Email limits and policies

Every limit on this page protects either your mail (storage, backups) or your domain's reputation (sending limits, sign-in rules). Knowing them in advance saves a confusing bounce later.

Before you start#

Find your plan's numbers on the Overview page of the panel, or in Plan limits.

Mailbox storage#

Each mailbox has a fixed quota, set by the plan:

• Mail storage is separate from your website's disk space. A full mailbox does not affect your site, and a full website disk does not affect mail.
• Every folder counts, including Sent, Trash and Spam.
• Webmail shows usage at the top right (for example "27.4% of 5.0 GiB") and in the sidebar. Click it to open the storage panel, where Run analyzer shows which folders and messages take the most space.

When a mailbox is full, new messages cannot be stored. Senders get a "mailbox full" bounce and the message is not delivered. To free space: empty Trash and Spam, delete old messages with large attachments (search has:attachment in webmail), or upgrade for larger mailboxes.

Message and attachment size#

Attachments grow by about a third when they are encoded for email, so 30 MB per message means roughly 20 MB of attachments from a mail app. For anything bigger, share a download link instead (for example from your cloud storage).

Sending limits#

Each mailbox can send a limited number of messages. This stops a leaked password or an infected computer from sending thousands of spam messages in your name, which would get your domain blocked everywhere.

The allowance refills steadily through the day rather than all at once at midnight. A mailbox can send a burst of a quarter of its daily allowance (at least 25 messages) straight away; after that, sending continues at the rate the allowance refills, about one twenty-fourth of it per hour. For example, on Pro (1,000 a day) a mailbox can send 250 messages at once, then about 42 an hour. The limits count messages sent from webmail, mail apps, devices and your own website or app code alike, and they follow your current plan: after an upgrade the higher allowance applies within a few minutes.

When you reach a limit, the server refuses further messages for a while. Mail apps show a sending error; webmail keeps the message in the Outbox and retries automatically (Undo, schedule and Outbox).

Sign-in and security rules#

• Encrypted connections only. IMAP on port 993 (SSL/TLS) and SMTP on 587 (STARTTLS) or 465 (SSL/TLS). Unencrypted ports and POP3 are switched off.
• The user name is the full address, and passwords are generated by the panel (Email accounts).
• You can only send as yourself. The From address must be the mailbox you signed in with. Sending "as" another address is refused.
• Repeated wrong passwords from one network address block that address for a while, for mail apps and webmail. Fix the password on every device, then wait before retrying.
• Webmail sign-in is also rate-limited and can be protected with an authenticator app (Security and privacy in webmail). Two-step sign-in applies to webmail only; mail apps use the mailbox password.
• Up to 20 simultaneous IMAP connections per mailbox from one network address. Normal use needs far fewer.
• Websites and apps hosted on FiniteHost can send only through mail.finitehost.com (587 or 465) with a mailbox password; port 25 and other SMTP servers are blocked. See Send email from your website or app.

Features not available yet#

• Aliases, forwarding and catch-all addresses. Every address is a separate mailbox.
• POP3.
• Sending vacation auto-replies (webmail saves the settings, but does not send them yet).
• Automatic settings discovery in mail apps.
• Deleting a mailbox from the panel. Write to support@finitehost.com to remove one.

Plus addressing works#

You can add +anything after your name: mail to priya+invoices@acme.in arrives in priya@acme.in. Use it to see which website shared your address, or to filter mail with a webmail rule ("To contains +invoices").

Backups#

Mailboxes are backed up every night to a separate, encrypted storage server. Every plan keeps 14 nightly copies plus 8 weekly copies, so mail can be restored from up to about two months back. To get a deleted folder or mailbox back, write to support; see Backups and restore.

Deleted messages go to Trash first. Emptying Trash deletes them from the server; after that, only a backup can bring them back.

When a plan is not renewed#

Renewing during grace or suspension restores sign-in within a few minutes. See Renewals and expiry. If you plan to leave, copy your mail out first (Move your email works in reverse).

Troubleshooting#

What's next#

• Email troubleshooting
• Keep your mail out of spam
• Plan limits