Yahoo Finance Microsoft Wants to Charge You for These Email Features
Microsoft might be cooking up a paid version of its email service, Outlook.com.
The Redmond, Wash. based company briefly put up a landing page for a so-called “Outlook.com Premium” service on Monday, spotted by tech news blog Thurrott and later confirmed by Microsoft. Screen shots of the landing page show that for now, Microsoft plans to offer the service for $3.99 per month after a free first year, and it will include five personalized email addresses, and an ad-free inbox among other goodies.
“Outlook.com Premium is currently a small pilot program. We’re always investigating new features based on the wants and needs of our customers, and we have nothing more to share at this time,” a Microsoft spokeswoman told Fortune via email.
Since Microsoft already offers an ad-free version of its email service for $19.95 per year, a successor to Hotmail Plus, Outlook.com Premium’s main draw seems to be the personalized email addresses. After offering the feature when it debuted Outlook.com in 2012, the company moved away from supporting custom domains in 2014. Microsoft has partnered with GoDaddy for this, a spokesman for GoDaddy confirmed to Fortune.
When Outlook.com Premium does go live, it could become an alternative for some users of Google’s business version of its Gmail service, which offers custom domains for $5 per person, per month. While large companies use the service, individuals who want to have a custom domain, linking to their personal website or online portfolio for example, use it too.
The story has been updated with confirmation and comment from Microsoft and GoDaddy.
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