It's about how the computer accesses the email. For example if you use Gmail, Yahoo Email, HotMail, AOL web mail or several other similar email services they are web based email. You get to them using a browser via the internet. All of these services are indeed free and all of them include spam and advertising. I have a hotmail account I have not used in years. This is why I stated:
Webmail
Webmail is a web-based email system that allows you to send and receive email online from their website. So, you must also have an internet connection. Webmail is downloaded into a temporary folder on your computer that gets deleted.
I also said:
Email
An email program on your computer allows you to send and receive email without using an Internet web browser, but you still must have an Internet connection.
When you get your hotmail how do you access your hotmail account? Click a desktop icon that takes you to
www.hotmail.com? Open a web browser and go to
www.hotmail.com? The bottom line is how a program used as an email client will access your email. My email (some of my email accounts) run through my domain. just as John mentions above. When I retrieve email I do not use a web browser but rather use internet access to connect directly to an email exchange server at my domain.
me@mydomain.com using my POP server (Post Office Protocol) for incoming email and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for outgoing email. This is done using any of several email client software like MS Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. While all of this is not free it does have its advantages.
Unfortunately many online forums and similar activities have adopted policies where they disallow using web based email accounts. Why the term REAL is used I haven't a clue? I tried something you may want to try. I went here:
https://verify-email.org/ and entered my hotmail email and it comes back bad. I know it's good. I also tried my sister @aol.com and again bad and it's good. Then I tried my domain,
me@mydomain.com and it was good. Give it a try.
Ron