The Bottom Line
Unfortunately, IMAP access is not supported by Inbox.com, and its tools for organizing mail could be improved with smart or self-teaching folders. The browser toolbar needed to active the account and, in some countries, cell phone verification can be nuisances.
Pros
- Inbox.com offers 5 GB of online mailbox space as well as POP access
- The fast web interface includes rich text editing, threading and free-form labels
- Inbox.com includes solid spam and virus filtering
Cons
- Inbox.com does not offer IMAP access and lacks smart folders for automatic organization
- To active your account, you have to install a browser toolbar and may need a cell phone
- Inbox.com does not support encrypted mail and digital signatures
Description
- Inbox.com offers free web-based email with 5 GB (US/CA/UK) or 2 GB online storage and POP access.
- You can organize mail using stars, custom folders, free labels and filters.
- Inbox.com filters spam using varying aggressiveness or a challenge/response mechanism.
- Remote images in emails can be blocked from automatic download to protect your privacy.
- Inbox.com lets you view mail in threads and supports rich HTML formatting in outgoing messages.
- You can send messages up to a size of 30 MB.
- For a fee, Inbox.com offers up to 30 GB storage and daily backups.
- Email integrates to some degree with Inbox.com calender, notes, file storage and photo galleries.
Guide Review - Inbox.com - Free Email Service
For starters —and for everyday pleasure —, there's a web interface that is both fast and functional. It could be a tad more simple and offer even more convenience (drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts), though.
Finding all that archived mail works nicely using Inbox.com's search engine, and usually sufficient filters sort mail to custom folders. It's a pity the filters do not integrate with another great organizing feature, labels.
Color-coded, Inbox.com's free-form labels help you organize mail in flexible ways, and conversation view brings together related emails easily. Smart folders and better integration of address book and email messages would be great, though.
Inbox.com's spam filters perform reasonably well with little false positives and very little spam coming through. For even more protection, you can set up a convenient challenge/response filter that lets only authorized senders reach your Inbox.com Inbox.
When viewing any mail, Inbox.com protects you privacy not downloading remote images automatically. When writing any mail, you can make use of rich formatting using the functional editor, which lets you put any of your email addresses in the From: line, too.
You can also access your Inbox.com account with a desktop email program using POP and SMTP. With all of Inbox.com's web-based splendor, IMAP access is not a must, but it would be nice to have.
(Updated June 2011)
