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Jason Ginsberg / 5.30.2023Home / Email Security
What is a better alternative to Zoho Mail? Top 3 picks
Need an alternative to Zoho Mail? Check out the reviews of three email services providing advanced features and an overall secure and smooth user experience.
Zoho has made its mark in the digital world with dozens of apps and productivity tools, but Zoho Mail remains one of its most successful products. The email platform is specifically designed for business users and provides a range of options for collaborations and integrations, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a suitable service for everyone.We’ll help you find the best alternative to Zoho Mail based on your terms, whether you’re looking for more features, cheaper services, or tighter security protocols.Here’s what this article will provide:
Source: Zoho MailZoho Mail was one of the first email services catering specifically to the professional and corporate world. The platform is ad-free, and even the free tier lets users set up a customized domain besides offering some ground-level functionalities. The paid tiers are affordable as well, although the price-to-benefit ratio may vary for different users.Zoho’s free plan comes with a 5GB/user and a 25MB attachment limit. The pricing for the paid plans are:
Source: Spark MailSpark Mail—or Spark—is an email client designed to be a comprehensive solution for entrepreneurs, professionals, and their teams. Like Zoho Mail, Spark is scalable for small or medium businesses and includes an array of productivity tools.
Source: ProtonMailProtonMail has established itself as a security- and privacy-oriented email service. Platform’s other services—Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, and Proton Drive—are automatically available to every user.
Source: Skiff MailSkiff Mail is a privacy-focused, E2EE email service suitable for personal, professional, and business needs. The platform is adapted to different user needs and offers advanced features for an affordable price.Every Skiff user gets automatic access to the following end-to-end encrypted products besides Skiff Mail:
- An overview of Zoho Mail—with pros and cons
- Criteria for suitable Zoho Mail alternatives
- Reviews of the top three alternatives
Upgrade to a secure email providerWith Skiff Mail, you get a user-friendly interface, generous free storage, and the highest privacy standards
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Zoho Mail overview—what’s good and what’s not
- $1 user/month for Mail Lite
- $3.90 user/month for Mail Premium
- $6–$19/month for flexible alternative plans
Zoho Mail’s service review
Some of the best features of Zoho Mail include collaboration and workflow tools, consistent uptime, and ample admin tools. The platform’s overall performance is decent based on current standards, but the service could use several improvements. For example, many customers find the user interface and search features to be non-intuitive and challenging to use. While Zoho offers integration with other Zoho apps, the process can be complicated, and there are not enough tutorials on the website to offer support.Security is another aspect where the platform could do better. Zoho Mail offers security using TLS and S/MIME encryption protocols. It’s a decent setup, albeit still vulnerable to attacks as the decryption keys are stored on its servers. A security-focused email service should provide end-to-end encryption with the decryption keys stored on users’ devices instead of the provider’s servers.Zoho Mail started off as a unique, feature-rich solution for small- and medium-sized businesses but has since faced severe competition in its niche. While the platform has made several sophisticated additions to its profile, Zoho Mail competitors have come up with services more in tune with the latest demands.Criteria for a superior Zoho Mail alternative
Considering its existing service features, there are four core aspects that make for a suitable Zoho Mail alternative. Check them out:| Business-friendly features | Zoho mail is a business-focused service, and a suitable alternative should cater to the business world by providing advanced collaboration features, smooth integration, and admin control |
| Intuitive user interface | Many users find Zoho’s inbox and workflow management features clunky and difficult to navigate, so an ideal alternative should provide a smoother experience |
| Affordability | You may want a free alternative to Zoho Mail’s paid tiers or at least an affordable one that fits your budget or particular needs |
| Security | While Zoho Mail implements decent security protocols to safeguard sensitive data, they display vulnerabilities safety-focused users might take issue with. Since cyberattacks have become highly sophisticated, an alternative provider should implement advanced end-to-end encryption, ensuring nobody but the intended recipient can access your private messages |
Take control of your dataSkiff provides a suite of privacy-focused products for businesses and individuals
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Perfect replacements—three leading Zoho Mail alternatives
Zoho Mail’s replacements can be both email hosting services and email clients. We went beyond Big Tech products like Gmail and Office 365 and singled out three new-age email services that rival Zoho Mail according to all the above-mentioned aspects:- Spark Mail
- ProtonMail
- Skiff
Spark Mail—filter the noise with top-notch organizational tools
Features and user interface
The ad-free platform is available for Android, iOS, and macOS platforms. Some key Spark features include tools to label, monitor, and manage automated responses to emails. You can even delegate emails to employees within your team and collaborate using instant private comments. Spark can integrate with many useful platforms, including Google Drive, Trello, and Evernote.Besides offering business-friendly functionalities, Spark has the edge over Zoho Mail due to its friendly interface that promotes productivity. You get a unified Smart Inbox that flashes priority emails and groups non-priority ones in a separate folder to be accessed at a convenient time. The Smart Search feature is intuitive and supports natural language keywords. Spark loads incredibly fast, and you won’t experience lags even with multiple threads open.Security
Spark uses TLS for network security and also encrypts user content and passwords stored on server databases. It’s industry-standard but not really an improvement from Zoho Mail’s multidimensional protocols. The platform does not use its own servers but relies on Google Cloud service for storage, so the lack of direct ownership can be concerning for some users.Pricing and value for money
Spark’s free tier comes with 5 GB storage and almost all features suitable for two collaborators. It offers two paid tiers:- Premium Individual—$4.99/month
- Premium Teams—$6.99/month
| Pros | Cons |
| Full-spectrum business collaboration tools | Insufficient security |
| Productivity-optimized user interface | Lackluster Premium Individual plan |
| Unlimited collaborators | . |
| Generous per-team-member storage | . |
| Excellent organizational features | . |
| Fast and glitch-free | . |
ProtonMail—for securing sensitive and confidential business data
Features and user interface
ProtonMail and its sister services work together to allow seamless team management and control. The platform is ad-free and offers business plans that are scalable for small and large teams.ProtonMail delivers decent features for businesses. You can set up custom domains, customize labels, and filter emails with ease. The platform enables creating self-destructing emails (you can find a similar feature in Gmail’s Confidential Mode).Mobile users can access the service with Android and iOS apps. IMAP/SMTP integration is also available if you’d like to use the service with your current email client.The platform allows integration with other services, but the process can be cumbersome. Compared to Zoho, ProtonMail’s user interface is more modern, with multiple layouts and theme configurations, but still may be sluggish at times.Security
ProtonMail offers end-to-end encryption (E2EE) using AES-256 cipher for zero third-party access—which essentially means even the provider cannot access your content. Unfortunately, email subject lines are not encrypted. Another potential downside is that your messages are encrypted with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) security protocol that is considered outdated by security experts and is tied to significant vulnerabilities.Zoho Mail’s servers are U.S.-based, which attracts high surveillance. ProtonMail's servers are located in Switzerland and cannot be accessed under U.S. or U.K. laws. Switzerland's data protection laws are also pro-privacy, so ProtonMail offers a more secure environment overall.Pricing and value for money
ProtonMail’s free service offers 1 GB of storage and limited inbox size and organizational features. To get more advanced features, businesses typically opt for paid tiers, such as:- Mail Essentials—$6.99/month, 15 GB storage
- Business—$10.99/month, 500 GB storage
| Pros | Cons |
| Ad free | Pricier than Zoho (modest free tier) |
| Secure and privacy-focused | No encryption for subject lines and headers |
| Multiple collaboration tools | Occasionally slow (navigation and search) |
| Convenient admin controls | . |
| Integrated calendar, VPN, and drive | . |
Skiff—the most well-rounded alternative to Zoho Mail
Features and user interface
Unlike most E2EE platforms, Skiff offers a beautifully designed, straightforward interface that can rival those of Big Tech providers such as Gmail and Outlook. It also provides a wide range of features helping business users optimize their workflow.Skiff users can add multiple folders, labels, and aliases according to their requirements. The platform offers the option to set up custom signatures and automated messaging, as well as schedule and undo send. Unlike its competitors, Skiff provides a free advanced search feature, allowing you to easily access any content in your inbox.Skiff is a reliable option for business users as it enables real-time collaborations and integrated video calling. Configuring custom domains on the platform is fairly easy.Skiff is available on Android, iOS, and macOS apps, and you can migrate to the platform with a single click.For added privacy, Skiff offers crypto wallet integrations allowing you to communicate anonymously on the web. You can also take advantage of the integration with InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized storage system.
Security
Skiff offers more advanced protection against cyberattacks by applying two keys to safeguard your data—a public key used for encryption and a private key used for decryption. The decryption key is created by the user and stored on their device, so not even Skiff has access to it.Skiff enables zero-knowledge logins to ensure a user’s personal data is not stored on its servers. That way, the user’s identity stays protected even if the servers are compromised. Skiff also provides a 2FA (two-factor authentication) to add an extra layer of security to logins. As for the inbox, the platform offers robust protection against spam, malware, trackers, and phishing attacks.Skiff doesn't hide advanced security features behind a paywall and provides end-to-end encryption across all services for free. The platform is open source and has defined its encryption standards in a public whitepaper.
Skiff, like other email services, cannot protect your inbox if your device is compromised. Make sure to follow the best security practices to stay in control of your data.
Pricing and value for money
Skiff’s free tier is the most generous of all the services we’ve listed—it comes with:- 10 GB storage
- Email search feature
- 4 Skiff.com aliases
- Schedule and undo send
- Custom signatures
- Essential—$3/month (storage 15 GB)
- Pro—$8/month (storage 100GB)
- Business—$12/month (storage 1 TB)
Skiff offers exceptional value for money in terms of available features, ease of use, and security.
| Pros | Cons |
| Ad-free | Can’t protect your emails if your device is compromised |
| A generous free plan and affordable and feature-rich paid plans | Limited collaborators on the free tier |
| Advanced E2EE | . |
| Comprehensive product suite | . |
| Advanced admin controls | . |
| Intuitive and straightforward user interface | . |
How to sign up for Skiff
Since Skiff does not collect personal user data, the signup process is easy. Here’s how to proceed:- Visit Skiff’s signup page
- Enter a desired username and password
- Create your account
