My web host, Siteground, has recently dropped the well-known email spam-checking tool SpamExperts.

Background

Siteground is popular, I would say “advanced”, web hosting company. It is more expensive than some common old mass-market hosts like GoDaddy.

SpamExperts is a spam-checking web application that many web hosts subscribe to. Siteground has dropped SpamExperts and created its own solution.

Surprise Surprise

Dropping SpamExperts was kind of a surprise, one day it was there and the next it wasn’t. They said they sent a communication to admins but I certainly never received it. I would like to have known beforehand so I could have exported my white and blacklists from the application.

The change required an update of MX records and it just didn’t work out for me. A couple of Siteground reps were able to fix that for me, my email was back within three-quarters of a day.

SpamExperts

I’ve never liked SpamExperts. It is labour-intensive and too cumbersome for my needs. There were multiple clicks to get to the application and most of the functions within were irrelevant to me, I just needed to whitelist or blacklist, that is it.

The relationship between Siteground and SpamExperts appeared to be problematic with issues from time to time. I remember a year ago it was taking messages a day or more to appear in the application, so anything important going into quarantine I couldn’t get to for a long time.  It did improve over time but still wasn’t particularly happy with that process.

Siteground and other hosts just feed suggestions into SpamExperts about enhancements but whether the company picks them up is another thing.

In-House Solution

Often it is easier to provide an in-house solution rather than be reliant on third parties and could be cheaper in the long run.

I don’t have to go to another website to handle spam now. This is what I generally do:

  • Site Tools > Email > Filters
    I filter suspect top-level domains (TLDs) to redirect to a junk folder or discard them before they reach my email. I use SpamHaus as a guide to block the worst TLDs.
  • Site Tools > Email > Spam Protection
    I have entered my most important email addresses (family, friends, vendors and clients) to Allow Senders to ensure they aren’t redirected to junk ie whitelisting them.

Summary

I am very happy with the solution they provided; simple, all in one place, and easier to manage.