Mailboxes
SMTP vs Google vs Outlook for cold email
EmailPal-hosted mailboxes send over SMTP/IMAP we give you. You can also connect Gmail or Outlook for warming only. Pre-warmed inventory is hosted SMTP, not a Google or Microsoft tenant. This is the page for which kind of account to use with Instantly or Smartlead.
Three different products people confuse
Cold-email threads mix three kinds of "account":
- Hosted SMTP/IMAP — a mailbox on a domain you (or EmailPal) registered, with credentials you paste into a sequencer.
- Google Workspace / Gmail — a Google tenant seat. Sending happens at Google, under Google's quotas and policies.
- Microsoft 365 / Outlook — a Microsoft tenant seat. Same idea, Microsoft's rules.
EmailPal hosts (1). EmailPal can warm (2) and (3) for $0.60/mo if you connect them. EmailPal does not rent Google or Outlook seats. Pre-warmed Mailboxes by EmailPal are hosted SMTP on 90-day domains, not Zapmail / InboxKit / "pre-warmed Google" inventory.
If a help article at Instantly or Smartlead says "add a Google account" or "add SMTP," those are two different buttons. EmailPal fills the SMTP one.
What EmailPal hosts
Hosted and pre-warmed mailboxes are SMTP + IMAP on our infrastructure.
- We write MX, SPF
-all, dual DKIM and DMARCp=reject - You get a host, port, username and password
- You paste those into Instantly, Smartlead, Plusvibe, a custom sender, or you send through our API
- Replies can land in the unified inbox
That is different from buying a Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 seat. There is no Google admin console, no Microsoft tenant, no phone-verification loop. Export mailbox credentials and SMTP and IMAP credentials.
Caps: 40 cold emails/day on a plan mailbox once campaign-ready, 15/day on a pre-warmed lease.
Google and Outlook on EmailPal
You can connect Gmail, Outlook or your own server so we warm that mailbox for $0.60/mo. Same seeds (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL), same measured campaign-ready.
Sending campaigns from those accounts still happens at Google or Microsoft, under their quotas and policies. We do not become the SMTP host for a Gmail address. If Google disables the seat, EmailPal cannot unsuspend it.
Use this path when you already own Workspace or 365 and want warming measurement without moving the sending identity.
Why people still use Google / Outlook
Sequencer UIs and some buyers prefer "real" Workspace accounts. The mail looks like it came from a company that already lives in Gmail.
The costs of that preference:
- Seats get disabled. Phone verification, "suspicious login," tenant-level cold-email bans.
- Shared Microsoft tenants reject cold mail and return sender bounces.
- You do not control SPF/DKIM the way you do on a domain you registered. Google signs as Google.
- Volume limits are Google's and Microsoft's, not yours.
Hosted SMTP with correct DNS avoids that class of failure. It is also what you get when you claim pre-warmed inventory.
Which should you pick
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| Send this week, no name to pick | Pre-warmed lease (hosted SMTP, 15/day) |
| A domain you own, full DNS control | Register or BYO + create mailboxes + warm |
| Keep sending from existing Gmail/Outlook | Connect it for warming only |
| A Google tenant you admin | Not an EmailPal SKU |
Domains and mailboxes is the hub for the hosted path.
FAQs
Can I get full admin access to a Google tenant?
Not from EmailPal. If that is a requirement, you are shopping a different vendor.
Will Smartlead / Instantly accept EmailPal SMTP?
Yes. Any tool that takes a host, port, username and password will. Export from Mailboxes or the mailboxes export endpoint.
Are pre-warmed inboxes Google accounts?
No. Hosted SMTP on domains we registered and parked 90+ days. They connect to sequencers as SMTP accounts.
Can I send from EmailPal SMTP and Gmail on the same domain?
You can create a mess. SPF has a 10-lookup limit. Prefer one sending stack per domain.
Does hosted SMTP hurt inbox placement vs Google?
Placement is reputation, list and copy — plus authentication. A new Google seat is also unknown. EmailPal's hosted path is the one we can authenticate, warm against real seeds, and measure. Google is not automatically "more inboxed."