To send emails with your own website and using your own domain name or through your host’s SMTP account, then you need to be aware of the limits your host imposes on e-mail traffic. Note that pretty much every host you can think of will have at least some limits.
If you are tired of your host’s limitations, you can move your e-mail traffic somewhere else. You can send unlimited emails per day and up to a thousand times faster with most SMTP services. Most of them are paid-for services though, with some of them being more affordable than others.
Popular ones include
Beyond that, we have included a list of free and paid-for services along with the limits they impose on their users.
Note: always make sure to keep your frequencies below the limit, as your WordPress site might send other emails too, such as email notifications for new comments or new subscribers.
| Host | Limitations | Your frequency | Configuration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1and1 | -6 per minute servers -3500 per hour in the Unlimited Pro |
30 emails / 5 minutes | SMTP ports are blocked with this host. Use PHPMail instead. |
| BlueHost | 150 per hour | 70 emails / 30 minutes | Some plans have SMTP blocked and there’s no way to unblock them |
| DomainFactory (df.eu) | 500 per hour with Sendmail
1000 per session with SMTP |
115 emails / 15 minutes
250 emails / 15 minutes |
|
| DreamHost | 100 per hour | 25 emails / 15 minutes | SMTP Hostname: mail.your-domain From: Needs to be a ‘DreamHost-hosted’ e-mail account E-mail Address: Enter your e-mail address. User Name: Enter your e-mail address, again. Password: Enter the password you set up for your e-mail account. Secure connection: No Authentication: Yes Ports: 25 or 587 |
| Free.fr | 20 per task 100 per hour 2000 per week |
18 emails / 15 minutes | the “from” email address needs to be your_login@free.fr. If you’re using your own cron or the manual send process, you can send 15 emails every 10 minutes. |
| FrogHost.com | 1000 emails per hour | 490 emails / 30 minutes | |
| Gmail | 500 per day | 20 emails / 1 hour | |
| Google Apps | 100 per hour 500 per day |
48 emails / 30 minutes 20 emails / 1 hour (if you have more than 500 subscribers) |
|
| GoDaddy | 250 per day on regular hosting
1000 on dedicated/virtual servers |
5 emails / 30 minutes
40 emails / 1 hour (if you have more than 1000 subscribers) |
For GoDaddy’s own SMTP: Server : relay-hosting.secureserver.net Port : 25 Secure method : No Authentication : NoYour from and reply-to email should belong to your own domain. |
| Goneo | 250 per hour | 60 emails / 15 minutes | Method : php Mail Function
Your from, reply-to and bounce back email addresses should belong to your own domain. Do not leave the bounce email field empty! |
| GreenGeeks | 100 per hour by default | 45 emails / 30 minutes | |
| hawkhost.com | 2000 emails per hour | ||
| Hivetec | 80 per hour | 20 emails / 15 minutes | |
| Host Gator | 500 per hour | 115 emails / 15 minutes | Note: Does not support third party SMTP, except for Amazon SES and SendGrid. For those, MailPoet uses their API on port 80. Cool!
List over 5000 emails aren’t allowed, unless you use Amazon SES or SendGrid. |
| Hostinger | 200/hour via Webmail, 500/hour using SMTP depending on your plan | ||
| Host Monster | 500 per hour | 115 emails / 15 minutes | Note: Does not support third party SMTP, except for Amazon SES and SendGrid. |
| Hosting 2GO | 50 per 15 minutes | 45 emails / 15 minutes | |
| Hotmail | 100 per day | Due to this limitation, you should not use Hotmail as smtp server. | |
| Infomaniak | 20 / 15 minutes | 20 / 15 minutes | Automatic bounce handling for Premium users: Infomaniak forces its own bounce address, so we recommend to use a third party email provider. |
| InMotion | 250 emails per hour | 20 / 5 minutes | |
| JustHost | 150 per hour | 70 emails / 30 minutes | |
| Laughing Squid | Unknown. They prefer not to send any newsletters from their servers. | ||
| Lunarpages | 20 per minute 600 per hour |
19 emails / 15 minutes | You can use your own cron task to have a better frequency (every 2 minutes) |
| Media Temple | 50 per minute 500 per hour max 1000 per day |
115 emails / 15 minutes | You can use your own cron task to have a better frequency (every 2 minutes) Link to their guide |
| NameCheap | Stellar – 50/hour Stellar Plus – 200/hour Stellar Business – 10000/hour |
||
| Netfirms | 200 per hour 2000 per day |
||
| Netissime | 500 per 15 minutes 1000 per day |
100 emails / 15 minutes 40 emails / 1 hour (if you have more than 1000 subscribers) |
|
| one.com | No official limits. | Don’t go over board nonetheless. | Make sure your FROM address is from your own domain name.
If you send with their smtp: 1. Hostname: mailout.one.com |
| OVH via smtp | Pack Perso: 500 per day Pack Pro: 500 per day Pack Business: 1200 per day Pack Premium: 2000 per day |
20 emails / 1 hour 20 emails / 1 hour 48 emails / 1 hour 80 emails / 1 hour Max per hour: 100 |
Method : SMTP Server : ns0.ovh.net Port : 465 Secure method: SSL Authentication : Yes Your username/password |
| OVH via website (host) | You will be blocked if more than 5% of your messages bounce (invalid email addresses) | No more than 150 emails per batches | Method : php Mail function If you’re sending from OVH’s shared hosting solution, you won’t be able to specify your own bounce address. A dynamic address is enforced by OVH. This means that you’ll never be able to fully validate your SPF and have a worse reputation for ISPs(gmail, yahoo etc…) |
| PHPNet | 100 per hour | 50 emails and 2 second pauses between each batch with the manual send process | E-mails are added to their own queue so you can send as many emails as you want and then their server will deliver automatically 100 emails per hour |
| PlanetHoster | 200 per hour | 90 emails / 30 minutes | |
| Rochen | 100 per 10 minutes 1000 per day |
95 emails / 15 minutes 40 emails / 1 hour (if you have more than 1000 subscribers) |
|
| ServerMX.com | Packages MX1 – MX2 – MX5
1 minute => 120 emails Packages MX10 – MX20 – MX50 1 minute => 120 emails |
More info | |
| Siteground | 400 per hour | 95 emails / 15 minutes | List of Ports |
| Site5 | 500 per hour | 41 emails / 5 minutes | for SMTP connections |
| Synthesis | 1000 per hour | 250 emails / 15 minutes | PHP Mail |
| Techark | 250 per hour | 60 emails / 15 minutes | |
| VPS.net | 200 per hour | 90 emails / 30 minutes | |
| Webcity | 20 per 6 minutes | 19 emails / 15 minutes | You can use your own cron task to have a better frequency (every 8 minutes) |
| Westhost | 1000 per hour | 225 emails / 15 minutes | |
| wpwebhost.com | 200 per hour | 95 emails / 30 minutes | |
| Vexxhost | 250 per hour for shared hosting 500/hour for semi dedicated |
60 emails / 15 minutes 120 emails / 15 minutes |
|
| Yahoo | 100 per hour Max 500 |
95 emails / 1 hour |
You might find these limits interesting if you are looking to find a host that’s either affordable or lenient enough for your subscriber numbers or e-mail volume. Note that many e-mail providers — such as Fastmail.com for example — have strict enforcement policies against exceeding allowed quotas or against sending mass e-mails (including legitimate newsletters to opted in recipients) at all.