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Support Portal Home » Pre-Sales & Policies » Rules & Terms of Service » Mail policy and limits

Mail policy and limits

The full mail policy for shared and reseller plans can be found here: http://www.hostgator.com/mailpolicy.shtml

There is a 500 hourly outgoing email limit per domain on all shared servers. This means each addon/subdomain gets its own separate 500 outgoing emails per hour limit. This limit is also applied towards mailing lists. If you send over this amount in any hour, the e-mails will fail and may bounce back with a undeliverable error.

Shared servers limit each connecting IP to 30 POP checks per hour. If you go over this, you will likely get a password error indicating your login is incorrect. To fix this, just wait an hour and it will automatically unlock. To prevent this from happening, disable automatic send/receive or set a higher time interval, such as checking once every 10 minutes.

Any mailing list over 900 email addresses is only allowed to be sent to during off-peak times to prevent high server loads. Off peak times qualify as all day Saturday and Sunday, and 1AM - 8AM Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday.

Any mailing list larger than 5,000 addresses will require a dedicated hosting solution from us. Note: Dividing one large list into smaller lists to get below this limit is not allowed. You cannot send 12,000 emails per day (500 x 24 hours) on a shared account.

Dedicated server and VPS accounts can send and receive unlimited emails per hour, and do not have the restrictions above.

The full mail policy for dedicated servers and VPS plans can be found here: http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated-mailpolicy.shtml

If I send one email addressed to 500 recipients, does this count as 1 email or as 500 emails?
This counts as 500 emails.

I get a bounce back indicating my email has been tagged as spam due to exceeding a 500 e-mail per hour limit.
You will need to wait until the next hour to continue sending emails.
If this problem does not go away by the next hour, please email abuse@hostgator.com

CAN-SPAM rules
Online businesses that use e-mail marketing must follow all the CAN-SPAM rules.

  • Identify your message as an advertisement.
  • Include an unsubscribe mechanism.
  • Include a valid physical postal address.
  • Deceptive subject lines and false headers are outlawed.
  • You will be held responsible if anyone sends emails on your behalf.

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Article Comments

Sal
I have reviewed everything about mail speed and mail sending limit of 500 messages per hour. If I throttle messages to send every 7 secs (8.5 per minute) and set batch period to 300 secs with a batch size limit of of 40, 40 are sent but then there is 300 sec wait until the batch fires again, in effect sending only 40 messages every ten minutes then, which equates to 240 messages sent per hour. Does this mean I can cut send rate to 4 secs vs. 7 and increase mail batch size to 75? That would put mail send speed rate at 750 msgs per hour but really only send 75 messages every ten minutes or about 450 messages actually sent in six ten minute groups of 75 messages each. So my question is must the speed rate stay below 500 messages sent per hour or can the 450 actual messages be sent in an hour without violation of speed of over 500msgs per hour. If the speed rate of 500 messages per hour is adhered to then only a maximum of 240-250 messages would ever be sent using a shared hosting account. Pls clarify!
Posted: November 4, 2009
HostGator
The 500 outgoing emails per hour is a maximum limit, not a speed limit. So, you proposal will work fine.

Throttling helps maintain acceptable server loads. Even if you send one email every second, as long as you stop at 500 for the hour, then this is much better than trying to send 500 at once.
Posted: November 5, 2009
tandys
Wil your implementation of Mailman allow for a majordomo-type mailing list? We have a small one and would like to re-implement it upon our server move.
Posted: February 3, 2010
HostGator
Trying to migrate your list from majordomo to Mailman can be a difficult task because there are many settings that need to be preserved on both installations, and there is information in one program which does not have a counterpart in the other program.

This is something HostGator cannot help you convert.
Posted: February 3, 2010
Venkat Manda
I have 9500 in my list. Right now I am sending them through a private list, wasting money literally in the drain. What I want do is this: I will divide the entire list into 5 days of the week and I don't think I will ever reach 5000 a day limit. Is that acceptable? I am trying to be honest here by declaring what I have. I will send from Mon to Fri only.
Posted: May 6, 2010
HostGator
You have a list with over 5000 members, so you may only use it with VPS or dedicated hosting.

You may NOT bring that list to a shared server, no matter how you plan to throttle and stagger it.
Posted: May 6, 2010
marck_don
thanks for ur great information.
Posted: May 26, 2010
Jack
When you say 30 POP checks per hour, does this mean 30 checks from one computer or 30 checks on the hosting account? I am on the business plan and have one dedicated IP, and the other domains are obviously on another IP, does that mean I can do in total up to 60 POP checks per hour? When you say POP, can you use another method in Outlook? Thanks.
Posted: July 27, 2010
HostGator
You are thinking of the shared and dedicated IP that HostGator provides with your hosting. That is not the same IP we are talking about in this article. We are talking about your connecting IP, which is provided by your internet service.

Yes, you can also receive email via IMAP.
Posted: July 29, 2010
Sujeet
I have to send 3000 email per day. If I will send 500 email in every hour and complete 3000 in 6 hours, then Is this work ?
Posted: August 13, 2010
HostGator
On a shared server, yes, but you may send only during off-peak hours.

VPS and dedicated have no per-hour limits nor time frame constraints.
Posted: August 13, 2010
Brad
On a dedi how do I configure the number of messages per hour for email sending? Is this in WHM?
Posted: August 31, 2010
HostGator
You and your clients can send unlimited emails, anytime you want.

If you want to set a limit, you can do that in rootWHM, under Server Configuration > Tweak Settings. Look for the line which says, "The maximum each domain can send out per hour (0 is unlimited)".
Posted: August 31, 2010
jussay
Hi,

I purchased dedicated server (standard package) USD 175 per month, and at the time of purchase I clearly asked your sales staff for email limits, as I said I have to send 100k emails per day, your staff said,there is not email limit, but today sudden I got email that my account deactivate/terminated due to huge emails/spam emails.

I dont understand how you can terminate my account without any prior notice? and this is jsut 4 th day of my account activiation.

Pleae either refund me or activate my account, I will take care from now and I have chat proof that your sales person told, there is no email limit

Posted: April 6, 2011
HostGator
I do not have the details of your situation; please contact security@hostgator.com to discuss this.

However, I can tell you that Spam is not allowed on any of our servers (even Dedicated Servers). If you are spamming, you will be shut down.
Posted: May 8, 2011
HostGator
Thank you for your comments. Just a quick reminder that the comments on this page are not monitored by technical support staff, and that for support issues, it is best to contact us by live chat, phone or email so we can assist you right away.

Although comments are not monitored by technical support staff, they are moderated and read by technical writers. Comments will need to be approved by a moderator before appearing.

Our technical writers do read the comments periodically for the purposes of updating the articles, and do appreciate your feedback, suggestions and corrections to the articles themselves, as well as any suggestions or tips for readers of this article. However, support questions posted here are not guaranteed to be replied to in a timely manner or at all. For support issues, it is best to contact our support staff instead by live chat, email or phone.

Posted: December 13, 2011 (Global Reply)
Your comments help us keep the knowledge base updated. This is not a medium for support. If you have questions or need help, please contact us via email, phone or live chat for fast assistance.

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