There are lots of web-based email providers that you can use, but using an email account with your own personal domain will grant you more credibility if you have a company, for instance, not to mention that with web-based 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 protocols, you will not run into such problems and you’ll be able to use any program on your computer to access your mailboxes, including Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail. You can even set up an email account on your mobile device. The difference between the two protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed locally at your end, but remains on the server, while with POP3, the message is downloaded to your personal computer, unless you set up the program in such a way as to leave a copy on the server.