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Your email deliverability largely depends on whether you use a shared or dedicated IP, internet protocol address. Both have their perks and limitations, so knowing the difference matters.
In this post, I’ll explain how each IP address type affects your emails, discuss their pros and cons, and look at practical examples to help you figure out what’s the right choice for your business.
No matter how good your content is, how clean your email list looks, or how carefully you avoid spam traps, it all can go to waste, if your IP address doesn’t have a strong reputation.
Along with your domain reputation and DNS email authentication setup, it shapes your sender reputation — that key factor mailbox providers use to decide whether your emails land in the inbox, go to a spam folder, or get blocked entirely.
Check out our blog post on sender reputation and how to improve it or watch the video if you prefer a quick overview.
If you care about email deliverability, your choice of IP setup matters. But before we dive into the details, here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of shared vs. dedicated IPs. This snapshot should help you see the main differences and get a better sense of what fits your needs.
| Shared IP | Dedicated IP | |
| Definition | One IP address is shared by multiple senders. | An IP address is used exclusively by one sender. |
| Cost | More affordable (often included in basic plans). | Typically more expensive, an additional cost. |
| IP reputation | Shared with other senders. | Completely controlled by you. |
| Setup & warm-up | Easy to start, no warm-up required. | Requires gradual warm-up and careful setup. |
| Deliverability control | Limited: other senders affect your reputation. | High: you get complete control of your IP’s reputation. |
| Volume suitability | Great for low to moderate sending volumes. | Ideal for high-volume or frequent senders. |
| Maintenance | Minimal maintenance is needed. | Ongoing monitoring and regular sending are required. |
A shared IP is an IP address used by multiple senders at the same time.
If you’ve ever sent emails through a free service like Gmail or Yahoo or used an entry-level plan from an email service provider (ESP), chances are your messages went out over a shared IP.
Since the IP is shared, the sending reputation is shared too. That means your email deliverability rate doesn’t depend only on your behavior, it’s affected by everyone else sending from that IP. The upside? You don’t need to worry about managing or warming up an IP. Most of the heavy lifting is done for you.
Typically, low-volume senders, small teams, or teams on a budget choose shared IPs.
While shared IPs mean you don’t have full control over your sender reputation, they come with some real advantages when you don’t need to manage every detail yourself.
- Ability to immediately send emails. Since many clients use shared IPs, they are already pre-warmed. That means internet service providers (ISPs) are already familiar with seeing large volumes of email from these IPs and generally treat them as legitimate senders. You don’t need to worry about building up trust from scratch. This is especially beneficial for new senders or those with irregular sending patterns.
- Cost-effective solution. A shared IP is generally more affordable than a dedicated one. Since the infrastructure and maintenance costs are distributed among multiple users, it’s a budget-friendly option for small businesses and startups.
- Established reputation. If you’re working with a reliable ESP, you won’t be sharing an IP with spammers or phishers. ESPs actively manage their IP reputation. They monitor metrics like hard bounces and complaint rates and take action when a sender isn’t meeting their standards, which protects everyone else.
- Reduced responsibility. In a shared IP environment, the responsibility for maintaining the IP’s reputation is distributed among all users and the ESPs. This means that occasional missteps by one sender may be mitigated by the good practices of others.
- Easier maintenance. With a shared IP, the heavy maintenance is mostly handled by your ESP. They keep an eye on performance, enforce sending standards, and deal with any reputation issues—so you don’t have to.
- Simple onboarding. Shared IPs don’t require setup or ramp-up. You can start sending right away, unlike dedicated IPs, which need a gradual volume increase to build a reputation.
Shared IPs are great, but they aren’t the right fit for every situation. Here are a few common cases where using a shared IP works best—both in terms of effort and results.
If your email volume is low or uneven
When you send emails occasionally—like a few newsletters per month or one-off campaigns—a shared IP is a good fit. You don’t send often enough to maintain a healthy reputation on a dedicated IP, so sharing with others helps keep things stable.
Example: A local bookstore that sends a monthly newsletter and a few seasonal promotions.
If you’re new to email marketing
New businesses or startups benefit from shared IPs because they don’t need to manage deliverability on their own. It’s a plug-and-play option with minimal risk and responsibility.
Example: A SaaS startup launching their first onboarding emails through an ESP like Mailtrap or Brevo.
If you’re on a tight budget
Smaller businesses or teams with limited resources often go for shared IPs since their pricing is lower. Shared IP addresses are usually included in basic ESP plans. On top of that, you don’t need advanced tools to manage your IP reputation, which helps avoid additional costs.
But, even with a shoestring budget you still can get a fully-fledged email marketing platform with all the necessary tools, including dedicated IP. Check out our post on cheap email marketing platforms for best price and value.
If you’re working with a reputable ESP
When using a well-managed email service provider, a shared IP can be a smart choice. ESPs take care of spam complaints and monitor user activity that could harm IP reputation, helping protect your email delivery.
If you’re testing your emails
Shared IPs work well for staging or testing email flows. Since they’re already managed and reputation is established, you can focus on checking templates, links, and logic, without worrying about sender reputation or that setup delays will affect test results.
Example: A development team testing password reset emails from a staging server.
What is dedicated IP addresses
A dedicated IP is a unique IP address used only by you, your emails don’t share space with other senders.
It’s like having your own private lane on the email highway. Nobody else’s traffic affects your path, and you’re fully responsible for how smooth (or bumpy) the ride is.
Since the IP belongs to just one sender, everything you do — good or bad — shapes its reputation. That means better control over deliverability, but also more responsibility to keep things in check. You’ll need to build up trust with mailbox providers gradually by sending consistently and following email sending best practices.
Dedicated IPs typically come with a higher cost and are used by businesses that send high volumes of emails or need more control over their sending reputation.
Benefits of a dedicated IP
Using a dedicated IP means you’re the only one sending emails from that address. That extra control comes with several advantages, especially if your email sending patterns are consistent, high-volume, or business-critical.
- Ability to build your own sender reputation. With a dedicated IP, there will be no surprises from other senders. Your reputation is based only on what you send and how you send it. This makes it easier to stay in good relationships with mailbox providers. On top of that, you’ll get helpful functionality to monitor key metrics, gain insights, and improve your results.
- Lower risk of email deliverability issues. You’re not impacted by other senders’ behavior, so there’s less chance of getting caught up in spam complaints, blacklists, or poor practices you didn’t cause. If you stick to best sending practices, you can build and sustain solid email deliverability and inbox placement over time.
- A better fit for high-volume senders. If you’re sending large volumes on a regular basis — think daily campaigns, transactional messages, or both — a dedicated IP helps maintain consistency. Mailbox providers like to see stable patterns from trusted senders.
- Clear performance data. With no one else sharing your IP, your email stats reflect only your own activity. That means more accurate insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.
- Easier to troubleshoot. If something goes wrong, like a sudden drop in open rates, it’s easier to pinpoint the cause when you’re the only one using the IP. You’re not sifting through shared data or guessing whose mistake triggered the issue.
- Better support for critical emails. If you send transactional emails like order confirmations or password resets, keeping them on a dedicated IP can help ensure they arrive quickly and reliably, without competing with bulk messages from others.
- Stronger security and compliance. Since you’re the only sender, you can apply custom security measures aligned with your internal policies. This will help you protect sensitive data and maintain compliance.
- Easier whitelisting. If your emails must bypass strict spam filters, like in finance, healthcare, or internal systems, you might need to whitelist your IP address. That’s only possible with a dedicated IP, where you control the reputation and sending behavior.
Dedicated IP use cases
Dedicated IPs give you full control over your sending reputation but that only pays off in the right scenarios. Here are a few common cases where using a dedicated IP brings real value in terms of performance, reliability, and deliverability.
If you’re sending high volumes regularly
When sending a lot of emails consistently, such as daily newsletters, regular marketing campaigns, or app notifications to your clients and target audience a clear sending pattern shows mailbox providers that you can be trusted.
Example: An e-commerce platform sending daily promotional emails and real-time transactional messages like receipts and shipping confirmations.
If your emails are business-critical
When emails must reach the inbox quickly, like password resets, payment alerts, or system notifications, a dedicated IP gives you more predictability and fewer risks. You’re not depending on other senders’ behavior and can get significantly higher deliverability rates.
Example: A fintech company that needs to deliver real-time security alerts and login codes without delay.
If you want full control over your sending
A dedicated IP puts everything in your hands: reputation, volume, schedule, security, and warm-up strategy. If you have the resources to monitor performance and follow deliverability best practices, it’s a smart move, especially for teams with advanced needs.
Example: A marketing team running segmented email campaigns, A/B tests, and triggered workflows that rely on clean performance data.
If you’re managing multiple email streams
Some businesses separate promotional, transactional, and bulk emails by using multiple dedicated IPs. This keeps the reputation of one stream from affecting another and helps keep time-sensitive messages on track.
Example: A SaaS platform that sends account alerts from one IP and marketing content from another to ensure reliable delivery.
If you’re scaling up your email program
If you’re planning to grow your email volume significantly, a dedicated IP gives you room to scale without sharing reputation space.
Example: A startup preparing to expand its user base and launch an ongoing email automation strategy across different regions.
It’s not always a clear-cut choice. Maybe you’re sending a lot of emails but working with a tight budget. Or your email volume is small, but every message really matters.
To help you figure it out, I’ve put together a quick checklist. Use it to see what type of IP address makes the most sense for your email setup.
- Send low or irregular email volumes
- Are just getting started with email marketing
- Want a budget-friendly option
- Prefer a low-maintenance setup
- Rely on a trusted ESP to manage deliverability
- Need to send test or staging emails
- Are fine using a single IP address for all your email types
Choose a dedicated IP if you…
- Send high email volumes regularly
- Need full control over your sender reputation
- Send business-critical or time-sensitive emails
- Have the resources to monitor own IP performance
- Want clean data insights without outside influence
- Plan to scale your email program
- Require custom security measures to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance
Wrapping up
Now that you know how shared and dedicated IPs affect your sender reputation, email deliverability, and overall email strategy, you’re in a better spot to choose what fits your needs. If you want to dig deeper into improving your email performance, here are a few posts you might find helpful:
