If you have a web hosting plan and you create an email address, you might take the option to send and receive messages for granted, but in fact, this is not always the case. Sending emails isn't necessarily included in the hosting plans that companies have and an SMTP service is required to be able to do that. The acronym represents Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the set of scripts that enables you to send emails. If you use 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 email server handles its e-mails. After system data is swapped, your SMTP server delivers the message to the remote IMAP or POP server and then the e-mail is finally delivered in the related mailbox. An SMTP server is necessary if you are using some sort of contact form as well, so in case you have a free of charge hosting plan, as an example, it is very likely that you won't have the ability to use this type of form as most free website hosting service providers don't allow outgoing e-mail messages.