21 September 2013
Comments: 6

Best free disposable email providers

More and more people are concerned about preserving their privacy online. Concerns such as hackers, identity thieves and spam are real issues that we must content with whenever we give anyone our email address. Disposable email is one solution to this problem.

This is a way to enjoy the convenience of email while avoiding many of the risks. In this article, I’ll be discussing what disposable email is and then reviewing some of the best free providers of this service.

What is Disposable Email?

A disposable email address is one that is temporary and that you can discard at any time. It’s a way to maintain a measure of privacy and security in situations where you must provide a valid email address.

No doubt, you are familiar with the many demands for your email address. It seems that everywhere you go online there is a need to fill out a form that demands your email. For example:

  • E-commerce shopping sites, for example, want your email even if you are ordering physical products to a street address.
  • Some websites demand that you “join” before you can access anything on the site. This can be annoying if you do a search, click on an article and then find you must provide your email address before you can read it.
  • If you are replying to ads on sites like Craigslist, you also need an email address. Since many of these sites are used by scammers and spammers, you may be rightfully worried about giving them your primary email.

In all the above situations, there is no way to avoid giving away your email address. You must choose between giving them what they ask for or missing out on whatever they are offering.

Yet you probably also realize that when someone has your email address, they might send you unwanted promotions in the future. They could even sell it to someone else, leaving you open to receiving lots of spam in the future!

Disposable email providers give you a way around this dilemma. They provide you with legitimate email addresses that are different from your “real” or primary email. You can create distinct disposable email addresses for different purposes. That way, if you start getting spam or notice any kind of suspicious activity related to one of these addresses you can simply get rid of it.

Some of the ways to use disposable email addresses

  • Blog or Articles Site

    To access a website that requires email to read their content. You have no idea whether their content is good or not until after you have read them. To avoid huge disappointments, use a disposable email.

  • Shopping

    You can then get any future promotions from that company at the same email rather than having it come to your primary email address.

  • Safelists

    For online marketers who use safelists, it’s good to have a special email address for all of the promotional emails you will be getting.

  • Signing up for Newsletters

    You may want to receive information on a particular topic, yet not want to have to see dozens of emails per week from this source. Not all lists do this, but some do and you don’t know this until you actually have signed up.

Recommended Disposable Email Providers

The following are some of the disposable email providers with good reputation. They are also free to use.

  • GuerrillaMail

    Guerrillamail

    This is a popular free disposable email service. On their home page, they tell you how many emails they’ve processed. They are rapidly approaching the 1 billion mark, which shows how many people use them!

    GuerrillaMail automatically deletes emails in your inbox after 1 hour, which means you can avoid having spam pile up in your inbox. On the other hand, you must be efficient about retrieving your emails before they disappear. You can choose your own email address or have one randomly created for you.

  • Mailinator

    Mailinator

    This is another leading service that is free and very easy to use. There’s no need to sign up; you simply create an email address and you can start using it. If you need to use an email account quickly, check out Mailinator… can’t be easier and quicker I suppose!

    If you want, tou can point email sent to your own domain to Mailinator to give yourself privacy. To do this, you just have to set it up with your DNS server or registrar.

  • Dispostable

    Dispostable

    This service lets you choose any email address that ends in @disposable.com. This service holds mail for 3 days before deleting. This gives you a little more time than some of the others, but also ensures that spam doesn’t accumulate.

  • 10 Minute Mail

    10 minute mail

    On this site, you will see a temporary email address you can use right away. It expires after 10 minutes, though you have the option of giving yourself more time. Easy to use and quick to setup.

    The only downside to this service is that you must use the email address that is randomly created for you. While with some of the other services you can create a real-sounding email address, with 10 Minute Mail it really looks like a temporary email. This, however, is fine for many purposes as you will be using it for a while only.

  • MailCatch

    MailCatch

    This disposable email provider also generates email addresses for you instantly. You can choose any email ending in @mailcatch.com, which gives you some freedom to brand yourself. If you prefer, the site will generate a random address for you.

    The beauty of MailCatch is that you can use them without registering or signing up.

The Benefits of Disposable Email

Disposable email addresses can be very useful. They are a little-known trick that can instantly make your online experience safer and more private. You can use different emails for different purposes, and keep your various activities separate. These addresses can be discarded if you start to receive too much spam.

The services recommended here are a few of the best ones currently operating, and they are all free to use. They all operate in a similar manner, but some offer more flexibility than others when it comes to choosing your email address. With some you can also connect them with your own domains.

I would recommend using a good disposable email service if you are looking for a way to get more privacy online. When you do this, you don’t have to worry about sharing your email address ever again!

Have you used any disposable emails before? Which provider do you like to use the most?

6 responses on “Best free disposable email providers

  1. Ashutosh says:

    Hi Jasmine,

    A new topic for me and see, I learned something new from your blog today. I wasn’t aware about anything like disposable emails before this article but not anymore.

    You are right, spams are increasing day by day and disposable mails can be one of the best tools to fight the disadvantages of sharing our main email id with an untrusted site.

    Thanks for offering this simple but informative post.

    • Jasmine says:

      Hello Ashutosh,
      The reason I write this article is to let more people know about the existence of disposable emails. Just as we have discussed, this is a really effective way to reduce spams.

      So, which disposable email service is your favorite?

      Thanks for your comment.

  2. Dee Ann Rice says:

    Jasmine,

    I had no idea that disposable email addresses even existed. I have done something similar with emails on my own hosting. I will make up an address use it for a particular thing and then maybe delete it. The draw back to doing this is they do know your domain name but cannot really send you anything without know specific emails.

    I guess disposable emails give you more privacy and assurance that the place you are putting it will not find you again.

    Very interesting concept and great to know disposable emails are out there in case I have the need for one.

    Thank you

    Dee Ann Rice

    • Jasmine says:

      Hi Dee Ann Rice,

      I believe most of us have done that before. Registering for an email address (maybe with a free email provider such as Yahoo mail), and only use it on one or a few websites, temporarily. Well, I know I have done this, and I never even bother to delete the email too!

      Now with disposable emails, we won’t feel that guilty anymore, right? 🙂

  3. MegaMaxxx says:

    Another one for your list is trashmail.org. Very fast. Easy handling. No great setting. No registration required. Great working. Check it out.

  4. Dave says:

    I suggest yuslamail because there is no setup.
    You just select a username and get the inbox. It works on all sites I tried