Proton is 👑 

From what I’ve seen anyways 

 https://proton.me/ 

 You can pay with sats 

 I use Proton as well but interested in skiff too 

 Skiff is closing. 

 check out @SimplifiedPrivacy.com Podcast for a good rundown of various options. I think they posted about email within the last month or so. 

 I use Proton but I initially (usually) end up in people's spam boxes, especially if they use gmail (which it seems most people do). 

 I've been using Proton for years and it works well for me. 

 RiseUp.net 

 Executive summary: step one is having your own domain

Details: Your own email service.  Or "self-custody" as they say here.  It's actually quite straightforward except for spam control.  And that is easy if you go with a whitelist only.   More complex is a system for people to apply to correspond by email with you.  (Make them use Nostr to do so.  :-)  (I use bayesian and other filters, but these are always a headache.  I am about to do a compromise and make specific email domains whitelist only.  The first will be gmail.com, as that sends 99% of the spam my way.)

First skill is buying and managing your own DNS domain.  Ideally, you should also have your own primary and caching DNS server.  With your own domain, you can "point" your email domain to any service, and shop around without changing your email address.

BUT, say you outsource your DNS server.  The DNS providers all offer email service.  Use theirs.  Using your own domain for email is basic self custody.  When you have your own primary and resolving DNS servers going, then you can switch to your own smtp server as well.  Or to another provider that uses your own domain.

Privacy you say?  no smtp provider can supply that.  You have to use encryption in your email client.  PGP, GPG, SMIME.  (There are more, but those are commonly supported in other peoples email client.)

Advanced topic: Ackshully, ICANN DNS and the TLS cabal are allow globalists to cancel you and even read/modify your TLS streams that use cabal CAs.  This is more complicated than email, but you should also use private TLDs, And private CAs.   You can share the name servers for your private TLD - just like you would share Nostr relays.  (Unless you want it to be secret as well.)  That is a high barrier for normies, but you could have an ICANN alias for them, or even register a short ICANN domain as your "TLD".

To address the TLS cabal, we get into PKCS#11 policy in your browser to control what domains the CAs loaded are trusted for. 

 Proton.mail 

 @Proton Mail 

 There is also tuta.com 

 Hi Jack,
Email is corrupt.  You don't own the domain name so governments can take it from you.  There's a couple of free ones, such as Protonmail and Tutanota, but they can see all activity and can report on it.  The best choice is to host it on a VPS yourself with FOSS software.  If you're interested, we do setups for you under $100.
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/email/ 

 My concern; won't my email address get filtered out as spam if it isn't routed by the big providers? 

 If the DNS is done correctly it won't be.  But you're right that it requires effort and preparation to avoid spam. 

 Your server admin shoul configure at least SPF for your domain.