iCloud email vs Gmail?

[mac.cali]

I use iCloud for everything except email. With iCloud mail on occasion I would experience downtimes and delayed receipt of messages (things I haven't experienced with Gmail). Also, I don't really want to have to give all my contacts a new me.com address. I know I can get around that, but there's no point if the service isn't as reliable.

From time to time I do experience issues with iCloud mail. When I save an email into a certain folder, sometimes it's gone completely. Like if iCloud deleted it. I never empty my trash and it's not there either. I do have my iCloud email forwarded to my gmail and I can search it there and view it no problem. Seems like the problem was only on iCloud side.