Overview
This article explains how to add, upgrade/downgrade, and cancel a Paid email hosting plan.
Adding a plan
These steps add a new plan to your account.
Add to a new account
You can sign up for a new account and email plan at the following link:
From there, proceed through the account creation prompts as shown in the following article:
Add to your existing account
- Visit the Manage Email page.
- Click the Get Started button.
- On the next page, select a Monthly or Yearly payment plan.
- Below, choose the number of mailboxes you wish to add.
- When finished, click the Checkout Now button.
Your email plan is added to your account, and a welcome email is sent to help you get started. You can then proceed with adding addresses to your domain.
Upgrading to a different hosting plan
These steps upgrade your email-only plan to Unlimited Shared Hosting, which allows you to add an unlimited number of email addresses.
- Navigate to the Manage Email page.
- On the top right, click the Manage email subscription link.
- Click the Unlimited Mail tab.
- Click the View Shared Unlimited Plans button.
- Choose which billing plan you prefer and add it to your account.
Changing the plan
You can change your plan to match the current number of email addresses in your panel. For example, if you have 3 addresses and want to change to the 2 address plan, you must delete one of those addresses in your panel first.
- Navigate to the Manage Email page.
- On the top right, click the Manage email subscription link.
- In this image, you can see that the plan currently allows for 3 addresses, but only 2 are being used. In this case, you can click the 2 Mailboxes option to downgrade to the 2 Mailbox plan.
- Click Save Changes to save the new setting.
Please note that you can only decrease the number of email addresses to how many are currently set up in your panel.
Downgrading from Unlimited Hosting
If you've purchased a Shared, VPS, DreamPress, or Dedicated hosting plan, email is unlimited as part of the plan. However, if you have no need for all of the features available with a full hosting plan, but still wish to use email, you have the following two options:
- Downgrade to a registration-only account (with a Paid Email plan)
- Downgrade to a Shared Starter plan (with a Paid Email plan)
Downgrade to a registration-only account (with a Paid Email plan)
If you no longer have a need for a website, you are able to downgrade to a registration-only account with a Paid Email plan. This allows you to continue to use email from your domain without hosting a website online.
To proceed, Contact Support to request your current hosting plan be closed and a Paid Email plan added to it.
Domain registration
DreamHost will not delete your domain registrations when the hosting plan is closed. Any domain registrations previously purchased continue to remain active for the rest of their registration periods. You can continue to log into your panel and manage your domain registrations as you did before.
Downgrade to a Shared Starter plan (with a Paid Email plan)
If you still have a need for a website but do not need all the features of a full hosting plan, you are able to downgrade to a Shared Starter plan and have a Paid Email plan added to it. Before contacting support, make sure you fall within the limitations mentioned in the following article:
Next, Contact Support to request your current hosting plan be downgraded to Shared Starter with a Paid Email plan added to it.
Canceling the plan
This section explains how to cancel or un-cancel a plan.
When your paid email plan expires (or you cancel it) and the billing period expires, your email account is disabled and deleted within 24 hours.
Cancel on the Manage Email page
- Navigate to the Manage Email page.
- On the top right, click the Manage Mail Subscription link.
- On the next page, enter the text DELETE into the text field, then click End Mail Subscription.
Your plan continues to function until the end date listed on this page.
Cancel on the Manage Account page
You can also cancel on the Manage Account page by clicking the Manage button to the right of the plan. This takes you to the Manage Email page, where you can cancel as described above.
No refunds are provided upon cancellation of paid email services.
Un-cancel the plan (if you canceled on the Manage Email page)
If you had previously canceled the plan on the Manage Email page, you can un-cancel it on the same page by clicking the Re-enable Paid Plan button.
- Navigate to the Manage Email page.
- On the top right, click the Manage email subscription button.
- Click Re-Enable Mail Subscription.