Three Free Email Reminders Reviewed: Followupthen.com, Followup:cc, Boomerang for Gmail

Many of us use our email inbox as a to-do list. Keeping that to-do list organized and easily accessible is a daunting task–especially with scores of new messages arriving daily. Each of these programs and services has its own spin on reminders.

Followup.cc

The Followup.cc service can help you stay on top of your email tasks, by sending you handy reminders when you need them most. Followup.cc is available in four versions: Free, Personal ($5 per month), Plus ($10 per month), and Premium ($15 per month).

Followup.cc’s email reminders make it easy to press snooze and push those reminders off a little longer. All four versions work with any type of email account, including Web-based email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, desktop clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, and on mobile phones. The reason Followup.cc works with any email service is because it’s entirely email-based itself: To use it, you simply send an email message to a Followup.cc address. Then, Followup.cc emails you a reminder at the time you’ve determined.

Read the full review and sign up for Followup.cc (free to $15 per month, depending on level of service).

Followupthen.com

Followupthen.com has a whole lot in common with rival Followup.cc. Both work with any type of email account, including Web-based email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, desktop clients like Outlook and Thunderbird, and on mobile phones. That’s because Followupthen.com is, like Followup.cc, an email-based service: To use it, you simply send an email to a predetermined address. The service then responds with a reminder to you, at the time you’ve determined. Boomerang for Gmail is a similar service, but it’s a Firefox/Chrome plug-in that works only with Gmail and Google Apps Email.

Followupthen.com does have a couple of advantages over Followup.cc. For one, it lets you send an unlimited number of reminders for free; Followup.cc’s free version tops out at 25 reminders a month. And it uses more natural language when scheduling reminders. You can, for example, email 2minutes@followupthen.com if you want to receive a reminder in two minutes. Followup.cc uses abbreviations (2mi), which can be challenging to remember.

Read the full review and sign up for Followupthen.com (free).

Boomerang for Gmail

Wouldn’t it be great if your email client could read your mind? You know, sending messages at just the right time. Reminding you when people don’t reply to your messages. And taking messages out of your inbox when you don’t need them, but returning them to the top of your message pile later on, when you do. Boomerang for Gmail offers all of these features. This free Firefox/Chrome extension can’t quite read your mind, but sometimes it feels like the next best thing.

Boomerang for Gmail lets you compose messages now and then send them later.Once installed and given permission to access your Gmail or Google Apps email account, Boomerang appears adds a “send later” button on the top of messages you compose, next to Google’s own “Send” button. Pressing “Send Later” lets you choose between sending the message at a set interval (in a certain number of hours or days) or at a certain date and time in the future. This feature is handy when you’re composing a message at a time when it could get lost in the shuffle, such as over the weekend or during off-hours, and would like to send it at a time when it’s more likely to get noticed.

Read the full review and install Boomerang for Gmail (free).