Before you start #

• Make sure the email account already exists in cPanel (example: support@yourdomain.com).
• Decide if this is an Out of Office response (temporary) or an Acknowledgement (ongoing).
• Choose a safe interval so one sender doesn’t get spammed with repeated replies.

Create an autoresponder in cPanel #

1. Log in to your cPanel.
2. Go to the Email section and click Autoresponders.
3. Click Add Autoresponder.
4. Fill in the configuration fields (explained below).
5. Click Create (or Save) to enable the autoresponder.

Autoresponder settings explained #

Character Set #

Keep this as utf-8 unless you have a very specific reason to change it. This ensures your message supports all common characters.

Interval (Important) #

The Interval is the number of hours cPanel waits before sending another autoresponse to the same sender.
A good safe value is 1 hour to prevent flooding someone’s inbox if they email you multiple times.

Email + Domain #

Select the mailbox and domain that should auto-reply (example: sales + yourdomain.com).

From #

This is the address shown as the sender of the autoresponse. Best practice: set it to the same mailbox you’re enabling the autoresponder for
(example: autoresponder for support@yourdomain.com → From should also be support@yourdomain.com).

Subject #

Keep it clear and professional. Examples:

We received your email — Hosticko Support

Out of office: We’ll reply soon

HTML #

Enable HTML only if you need formatting (links, bold, line breaks). Otherwise, plain text is safer and more deliverable.

Body #

Write the message you want sent automatically. Keep it short, helpful, and include an expected response time if possible.

Start + Stop #

• Start: set it to “Immediately” or choose a custom date/time.
• Stop: choose “Never” or set a custom date/time (recommended for holidays/out-of-office).

Using tags (dynamic variables) in the message #

cPanel supports tags you can place in the autoresponder body to automatically insert details from the incoming message:

• %subject% — the subject of the email the sender wrote to you
• %from% — the sender’s name (if available)
• %email% — the sender’s email address

Copy/paste autoresponder templates #

Template 1: Out of office #

Hello,

Thanks for your email. I’m currently out of office and will reply as soon as possible.

If this is urgent, please open a ticket here:
https://client.hosticko.com/submitticket.php

Regards,
Hosticko Team

Template 2: We received your request (support acknowledgement) #

Hello %from%,

Thanks for contacting us — we’ve received your email about: "%subject%".

For faster assistance, you can submit a support ticket here:
https://client.hosticko.com/submitticket.php

Regards,
Hosticko Support

Common issues and best practices #

• Don’t set Interval to 0 — it can spam repeat senders and hurt deliverability.
• Use a real mailbox as “From” — spoofed senders can trigger mail rejections.
• Keep the message short — long, link-heavy replies can be flagged as spam.
• Set a Stop time for vacations/temporary messages so it doesn’t run forever.

Related Hosticko guides #

• How to Create an Email Account in cPanel
• Email Deliverability: SPF/DKIM/DMARC Setup
• SMTP Settings: Configure Outlook & Mobile Email

Replace these with your actual Hosticko knowledgebase URLs.