The Pros and Cons of Using Hotmail for Your Business Email

People often find it difficult to choose between Gmail and Hotmail when it comes to business email services, given both are widely-used with similar features available on both.

Here are a few key considerations when selecting an email service provider for your company.

Cost

Hotmail was one of the pioneering web-based email services introduced in 1996 and quickly attracted massive popularity. Established by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, Microsoft purchased Hotmail in 1997 for an estimated $400 million purchase price.

Though initially free, email services later started charging users for web space, domain registration, and customer support - to stay competitive against portals like AOL and Yahoo that were prevalent at that time.

Popularity was further increased by their use of advertising that ran on their site, along with their rapidly-expanding user base - it reached 30 million by February 1999, up from only 8 million users back in 1996.

As Hotmail gained more recognition, its growing success allowed it to draw investors such as Menlo Ventures as it garnered additional investment capital and investors. Hotmail's growth helped secure its foothold in the market while simultaneously creating revenue through advertisements displayed on its website.

Microsoft acquired Hotmail for an estimated $400 million, becoming an integral component of their business and being eventually rebranded Outlook.

Hotmail is now an indispensable business tool that enables companies to manage customer accounts and send newsletters more easily than ever. Their business accounts allow you to set up mailing lists, link products they sell online, post ads related to those products you offer for sale and much more!

With multiple Hotmail accounts, it becomes much simpler and cost-efficient to market your products directly to as many people as possible without needing to set up individual accounts for each. Plus, using different aliases on each Hotmail account can further aid your marketing strategies!

Hotmail may be among the premier email services, but it might not be suitable for everyone. There are other solutions out there which may offer better features or cater better to specific user needs.

No matter which email service you opt for, it is crucial that you understand its costs. Different plans can be purchased depending on the size and frequency of your mailings each month - be sure to find a plan which offers all of the features essential for your business without overspending on unnecessary features.

Security

Hotmail was one of the pioneering free email services launched globally in 1996, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and acquired by Microsoft for an estimated $400 million shortly thereafter. Rebranded as Outlook by Microsoft after acquisition, Hotmail continued operating until 2013.

When using Hotmail as part of your business email system, there are a few key considerations you need to bear in mind, such as security measures and service operation.

Before making a decision about which service provider to select, be sure to consider cost factors as well. There may be various choices available and it would be worthwhile comparing their respective benefits before settling.

Hotmail provides various features to protect users' emails against hackers and other unwanted parties, such as two-step verification and password creation capabilities.

Hotmail stands out from other services by not storing email addresses in its database - providing an extra layer of protection and keeping any potential hackers at bay from accessing any sensitive personal data that might otherwise be stored there.

Notably, email addresses used for business should be unique - this ensures only employees of your organization have access to them.

Furthermore, it is wise to avoid including sensitive data in the subject line of any messages as this provides spammers with another avenue of attack on your data.

Last, make sure that you regularly change your passwords - this can reduce the risk of hackers accessing your email account.

Encrypt your messages and attachments for added protection - this feature is offered by virtually all major email service providers.

When considering Hotmail as your email provider, it is essential to remember its many drawbacks - including being less secure than it once was and more vulnerable to hackers and security risks than other options. Therefore it is imperative that your business utilize a better email provider.

Apps

Email remains one of the most indispensable and indispensable tools for business, whether you own your own small enterprise or are an independent freelancer. Email serves as the go-to medium for customer service inquiries, product announcements and sales transactions - it has all kinds of applications!

As such, it's crucial that you select an efficient email app in order to manage and streamline the communication process more easily. There are various solutions available so that you can make the most of your email app experience.

BlueMail is a free email client designed to help you manage multiple email accounts from one centralized inbox. The app color-coordinates messages from each account and puts important ones at the top. In addition, BlueMail features reminders and schedules.

This email app for Windows and Gmail features an intuitive design with an easy interface that's user-friendly. Additionally, its handy dashboard gives an overview of any unread mails or any issues to address quickly.

It also offers an intuitive calendar, making scheduling meetings and events much simpler. Furthermore, it can help build lists of contacts to expand outreach efforts.

Furthermore, it offers an undo feature, so if your email goes missing or gets delivered to the wrong recipient you can quickly reverse its send. This can save embarrassment if sent to someone accidentally.

Apple Mail provides an intuitive user experience. Support for multiple email accounts syncs across Apple devices seamlessly, while its built-in firewall conceals your IP address and loads content securely in the background to guard against cybercrime.

One major downside of this app is that it's only free for Apple users; other accounts may require subscription payments. But, if you use multiple Apple devices and need email access across them all, this might be your ideal solution.

Hiri is another great email app for Windows with an intelligent dashboard designed to increase productivity. It includes features like intelligent alerts, calendar events and an intelligent composing feature - making Hiri an indispensable productivity booster!

Privacy

As with any business, protecting customers and their information is top of mind. One effective means is through email encryption - with end-to-end encryption providing additional protection that only the sender and recipient can read your messages; two-factor authentication helps ward off phishing attacks by making it harder for hackers to guess your passwords.

Hotmail, previously known as MSN Hotmail and later Windows Live Hotmail, was one of the pioneering free web-based email services to debut. Reportedly it was one of the first services offering SSL encryption - a security standard used for protecting data transmission between sender and recipient - as well as multi-factor authentication, which makes it much harder for hackers to gain access.

Though Hotmail may not have as high of an international profile as Gmail or Yahoo, many still choose it due to its user-friendly interface, ease of sign up and affordable cost. Unfortunately, however, you don't have much control over your privacy as most of it is stored on servers owned by Microsoft and therefore less control is granted over that aspect of privacy.

No surprise then that Microsoft is working to transform Hotmail into a social media platform like Facebook, where users can post status updates and photos, chat with friends and family, play games, read articles and watch videos.