怎么选择一款最适合自己的邮箱 | How to choose the email service that suits you best

如何选择一款好的邮箱？这个问题我折腾了挺久，差不多把市面上能试的都试了一遍，最后我自己是留了iCloud邮箱和QQ邮箱。但你要是让我给个普遍建议，我觉得在国内，最好用的搭配其实是 ~~Outlook配QQ邮箱~~(更新:outlook已被爆出有严重漏洞,会被盗号,不要用!!!闲鱼上的低价Minecraft正版账号就是被盗的outlook账号!要买Minecraft一定要用非outlook邮箱的微软账号)

我先从Outlook说起吧。这玩意儿是个国际邮箱，但在国内能直接登录使用，不用折腾别的，这点就赢了Gmail。它最大的一个好处是，你可以在某宝上找到卖那种五位甚至更短的靓号的，价格不贵。买了之后，千万记得第一件事就是把密码改了，绑上自己的手机和辅助邮箱，最好把两步验证（2FA）也开了，不然真有被无良卖家收回的风险。Outlook能加十个别名，相当够用了。

但它有个挺烦人的缺点：垃圾邮件过滤机制严格得有点“神经质”。我有好几次连微软官方发的通知邮件都被它扔进垃圾箱了，真是让人哭笑不得。解决办法嘛，就是你有空的时候去垃圾箱里“拯救”一下这些正常邮件，多点几次“这不是垃圾邮件”，系统会慢慢学乖的。

还有就是好名字基本都被注册光了。我的解决思路是，要么去买个短邮箱名当主账号，然后添加别名来用；要么就玩点花的——注册其他国家域名的Outlook。方法很简单：把你微软账户的个人资料国家/地区改成你想注册的国家，比如法国，然后去添加新邮箱地址，你就会发现可选 @outlook.fr 了。我搞了个 .fr 的，看起来像“friend”的缩写，挺有意思。类似的还有德国 .de、意大利 .it、印度尼西亚 .id 等等，选择不少。

说到这儿，就不得不提QQ邮箱了。很多人瞧不上它，但它的功能其实很强。一个QQ号能挂三个邮箱：一个是数字QQ号@qq.com，一个是英文邮箱账号@qq.com，还有一个就是重点——Foxmail邮箱。你可以在QQ邮箱设置里申请一个 @foxmail.com 的地址。这个域名在国际上接受度不错，而且最关键的是，它发出的邮件，几乎能100%闯过Outlook那个变态的垃圾邮件过滤器。所以我才说，Outlook + Foxmail是国内收发邮件的“黄金搭档”。

再说说iCloud邮箱。我现在主用这个，感觉收信速度也没传说中那么慢，界面干净，和苹果设备结合得天衣无缝。它免费版给3个“替身邮箱”，可以保护你的真实地址。但是！如果你没有苹果设备，那用起来就是灾难，网页版体验很局限。所以它基本上就是把你绑在苹果生态里了。另外注意，国内版的iCloud+服务是阉割版，想要完整功能（比如自定义域名）得用外区Apple ID。

Gmail，在国内的环境下，访问是个大问题，稳定性不行。我都是拿其他客户端代收的，当个备胎。

国内那些老牌邮箱，163、126、yeah、sina、sohu，以及国外的雅虎，怎么说呢，能用，但没什么非用不可的理由。它们不跟任何主流平台捆绑，就当个纯粹的备胎邮箱也行。

还有一些小众选择，这次我重点研究了它们的域名邮箱功能，发现不少门道：

俄罗斯的Yandex Mail，这玩意的邮箱服务在国内访问一般没有问题,但是网盘我试了下不能裸连。它给vip账号提供一个域名邮箱,不过务必注意它的运作方式不是买了这个域名给你用,而是只代理这个域名的邮箱端口给你转发(应该是这样的,具体原理我不清楚)

它的服务器在莫斯科，所以在东欧地区邮件投递成功率据说很高。技术上它用了动态IP池，对发营销邮件（EDM）有点帮助。不过免费版有每日发信量限制（大约200封），但是没有中文界面。它内置的邮件翻译功能倒是个亮点，但是对中文的支持能力远远不及谷歌和qq

总之，如果你有面向俄语区或东欧的业务，或者单纯喜欢@yandex.com这个后缀，可以一试，但别抱太高期望。这家客服不错,对中国人的态度明显比其他莫斯科或者彼得堡的俄国老流氓态度要好,(感觉俄国大多数地方的人还是很友好的,但是唯独莫斯科和圣彼得堡对华人态度恶劣)

印度的Zoho Mail，这个我得多说几句。它主业是企业邮箱，但个人免费版体验确实不错

以前短@zoho.com域名难注册，现在常见的是@zohomail.com。它最硬核的地方在于，免费版就支持绑定你自己的域名，变成真正的you@yourcompany.com。免费套餐支持最多5个邮箱账户和5GB存储。对于小团队或个人品牌，这简直是零成本建立专业形象的神器。它的后台功能很amazing，比如端到端加密、分布式存储保证海外访问速度，但设置MX记录、SPF/DKIM这些对新手有点门槛。它还有个巨大优势：与Zoho自家的CRM、项目管理（Projects）等工具无缝集成。比如，你可以直接把一封客户邮件转化为CRM里的一个客户线索，或者项目管理中的一个任务，自动化程度很高。如果考虑付费，它的高级版在安全和协作上功能更全

瑞士的Proton Mail，主打安全加密，有@proton.me和@protonmail.com可选(更新:还有个proton.ch,这个ch是瑞士的国家域名,注意不是中国的缩写,中国的国家域名是cn)，但.me域名属于黑山共和国，这国家最近的政局还算稳定,但即使是初中生,听到巴尔干半岛,萨拉热窝都能联想到初中历史课本上的火药桶,没错,黑山曾经是南斯拉夫联盟的一部分,你要是害怕哪天这个国家又消失了,就别用这个域名了(本站用的就是me域名,不过反正对我来说无所谓,大不了再买个ink域名就是了)。

对了，容易忽略的还有三大运营商的邮箱：189（电信）、139（移动）、wo.cn（联通）。如果你有个打算长期用的手机号，注册一个挺好，特别适合作为长期使用。注册时记得在网页版设个邮箱别名，别直接暴露手机号,隐私很重要。(更新:广电其实也有个192邮箱,宣称无限空间,然后有人就疯狂白嫖,把邮箱当作免费云盘,现在自然也是跑路了,广电用户请改用移动的139邮箱,两家是通用的)

雅虎yahoo的介绍在英文区,因为这玩意的确在国内不常用.

邮箱选好了，起名也是个难题。我的核心思路是：名字+标识。

最直接的是加职业或身份标识，比如我自己的 exyone.dev@icloud.com，dev代表developer。也可以用 .design, .writer, .edu 等等各种缩写。

也可以加国家或地区标识，比如 .chn (China), .prc(People's Republic of China), .bj (北京), .sh (上海)。

加生日或年份也行，zhangsan1990@example.com/zs1203@example.net之类的。

如果简单的组合都被抢注了，就得玩点花样了：

拼音变形：用双拼输入法的编码。比如“张三”zhangsan，在微软双拼里是vhsj。或者用缩写加部分拼音，比如 zsan, zshan。
数字替字母：这是一种替换法leet speak,程序员应该都懂。常见的有：4=A, 3=E, 7=T, 1=L/I, 0=O。比如你想用“tea”，可以写成 t3a。我的一个QQ邮箱别名就是这么来的。
加点分隔：在名字中间加小数点，比如 zhang.san, z.san。(更新:大多数邮箱也支持-和_)

最后，有些前缀我个人很不推荐，除非实在没辙了：比如 me. (me.zhangsan), im. (im.zhangsan), hi.(hi.ikun) 这些，会显得不太正式，像临时账号。

所以回到最初的问题，怎么选？

绝大多数国内用户：Outlook（收国际+正式邮件）+ QQ邮箱/Foxmail（收国内+日常邮件），这个组合能覆盖99%的场景，省心。(更新:像最上面的更新说的那样,现在是绝对不推荐用outlook的,具体怎样搭配自己多用几个就好了)
苹果全家桶用户：用iCloud当主力没问题，但务必配一个Outlook或Foxmail做备用，防止在非苹果设备上抓瞎。
有小团队或自建域名邮箱：认真研究一下 Zoho Mail的免费域名邮箱，这是域名邮箱成本最低的路子

有特殊区域业务或极客玩家：可以折腾Yandex或Proton，Proton需要配置一个代理服务

有想要补充的,欢迎在评论区留言哦~

How to pick a good email service? I’ve spent quite some time figuring this out—pretty much tried everything available on the market. In the end, I settled on iCloud Mail and QQ Mail. But if you ask me for general advice, I’d say that within China, the best combo is actually Outlook paired with QQ Mail. (Update: Outlook was recently exposed to have serious security flaws that can lead to account theft—do not use it! Those cheap genuine Minecraft accounts on Xianyu—a popular Chinese second-hand platform similar to eBay or Mercari—are actually stolen Outlook accounts! If you’re buying Minecraft, make sure the Microsoft account isn’t tied to an Outlook email.)

Let me start with Outlook. It’s an international email service, but you can log in and use it directly in China without any extra hassle—that already puts it ahead of Gmail. One big advantage is that you can find sellers on Taobao (China’s largest e-commerce platform, like Amazon or Rakuten) offering short, nice-looking addresses (even 5-character ones) at a low price. Once you buy one, the first thing you must do is change the password, bind your own phone number and a backup email, and ideally enable two-factor authentication (2FA). Otherwise, there’s a real risk the shady seller might reclaim it. Outlook allows adding up to 10 aliases, which is more than enough.

But it has a pretty annoying downside: its spam filter is way too strict, almost neurotic. I’ve had several occasions where even official notifications from Microsoft got tossed into the junk folder—kinda funny but also frustrating. The workaround is to periodically check your spam folder and “rescue” those legitimate emails by marking them as “Not junk.” The system will learn eventually.

Another issue is that all the good names are pretty much taken. My workarounds: either buy a short address to use as your main account and then add aliases, or get creative—register an Outlook account with a country-specific domain. It’s simple: change the country/region in your Microsoft account profile to, say, France, then go add a new email address. You’ll notice you can now choose @outlook.fr. I grabbed a .fr one—looks like the abbreviation for “friend,” which is pretty cool. Similarly, there’s .de for Germany, .it for Italy, .id for Indonesia, and so on. Plenty of options.

Now, let’s talk about QQ Mail. A lot of people look down on it, but its features are actually solid. One QQ number (from Tencent’s QQ instant messaging app) can host three email addresses: one is your QQ number @qq.com, another is an English alias @qq.com, and the highlight—Foxmail Mail. You can apply for an @foxmail.com address in your QQ Mail settings. This domain is well-accepted internationally, and most importantly, emails sent from it have an almost 100% success rate in bypassing Outlook’s spam filter. That’s why I consider Outlook + Foxmail the “golden duo” for sending and receiving emails in China.

Next up: iCloud Mail. This is my main email now. I find the receiving speed isn’t as slow as rumors say, the interface is clean, and it integrates perfectly with Apple devices. The free version offers three “Hide My Email” aliases to protect your real address. However! If you don’t have any Apple devices, using it is a disaster—the web version is very limited. So it basically locks you into the Apple ecosystem. Also note: the iCloud+ service in China is a stripped-down version; for full features (like custom domains), you need a non-China Apple ID.

Gmail is tricky in China due to access issues—it’s just not stable. I only use it via other email clients to fetch messages, treating it as a backup.

As for domestic legacy email services like 163, 126, Yeah, Sina, Sohu, and the international Yahoo—well, they’re usable, but there’s no compelling reason to choose them. They aren’t tied to any major platforms, so they can serve as pure backup emails.

A quick note about Yahoo: Internationally, Yahoo Mail is well-known, but it’s worth mentioning that Yahoo Japan (ヤフー Yahoo! JAPAN) is a completely separate entity in Japan—it’s one of the country’s biggest portals and offers its own email service (@yahoo.co.jp). In Japan, Yahoo is also famous for ヤフオク! (Yahoo! Auctions), the go-to auction site similar to eBay. So if you’re considering Yahoo, remember that its presence and features can vary a lot by region! 🌏

Now, some niche options. This time, I focused on their custom domain features and discovered quite a bit:

Russia’s Yandex Mail: Its email service is generally accessible in China, but its cloud storage (Yandex.Disk) doesn’t work without a proxy in my tests. It offers a custom domain email for VIP accounts, but be aware—it doesn’t give you the domain outright; it only proxies the email ports for that domain to forward messages (that’s my understanding; the exact mechanism isn’t clear).

Its servers are in Moscow, so email delivery success rates are reportedly high in Eastern Europe. Technically, it uses a dynamic IP pool, which helps with sending marketing emails (EDM). However, the free version has a daily sending limit (around 200 emails) and no Chinese interface. Its built-in email translation is a nice feature, but its Chinese support is far behind Google’s and QQ’s.

In short, if you have business targeting Russian-speaking regions or Eastern Europe, or you simply like the @yandex.com suffix, you can try it—but don’t expect too much. Their customer service is decent and noticeably friendlier toward Chinese users compared to other Russian companies based in Moscow or St. Petersburg. (Most Russians are quite friendly, but Moscow and St. Petersburg have a reputation for being less welcoming to Chinese people.)

India’s Zoho Mail: This one deserves more detail. Its main business is enterprise email, but the personal free version offers a surprisingly good experience.

Previously, short @zoho.com addresses were hard to register; now, @zohomail.com is more common. Its standout feature: the free version supports binding your own custom domain, turning it into a true you@yourcompany.com. The free plan allows up to 5 email accounts and 5GB storage. For small teams or personal branding, this is a zero-cost way to build a professional image. Its backend features are amazing—like end-to-end encryption, distributed storage ensuring good overseas access speeds—but setting up MX records, SPF/DKIM, etc., can be tricky for beginners. Another huge advantage: seamless integration with Zoho’s own CRM, project management (Projects), and other tools. For example, you can directly convert a customer email into a lead in CRM or a task in project management—highly automated. If you consider paying, its premium versions offer more comprehensive security and collaboration features.

Switzerland’s Proton Mail: Focuses on security and encryption, offering @proton.me and @protonmail.com. (Update: There’s also @proton.ch—.ch is Switzerland’s country code, not China’s, which is .cn.) But note: .me belongs to Montenegro. Recent political situation suggests the country is relatively stable, but even a middle schooler hearing “Balkans” or “Sarajevo” might recall the “powder keg” from history textbooks. Yep, Montenegro was part of Yugoslavia. If you’re worried the country might disappear someday, better avoid this domain. (This site uses a .me domain, but I don’t really mind—I can always buy an .ink domain if needed.)

Also, easily overlooked are the three major carriers’ email services: 189 (China Telecom), 139 (China Mobile), and wo.cn (China Unicom). If you have a phone number you plan to use long-term, registering one is a good idea—especially suitable for long-term use. When registering, remember to set up an email alias on the web version to avoid exposing your phone number directly—privacy matters. (Update: China Broadnet also has a 192 email, claiming unlimited space. Some people exploited it as free cloud storage, and naturally, it’s gone now. Broadnet users, please switch to China Mobile’s 139邮箱—the two are compatible.)

Once you’ve chosen an email service, naming is another challenge. My core idea: name + identifier.

The simplest is adding a profession or identity marker, like my own exyone.dev@icloud.com, where “dev” stands for developer. You can also use .design, .writer, .edu, etc.

Or add a country or region identifier, like .chn (China), .prc (People’s Republic of China), .bj (Beijing), .sh (Shanghai).

Including your birth year or date works too, like zhangsan1990@example.com or zs1203@example.net.

If simple combinations are taken, you’ll need to get creative:

Pinyin variations: Use input method encodings. For example, “张三” (zhangsan) in Microsoft Shuangpin is “vhsj.” Or use abbreviations plus partial pinyin, like zsan or zshan.

Leet speak (number-for-letter substitution): Programmers will get this. Common substitutions: 4 = A, 3 = E, 7 = T, 1 = L/I, 0 = O. For example, “tea” could become t3a. One of my QQ Mail aliases was created this way.

Add separators: Insert dots between names, like zhang.san or z.san. (Update: Most email services also support hyphens and underscores.)

Finally, some prefixes I personally don’t recommend unless you’re out of options: like me. (me.zhangsan), im. (im.zhangsan), hi. (hi.ikun). These can look informal, like a temporary account.

So, back to the original question: How to choose?

For most users in China: Outlook (for international + formal emails) + QQ Mail/Foxmail (for domestic + daily emails). This combo covers 99% of scenarios and is hassle-free. (Update: As mentioned earlier, Outlook is now strongly not recommended due to security issues. Figure out your own mix with a few different services.)

Apple ecosystem users: Using iCloud as your main email is fine, but definitely pair it with an Outlook or Foxmail as backup to avoid being stuck on non-Apple devices.

For small teams or custom domain emails: Seriously consider Zoho Mail’s free custom domain email—it’s the lowest-cost route to a personalized email.

For special regional needs or tech enthusiasts: You can experiment with Yandex or Proton. Proton will require setting up a proxy.

Anything to add? Feel free to leave a comment!

Note for International Readers:
Some services like QQ Mail are deeply integrated with the Chinese internet ecosystem. Also, note that Yahoo operates differently across regions—for example, Yahoo Japan (ヤフー) is a major local portal with its own email and auction service (ヤフオク!). When choosing an email, always consider regional accessibility, privacy norms, and how well it fits your local digital landscape. Happy emailing! 😊🌍