Hotmail sign in: Is Hotmail the same as Outlook – Do you need two accounts?

Hotmail accounts are a staple to modern life, supplying people with easy-to-use no-nonsense email accounts.

Tech giants Microsoft are responsible for running the service and for creating similarly popular Microsoft Outlook.

Combined, the two services are at 760million worldwide users, as Outlook.com is on 400 million and Hotmail 360 million.

Microsoft has reworked both the hotmail and Outlook platforms before, resulting in a slightly confusing collection of different services.

Is Hotmail the same as Outlook?

Hotmail and Outlook have both been adopted by Microsoft over the years and were once upon a time separate entities.

Founded in 1996, Hotmail quickly became wildly popular, attracting over 8.5 million users by the time it was sold.

Hotmail was sold off to Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million and became the tech company’s first major mailing service.

As it continued to grow under Microsoft ownership, the service would later be modified to become Outlook.com.

This came into full swing by 2012, when the new Outlook service was released and customers were allowed to upgrade their current Hotmail account Microsofts newest service.

These who chose to make the jump to Outlook.com were met with a preview version, and allowed to change back to their Hotmail accounts if they wanted to.

Now, Microsoft has fully transferred their Hotmail service over to the Outlook platform, so anyone typing in Hotmail will be brought to the outlook site.

If you haven’t upgraded all is still well, as with their new site Microsoft has migrated each Hotmail address to an Outlook one.

Microsoft’s actions mean the two services are easily integrated and are now one and the same.

This also means you don’t need two accounts to use Hotmail or Outlook.

Microsoft has now rolled out an exciting redesign for the Outlook Web app which was revealed last Autumn.

Much like Gmail, Outlook’s redesign is championing customisation options on its interface, but will still allow people to use a simpler version.

Most of the new features are optional to those upgrading, in case people are already satisfied with their current email layout.

Those wanting to get into a more versatile platform will be pleasantly surprised with what it has to offer, an entirely new access panel is at their disposal.

The new panel to the left of the screen will allow management of multiple Hotmail/Outlook accounts, access folders, lets users switch between your email inbox, address book and calendar.