You know it’s time to switch email provider when….

There are quite a few crappy email providers out there. If you did not pay attention when you chose your email provider, chances are that your email provider sucks. I’ve compiled a brief check-list for you that you can use to determine if your email provider sucks and that it’s time to move elsewhere.

Keep in mind that these are general guidelines. I’m aware of situations that invalidate one or more of these arguments, but they are true in general.

You know that that it’s time to switch email provider when….

…your storage quota is less than 5GB and you pay more than $0 per year.
Yes, Gmail changed the rules of the game. When they introduced several gigabytes of free storage, their competitors had no other choice but to follow. Today Gmail gives you more than 7GB of free storage. If you are still paying for less than a couple of gigabytes of storage, it’s time to move on.

…your email provider does not support SSL.
If your email provider does not support SSL and you care even the least about your privacy and, you should run for your life. You’d be surprised by how many providers do not offer this. For the non-technical readers, SSL enables you to encrypt the traffic (including username and password) between your local computer and the remote server. If your provider does not support SSL a person with even a moderate amount of technical skills can obtain your username, password and emails if connected to the same network (think wireless hotspots in a coffee shop). Yet, budget email providers usually cut costs here at the price of your privacy.

…your email plan was included in your webhosting plan.
Let’s face it, most (not all) email plans included in a webhosting plan suck. In most cases, they’re worse than the plans offered by most free providers.

…your email plan was included with your internet plan.
Not only are internet providers using this to prevent you from switching from their service, most of them are also poor when it comes to features. You’ll find that most of them do not support IMAP and they rarely support SSL. Also, you are likely to switch internet provider eventually, so why not move away from that mail now so you do not need to do it in a rush later?

…your email provider does not support IMAP and POP3.
As mentioned above, many cheap email providers do not support IMAP and POP3. Some only support POP3 (since it’s cheaper). Even if you’re not a technical user you should care about this. The reason is that one day you might decide to move elsewhere. If you first then realize that your email provider does not support IMAP, moving your email will become more or less impossible.

…your email provider does not support forwarding.
Granted, this is a Catch-22. If your email provider does not support forwarding, it will become more difficult to move (since you can’t forward incoming mail to the new address). Then again, you’re probably better off moving sooner than later anyways.

…your email provider uses Squirrelmail as its webmail.
There’s nothing wrong with Squirrelmail. If you run your own servers that is. It is reliable and gets the job done. Yet, if your email provider uses Squirrelmail, I’m pretty sure that they do not spend a whole lot of time trying to evolve and improve their email offerings.

…your email provider’s webmail only works in Internet Explorer.
While this is not very common anymore, there are still a few companies. One example is One.com (formerly known as B-One). Even if your company is a Windows-only shop, this is a really bad sign. It basically means that they really don’t bother hiring competent web developers. If they can’t even hire competent web developers, chances are their sysadmins are even worse. Would you really trust your email with a company like this?