SmarterMail email hosting operates using a mailbox licensing and storage allocation system.
Each email account (mailbox) requires:
- 1 mailbox license
- A storage allocation based on the mailbox size required
This structure allows businesses to scale mailbox storage independently while helping maintain platform performance, backup efficiency, and long-term storage management.
Table of Contents
How Mailbox Licensing Works
Each mailbox license allows the creation of one email account within SmarterMail.
Examples:
- 5 mailbox licenses = up to 5 email accounts
- 10 mailbox licenses = up to 10 email accounts
- 25 mailbox licenses = up to 25 email accounts
If all assigned mailbox licenses are already in use, additional mailboxes cannot be created until:
- An existing mailbox is removed, or
- Additional mailbox licenses are purchased
Standard Storage Allocation
Each mailbox license includes up to 25GB of mailbox storage.
For many users, this is more than sufficient for normal day-to-day email usage.
Additional Storage Add-ons
If a mailbox requires more than 25GB of storage, additional storage can be added in 25GB increments.
These additional storage allocations are referred to as storage add-ons.
Examples:
| Mailbox Size Required | Mailbox Licenses Required | 25GB Storage Add-ons Required |
|---|---|---|
| 25GB | 1 | 0 |
| 50GB | 1 | 1 |
| 75GB | 1 | 2 |
| 100GB | 1 | 3 |
Please note:
- Mailbox licenses are per mailbox
- Storage add-ons only increase available mailbox storage
- Storage add-ons do not increase the number of mailboxes allowed
Why Storage Add-ons Exist
Mailbox storage is one of the largest resource consumers within any email hosting platform.
Large mailboxes require:
- Additional high-performance storage
- Expanded backup capacity
- Longer backup retention processing
- Additional disaster recovery resources
- Increased replication and archive storage
By separating mailbox licensing from storage allocations, businesses only pay for the storage resources they actually require.
What Happens When the Mailbox Limit Is Reached?
If your domain has already used all assigned mailbox licenses, SmarterMail will prevent the creation of additional email accounts.
Example:
- Your domain has 5 mailbox licenses assigned
- You already have 5 active email accounts
- Attempting to create a 6th mailbox will fail until a license becomes available
Freeing Up a Mailbox License
If an email account is no longer required, deleting that mailbox will immediately free up one mailbox license.
Once removed, that license can then be used to create a different email account.
Example:
- Delete: oldstaff@yourdomain.com
- This frees 1 mailbox license
- You can then create: newstaff@yourdomain.com
Mailbox and Storage Examples
| Scenario | Mailbox Licenses | Storage Add-ons |
|---|---|---|
| 5 users with standard 25GB mailboxes | 5 | 0 |
| 10 users with standard 25GB mailboxes | 10 | 0 |
| 1 user with a 75GB mailbox | 1 | 2 |
| 1 user with a 100GB mailbox | 1 | 3 |
| 20 users plus one 100GB shared mailbox | 21 | 3 |
Need Assistance?
If you are unsure how many mailbox licenses or storage add-ons your domain currently has assigned, or if you would like to increase mailbox capacity, please contact our support team.
