From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An email hosting service is an Internet hosting service that operates
email servers.
Email hosting services usually offer premium email at a cost as opposed
to advertisement-
supported free email or free webmail. Email hosting services thus
differ from typical end-
user email providers such as webmail sites. They cater mostly to
demanding email users
and Small and Mid Size (SME) businesses, while larger enterprises
usually run their own
email hosting service on their own equipment using software such as
Sendmail or Postfix.
Hosting providers can manage a user's own domain name, including any
email
authentication scheme that the domain owner wishes to enforce in order
to convey the
meaning that using a specific domain name identifies and qualifies
email senders.
Most email hosting providers offer advanced premium email solutions
hosted on dedicated
custom email platforms. The technology and offerings of different email
hosting providers
can therefore vary with different needs. Email offered by most
webhosting companies is
usually more basic standardized POP3 based email and webmail based on
open source
webmail applications like Horde, RoundCube or SquirrelMail. Almost all
webhosting
providers offer standard email hosting.