Do I need Microsoft Outlook?

Microsoft Outlook is popular email software for business. We support Outlook 2019 or Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) and Outlook 2016 on PC and macOS.

The short answer: no, you do not need it

Programs like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird are completely optional. Some people use them in addition to our Webmail.

You do not need one to read your email, use our security features or be HIPAA compliant. Most of our customers prefer our feature-rich webmail. But we want you to have the best experience, so we support adding your account to Microsoft Outlook and managing it from there.

Why some people like Outlook

Outlook has a few things a webmail service generally does not:

• You can stay logged in to multiple email accounts at once.
• You can look across several email addresses, from several services, in one program.
• It connects with third-party software, calendar systems and services.
• You can back up and move email offline with the import/export and copy/move tools.

Things to think about

• Microsoft Office costs money and needs regular updates.
• Outlook stores data in .PST and .OST files with a maximum size of 50GB. Make sure your computer has at least 50GB of free disk space.
• Outlook slows down when a single folder reaches 12GB or about 12,000 messages. Keep your Inbox clean by creating folders and moving messages you do not need into them. Outlook runs best with an Inbox of 4GB or less and fewer than about 1,000 messages.
• Staying logged in 24/7 raises your security risk if the office or computer is not protected.
• Constant syncing with our servers uses bandwidth, which can be a problem on a busy or weak internet connection.
• If Outlook breaks, you need to contact Microsoft Support for help.