If you have a cloud hosting account and you create an e-mail address, you might take the option to send out and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this isn't always the case. Sending email messages is not necessarily included in the hosting plans that providers feature and an SMTP service is required to be capable to do that. The abbreviation represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the piece of software that permits you to send out e-mail messages. If you use an email app, it connects to the SMTP server. The latter then looks up the DNS data of the domain, that is a part of the receiving address to find out which email server manages its emails. After system data is exchanged, your SMTP server delivers the email to the remote IMAP or POP server and the e-mail is finally delivered in the matching mailbox. An SMTP server is necessary if you work with some kind of contact form as well, so in case you have a cost-free hosting plan, as an example, it's probable that you won't have the ability to use this type of form as many free of charge web hosting service providers don't allow outgoing emails.