There is also a half-way solution which is to run your own mail server for inbound traffic and use a mail delivery company to relay the outbound mail. This giv

There is also a half-way solution which is to run your own mail server for inbound traffic and use a mail delivery company to relay the outbound mail. This gives you full control of receiving emails (for the online identity part) and gmail can't lock you out of your life with no recourse. But you don't need to deal with outbound email handling which is a bit more work.