Your website lists info@, your quotes say sales@, the accountant wants invoices from accounts@, and a supplier insists on writing to purchase@. There are only four of you. Paying for a full mailbox for every one of those addresses feels wasteful, but nobody is quite sure what the alternatives do or who will see what.
This guide explains email aliases and shared mailboxes in practical terms, alongside the other tools for handling info@ and sales@ addresses: forwarders, groups and catch-alls. It shows how replies behave with each one, what the main providers call them, and how to design an address plan that still makes sense when someone leaves.
Five ways to handle an extra address
Every email system offers some mix of these. The names change between providers; the ideas do not.
1. An alias
An alias is a second address that delivers into an existing person’s mailbox. If Priya’s mailbox has the alias sales@, anything sent to sales@ lands in Priya’s inbox. There is no separate login and, on the main providers, no separate licence. With the right setting, Priya can also send and reply as sales@.
2. A forwarder
A forwarder passes each incoming message on to one or more other addresses, possibly outside your domain. It stores nothing itself. Forwarders are common on cPanel hosting. They are simple, but replies come from whoever received the forwarded copy, and forwarded mail can sometimes fail authentication checks along the way.
3. A group or distribution list
A group address delivers a copy to every member. Send to team@ and all five people receive it. Some groups can also act as a shared inbox in which members can see whether someone else has already replied.
4. A shared mailbox
A shared mailbox is a real mailbox with its own address, folders and sent items, which several people open alongside their own. Everyone sees the same messages and the same replies. When one person files a message, it is filed for all.
5. A separate user mailbox
A full account with its own login and its own licence. Right for a person; usually wrong for a role address, because somebody has to own the password.
Email aliases and shared mailboxes on each provider
| Tool | Google Workspace | Microsoft 365 | Zoho Mail | cPanel hosting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alias | Alternate email addresses on a user | Additional addresses on a user | Email aliases on a user | Usually done with a forwarder |
| Group | Google Groups, including a collaborative inbox option | Distribution lists and Microsoft 365 groups | Group addresses with members | Forwarder to several addresses |
| Shared mailbox | No direct equivalent; groups or mailbox delegation instead | Shared mailboxes | Group or shared inbox features, depending on plan | A normal mailbox with a shared password |
| Catch-all | Routing rule in the admin console | Possible with mail flow rules | Catch-all setting | Default address setting |
The business email providers above all handle role addresses well; they just name the tools differently. Microsoft’s shared mailboxes are the closest to what most offices picture when they say “shared inbox”. On Google Workspace, a group with the collaborative inbox feature, or delegated access to one mailbox, does the same job.
What the customer sees when you reply
This is the part that causes the most confusion. A customer writes to sales@. Whether your reply also comes from sales@ depends on the tool:
- Alias: replies come from the person’s own address unless they have been set up to send as the alias, and choose it in the From field.
- Forwarder: replies come from whoever received the forwarded copy, often a personal address.
- Group: members reply from their own address by default; some providers allow posting as the group.
- Shared mailbox: with Send As permission, replies come from the shared address, and a copy sits in its Sent folder for everyone to see.
Decide which you want before setting anything up. Some businesses like customers to see a named person; others want every reply to come from the role address so the conversation survives staff changes.
A sample address plan for a small office
Here is how a six-person trading business might lay things out without paying for a mailbox per address:
- Personal mailboxes for each of the six people, named consistently, for example firstname@.
- info@ as a shared inbox read by the two front-office staff, so either can answer and both can see what was said.
- sales@ as an alias on the sales lead, with send-as enabled.
- accounts@ as a shared inbox for the owner and the accountant.
- team@ as a group with all six as members, for internal announcements.
- No catch-all. Mistyped addresses bounce, which tells senders to check the spelling.
Whether role addresses need their own paid licence on each platform is a pricing question. Our posts on how Workspace licences are counted and Microsoft 365 plans and the bill address it for those two providers.
Naming addresses so they still make sense later
A few naming habits save confusion as the team grows:
- Pick one pattern for people and keep to it: firstname@, or firstname.lastname@ if two people may share a first name one day. Mixing patterns makes addresses hard to guess.
- Name role addresses after the job, not the person. accounts@ outlives any accountant; rahul-accounts@ does not.
- Keep role addresses few and obvious. Customers guess info@, sales@ and support@. They do not guess enquiries2@.
- Avoid addresses that look like system mail, such as admin@ or webmaster@, for real customer contact. They attract more automated spam.
- Use the same address everywhere. If the website says info@ and the brochure says contact@, you have two inboxes to watch for one job.
Signatures and auto-replies on shared addresses
When several people answer from one shared inbox, agree on a signature format that includes the person’s name, so customers know who they dealt with. Auto-replies on a shared address go to everyone who writes in, including automated senders, so keep them short and turn them off when not needed.
Common mistakes with role addresses
- Turning on a catch-all. It catches spam sent to random made-up addresses at your domain, as well as the occasional mistyped genuine message. Most businesses are better off without one.
- Making info@ a full user and sharing its password. Nobody can tell who sent what, and when someone leaves you have to change the password for everyone.
- Forwarding loops. Address A forwards to B, which forwards back to A. Messages bounce or multiply.
- Forwarding business mail to personal Gmail accounts. Company conversations end up in accounts the business does not control.
- Forgetting the website. If the contact form sends to an address that was removed during a tidy-up, enquiries vanish silently. Check the form settings whenever you change addresses.
- Too many addresses. Every extra one is something to monitor. If nobody reads it, remove it, or make it an alias of someone who will.
Choosing quickly: a rule of thumb
- One person handles it, and customers can see their name: alias.
- Several people answer it and need to see each other’s replies: shared mailbox or collaborative group.
- Everyone should simply receive a copy: group or distribution list.
- Mail should go to someone outside your domain, such as an outside accountant: forwarder, used sparingly.
- It is a person with their own work: user mailbox.
When someone leaves
A good address plan makes a departure dull. With role addresses on aliases and shared inboxes, the steps are short:
- Remove the person from shared mailboxes and groups.
- Move any aliases they held, such as sales@, to their replacement.
- Decide what happens to their personal address: convert it to a shared mailbox, set up forwarding to a colleague for a period, or add it as an alias on someone else.
- Keep or export their mailbox according to your own retention needs.
- Check that nothing outside the mail system, such as the website form or a supplier portal, still points to their address.
Setting this up on phones and during moves
Shared mailboxes and send-as addresses do not always appear automatically in phone apps. Outlook for phones can usually add a shared mailbox; the built-in mail apps vary. Our guide to reading work mail on Android and iPhone covers what to expect.
If you are moving providers, write the address plan down first and recreate it at the destination before switching mail over. The Workspace migration plan includes that step.
Write the plan down
Keep one simple table: each address, what type it is, who reads it, who can send as it, and where the website or other systems use it. Review it whenever someone joins or leaves. It takes a few minutes and saves hours of guessing later.
Most small businesses need far fewer paid mailboxes than they have addresses. If you would like the plan designed and set up on your provider, with replies coming from the address you intend, the business email setup page linked above is where to begin.
Next in this series: Set Up Business Email on Your Phone: Android and iPhone
