Email sending limits and spam protection

Why there are limits

Your website, apps and mailboxes send email from shared Cloud Ninza mail servers. If one hacked website sent thousands of spam emails, Gmail, Outlook and others would start rejecting mail from those servers — for every customer. Limits and automatic checks stop that, so your invoices, contact-form messages and replies keep reaching the inbox.

The limits by plan

Each project (hosting account) has one allowance for everything it sends — website mail (WordPress, PHP mail(), contact forms), apps (Node.js, Python, Java, PHP connecting to the mail server) and every mailbox you send from in Outlook, phone or webmail. It is counted per recipient: one email to 5 people counts as 5.

• Starter: 50 per hour and 200 per day
• Growth: 100 per hour and 500 per day
• Business: 200 per hour and 1,000 per day
• Pro: 300 per hour and 2,000 per day

What happens at the limit

Further emails are refused with the message "Hourly email limit reached for this hosting account" (or daily) and can be sent again as the hour or day moves on. Nothing is charged. We email you the first time it happens in a day, so you notice if something is sending that you did not expect.

When sending is paused automatically

Outgoing email from the whole project is paused, and any email still waiting to leave is held, when it looks like spam:

• it keeps trying to send after reaching its limit (10 refused attempts in an hour) — typical of a hacked site or a spam script;
• 30% or more of its email bounces (from 20 emails a day) — typical of bought or old mailing lists.

While it is paused

• Receiving email keeps working — nothing is lost.
• Websites and apps keep running; only outgoing email stops.
• You get an email, and the Email page shows a red bar with the reason.
• Our team checks it with you — usually a misused contact form, an outdated plugin or a leaked mailbox password — and turns sending back on. Held emails are sent if they were genuine, or deleted if they were spam.

Keep your email trusted

• Keep WordPress, plugins and themes updated, and add a CAPTCHA to contact forms.
• Use strong, different passwords for mailboxes and turn on two-step verification for your dashboard.
• Only email people who asked to hear from you; never use bought lists.
• Set SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain — the Domains and Email pages show the exact records.

Need to send more?

Genuine needs above your limit (for example order emails for a busy shop) can be raised: open a ticket and tell us what you send. A bigger plan also has a higher limit. Bulk newsletters and marketing campaigns should use a dedicated email marketing service; they are not allowed from hosting accounts.

Extra mailboxes and storage

Email storage packs and bigger plans add space and mailboxes, but every mailbox on a project shares the same sending limit and the same spam protection. Please read this page before buying extra email, so the rules are clear from the start.