How do I choose whether to use a mailbox or a forwarding address?
Confused about whether to choose an e-mail mailbox or a forwarding address when you create a new address?
Both allow you to create new addresses like “sales@example.com” and “yourname@example.com”, but there are a number of differences. The information below will help you decide which to use.
Forwarding addresses
A forwarding address is simpler to use than a mailbox. It allows you to forward incoming mail to a different address you already have, and you don't have to set up any new accounts in your mail program.
However, forwarding addresses have several drawbacks:
- Messages forwarded to another address will be mixed with other messages sent directly to that address.
- If you reply to a message, the recipient will see the address of the other mailbox as the "From" address.
- You can't read forwarded mail using our Webmail system (at least, not using the original address).
- Forwarding may be less reliable if the company handling the destination address has problems.
- Forwarding makes our spam filters less accurate, because we can't tell who you normally send e-mail to.
E-mail mailboxes
If these drawbacks bother you, you should use a mailbox instead. This solves the problems of forwarding addresses:
- A mailbox stores your mail separately on our servers. Your mail won't be mixed with mail at other addresses.
- Your mail program (or Webmail) will insert the correct "From" address when you reply to a message.
- The messages can be read using our Webmail system.
- Since the messages stay on our servers, problems at other companies won't make your e-mail less reliable.
- Our systems know who you send outgoing mail to and make sure the replies will never be blocked as "spam".
Using both
If you prefer, you can set up a single address as both a forwarding address and a mailbox.