If you have set up email at your own domain, you have run into terms like “alias”, “forwarder”, “distribution list”, and “catch-all”. Different web hosting companies use different names for the same things. Here is what each one actually does.
Mailboxes
A mailbox is a real inbox. You log in, read messages, and reply. Everything below is built on top of mailboxes.
Forwarders
A forwarder is an address that does not store mail. It sends everything to a different address.
Example: [email protected] forwards to your personal Gmail. People email the bakery address, your existing inbox receives the message. No second inbox to manage.
Forwarders can also send to multiple destinations at once. [email protected] can be set to reach all three of your employees. Different vendors call this feature different names (group alias, distribution list, mail group). On our platform, it is just a forwarder with more than one destination.
Aliases
An alias is a second name pointing at an existing mailbox. Mail to either name lands in the same inbox.
Useful for a formal and a casual version of your address (j.smith@ and john@ both going to the same place), or for a role you fill personally (accounts@ going to your own mailbox while you are still the only person handling accounts).
Catch-all addresses
A catch-all delivers all mail sent to any unrecognized address at your domain to one mailbox. Useful for catching typos from customers, or for making up disposable addresses on the fly. The trade-off is spam: turn on a catch-all only if your spam filtering is solid.
Which one when
- One inbox, multiple names → alias
- Public address sent to your existing inbox → forwarder
- Shared address reaching multiple people → multi-recipient forwarder
- Catch typos and unknown addresses → catch-all
All of this is included
Every APlusHosting web hosting plan supports mailboxes, forwarders, multi-recipient forwarders, aliases, and catch-all addresses at no extra fee. For the full feature list and setup walkthrough, see our advanced email features page.
If you are not a customer yet, take a look at our hosting plans to get started.