What is the difference between hard and soft bounces?
A soft bounce is just a temporary delivery failure. It doesn’t necessarily mean the email address is invalid or no longer active, so you can try to send emails to these addresses again.
These are a few common reasons for a soft bounce:
- The recipient’s mailbox is full.
- The email server is temporarily unavailable.
- The email content is too large.
- It includes spammy content
- It’s sent to a blacklisted sender address.
Often, soft bounces are resolved on their own.
But hard bounces are quite serious.
A hard bounce means there is a permanent reason for the delivery failure. Generally, the recipients’ addresses are immediately added to the “Bounced” list. Frequent hard bounces can drastically reduce the sending sources’ reputation.
Some common reasons for hard bounces include:
- The recipient email address doesn’t exist.
- The domain name doesn’t exist.
- Typos render the email address invalid (e.g., gnail.com instead of gmail.com).
- The recipient email server has blocked delivery.
- The email address is inactive.
Zoho CRM Training Programs
Learn how to use the best tools for sales force automation and better customer engagement from Zoho's implementation specialists.
Zoho DataPrep Personalized Demo
If you'd like a personalized walk-through of our data preparation tool, please request a demo and we'll be happy to show you how to get the best out of Zoho DataPrep.
- Zoho Workerly Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
- Zoho Recruit Home
- Forums
- Connect With Us:
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
You are currently viewing the help pages of Qntrl’s earlier version. Click here to view our latest version—Qntrl 3.0's help articles.
New to Zoho Survey?
Zoho Sheet Resources
Zoho Forms Resources
New to Zoho Sign?
Zoho Sign Resources
Sign, Paperless!
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
New to Zoho ZeptoMail?
Zoho DataPrep Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
New to Zoho Workerly?
New to Zoho Recruit?
New to Zoho CRM?
New to Zoho Projects?
New to Zoho Sprints?
New to Zoho Assist?
New to Bigin?
Related Articles
Why doesn't Zoho Campaigns delete hard bounce contacts?
At Zoho Campaigns, we store hard bounce contacts in a separate mailing list. Whenever our users try to add new contacts to their mailing list, we will verify it with the hard bounce list. If the user tries to add contacts that are already in the hard ...Bounces
Bounces occur when sent emails cannot be delivered. Typically, the email server will send you an error message, detailing the reason for the bounce. To learn more about this mechanism, let's walk through the process of sending an email and where ...How can I avoid email bounces?
You can practice the following techniques to avoid email bounce: Don't use purchased mailing lists. Use the double opt-in technique to prevent the entry of invalid email addresses into your mailing list. Regularly clean your mailing list using email ...What is a bounce?
Bounces occur when sent emails cannot be delivered. Typically, the email server will send you an error message detailing the reason for the email bounce. There are two types of email bounce: Hard bounce—A hard bounce indicates that there is a ...What is the sender domain and bounce domain?
As the name suggests, sender domain is the domain name used in the email address in the From field of any mail you receive. It helps the recipients identify where the mail came from. For example, in the email address “julius@zylker.com”, the sender ...
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources