
Take a look at HotPOP! Instead of online storage and a browser interface, you get a mailbox from which you can download incoming emails to any email program using the POP standard.
Of course, HotPOP offers an outgoing mail (SMTP) server as well. With free accounts, sending through HotPOP adds a tag line advertising the service to your messages. HotPOP may also deliver advertisements to your email account from time to time.
Premium service users avoid these and gain some storage space (though not much) as well as better spam filtering and email aliases.
A web-based interface would be nice to have even for a free POP account, of course. For now, HotPOP only offers a simplistic way to get rid of broken messages (that make your email client choke, for example).
If you're looking for a traditional and still very useful email service (you "own" all the messages after you have downloaded them after all and can do with them as you place — using all the power of your chosen email program, for example, or archiving them liberally), HotPOP is a great, free basic choice.
