There are many web-based mail service providers that you can use, but having an email account with your very own personal domain 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 receive or send. In case you use an email service that supports the POP3 and IMAP email retrieval protocols, you will not encounter such problems and you will be able to use any software program on your computer to check your email messages, including Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail. You can even set up an email account on your smartphone. The difference between the two email protocols is that with IMAP, an email message is displayed at your end, but remains on the email server, while with POP3, the message is downloaded to your computer, unless you configure the program in such a way as to leave a copy on the server.