At one time or another we’ve all had that feeling of dread or even felt suckered because of an online registration form that requires an email address to access some form of content. Maybe it was information we sought or maybe the website promised you a free item or access to exclusive content. The catch? You had to enter your email address.
Well, that’s just silly. Why should you give out your personal or business email address just to get a promotional code for a free bag of chips? You shouldn’t have to, so we’ve compiled a list of disposable email address generators that users can use in place of their own email address. The addresses are real and work like any other email address. The big difference is they are either timed or a bottomless trash can for spam email.
Disposable Email Generators
Mailinator
Mailinator is one of our favorites. We’ve used them in the past and are reliable. With Mailinator you simply create an email address of your choosing and add @mailinator.com to the end of it. So as an example you could create an address of ‘IWantMyFreeBagOfChips@mailinator.com’. If you don’t feel like thinking, just use the random email address that Mailinator generates for you.
There are no sign-ups, passwords or registrations and checking your inbox is as simple as typing it into their “Check your Inbox” feature.
Visit Mailinator
10MinuteMail
Just as the name indicates, 10MinuteMail provides a timed, disposable, email address for 10 minutes. The 10 minutes should allow you enough time to finalize registration forms or sign-up processes. If you need more time, 10MinuteMail allows you to add more minutes in increments of 10.
If you receive an email message during that time it appears on the 10MinuteMail.com screen, handy for when you are waiting on a one time confirmation email.
Visit 10MinuteMail
Dispostable
Like Mailinator, Dispostable uses email addresses ending in their own domain (@dispostable.com). Pick any email address you like and enter it into any online form or sign-up page, then navigate to the Dispostable website and check your inbox. If you want a randomly generated email address, just visit the Dispostable website first and grab the one listed on the main page.
Dispostable’s website has a no fluff, clean looking display and is reminiscent of Google in its simplicity, making it great for first time users.
Visit Dispostable
GuerrillaMail
GuerrillaMail is another timed, disposable, email address generator. The email addresses last 60 minutes and are automatically created when you visit the GuerrillaMail website. GuerrillaMail is unique in that it starts out by sending you an email to the newly created disposable address which explains how to use the address, check for email and extended options.
GuerrillaMail provides usage data on how many email addresses have been created and how many prevented spam. Fun stats to look at, but have no direct impact on their service or your email address.
Visit GuerrillaMail
MintEmail
Like some of the others, MintEmail allows users to create a custom email address or use a randomly generated one. After the email address is used, you can check incoming messages by adding the username to the web url. So for example, if you used IWantMyFreeBagOfChips as your email address username, then you would check your inbox at ‘www.mintemail.com/IWantMyFreeBagOfChips’.
Like all the others, no registration, sign-up or account creation process is needed.
Visit MintEmail
Final Thoughts
Disposable email addresses are really useful and can be a big time saver. They can help prevent major headaches later by preventing spam from coming to your personal email inbox. One word of caution, don’t use disposable email addresses on websites where you actually want to receive their content. Of course it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, don’t use disposable email addresses for anything related to financial information because obviously you want and may need to receive those emails.
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Your Thoughts
Have you used disposable email addresses in the past? Which service do you use? Do you have a favorite not on this list? Let us know in the comments!
Its really really good article. This information’s help me to email marketing. thankyou
i’m looking for an email generator which allows me to set a time of deletion. for example delete in 1 hr or 7 days or 1 month etc.
any suggestions?
thanks
@voxpop – MailExpire.com allows you to set time frames for usage from 12 hours up to 3 months. For something smaller like 1 hour, the best options I know of are 10minutemail.com where you can add 10 minute increments as needed or Guerrilla mail which expires email addresses after 15 minutes.
If anyone knows of other options for voxpop, please jump in with your suggestions!
Another great service is http://www.trashmail.org. Very fast and simple.
@MegaMaxxx – Thanks for the tip!
http://www.mailimate.com is also a nice alternative. Group Mailing and simple UI are its strong suits.