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Differences and Applications of Catch-All, Forwarder, and Email Alias
Differences and Applications of Catch-All, Forwarder, and Email Alias

Knowing the difference between catch all, email forwarders, email aliases and use cases

Updated over a week ago

When it comes to email management, there are a few features that can enhance your email communications. In this article, we'll get into the distinctions between catch-all addresses, forwarders, and email aliases, as well as when each is best suited.

Catch-All Email

The catch-all (or catchall) email feature enables you to receive messages sent to misspelled or invalid email addresses within your domain name.

For instance, if a message is directed to a non-existent user, it would typically be lost. However, by setting up a catch-all email, such messages can be directed to a designated mailbox of your choice, as long as the domain is spelled correctly.

You can set up a catch-all by following the guide below corresponding to your email service type:

Email Forwarder

Forwarders automatically redirect all incoming messages from one of your mailboxes to any other email address. Optionally, you can save a copy of the forwarded emails.

This option is useful to establish a central email address and redirect messages from there to one or more designated recipients. For instance, if you have an email address like invoices@domain.tld that receives all due invoices, you can set up an email forwarder to automatically send these invoices to accounts@domain.tld and management@domain.tld.

You can out more about forwarder setup for your email service type in the following articles:

Depending on your email service, forwarders can be established either within your internal domain or hosting plan and/or externally using alternative methods. Additionally, the number of forwarders you can create may vary.

Email Alias

Email aliases serve as alternative names for a single mailbox. For instance, if you have an email account named sales@domain.tld , you can create the alias quotes@domain.tld. When a message is sent to either one, it will be received only on the sales@domain.tld.

Find more about alias creation for your email service type here:

Depending on your email service, the number of aliases you can create may vary.

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