There are many web-based email providers that you can use, but having a mailbox with your very own personal domain will give you more credibility if you are running a business, for instance, not to mention that with web-based email services there are limits on the size of the attachments that you can send or receive. In case you use an email service that offers support for the IMAP and POP3 protocols, you will not run into such problems and you’ll be able to use any software program on your computer to access your email accounts, including Apple Mail, Thunderbird or Outlook. 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 locally at your end, but remains on the email server, whereas with POP3, the message is downloaded on your computer, unless you set up the program in such a way as to save a copy on the server.