The landscape of email has changed greatly in the past decade. They used to hand out email accounts just like old AOL CDs at CompUSA. But hosting email is a pain with all the spam, spoofing, and scammers. That's why companies like Cox, CenturyLink, and Xfinity are all ditching their old email systems and making it someone else's problem -- always a solid business plan.
So, what are our picks for email platforms? For consumers our first choice is Apple's iCloud. If you use Apple you are already part of the ecosystem, so choosing iCloud as your email provider has a lot of advantages. You benefit from Apple's insistence on security, and have seamless integration across all your devices. It has features like Hide My Email, which can help cut down on spam, and even supports custom email domains. Plus, Apple does an excellent job of gray and black-listing scammy domains, so it will help cut down on that annoying junk mail.
Runner up is, of course, Google's Gmail. It's solid, reliable, and can be configured to have robust security. The only issue is privacy, as Google has a questionable record on the subject.
For business, the only game in town worth your time is Google Workspace. This is the professional version of Gmail and has so many features, options for security, and the ability to set up audit logs. Their support is top notch, which considering how bad customer service is today is really saying something. For ease-of-use, flexibility, and cross-platform usability, Google Workspace is the hands down winner, in our opinion. | 
