

Posteo is 1$/mo and has email, cal, contacts, works with fairemail and dav5x.
If you really can’t do $12/yr, you’re stuck with advert subsidized. I personally would stay with Gmail in this case and just not worry that much. Your email in 2025 is probably not that sensitive.
If you’re really pinching pennies you can get a 6-digit.xyz account on namecheap for 85c (ex:123456.xyz)