The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. WordPress, by default, uses the PHP `mail()` function to send emails. However, many shared hosting providers do not have this function configured properly, or they have disabled it entirely to avoid abuse. This can cause your WordPress emails to not be delivered. The solution to this problem is to use SMTP as it handles sending messages better and you can also use it to send emails from a third-party mailing service.
Note, if your email server is Microsoft 365 you will not be able to use SMTP. Please see this article: Connecting WordPress to Microsoft 365
Why Use SMTP?
SMTP servers use proper authentication to make sure that email is sent by an authorised mailbox. This improves deliverability, and your emails safely land in users’ inboxes. It provides higher security and deliverability than the default Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) `mail()` function.
Setting Up SMTP in WordPress
To set up SMTP in WordPress, you will need to install and activate an SMTP plugin. There are many free and premium SMTP plugins for WordPress. At UpTime we recommend FluentSMTP.
Before you start you will need to create (or use an existing) mailbox. In most cases you will be using the email service provided by your hosting account. See this article for more information: How To Create An Email Address. This email account will be used for sending emails from your website.
Now follow the steps in this article to install the plugin: Install and activate FluentSMTP
Then add your email account by following the steps in this article: Set up FluentSMTP
You will need to provide the following information:
- Use Other SMTP as the email service provider.
- Use your sending email address as the From Email and enter your preferred From Name
- SMTP host is your email server. This is normally mail.<yourdomain.com.au>
- SMTP Port is 465
- Encryption is SSL. Ensure Auto TLS is enabled.
- Authentication should be enabled.
- Store Access Keys in DB should be enabled.
- SMTP Username is the email address.
- SMTP Password is the password for the email address.
Then send a test email to ensure everything is working.
