I just use sendgrid to send and receive emails that don't stress my server as it's done by another service. Email is custom as you would have with your domain 😉 Then you just use Gmail and link it up so that you get emails coming to and from.
If emails are sent to people inboxes you know that you set it up right 😛 I used to go into spam when I first started.
SendGrid is very good, been using them for two years and never had a system down. Plus they offer a free account option 😉 100 emails/day forever for free on the free account
I use the paid version of Google Apps. I find it to be the best email service that I've seen. I've used others and just wasn't a fan. So, I'm willing to pay a little bit for some elegant features!
I used to use mailchimp but had to stop because of low conversion. Mailchimp is free for 2000 emails. The service deliever emails to the inbox (emails don't land up in the spam box automatically)