There are many web-based email providers that you can resort to, but having an email account with your own personal domain will grant you more credibility if you have a company, for example, 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 email protocols, you will not come across such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your personal computer to check your email accounts, including Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook. You can even set up an email account on your mobile phone. The difference between the two email protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed at your end, but remains on the server, whereas with POP3, the message is downloaded on your personal computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to store a copy on the server.