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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.

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.

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.

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

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