What's the difference between a shared and a dedicated sending domain?

What’s in this article
Understand the benefits of using dedicated sending domains and how they differ from shared domains. The sending infrastructure, including the sending domain, is an important part of email marketing. It is determined whether or not mailbox providers such as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. will block, filter, or deliver your emails based on the reputation of the sending infrastructure or where the emails originate.

Note: If you are looking to get started with adding a dedicated sending domain and address to your Patch account, click here.

Patch Default: Shared Sending Domain
You will be automatically able to add email addresses and send emails from our shared sending domain mailgro.com by using Patch's default configuration. When a customer receives an email from an email address created with the mailgro.com shared sending domain, such as jane@mailgro.com, the email will be delivered to their inbox with a “From:” header of jane@mailgro.com.

Note: If you are looking for more information on how to add an email address to your Patch account head over to this article, click here.

Account Created: Dedicated Sending Domain

When you use a dedicated sending domain, your emails appear to be sent by your brand instead of Patch. Any account is qualified to create a dedicated sending domain. 

Note: If you are ready to add a dedicated sending domain to your account, click here.

Once you have added and verified your dedicated sending domain to your account you will then be able to create email addresses to send emails from within your Patch tools. When a customer receives an email from an email address created with the mailgro.com shared sending domain, such as jane@send.widgets.com, the email will be delivered to their inbox with a “From:” header of jane@send.widgets.com.

Advantages of a dedicated sending domain

The purpose of using a dedicated domain is to allow you to use the domain name of your brand rather than Patch's. Your domain is the sole sender and you are the only one sending emails from your domain. This allows you to build a reputation for sending emails and limits any negative impact of shared senders. 

With a dedicated domain you will have more control over your sender reputation. Despite the fact that the shared domain is consistently reviewed and we ensure accounts use clean opt-in lists, you may wish to take complete responsibility for deliverability.

Disadvantages of dedicated sending domain

New domains or those new to email will not yet have a reputation for sending emails. Therefore, dedicating a domain for sending may not be a good option yet. Mailbox providers and filter software may not trust mail coming from a new domain yet. While you develop an email reputation on the brand's domain, it's best to use the shared sending domain.