I work for a small, independent ISP. While I have a Gmail account, and use it for most of my business, I am getting more and more distressed with their other business practices. I’m starting to think that “free email” (the service is technically free, but your data is used to market to you), isn’t worth it.
There are a lot of things you lose with free email (Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook.com, Yahoo!, etc). Be that technical support, proper troubleshooting, private, etc. I have said, time and again, that with a very small initial investment, a company could sell $1/mo email addresses, and entirely upend the email business that Google has. Imaging that, actually having an email provider that will not only provide an email address, and a decent web interface, but also be able to provide you with live tech support, talking to a person, someone in your language even, that can help you troubleshoot your problems and get it fixed in a timely fashion.
You likely pay upwards of $30/mo for your phone (landline or cell), and many much, much more. Yet, the thought of paying for your email service, simply because it used to be bundled with your paid Internet connection, is unheard of. Why?
Google/Alphabet got rid of their “Don’t be evil” motto, and we are seeing more and more that they are interfering with industries, then when it gets strange or needs change, rather than investing more into the business, they just shut it down, or do like TV networks used to do, and degrade the service until enough people leave that they can justify shutting it down. Then, they just cut the people that worked so hard on the project, often with no warning, and many times in violation of local labor laws. It is obvious that nothing is safe from the chopping block at Alphabet, including Google Fiber.
Consider what I said. If you really want to have a high quality email service, think about a local, independent ISP, or pay for a domain/hosting/email package with one of the many hosts out there. You will be much better off, and in the case of the ISPs, get much better support than you can get from Google.