In case you have a cloud hosting package and you create an e-mail address, you may consider the option to send and receive messages for granted, however, this isn't always the case. Sending email messages isn't necessarily a part of the hosting packages that companies will offer you and an SMTP service is needed to be capable to do that. The acronym represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and this is the piece of software that allows you to send email messages. If you are using an e-mail app, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then looks up the DNS data of the domain, that is a part of the receiving address to find out what mail server manages its email messages. After system data is exchanged, your SMTP server provides the e-mail to the remote IMAP or POP server and then the e-mail is finally delivered in the matching mailbox. An SMTP server is required if you work with some sort of contact page form also, so if you have a free hosting plan, as an example, it is very likely that you will not have the ability to use such a form as most cost-free website hosting companies don't allow outgoing e-mail messages.