There are a lot of web-based email service providers that you can resort to, but having an email account with your very own personal domain name will provide you with more credibility if you are running a company, for example, not to mention that with web-based email services there are limitations on the size of the attachments that you can send or receive. If you use an email service that supports the POP3 and IMAP email delivery protocols, you will not bump into 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 onto your computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to leave a copy on the server.