In case you have a cloud web hosting package and you set up an e-mail address, you might consider the option to send out and receive messages for granted, however, this isn't always the case. Sending emails isn't necessarily part of the web hosting packages that companies have and an SMTP service is necessary to be capable to do that. The abbreviation means Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and that is the set of scripts that enables you to send e-mails. If you use an email program, it creates a connection to the SMTP server. The latter then searches 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 information is interchanged, your SMTP server provides the email to the remote IMAP or POP server and then the email is finally delivered in the corresponding mailbox. An SMTP server is needed if you work with some sort of contact page form too, so in case you work with a free of charge hosting plan, for example, it is very likely that you will not be able to use such a form since many cost-free website hosting service providers do not allow outgoing e-mail messages.