In case you have a cloud hosting account and you set up an email address, you may consider the option to send and receive messages for granted, but in fact, that isn't always the case. Sending email messages is not always included in the hosting plans that service providers will offer you and an SMTP service is necessary to be capable to do that. The acronym signifies Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the piece of software that permits you to send e-mails. If you are using an e-mail program, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then queries the DNS data of the domain, which is a part of the receiving address to find out which email server handles its e-mails. After system data is swapped, your SMTP server delivers the message to the remote IMAP or POP server and the e-mail is finally delivered in the matching mailbox. An SMTP server is needed if you work with some sort of contact form also, so if you have a free hosting plan, as an example, it is likely that you will not have the ability to make use of such a form as most cost-free website hosting providers don't allow outgoing e-mail messages.