Do not use a provider that doesn’t let you configure your own domain. Never use that one email address @<provider domain> unless they also let you keep it or free (like e.g. Tutanota, Proton do). Just don’t. Imagine it doesn’t exist. No matter how ruthless you are, it will be a friction in moving to a different provider when you want to.

I will list some:

- http://mailbox.org (I use it; this is my main provider and my personal domain is setup with them and that is “personal/public mail”. They are decent and private. Their spam filter is not the best but much better than Gmail’s which isn’t really a compliment. Other services on their suite - like doc, notes, storage are nothing to write home about. Though their new pricing tiers is not much less than non-cheap providers. I am on the old pricing tier and I don’t see myself moving to anything else unless they enforce it. Pathetic support - they simply don’t respond most of the times. Well, I guess you get what you pay for.)

- https://tutanota.com (I use it, not on the domain though - and not really for “public” usage. Please know that you just can’t have IMAP access - either use their app, or the web app, no other client - or at least that is how it was last I checked. They are extremely responsible, really good team, keep releasing new features - both for usability and privacy; much better than Mailbox on many aspects. They are really good!)

- https://fastmail.com/ (It’s the “HN Exclusive Favourite”. Too expansive for my usage and that too their first paid tier, which is very limited in features aawy. People swear by their mail client - I have never used it and I doubt I will. I secretly suspect HN has a shill/fan/etc following of these folks here just like Apple has :-D)

- https://protonmail.com (I might move to them if I ever leave mailbox.org. They are good. Because none of these providers are good if you get into the discussion of 5 eyes, 14 eyes, and 7 ears etc; I am not saying you should not but then you would end up with zero providers or just one like riseup.net or so or maybe not even that. RiseUp is great though, I donate to them and have a “non-public” email with them which I barely use.)

- Zoho (I’d say stay away; I’ve reasons, some of those reasons might be off-topic for hn)

- https://purelymail.com (If it wasn’t a one-person setup, I’d have definitely tried them; a friend uses them and he says it’s excellent; very good/transparent pricing and he is happy with help/support)

- Migadu (has very questionable daily email quota on their base plan. I would not want to deal with that and hoping for an exception or that it is not really enforced)

My use-case is not hiding from state actors, because I can’t. I am not that skilled or motivated. If yours is similar, I highly recommend pick one of mailbox, protonmail, fastmail.

Finalise a domain now (preferably something that lets you keep your whois data private) and never renew for less than 2 years at once. Have different kinds of backup email with your domain registrar e.g. gmail, icloud.com (if you have one) etc; 2FA; your phone number (in my country it’s easier to kidnap someone and torture for few hours to days to get the password than SIM hijacking/sppfing, you mileage might vary),