If you have a cloud web hosting account and you create an email address, you may consider the option to send and receive emails for granted, but in fact, this isn't always the case. Sending e-mails isn't necessarily part of the hosting packages that providers will offer you and an SMTP service is needed to be able to do that. The abbreviation signifies Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the piece of software that allows you to send out e-mail messages. If you work with an e-mail app, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then searches the DNS data of the domain name, which is a part of the receiving address to find out which mail server deals with its emails. After some system data is interchanged, your SMTP server delivers the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and the e-mail is finally delivered in the matching mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you use some kind of contact form too, so in case you have a cost-free hosting package, for instance, it is very likely that you won't be able to use such a form as most free hosting providers do not allow outgoing emails.
