--- title: "What Is SMTP Relay? | DuoCircle" description: "Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised.Interested in" image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png" canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/content/smtp-gateways/smtp-relay/" --- Content # What Is SMTP Relay? Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised.Interested in [ Talk to an Expert → ](/contact/) [ See what we make ](/products/) ## What Is SMTP Relay? [Fix Your SPF Errors Now](/content/spf-permerror) _You may use email every day, but you probably don’t know the inner workings of the technology_. While it may seem like an instantaneous process, it actually takes a few steps for your email to go from your inbox to another. The process involves something called an [SMTP server](/content/smtp-gateways/smtp-server) and relay. In this article, you’ll find out how **SMTP relay** works. As a result, you’ll understand email better and choose the optimal SMTP server provider when you’re shopping for one. ![reliable smtp server](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/02/email-phishing-protection.png) ### First: SMTP server To understand how email works, you need to know what SMTP is; it stands for “[Simple Message Transfer Protocol](https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/SMTP-Simple-Mail-Transfer-Protocol)” and is used by your email client. Your outgoing emails travel to your recipients’ emails through your company’s [SMTP gateway](/content/smtp-gateways). _An SMTP server works just as any other server would; it powers the entire process from start to finish_. It serves as the digital mailman, since it checks and sorts your emails into the correct inboxes. MORE: [Office 365 SMTP settings](/content/smtp-gateways/office-365-smtp-settings) ### Next: SMTP relay [Email SMTP relay](https://www.techopedia.com/definition/30013/smtp-relay) works as a physical relay race does. Your email is the baton, and the different relay runners are the different **SMTP servers**. _All emails within your organization are not relayed, because they have the same domain names_. By this logic, all the emails you send to people who have different domain addresses will use [SMTP relay service](/content/smtp-gateways/smtp-relay-service). If your email marketing involves either bulk or transactional emails, you’ll need to use SMTP relay to accommodate your needs. MORE: How to use [Gmail SMTP](/content/smtp-gateways/gmail-smtp) ![smtp smart host service](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/02/fake-email-delivery-failed.png)![email security services](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/02/phish-protection-bundled.png) ### Third-party SMTP relay service _You may have tried to carry out your email campaigns with your regular email provider and found that it wasn’t very feasible_. This is because of two things: there’s a low daily limit, and you have to spend time sending individual emails. Another problem you’ll run into is low deliverability. This happens because you have a poor **sending reputation** due to your emails being marked as spam. How can you make sure your email campaigns go without a hitch? By enlisting the help of third-party [SMTP gateway service](/content/smtp-gateways/smtp-gateway-service). Not only can you eliminate the problems discussed, but you can also get **protection against domain name spoofing and phishing**. ##### Join the thousands of organizations that use DuoCircle --- Find out how affordable it is for your organization today and be pleasantly surprised. [Outbound SMTP - Sign Up FREE](/email/outbound-smtp)Interested in our Partner Program for MSPs and VARs? Visit Our [MSP Partner Program](/msp-partner-program). ## Ready to talk? Same-day response from someone technical. We tell you yes or no quickly. If yes, we get to work. [Talk to an Expert→](/contact/)[See what we make](/products/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"DuoCircle LLC","url":"https://www.duocircle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.duocircle.com/images/duocircle-logo.png"},"description":"DuoCircle is a portfolio of specialized email products covering protection, authentication, delivery, and routing. 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