There are a lot of web-based email service providers that you can use, but having an email account with your very own personal domain name will give you more credibility if you are running a company, for instance, not to mention that with web-based services there are limitations on the maximum size of the attachments that you can receive or send. If you use an email service that supports the POP3 and IMAP protocols, you will not come across such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your computer to access your email messages, including Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail. You can even set up an email account on your phone. The difference between the two email protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed locally at your end, but remains on the email server, whereas with POP3, the message is downloaded to your personal computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to keep a copy on the server.