While iCloud Mail is the default email provider for most Apple users, there are many reasons to consider alternatives. Some people have 

 about Apple products, while others decide to transition based on personal preferences. Whatever the reasons, 

this article will explain how to delete an iCloud email account.

If you only want to declutter your correspondence,

How to remove iCloud email account from your iPhone

What email service providers might be worthy alternatives to iCloud Mail

How to delete an iCloud email account via browser

also means permanently clearing out any associated data, such as:

If you’re unsure of whether you’ll need these in the future, make backups before proceeding. After that, you can delete your iCloud email address by following these steps:

Confirm your identity via two-factor authentication if you have it enabled

Confirm your choice on the pop-up window by clicking on 

Once you've deleted your iCloud email account, update other accounts or 

ensure you don’t lose anything important

 in the transition to a new email account—like photos, messages, and app configurations.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to exporting your iCloud emails:

Click the checkboxes next to the messages

 you want to export (to select multiple emails, hold the Command key on Mac or Ctrl key on Windows keyboards)

Select where you’ll save the exported files

To export your iCloud Calendar data, follow these steps:

Choose the calendar from the left-hand sidebar

Backing up your iCloud contacts is almost identical:

Deleting opened emails regularly is an excellent way to keep your inbox clutter-free and organized.

Emails take up your storage space, of which you only get 5 GB for free. After a few years of continuous use, you might need to 

 as they’re bound to pile up even with the best inbox maintenance habits.

You can easily mass-delete emails from your iPhone in a few steps:

Once you click Select All, you can manually 

This process doesn’t delete your emails permanently—

 To discard the emails completely, go to the Settings screen of your Mail app and 

How to remove an iCloud email address from your iPhone

You don’t necessarily need to delete your iCloud account permanently if you want to streamline email communication—you can remove one of your email addresses from your iPhone.

you’ll still have all your emails and associated data

, but they won’t be available on that specific device. You can access the account from your iPad or computer.

To remove an email account from your iPhone, follow these steps:

The instructions aren’t limited to iCloud accounts—you can use the same process to 

 The only difference is that other email providers won’t have the Use on this iPhone toggle—there will be a 

Why deleting iCloud email might be the right call

While many owners of Apple devices use it, the iCloud email service comes with a few notable downsides, including:

Most email services provide a certain amount of free storage with a basic account and require you to switch to a 

5 GB of storage and a maximum of 20 MB for 

The space isn’t reserved only for emails—the same 5 GB is shared between your calendar, backups, and documents. If you use iCloud to save photos, you’ll burn through that 5 GB quickly.

and delete them from the email server. Your device is where the emails are stored, and switching to a different device means losing them unless you back them up manually.

, and email services like iCloud Mail create temporary copies on your device while you’re viewing them. This allows you to access all emails from any device.

IMAP comes with some security vulnerabilities

 who gain access to iCloud’s servers could obtain your emails, for example. While POP requires more configuration and is less user-friendly, some businesses and individuals still prefer it.

It’s not the end of the world for most users, but it’s clear that 

Apple primarily intended iCloud to be used with Apple Mail on iOS devices.

There’s no dedicated iCloud Mail app for Android devices.

You can still access your emails via a mobile browser, but the user experience will be poor compared to a dedicated app.

Security concerns related to iCloud email

Ultimately, iCloud email runs into the same problem as other mainstream email services like Gmail—

 is only as strong as Apple’s server security because your encryption keys are kept there. This 

, which have frequently affected Apple servers 

 Apple doesn’t support E2EE security for iCloud emails and Contacts. 

This encryption type is only available for iCloud Photos, Notes, and Backup.

Unlike Gmail, Apple doesn’t have a history of misusing the contents of users’ emails for ad targeting and reselling to third parties. Still, their service doesn’t provide the highest level of data encryption for your email communication.

If you’re looking for a modern email service with 

Ensure your email security with Skiff Mail

 was built with end-to-end encryption from the ground up. The platform was designed as a 

Skiff employs device-based E2EE with a pair of keys:

 no one but the intended recipient can read your emails

, including Skiff’s employees or anyone else who gains access to their servers. Hacker attacks can’t jeopardize your messages because they can’t decrypt them without the unique private key.

Don’t compromise on accessibility and ease of use

How to delete an iCloud email account—a step-by-step tutorial

Skiff Mail has been open-source since day one, and our engineering team has been hard at work to release changes that make it easier to run and contribute to Skiff Mail's web app. Now, anyone can contribute to Skiff's development - simply push up a pull request if you have a creative idea, feature suggestion, or bug fix.

To try out Skiff Mail immediately in your web browser, visit the code sandbox below:

https://codesandbox.io/p/github/skiff-org/skiff-apps/main

You can run, edit, and experiment with Skiff Mail all inside the Code Sandbox. However, local development (see instructions below) will likely be much faster if you intend to make larger changes.

Our process of creating a buildable version of Skiff Mail started from an 

, working in public encourages our users to not just trust us, but verify our code for themselves.

 - our cryptography and UI libraries - as MIT-licensed NPM packages for anyone to use. We’ve been appreciative of the tremendous response this has received from the Skiff community.

With this update, we hope to unlock the creativity and energy of our community - if you want to make a change to Skiff Mail or fix a bug, you can now do so immediately.

As an example, here’s Skiff Mail in “homebrew”-style colors, with the source code available on the 

Here’s what we recommend to get started in contributing to Skiff Mail.

Set up a development environment and run Skiff Mail locally. You can either follow instructions for local development in the 

, or edit directly in the cloud using our 

 section within the repository, and assign yourself if anything looks interesting. This is the fun part of tinkering with our codebase and solving an interesting technical problem.

When you’ve made your change, create a pull request with our 

, and assign someone from the Skiff team to review!

Once your pull request is approved, you’re all cleared to merge. 🚀

A: For now, we decided to mock most API calls and authentication for simplicity and reliability. In the future, we may consider offering a hosted API - please email us at 

 if you’re interested in being a beta tester for this.

A: There are not financial bounties yet, but we’re offering a year of the Essential Plan to anyone who closes a “good first issue.”

A: Yes! Any PR that is merged and goes through a design review will be released to the entire Skiff community, which is now over one million users.

Skiff’s community is full of enthusiasts who care deeply about open-source software, privacy, and freedom. Feel free to join our 

 for daily updates. If you have feature requests, you can also add them to our public feature 

. If you want to contribute, we hope this guide was helpful!

Contribute to Skiff Mail

Gmail’s free account comes with a decent set of features suitable for casual to regular users. It may be too limiting if you need a comprehensive 

 for work, in which case you might consider upgrading to a 

To help you decide whether Gmail’s business tiers are worth switching to, 

this business Gmail vs. personal Gmail comparison will show you what you get if you upgrade

 that might be more suitable for your needs.

Gmail—personal vs. business account compared

Gmail is a part of Google Workspace, so you can’t buy it separately—you must subscribe to one of the plans encompassing all of Google’s collaboration tools. There are three fixed plans to choose from:

There’s also the custom Enterprise plan, for which you can contact Google’s sales team.

we’ll compare paid options to the free account from four perspectives

Personal vs. business Gmail—feature availability

The first notable feature you get with every paid Gmail plan is a custom email address. Instead of your email ending with 

, it can include your company name. This might contribute to your business’ reputation and trustworthiness.

, which are quite obstructive and invasive in the free account. They’re also 

—which Google tracks to target you with personalized ads—so 

this raises some concerning privacy questions

, you’ll get access to the Admin Console—an account management platform unavailable with the free plan. Among various options, 

it lets you set specific account permissions for other users in your organization

 to limit information sharing. For instance, you can restrict file sharing to ensure sensitive data can’t be sent outside certain departments.

There aren’t many feature differences besides the above

 when it comes to Gmail specifically. Note that other Google Workspace tools will get expanded usability if you upgrade, increasing the plans’ value for money.

A free Google account comes with 15 GB of storage shared across all platforms, including Gmail. This likely isn’t enough for an average business user because Google Drive files might fill up the space quite quickly.

Each business tier comes with expanded storage:

Once you commit to a plan, you can’t change the storage separately

. Only the Enterprise plan allows you to request additional space as needed.

Overall, storage isn’t Gmail’s strong point, especially since 

 lowest-tier business account gets you 50 GB of dedicated email storage alongside 1 TB of drive storage for the same price as Google’s Business Starter.

Gmail for business vs. personal account—customer support

With a free Gmail account, you get 24/7 support for emergency technical assistance. Support is available through several channels, most notably by phone and chat. The average response time is around four hours with standard support, so you’ll need to upgrade to shorten it.

priority support isn’t included in any of the fixed business plans

. You must buy it separately, in which case you can choose from two options:

The following screenshot shows what you get with each option:

Only the Enterprise plan comes with Enhanced support included

, so even if you upgrade to it, you’d still face additional costs to get access to the highest support tier. There are no fixed prices as the cost is calculated based on your needs, so you can contact the sales team for detailed information.

Business Gmail vs. personal account—security

isn’t a particularly secure email provider

, especially if you use the free version. You get a few basic 

Paid plans offer some additional security layers, such as group-based policy controls allowing you to limit access to sensitive information. If you choose the Enterprise plan, you also get advanced measures like 

data loss prevention and a dedicated security center

Gmail might not provide adequate security because of the weak encryption it uses

 protocol by default, regardless of whether you’re a free or paid user.

doesn’t shield them while they’re idle on Google’s 

. Such partial protection can be quite dangerous, especially since Google has been a 

 to ensure comprehensive protection of your correspondence. E2EE encrypts a message before it leaves the user’s device, ensuring only the recipient with a private decryption key can decipher it.

. You must upgrade to the Enterprise plan to get optional S/MIME encryption. You’d have to 

buy an S/MIME certificate for each user in your organization

 and configure it in Gmail, which is neither cost-effective nor convenient.

This is why Gmail is far from the best option if data safety and 

 and minimize the chances of confidential information being stolen, 

The importance of choosing a secure email service

Cybercrime is on the rise, and it can have devastating consequences on a business—according to research from 2019, 

 longer than six months after falling victim to an 

Even though Gmail’s paid plans offer some appealing features, they don’t matter much if your correspondence stays 

 and other malicious parties. That’s why you need a privacy-focused email provider capable of keeping your sensitive information safe.

advanced security measures like end-to-end encryption and a no-logs policy

 to minimize the attack surface and give you full control of your data. Unfortunately, such protection often comes at the cost of user-friendliness and feature availability.

To remove the need for compromising and let every user enjoy 

Skiff Mail—cutting-edge security paired with a rich feature set

 offering advanced protection to free and paid users alike. The platform uses two separate keys—public and private—to ensure nobody but the sender and recipient can access an email’s contents.

The public key encrypts the message and is shared between the sender and recipient. The private decryption key is 

created by the user and stays on their device

, so nobody else can decipher the message, including Skiff’s team.

For additional protection, Skiff offers the following security layers:

—You don’t need to leave any sensitive information to 

, and your credentials aren’t recorded or stored on the platform’s servers

—Skiff uses the Authenticator app for two-factor authentication, so you can secure your account without leaving a 

—Used to encrypt sensitive account data, such as your encryption keys

 elaborates more on these security measures, so you can read it for additional information. 

 to ensure all protection layers can be verified, and the codebase is available on 

Streamline your workflow with Skiff’s numerous features

Besides strong email protection, Skiff offers everything you need to stay productive—you can get up to:

15 Skiff.com aliases and two short aliases

Schedule, undo send, and autoreply features

Skiff Mail is also among the best email platforms for crypto enthusiasts—

 to explore everything that Skiff Mail has to offer and 

Priority customer support is available with Pro and Business tiers at no extra cost

, so you can rely on Skiff’s experts for any assistance you need.

Skiff Mail is available on all major browsers, 

, and MacOS, so you can secure your emails on various devices.

You can create a Skiff account in three simple steps:

To ensure a secure workflow beyond email correspondence, 

Skiff offers three additional end-to-end encrypted platforms

 and editing tool that keeps your files’ contents and metadata fully encrypted. Skiff Pages offers numerous project management features like flexible task delegation, sharing controls, and real-time collaboration

—You can store files of any type and ensure your confidential information is safe from unauthorized access. The platform also supports optional integration with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) for decentralized 

—It automatically syncs with Skiff Mail to let you stay organized and schedule events. You can create shared calendars and hold private meetings with the built-in video conferencing tool

, Skiff’s ecosystem can be an excellent option. 

 to safeguard them immediately. Unencrypted copies won’t be stored, so you’ll have complete privacy as soon as you migrate.

Business Gmail vs. personal Gmail—a concise breakdown

, with more than 1.8 billion users. Since people often send sensitive information via their personal or 

 Gmail accounts, the provider offers specific ways to fortify the security of their outbound messages.

One of the security methods Gmail provides is the Confidential Mode, introduced by the provider in 2018. 

We’ll take a closer look at the feature and explain:

What is Gmail Confidential Mode exactly, and how safe is it?

fortify the security of your Gmail account

Confidential Mode is Gmail’s feature that helps protect sensitive information from being shared accidentally or without your consent. You can use the feature to:

—Choose a date after which the message will no longer be visible to the recipient

 or email address to send them a verification passcode required to open the email

—If you think that the email has been compromised or the recipient hasn’t opened it in a specific period, you can revoke access to the email, regardless of the expiration date

When the recipient receives an email, they cannot forward, copy, download, or print it if the sender activated the Confidential Mode. This feature also allows you to send 

, photos, videos, and other files—securely. Once you activate the mode, the attachments will be unavailable for download without the accompanying passcode.

Confidential Mode doesn’t transmit the message through regular email protocols but stores it on Google’s server

, preventing it from being shared without the sender’s permission.

How to send a confidential email in Gmail

Sending an email in Confidential Mode requires completing six steps:

Open your Gmail account and click on the 

button in the top-left corner of the window

 button—the tiny lock at the bottom of the window—to start composing an email in this mode

 on the pop-up screen. You can pick between:

No SMS Passcode—Recipients using the Gmail app will be able to open the message but not copy, print, forward, or download it. Recipients who don't use Gmail will be emailed a passcode necessary for opening the message

SMS Passcode—Enter the recipient’s phone number, and they will receive a passcode by text message that they need to enter into the passcode field to gain access to the email

Security issues with Gmail’s Confidential Mode

While the Confidential Mode feature fulfills its purpose in theory, it is far from an ideal method for sending 

The main issue with this feature is that Google keeps the email contents on its servers and can access them anytime. While confidentiality is somewhat achieved with respect to other users, you don’t get it from the provider. Even when the message expires and is no longer visible to the recipient, it will remain in the sender’s “Sent” folder, which Google can also access. For this reason, 

calling the message “expired” may sound misleading.

The passcode option is another problem. If the recipient is a Gmail user, Google already has their phone number. However, if they’re not, by setting the password-protected email, you allow the provider to link the recipient’s phone number to their email address and the content of the message. 

Richard Liu