Fastmail Email vs Outlook.com

Fastmail Email provides email, calendars, contacts, and file storage for individuals, families, and businesses. Mail tools include search, pinning, snooze, scheduled sending, offline support, and private memos on messages. Fastmail says its paid service has no ads, personal-data mining, or third-party sharing. It says customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest, supports TLS 1.3 and Perfect Forward Secrecy, and offers two-step verification and passkeys. Customers can choose the EU or US as their primary data residency. Fastmail offers apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, plus a browser app. Access protocols include JMAP, IMAP, POP, SMTP, CardDAV, CalDAV, and WebDAV; OAuth is documented for third-party clients. Fastmail does not provide end-to-end encryption in its own apps, though PGP or S/MIME can be used through supported third-party apps. Plans range from Basic at $4 a month to Family at $14 a month, with different storage and account allowances. The service is paid, has no free plan, and offers a 30-day trial. Every plan includes 24/7 expert support from real people.

Outlook.com brings email, calendars, tasks, and contacts together, with web, desktop, and mobile access. Its free plan costs nothing and includes 15 GB of mailbox storage and core Outlook security features. Email aliases are available, but custom domains are not. Microsoft 365 Basic costs $1.99 a month, billed annually at $19.99, and includes 100 GB of mailbox storage, ad-free Outlook email and calendar, and 100 GB of cloud storage. Personal costs $9.99 a month, billed annually at $99.99, and includes 1 TB of cloud storage and desktop Office apps; a free trial is available. Family costs $12.99 a month, billed annually at $129.99, for 1 to 6 people, while Premium costs $19.99 a month, billed annually at $199.99, for up to six people. Personal and Family users can use the service on up to five devices simultaneously. Paid plans include advanced Outlook security features and OneDrive ransomware protection. Personal, Family, and Premium include desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote with Copilot. The product is marked unavailable in the viewer's market.