# Order Mail Hosting or SMTP Relay

> Choose Mail Hosting for mailboxes or SMTP Relay for application mail, pick a plan and a domain, and pay for the order on the page it lands on.

Source: https://docs.coritan.com/mail/order-a-mail-service/

In the dashboard:

- /dashboard/mail: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/mail
- /dashboard/order/mail-hosting: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/order/mail-hosting
- /dashboard/order/smtp-relay: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/order/smtp-relay
- /dashboard/order/relay-dedicated-ip: https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/order/relay-dedicated-ip

Order Mail Hosting when people need mailboxes on your domain, and SMTP Relay when software needs to send mail, such as receipts, alerts and newsletters. Each product has an order page of its own, and you can hold several of each. A relay on a large enough plan can also take a dedicated sending IP, which you order for that relay.

## Before you begin

- Decide which product you need. [How Mail Hosting works](/mail/mail-hosting/) and [How SMTP Relay works](/mail/smtp-relay/) describe each.
- For a paid plan, credit on your account pays the first invoice first. Otherwise you pay by card or PayPal on the page the order lands on ([How the first payment works](/get-started/order-a-service/#how-the-first-payment-works)).
- Optionally, have a domain whose DNS you can change. You can also add it after the order.
- To use one domain for both products, plan a sending subdomain for the relay, such as `send.example.com`. A domain can be on one mail service at a time.

## Open the order page

Any of these opens the order page for Mail Hosting or SMTP Relay:

- In [**Email**](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/mail), select **Order Mail Hosting** or **Order SMTP Relay**. With no mail service yet, the same buttons are in the middle of the page.
- In a mail service's panel, select **Order another** in its header. It opens the page for the same product.
- On [**Order a service**](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/order), select the **Mail Hosting** or **SMTP Relay** card under **Email**.

You can also add Mail Hosting or SMTP Relay to a Cloud Compute or Container Apps order, and SMTP Relay to a Mail Hosting order ([Add products to the order](/get-started/order-a-service/#add-products-to-the-order)).

## Order the service

The page has numbered sections, and the summary under **Your order** sits beside them. On a phone the summary follows the sections, and **Review order** at the bottom of the screen takes you to it.

1. Under **Plan**, choose a plan. We start with the plan the catalogue recommends, or else the first one on sale.
   - A Mail Hosting plan shows how many mailboxes it holds, the storage each mailbox gets and how many domains it takes, such as `5 mailboxes · 10 GB each · 1 domain`.
   - An SMTP Relay plan shows its emails a month, its price per 1,000, whether it has a buffer over the allowance or `stops at the allowance`, its sending domains and any dedicated IPs. The free plan shows **Free** as its price.
2. Check the billing cycle beside the **Plan** heading. When the plans sell more than one cycle, select one of its buttons, such as **Monthly**. A longer term names what it saves, such as `Annually · save 20%`. Relay plans are billed monthly, so the SMTP Relay page reads `Billed monthly` there.
3. Under **Domain** (Mail Hosting) or **Sending domain** (SMTP Relay), optionally enter a domain such as `example.com` in **First domain** or **First sending domain**. Leave it empty to add domains from the panel later.
   - If you hold free [coritan.gg names](/proxies/coritan-gg-names/), they appear beside **Your names:** under the field. Select one to use it.
4. On a Mail Hosting order, **Add-ons** offers an SMTP Relay for the mail your applications send. To add one, turn on the switch on the **SMTP Relay** card. Choose its **Plan** when the card lists more than one, and optionally enter a **Sending domain**. Only paid relay plans are offered here: order the free plan on the SMTP Relay page.
5. Check the summary. It lists the plan with its billing cycle and the domain, with **Change** beside each to go back to its section. Under **Billed** are the plan and any add-on. The **Total** shows the price for each billing cycle and what is due today, and the line under it says how the first invoice is paid.
6. On a free plan, complete the verification check above the button. We check every order whose plan costs nothing.
7. Select the button under the summary. It reads **Place order and pay** when you pay after placing the order, **Place order** when your credit pays for it or your account is billed in arrears, and **Order for free** on a free plan.

We do not ask for a region. We set the service up in our mail region, and the panel shows the region's code in its header.

If we refuse the order, **Could not place the order** appears above the button with the reason, and your choices stay as they were.

## Pay for the order

Once you place the order, its own page opens, and its title says what comes next:

- **Order placed, payment due**: pay under **Pay invoice** with account credit, a saved card or PayPal account, or a new card. Setup starts once the payment goes through. [Pay and follow the order](/get-started/order-a-service/#pay-and-follow-the-order) walks through each way to pay.
- **Order placed**: nothing is due now, because credit paid the invoice, the plan is free or your account is billed in arrears. We are setting up the service, and the page updates on its own.
- **Your order is ready**: every service in the order is active.

**What you ordered** lists the service and any SMTP Relay you added, each with its status and price. To pay later, leave the page and pay the invoice under [Invoices](/billing/invoices/). The service waits until it is paid.

## Order a dedicated sending IP

A relay whose plan sends 100,000 emails a month or more can take a dedicated sending address. Each one is a service of its own, with its own invoice ([Dedicated sending addresses](/mail/smtp-relay/sending-limits/#dedicated-sending-addresses)).

1. Open the relay's panel from [**Email**](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/mail) and stay on the **Overview** tab.
2. On the **Sending IPs** card, select **Order dedicated IP**. On a smaller plan the button is greyed out, and the card says which plan you need.
3. The **Dedicated sending IP** page opens with the relay chosen under **Relay**. If you opened the page another way, choose the relay there.
4. If **This relay cannot take a dedicated IP yet** appears, select **Change plan** and move the relay to a larger plan first.
5. Under **Plan**, choose the address's plan.
6. Check the summary, then select **Order dedicated IP**, and pay on the order's page as for any order.

When the address is ready, it is on the relay's **Sending IPs** card with an **Add-on** badge and its warm-up stage. Look for it there, on the relay's **Overview** tab.

## Result

Every service in the order appears in [**Email**](https://www.coritan.com/dashboard/mail) with the status `pending`, then `provisioning` while we set it up, then `active`. We email you when each one is ready. Until then, its panel shows one of these:

- **Waiting for payment**, with **Open invoices**, until the invoice is paid.
- **Setting up** while we create the service.
- **Not set up yet** on every tab but **Billing**, until the service exists.

When the service is active, the button at the top of the order's page opens its panel. If you entered a first domain, it is on the **Domains** tab as the primary domain, with the DNS records to publish. Continue with [Add a domain to Mail Hosting](/mail/mail-hosting/add-a-domain/) or [Add a sending domain](/mail/smtp-relay/add-a-sending-domain/).

## Troubleshooting

The button under the summary is greyed out
: The line under the button names the first answer still missing, such as `Enter a valid domain, or leave it empty.` or `Complete the verification check.` Select it to go to that section.

`Enter a domain, such as example.com.`
: Type the domain on its own, such as `example.com`, with no `https://`, path or address. Or clear the field and add the domain later. On the **SMTP Relay** add-on, the line under the button reads `Enter a domain for SMTP Relay, such as example.com, or leave it empty.`

`The verification check did not pass. Complete it and try again.`
: The check on a free order expired or failed. Complete it again, then select **Order for free**.

`You already have 1 free SMTP Relay. Upgrade or remove one to create another.`
: Each account may hold one free relay, and a free relay counts until it has ended. Order a paid plan instead, or cancel the free relay with **Immediately** and order again once it has ended ([The free SMTP Relay plan](/mail/billing/#the-free-smtp-relay-plan)).

`This plan has no price yet.`
: The plan cannot be ordered yet. Choose another plan, or ask [support](/support/conversations/).

A plan shows **Sold out**
: The plan cannot be ordered right now. Choose another plan.

`No Mail Hosting plans yet` or `No SMTP Relay plans yet`
: The product is not in the catalogue for your account. Ask [support](/support/conversations/) if you expected it there.

**Could not load the plans**
: The plans did not load. Select **Try again**, or reload the page.

The first domain is not on the Domains tab
: The order goes ahead even when the domain cannot be added, for example because it is already on another mail service. Add it from the **Domains** tab, which shows the reason if it is refused again.

**No relays yet** on the dedicated IP page
: A dedicated IP sends for one of your relays, and the account has no active or suspended relay. Select **Order SMTP Relay** to order one first.

`Upgrade the relay's plan first.`
: The relay's plan sends fewer than 100,000 emails a month. Select **Change plan** under **This relay cannot take a dedicated IP yet**, move to a larger plan, then order the address.

`Could not check the relay. Reload the page and try again.`
: We could not read the relay's plan. Reload the page. If **Could not load your relays** appears instead, reload the page too.

## Related

- [Mail DNS records](/mail/dns-records/)
- [How Mail Hosting and SMTP Relay are billed](/mail/billing/)
- [How SMTP Relay sending limits work](/mail/smtp-relay/sending-limits/)
- [Order a service](/get-started/order-a-service/)
- [Claim a free coritan.gg name](/proxies/coritan-gg-names/)

## With the API

Order either product with [`POST /services/order`](/api/reference/client/services/#op-post-api-v1-services-order). List the plans with [`GET /products/`](/api/reference/client/catalog/#op-get-api-v1-products): Mail Hosting plans have the `module_name` `mail`, and SMTP Relay plans `smtp_relay`. Copy the plan's `config_schema` into `config` as it is, and add `domain` for a first domain. We refuse a Mail Hosting order without the plan's `mailboxes` and `storage_gb_per_mailbox`, and a relay order without its `monthly_messages`.

This example orders Mail Hosting with an SMTP Relay on the same invoice:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/services/order \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CORITAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "product_id": 61,
    "pricing_id": 140,
    "hostname": "example.com",
    "config": {"mailboxes": 5, "storage_gb_per_mailbox": 10, "domains": 1, "domain": "example.com"},
    "addons": [
      {
        "product_id": 72,
        "config": {"monthly_messages": 25000, "domains": 0, "credentials": 0, "dedicated_ips": 0, "quota_buffer_pct": 12, "domain": "send.example.com"}
      }
    ]
  }'
```

`hostname` is the name the service is listed under, and the dashboard sends the first domain there. An add-on needs a price above $0, so the free relay plan is ordered on its own, with a `turnstile_token` from the verification check on the website. The answer is `201` with the new `service`, its `addons`, and `invoice_id` and `amount_due` when `requires_payment` is `true`. [Order a service](/get-started/order-a-service/#with-the-api) describes the answer and the errors every order shares. These are the mail ones:

- `422` with `{"detail": {"errors": [...]}}` for a config we cannot use, such as `mailboxes must be at least 1` or `monthly_messages must be at least 1000`. An add-on's message starts with its plan name.
- `409` with `"error": "free_limit_reached"` when the account already holds a free relay.

A dedicated sending IP is an order of the `smtp_relay` product whose `config_schema` has `"addon": "dedicated_ip"`. Send that `config_schema` with `relay_service_id`, the service id of the relay it sends for. It cannot be an add-on of another order. Check the relay first with [`GET /client/smtp-relay/{service_id}`](/api/reference/client/mail/smtp-relay/#op-get-api-v1-client-smtp-relay-service-id): `limits.dedicated_ip_addon_eligible` must be `true`. We check the plan again when we set the address up, and the setup fails on a relay that sends fewer than `limits.dedicated_ip_min_monthly` emails a month.

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.coritan.com/api/v1/services/order \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CORITAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"product_id": 79, "pricing_id": 160, "config": {"addon": "dedicated_ip", "dedicated_ips": 1, "relay_service_id": 1187}}'
```

## API

- `POST /api/v1/services/order`: Order a platform service, and any add-ons bought with it (https://docs.coritan.com/api/reference/client/services/#op-post-api-v1-services-order)
- `GET /api/v1/client/smtp-relay/{service_id}`: Get summary (https://docs.coritan.com/api/reference/client/mail/smtp-relay/#op-get-api-v1-client-smtp-relay-service-id)