There are numerous web-based mail service providers that you can use, but having an email with your own personal domain name will provide you with more credibility if you are running a business, for example, not to mention that with web-based email services there are limits on the size of the attachments that you can send or receive. If you use an email service that offers support for the POP3 and IMAP email protocols, you will not come across such problems and you will be able to use any program on your personal computer to access your emails, including Outlook, Thunderbird 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 server, whereas with POP3, the message is downloaded to your PC, unless you set up the program in such a way as to save a copy on the server.