What is SMTP | How it Works | Tech

SMTP servers are complicated, and if you’re just dipping your toe into the how-email-gets-sent world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. To help you navigate your email sending, we’ve put together a list of the most common SMTP server questions we receive, so you’ll be an SMTP expert in no time. What is an SMTP server? An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is an application that’s primary purpose is to send, receive, and/or relay outgoing mail between email senders and receivers. An SMTP server will have an address (or addresses) that can be set by the mail client or application that you are using, and is generally formatted as smtp.serveraddress.com. (For example, Gmail’s SMTP server address is smtp.gmail.com. You can generally find your SMTP server address in the account or settings section of your mail client.) When you send an email, the SMTP server processes your email, decides which server to send the message to, and relays the message to that server. The recipient’s in