Personal mail server with Roundcube for a web interface? Slightly more involved than simply signing up for an account somewhere, but you're in as much control as you can be without building the server software on your own.

What is "low cost" for you?

I have a couple domains through 1and1 and they each allow about a bajillion free email addresses. The domains were part of a 2-for-1 deal and I pay about $120 per year. You could create www.orion66.com and have as many emails as you want, for not too big of a cost. And then you have a domain or two to play around with.

badassmofo at orion66.com ; )

I use Gmail because I think Google will be around for a while, also because of convenience. I wouldn't trust a secure e-mail provider anyway so I never write anything sensitive.

That said, their spam filter regarding drugs and weird dating. I get offers that are named like this "D_R_U_G_S for you..". It's understandable but still annoying.

When I tried a couple I stumbled upon fastmail once and I still have account. That might be an alternative.

I have only had one small hiccup, which was solved as soon as I contacted support. But yes, that's what I use gmail too, because of the "confident" aspect.

https://tutanota.com/ an open source encrypted gmail alternative

What is this? Client or service(server backend) with free registering?

PS.
Its not opensource (free software permissive), its copyleft (free software share-alike).

Protonmail looks nice

edit, because I see some folks recommend outlook.com (ex-hotmail).

Whatever you do just dont open an outlook.com account, it really got atrocious in the last 1-2 weeks, they changed it for touch and tablets in mind (really big fonts and really big spaces between rows/lines ... with a lot of screen-real-estate wasted) with really limited customizing options for PC users and to top it all is also slow as fukk.
Before this change it was relatively decent but now is utter garbage.
I'm really thinking to close that damned old hotmail account that I use for various shit on internet ... it's really that bad now.

Thanks, so it seems the verification is the problem.

I've been using hushmail (the free part, I think is 25mb storage) for my email since outlook changed their webdesign a couple months ago. Not only do I hate the new outlook design, it now takes them 2-3 minutes to load my email account... if it even loads. Haven't had any spam, unlike yahoo that can't filter out spam no matter how many times I tell them something is spam. I use yahoo for the things that require you to give an email address to use them, like commenting systems, or anywhere I think my email might be sold to spam lists.

A lot of good info here. Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

I've been using Gmail for over 5 years and jumped to Inbox recently. For people that say Yahoo and Outlook have caught up to Gmail's functionality, I'm going to have to laugh.

Also, I've had Google know my number for a while now and yet my spam inbox and my phone number remain eerily quiet.

Because I don't wear a tinfoil hat, I really don't care if my emails get lost in the noise of the waste of the NSA's terrible programs.

Inbox lets you sweep full months at once, so chew on that, outlook users.

Outlook

I've had hotmail, yahoo, aol and gmail. Gmail wins by a long shot. Everything else either lags behind them, takes longer to load, or has some annoying gimmick.

So my vote is gmail.

P.S. Alternatively, you could only accept GOG chats.

go green get posteo
it costs 1€ /Month but its worth it
also its ad-free and don't keep personal details :)