Oddbean

So you need like the most basic web hosting you can buy and a client like outlook or thunderbird. That is your answer. Simply put it won't be free. The other option is where ever you bought your domain will likely have a cheap or free option to create a forwarder for your email. Problem is then your replies will come from yahoo or proton or what ever. Who did you buy you domain from? Do you have a website hosted there? If so you should have no problem creating an pop or imap email for what ever client you choose to use.

Also reread your post now with this info added. All it sounds like to me is they have a 2FA for security purposes to protect access to your domain. SO EITHER DO IT and quick holding your breath or move it to another registar that doesn't care about your security more than you do. 🤷

I used GoDaddy because I had an account and the business email was $26 for the year, which is all I can basically afford right now. I'm on a super tight budget. I will eventually have my own hosting and website with the works but I just wanted something basic til I get my ducks in a row

Sorry to hear you got stuck with GoDaddy. If you need help migrating tag me it was a royal pain because they try to lock you out of everything when you go to leave its aweful. Make sure you give yourself enough time for an ICAAN lockout. When GoDaddy gets mad they can request a hold from ICAAN and you might have to wait up to 60 days for ICAAN to release it. Make sure you use a Google Chrome browser it's the only one they support according to their support staff (they told me in a support chat), other browsers tend to refresh right when you hit the transfer button, it's wild. 60 days before you need to transfer it, make sure you disable domain protection (yeah I know) they will use that to also lock your domain with ICAAN to keep you longer. I had some other major issues with 2 factor auth, so the day you go to migrate disable 2 factor before you get started. The window that requires 2 factor is hidden (seems like on purpose) and then the page locks you out and you need to issue a password reset EVERY TIME! If you need to chat with support I think email is the only option now and they can take up to 5 business days per response, it's crazy how it was always 7 days for me and never resolved my issues. This hasn't changed in years, it's by design, among the other shit GoDaddy pulls it's insane.

I guess it's worth mentioning, since I suggested disabling all of your account security, definitely try not to talk about it when you're considering migrating XD You of course can try with protections still on, but that can happen if GoDaddy is messing with you.

BTW you should regularly be checking ICAAN for your domain status, I've had issues where they didn't send proper info to ICAAN or do it on time and ICAAN disabled my domain. That only happened a couple times but it causes Google and other search engines to flag your domain as malicious and they start to de-rank or remove your domain. If user's in Chrome go to your domain directly it will issue them a warning. It's fucking BS, but again it only happened 2 times over about 6 years on 2 domains (once per domain) so idk how common that is, but just beware. And don't worry you can't contact google or other domain watchers to get your domain off the blacklist once it's been flagged, you just have to wait a few years.

For sure! Sorry I've been spelling it wrong it's ICANN XD This is where you want to check the status. I should say, I think this is only for U.S. domains, idk what happens if you registered outside the U.S. :/ https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup