With webmail, all of your emails are stored online and, therefore, nothing is saved on the computer that you use to access your webmail account.

For example, using any computer, you can go to outlook.com and log in to an Outlook.com webmail account. You can read emails or send new ones, then log out from the account, but nothing will be saved on that particular computer.

Your emails will live online in the cloud, and you’ll always be able to access them again from any other computer by logging into your webmail account.

Learn how to switch to a free webmail account

Webmail beats email programs

Even if the Outlook program (or other email clients) feels familiar to you, it’s simple to get up and running with a new webmail account.

It’s best not to choose an email account associated with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), as this may tie you in to using that service longer than you’d want.

Instead, pick a free account from a provider such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail).

Webmail:

• A free email service
• You access your account by logging into it in a web browser
• You can log in from any computer anywhere in the world
• Works well with smartphones and tablets
• Frees you up to switch broadband providers as you can always keep your email address

Email clients:

• A program that sits on your computer
• Stores local copies of your email
• Risk if the program stops being supported (for example, Windows Live Mail)
• If your computer is lost, virus-infected or damaged, you could lose the email files stored on it