What's the recommended gmail alternative for personal email?

Honestly, Hotmail isn't too bad these days. I have to use it for a mail account I manage for someone else, and it's pretty on par with Gmail. Not quite there, but pretty close. And since it's from Microsoft, you know that it will be supported for a long time.

Now called Outlook, so you don't even have to worry about the slightly dubious @hotmail.com address.

I think you mean "retro". ;)

I prefer "vintage"

Vintage would be @aol.com

Going one step further you can have an archaic email address using Juno (still laying, not that you asked) or Bigfoot.com (still works but company resold many times)

Having an @hotmail address no longer makes you look prehistoric on a résumé. There are probably as much (or even more) stupid internet users on @gmail.

Your mail is probably the single most important service you have on the internet. Pay for something, or host it yourself.

That's actually the reason why I use Gmail instead of switching to a smaller email service - it's "too big to fail," I don't think Gmail will be discontinued for as long as Google exists, even if it became somewhat unprofitable, due to the outrage and class action lawsuits that would result.

Hosting yourself is a good way to have half your sent emails never arrive.

Own the domain name, but let one of the big players handle deliverability for you.

This. I use my own domain names with gsuite and protonmail.

Hosting an email server in these days with DMARC, SPF, DKIM and all those mail filtering blacklist is is world of pain but that's the price to pay for reduced spam I guess.

I wish there was a modern protocol equivalent with authentication builtin.

Paying for it has its risks as well. If you are unable to access for an extended amount of time (injury, travel, etc) and your payment method becomes invalid, it could cause your account to be shut down.

This is a valid concern. I would pay for a year in advance at least.

FastMail

(...) a company located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastMail

Big wall of NOPE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#Australia

I second the Fastmail recommendation. Not only has their service been great, but they're also actively working on improving email for everyone (for example with all their work on introducing and standardizing JMAP).

I third the Fastmail recommendation. Just changed over to use their app on my phone as well, much better folder management etc than Apple's native app.

I used to be in the "no webmail" camp until I started using Fastmail. I now find myself keeping a Safari pinned tab to their webmail and using it as my primary email interface.

Also speaking of mobile apps, Fastmail actually supports push notifications for email in Apple Mail. I'm not aware of any other third party email provider that's ever done that (I believe Yahoo! has support for that but Apple did that themselves when the iPhone first came out).

Wish Mozilla would go down this road.

Oh I would pay for that. I was also looking at Librem One.

protonmail

Seconded, and it sends a great signal to the market that people value privacy. With actual money.

Also another Europe-based provider: Runbox.

Tutanota.com

Fastmail. I can vouch for them, having used them since 2014, including after a recent re-design.