In case you have a cloud hosting package and you create an email address, you may take the option to send and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this isn't always true. Sending e-mails is not always a part of the web hosting packages that service providers have and an SMTP service is needed 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 out e-mail messages. If you work with an email app, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then searches the DNS records of the domain name, which is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server manages its emails. After some system information is swapped, your SMTP server delivers the message to the remote IMAP or POP server and the email is finally delivered in the matching mailbox. An SMTP server is necessary if you use some kind of contact form too, so if you work with a cost-free hosting plan, as an example, it is likely that you won't be able to make use of such a form as most no charge hosting providers do not allow outgoing email messages.