Hotmail Plus - features of Hotmail's paid version

Hotmail is one of the most popular free web based email services in the world coming second only to Yahoo! Mail - please refer the article on Gmail usage statistics for details. It was launched in 1996 (U.S. Independence day - 4th of July) and bought by Microsoft after about 1. 5 years for an estimated $400 million with a subscriber base of 8.5 million users. Using their marketing prowess and deep pockets, Microsoft was able to increase this number manifold.

At the time of writing the free Hotmail account users get 5GB of storage space with 10MB email attachment size. Forwarding options are limited to other Microsoft properties such as other Hotmail.com accounts, live.com etc. Free Hotmail POP access has (finally) been allowed for subscribers of certain countries. If you don't have it, you can either wait patiently - the POP feature is being rolled out gradually - or change your Hotmail settings to reflect a country in which is feature is available.

Hotmail Plus - get more by paying a small amount

Hotmail also has a paid version called Hotmail Plus. You get double the storage space and email attachment size, no ads whatsoever, and free POP access. It costs less than $20 per year. However, I don't see a great benefit in procuring it unless you are running short of space, want to attach larger files or not happy with ads being displayed in your account. If you've been using Hotmail for a very long time and haven't deleted mails (even the really old ones), you would find the 5GB free storage a little less for your requirements and Hotmail Plus is the only option left if you want to retain your email address.

To get Hotmail Plus, visit the web site link and follow the instructions for payment. I also suppose paid users will get better support and help from the Hotmail staff.