Email is still one of the cheapest ways for a business to reach customers, but the line between a useful newsletter and spam is consent. Get consent right and your mail reaches inboxes; get it wrong and you face blocklists, complaints and a suspended mail account. This guide explains what counts as spam, how single and double opt-in differ, the laws and mailbox-provider rules that apply, and what we ask when a complaint about your mail reaches us.
Spam is bulk email that the recipient never agreed to receive. Only email people who opted in, preferably with double opt-in, give every message a working unsubscribe link, remove bounces and unsubscribes quickly, and authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Shared hosting mail is limited to 200 messages per hour per account on cPanel and 1,000 per day on DirectAdmin, so send newsletters through a dedicated newsletter service. This page is general information, not legal advice.
1. Spam, bulk mail and transactional mail
Not all mail sent to many people is spam. What matters is whether each recipient agreed to it.
| Type | Example | Consent needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Order confirmation, password reset, invoice | No; the customer's own action triggers it |
| Bulk (permission-based) | Monthly newsletter to people who subscribed | Yes, and they must be able to leave at any time |
| Spam | A bought list, scraped addresses, "cold" blasts to strangers | Never had it |
Bulk mail becomes spam the moment it goes to people who didn't ask for it. The volume doesn't change that: ten unsolicited emails are spam, and ten thousand newsletters to real subscribers are not.
2. Opt-in methods compared
| Method | How it works | List quality |
|---|---|---|
| Double opt-in | The person signs up, then clicks a link in a confirmation email | Highest: every address is real and wanted the mail |
| Single opt-in | The person signs up and is added at once | Good, but typos and fake sign-ups get in |
| Pre-ticked box or "we added you" | Consent is assumed | Poor, and not valid consent under many laws |
| Co-registration | Your offer is bundled into another company's sign-up form | Risky: recipients often don't remember agreeing to you |
Double opt-in is the safest choice, especially for forms that bots can reach. It proves the owner of the address agreed, which you may need if a complaint arrives. Record when and where each person signed up.
Opt-out is not an opt-in method. It is the way out, and every bulk message needs one: a clear unsubscribe link that works without a login, and removal from your list promptly after the request.
3. The law: India and abroad
India has no law written specifically for email spam, but these rules still apply:
- The Information Technology Act, 2000 covers misuse of computer resources and unauthorised access.
- The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 treats an email address linked to a person as personal data. Processing it generally needs that person's consent for a stated purpose, and they can withdraw that consent.
- The TRAI rules on unsolicited commercial communication cover phone calls and SMS, not email.
If you email people in other countries, their rules can apply to you too. The best known are CAN-SPAM in the United States (honest headers and subject lines, a postal address and a working opt-out), Australia's Spam Act 2003 (consent, sender identification and an unsubscribe), and in the EU and UK, the GDPR together with the ePrivacy rules (consent before marketing email, with limited exceptions for existing customers).
Laws change and their details depend on your business. If email marketing is central to your business, get advice from a lawyer who knows data protection law.
4. What Gmail and Yahoo expect from bulk senders
Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have required bulk senders to meet a baseline, and other mailbox providers filter along the same lines:
- Authenticate your domain.Publish SPF and DKIM for the domain you send from, and a DMARC record. DKIM is on by default for new cPanel accounts at Domain India.
- Use your own domain.Send from
[email protected], never from a Gmail address through someone else's server. - Offer one-click unsubscribe.Large senders must support the one-click unsubscribe header and honour requests within two days.
- Keep complaints low.Keep the rate of recipients marking your mail as spam well below 0.3%. Above that, your mail goes to spam or is rejected.
Newsletter services handle the unsubscribe header, bounces and complaint tracking for you. That is the main reason to use one.
5. List hygiene that keeps you out of spam folders
- Remove hard bounces at once. Repeated mail to addresses that don't exist is a classic spammer signal.
- Honour unsubscribes quickly, and never re-add someone who left.
- Drop long-inactive subscribers after a re-engagement attempt; old addresses turn into spam traps.
- Never buy, rent or scrape lists. Harvesting addresses without consent breaks our Acceptable Use Policy and most laws.
- Send at a steady pace. A sudden jump from zero to thousands of messages looks like a compromised account.
- Say who you are. Use a recognisable sender name, an honest subject line and your business details in the footer.
6. Sending limits on Domain India hosting
Email included with shared hosting is meant for normal business mail, not campaigns:
| Hosting | Outgoing limit |
|---|---|
| cPanel | 200 messages per hour per account |
| DirectAdmin | 1,000 messages per day |
For a small group such as a team or a club, the cPanel Mailing Lists tool (GNU Mailman) works well; see email mailing lists. For customers, subscribers and leads, use a dedicated newsletter service and point it at your domain with the SPF and DKIM records it gives you. Details of the limits are in do you limit the amount of mail I can send.
Sending bulk unsolicited email, forging headers, running an open relay and harvesting addresses without consent are all prohibited by our Acceptable Use Policy, on every service. Violations can lead to suspension.
7. If we contact you about spam complaints
When complaints or blocklist reports point at your account, we ask questions like these before restoring sending. Having the answers ready speeds things up:
- How do you collect email addresses, and on which pages or forms?
- Do you use double opt-in, single opt-in or another method?
- How many messages do you send, and how often?
- How quickly do you remove someone who unsubscribes?
- Do you remove addresses that bounce?
- For the recipient addresses in the complaint, can you show when and how they opted in?
- Which tool or service manages your list?
Often the cause isn't a campaign at all but a stolen mailbox password or an abused contact form. If you don't recognise the mail, follow how to investigate email spam and abuse problems first.
Receiving spam from a site we host? Third parties can report abuse, including spam sent from a site or account hosted with us, to [email protected] with the full message headers.
8. Where Domain India fits
For everyday mail on your own domain, email comes with every shared hosting plan, and Business Email gives each person a dedicated mailbox with webmail, calendar and contacts. Neither is a newsletter platform: send campaigns through a newsletter service authenticated on your domain.
- Priced per mailbox - start with one
- Email at your own domain ([email protected])
- Add and remove mailboxes yourself
- Webmail with calendar, contacts and tasks
What is the difference between spam and bulk email?
Bulk email is any message sent to many people at once. It is spam when the recipients never agreed to receive it. A newsletter sent to people who subscribed is bulk mail; the same newsletter sent to a bought list is spam.
Is double opt-in required by law?
Not usually, but it is the strongest proof that the owner of an address agreed to your mail, and it keeps fake and mistyped addresses off your list. Many laws, including India's DPDP Act, expect you to be able to show consent.
Is there an anti-spam law in India?
India has no law written specifically for email spam. The IT Act 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 still apply, and if you email people abroad, laws such as CAN-SPAM, Australia's Spam Act and the GDPR can apply too. This is general information, not legal advice.
How many emails can I send from Domain India shared hosting?
200 messages per hour per account on cPanel and 1,000 per day on DirectAdmin. For newsletters and marketing, use a dedicated newsletter service.
Can I send newsletters from my hosting email account?
For a small group, the cPanel Mailing Lists tool works. For customers and subscribers, use a newsletter service: it handles unsubscribe links, bounces and complaints, and keeps campaigns within the rules of Gmail and other providers.
What does Gmail require from bulk senders?
SPF and DKIM on your sending domain, a DMARC record, a one-click unsubscribe that is honoured within two days, and a spam complaint rate kept well below 0.3%.
How do I report spam coming from a website hosted at Domain India?
Email [email protected] with the full headers of the spam message so the sending account can be identified.
Ready to send mail that reaches the inbox? Set up authentication with your newsletter service, keep team mail on Business Email, and if something on your account is sending mail you didn't write, open a support ticket.
Tell us what you send, how you collect addresses and when the complaints started, and we will help you find the cause and get sending again.
Open a support ticket