The easiest way to have control of your email is probably to buy a domain name (such as example.com) and then use this on an account from an independent email provider.

If you're ever unhappy with a provider, you can switch to a different one without changing your email address because the domain still belongs to you.

There are lots of independent email providers, all of them let you use your own domain. For example @Tutanota, @fastmail and @protonmail are very popular.

#GrowYourOwn

@homegrown @Tutanota @fastmail @protonmail warning: this can be a gateway drug however. You start thinking 'oh, I'll just have one domain for my email' then five years later you own a dozen domains forwarding to your main email, some of which are jokes you've forgotten the punchline to, but you'll keep renewing them all anyway.

Custom domains. Not even once.

@iMeddles

There was a trending post the other day saying the Fediverse was just a way to sell more domain names 😁