I want to set up an email account for my personal and business use (something like "anony@anonymouse.com", with maybe 5 or so different addresses, all to that same domain (which I will purchase).

Any thoughts on who would be good?

Thanks!

Your primary choices are gmail or fast mail, for about $50/year per address. Or rackspace email, which starts at $2/month per email address.

The other option would be to get a web hosting plan for $5-$10/month and have as many email accounts as can fit in that space.

Thanks!

Not going with gmail--they're privacy vampires.

Webhosting could be good; any recommendations?

Some folks seem to like A2 for email hosting. Anybody familiar with them?

Yup, A2 is great. Used them personally and for clients for going on 10 years. They're one of the good ones. Let me know if you have any questions that I could answer.

Anonymous,

Fastmail combined with your own domain. Fastmail lets you use its own servers for the email configuration and then you can create aliases for any number of email address. Super easy.

Robert

I agree with clay. Just get a hosting plan. With most of them, you can create as many email addresses as you want and set each one up accordingly. As you mentioned, you'll need to purchase a domain, but after that it should be pretty straightforward. I've been very happy with Host Mantis as a web host for my freelance business. It's cheap and it's been very reliable for me. (And yes, that's a referral link.)