In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to improve email deliverability with the SMTP.com mailer in Easy WP SMTP.

1. Setting Up Your SMTP.com Account

To get started, you’ll need an account with SMTP.com. This account will connect your WordPress site and make sure your emails are delivered successfully. If you already have an SMTP.com account, just log in. If not, create a new account now.

When creating a new account, you’ll need to complete a few more steps to prevent spam. Check your email for an activation link from SMTP.com and click on it to agree to SMTP.com’s usage policy. 

Then, SMTP.com will review your account, which can take up to 24 hours. They may also ask for more information, so keep an eye on your email.

Once your SMTP.com account is approved, you can start setting up the mailer. Keep your SMTP.com account page open in your browser as you’ll need it in the next step.

2. Setting Up Your Site’s DNS Settings

Authentication helps to ensure your emails are considered legitimate and are delivered successfully. SMTP.com uses a record called SPF to help with authentication. You’ll need to add this SPF record to your website’s DNS settings and also set up a DKIM record.

Note: For more details on the DNS records, you can check out SMTP.com’s knowledge base for details on the DNS records it provides.

SMTP.com makes it simple to access the records needed for authentication by providing a user-friendly onboarding process. To start, go to their onboarding portal and log in using your SMTP.com account information.

Sending Domain

To start, you’ll need to specify your sending domain, which should be your website’s domain. To verify this, enter the domain in the What is your sending domain? field and click Next. 

Adding the SPF Record

After adding the sending domain, you’ll then see the SPF record that you need to add to your site’s DNS settings. Click the copy icon to copy the SPF Record. 

You can also locate the SPF record in your SMTP.com account dashboard by going to the top menu and clicking on Account » My Settings.

In the GENERAL tab, you should see the following SPF record:

v=spf1 include:_spf.smtp.com ~all

After you’ve added the SPF record, make sure to also set the TTL (Time To Live) to 1 day if you have the option to change it in your site’s DNS settings. Then, go back to the onboarding portal and click Verify SPF.

After you have made the changes to your DNS settings, you can then add the DKIM record for your website.

Note that it may take up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect, so you may need to check back at a later time.

Setting Up the DKIM Record for Your Domain

Before sending emails from your domain, you need to add a DKIM record to your domain’s DNS settings.

For SMTP.com, this record is a TXT record with the following details:

• Name: smtpcustomers._domainkey
• TXT Value: copied from SMTP.com’s onboarding portal
• TTL: 1 hour or 3600 seconds, depending on the units used in your DNS settings

These details can be found in the DKIM Verification section of the onboarding portal.

SMTP.com suggests setting the TTL value to 3600 seconds, but this might not be possible based on your domain provider. In such cases, you should use your provider’s default value. 

After you’ve added the DKIM record, go back to the onboarding portal and click on Verify DKIM to check its status. 

Remember that it may take up to 48 hours for the changes to your domain’s DNS settings to show up on your domain.

Once the changes have taken effect, you should see a Verified status displayed under each record.

Note: For more information on DKIM records on SMTP.com, check out their DKIM documentation.

3. Configuring Easy WP SMTP Settings

Once you’ve set up your site’s domain settings, you can go ahead and configure your Easy WP SMTP settings. To access the settings from the WordPress dashboard, go to Easy WP SMTP » Settings.

In the next steps, we’ll go through each of the settings located on this page.

Mailer Settings

Select the SMTP.com option from the list of available mailers. Once you choose SMTP.com, more settings related to this mailer will appear.

API Key

The next step is to enter the API Key and Sender Name from your SMTP.com account in the Easy WP SMTP settings.

To find the API Key, go to the Easy WP SMTP section of the settings and click on the Get API Key link.

This will take you to the API page in your SMTP.com account. Copy the full value in the Key column, then go back to the Easy WP SMTP settings, and paste it into the API Key field.

Sender Name

Scroll down to the Sender Name field after adding the API key. Click on Get Sender Name to open the Senders page of your SMTP.com account. Here, copy the value under the Name column.

After copying the Name value, switch back to your Easy WP SMTP settings and paste it into the Sender Name field.

General Settings

From Email Address

The From Email is the email address that your WordPress site’s emails are sent from. For emails to deliver correctly, this email address must match the sending domain you verified in your SMTP.com account. For example, if you authorized example.com as your domain, the From Email must contain @example.com.

We also strongly recommend enabling the Force From Email toggle. If it’s enabled, your From Email will be used for all emails sent from your site, ignoring values set by other plugins.

From Name

The From Name is the name that appears in the emails sent from your site, letting the recipient know who sent the email. By default, the From Name is set to your site’s name. However, you can change the name to whatever you’d like.

Similarly, you can enable the Force From Name toggle to apply the settings site-wide.

When you’re done with the configuration, be sure to click the Save Settings button to save your settings.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully set up the SMTP.com mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to use the Other SMTP mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

1. Configuring Easy WP SMTP Settings

With the Other SMTP mailer, you can send emails using the standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) from any email address, making it easier to configure than other mailers.

To begin the setup process, go to Easy WP SMTP » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.

In the next steps, we’ll go through each of the settings located on this page.

Mailer Settings

Select the Other SMTP option from the list of available mailers. Once you choose Other SMTP, more settings related to this mailer will appear.

SMTP Host

The outgoing server listed in your email provider’s SMTP settings.

Type of Encryption

The type of encryption used for the SMTP connection (None, SSL, or TLS).

SMTP Port

The port your provider uses for SMTP connections.

Auto TLS

This setting is only available if Type of Encryption is set to SSL. TLS encryption is recommended and automatically enabled if the server supports it.

SMTP Authentication

Turns mail server authentication on or off. Most providers require it to be on.

SMTP Username

The username to log in to your mail server.

SMTP Password

The password to log in to your mail server. The password will be encrypted in the database.

General Settings

From Email Address

This is the email address that emails are sent from.

Note: Make sure to enter the email address you will be using to send SMTP emails (this would be the email address associated with your Yahoo account, Gmail account, etc.).

We also strongly recommend enabling the Force From Email toggle. If it’s enabled, your From Email will be used for all emails sent from your site, ignoring values set by other plugins.

From Name

The From Name is the name that appears in the emails sent from your site, letting the recipient know who sent the email. By default, the From Name is set to your site’s name. However, you can change the name to whatever you’d like.

Similarly, you can enable the Force From Name toggle to apply the settings site-wide.

When you’re done with the configuration, be sure to click the Save Settings button to save your settings.

2. SMTP Configurations for Specific Email Providers

If you’re unsure about the required SMTP settings for your email provider, we have listed SMTP configurations for popular email providers below. It’s important to note that each provider may have slightly different SMTP configurations.

SendLayer SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.sendlayer.net
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Generated when you authorize your domain
• SMTP Password: Generated when you authorize your domain

Gmail or Google Workspace SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your Gmail account email address (e.g., [email protected])
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password in Google

Hotmail or Live SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.office365.com
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your Hotmail account email (e.g., [email protected])
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

Yahoo Mail SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
• Type of Encryption: SSL
• SMTP Port: 465
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your Yahoo Mail account email (e.g., [email protected])
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

Yahoo Business (Verizon Small Business Essentials) SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.bizmail.yahoo.com
• Type of Encryption: SSL
• SMTP Port: 465
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your Yahoo Business email address
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

AOL SMTP Settings

• SMTP Host: smtp.aol.com
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your AOL screen name
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

Zoho Mail SMTP Settings

Zoho offers two types of email addresses: free accounts (i.e., [email protected]) and domain-based accounts (i.e., [email protected]). Each type of email requires different SMTP settings. We’ve shared both sets below.

Emails @zoho.com

• SMTP Host: smtp.zoho.com
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your Zoho Mail account email (e.g. [email protected])
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

Emails @yourdomain.com

• SMTP Host: smtppro.zoho.com
• Type of Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
• SMTP Authentication: On
• SMTP Username: Your domain-based email (e.g. [email protected])
• SMTP Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

3. Generating an App Password

In order to use SMTP on your WordPress site, you’ll likely need to create an app password within your email account. Below, we’ll show you how to do this for Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Outlook (including Hotmail and Live), and Zoho.

Gmail or Google Workspace

Note: Before generating an app password in Gmail, you’ll need to turn on Google’s 2-Step Verification.

To get started, log in to your Gmail or Google Workspace account.

From your account dashboard, go to App passwords in your security settings and click on the Select app dropdown.

Next, select the Other (Custom name) option from the dropdown menu.

Then, enter Easy WP SMTP in the field provided and click the blue GENERATE button.

This will generate an app password that you can use for your Easy WP SMTP setup.

Copy the app password, go back to your WordPress dashboard, paste the password into the SMTP Password field, and save the settings.

Note: Sometimes Gmail may automatically block the sign-in used by SMTP for security reasons, even when using an app password. When this happens, an email will be sent to your recovery email address with a sign-in attempt warning (see below).

To remove this blocker, you’ll need to click the Check Activity button in the email (or visit your account’s Notifications page) and follow the instructions provided to let Google know this was a legitimate login attempt.

Yahoo

Note: For Yahoo Business (Verizon Small Business Essentials), please see the official documentation on managing app passwords for steps on finding the proper settings for generating your app password. Then you can follow the rest of the steps below.

First, log in to your Yahoo account and open your account’s security settings.

Next, click Generate app password to generate a unique password for your Easy WP SMTP integration.

In the overlay that appears, click the dropdown, select the Other option, and enter Easy WP SMTP in the field provided.

Yahoo will generate a one-time password that you can use for your Easy WP SMTP setup.

Copy the app password, go back to your WordPress dashboard, paste the password into the SMTP Password field, and save the settings.

AOL

First, log in to your AOL account and open your security settings.

Then, click on Generate app password to create a one-time password.

An overlay will appear with further settings. Go ahead and click the dropdown, select the Other option, and enter Easy WP SMTP in the field provided.

AOL will then generate a one-time password for you to use with your Easy WP SMTP setup.

Copy the app password, go back to your WordPress dashboard, paste the password into the SMTP Password field, and save the settings.

Outlook (Including Live and Hotmail)

To create an app password in Outlook (including Live and Hotmail accounts), log in to your account and open your account’s security settings.

Then, click Advanced Security Options.

Next, you’ll need to activate 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) for your account, if you haven’t already.

Once you’ve enabled 2FA for your account, you’ll return to the Security page, where you’ll need to generate an app password to use with Easy WP SMTP.

To generate the password, scroll to the App passwords section and click Create a new app password.

This will create a unique password you can use for your Easy WP SMTP setup.

Copy the app password, go back to your WordPress dashboard, paste the password into the SMTP Password field, and save the settings.

Zoho

First, log in to your Zoho account and open your account’s security settings.

Next, scroll to the Application-Specific Passwords section and click the Generate New Password button.

In the Enter app name field, enter Easy WP SMTP, then click the Generate button.

This will create a unique password you can use for your Easy WP SMTP setup.

Copy the app password, go back to your WordPress dashboard, paste the password into the SMTP Password field, and save the settings.

4. Troubleshooting

Are you receiving the following error? SMTP Error: Could not authenticate

In the following section, we’ll cover what can cause this issue and how to fix it.

Incorrect SMTP Username and Password

In your Easy WP SMTP settings, double-check to make sure your SMTP Username and SMTP Password are correct.

For Gmail, Outlook (including Hotmail and Live), Yahoo, Yahoo Business, AOL, and Zoho require app-specific passwords. Please refer to the Generating an App Password section to learn how to generate passwords for each provider.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully set up the Other SMTP mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to use the Mailgun mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

1. Signing Up for a Mailgun Account

First, you’ll need a Mailgun account to start this setup process.

Creating a Mailgun Account

If you don’t have an account with Mailgun, go ahead and sign up for a Mailgun account on their website. 

Note: Keep in mind that Mailgun accounts without a credit card can only send emails to 5 recipients. If you want to remove this limitation, you’ll need to add a credit card to your account. For more details, check out Mailgun’s sign-up page.

Once you’ve finished filling out the short sign-up form, there are a couple more verification steps to complete. These verification steps help Mailgun ensure high email deliverability standards for all its users.

First, you’ll receive an email to verify your Mailgun account. To begin the verification process, click the Verify your email address button.

Then, you’ll be prompted to enter a mobile number to receive a text verification code.

After completing these steps, you’ll be logged into your Mailgun account automatically.

Adding a Domain

To continue the setup process, go to Sending » Domains from the left menu in your Mailgun dashboard.

Click the Add New Domain button on the Domains page. 

Then, enter a subdomain for your website’s domain name. A subdomain is like a separate section or directory of your website and replaces the “www” part of the address. For example, subdomain.example.com.

In this case, the subdomain will only be used by Mailgun to send emails and won’t be visible on your website.

You can name it anything you like, such as “mail.example.com” or “mg.example.com”. Naming it “mail” or “mg” can help identify what it’s used for.

Next, in the Domain region section, you’ll have to select either US or EU. If your website is hosted in the European Union, select EU. If it’s hosted outside of the EU, go with the default US option.

Next, open the Advanced settings (DKIM) by clicking on it. This gives you an extra layer of security against spam.

We suggest picking the 2048 option, which gives you a longer DKIM key. Finally, click the Add Domain button to move on to the next step.

Keep this page open, as we’ll return to it later in the next section.

2. Verifying Your Domain

To ensure the security of both site owners and their visitors, some SMTP services, including Mailgun, require verifying your domain by adding certain records to your site’s DNS. For more information on why verifying your domain is important, refer to Mailgun’s guide.

To get started, open your site’s DNS settings. If you’re not sure how to find these, Mailgun provides helpful links on their setup page when you’re adding a domain.

Note: If you’re not sure where to find your site’s DNS settings or feel unsure about making changes, please contact your site’s hosting provider before making adjustments.

In the DNS settings, look for an option to add a new record.

To verify your domain with Mailgun, you need to add two TXT records and then two MX records, all of which must be copied exactly from your Mailgun account.

There may also be a TTL (Time To Live) field for each record in the DNS settings. If possible, set the TTL to 1 day or 86400 seconds.

Note that the records must be added to the subdomain you created, not the main domain.

Now that you’ve added both TXT and MX records, your DNS settings are all set.

3. Checking Your Mailgun Verification Status

Mailgun will now check to make sure your domain’s DNS records are set up correctly. This might take up to 48 hours because changes to DNS records can take time to propagate.

To see if the verification has finished, click the Verify DNS settings button.

If Mailgun confirms your DNS changes, it will show that your domain name is active.

Don’t wait around for this to finish, you can move on to the next step while you wait. Just keep this tab open, you’ll need it soon.

4. Configuring Easy WP SMTP Settings

To prepare your WordPress site to start using Mailgun with Easy WP SMTP for sending emails, you’ll need to configure some plugin settings. To access the settings from the WordPress dashboard, go to Easy WP SMTP » Settings.

In the following steps, we’ll go through each of these settings in detail.

Mailer Settings

Select the Mailgun option from the list of available mailers. Once you choose Mailgun, more settings related to this mailer will appear.

Private API Key

Mailgun will provide the Private API key, even if your domain is still waiting to be verified. You may have received this information automatically by email. If not, use this link to get your Private API key.

Alternatively, you can always access the API keys page by clicking on your profile and selecting API keys.

This will take you to a page with your API keys, and you can click the eye icon under the Private API key to view the entire key.

After copying the text for the full key, paste it into the Private API Key field in the Easy WP SMTP settings.

Note: If you have an older Mailgun account, you may see a prefix key- before your key. Be sure to copy this prefix and add it to your Easy WP SMTP settings as well, as leaving this out will cause issues with verification.

Domain Name

For the Domain Name, enter the subdomain you created in Mailgun (e.g. mg.example.com).

Region

Next, make sure to check the Region setting and set it to match what you set up in Mailgun (outside of the European Union, select the US option).

General Settings

From Email Address

By default, the From Email Address field will be filled with your site’s admin email.

You can use any valid domain-specific email address for the From Email Address (e.g. [email protected]).

You also have the option to enable the Force From Email if you want the From Email Address to be the same site-wide.

From Name

The From Name is the name that appears in the emails sent from your site, letting the recipient know who sent the email. By default, the From Name is set to your site’s name. However, you can change the name to whatever you’d like.

Similarly, you can enable the Force From Name toggle to apply the settings site-wide.

When you’re done with the configuration, be sure to click the Save Settings button to save your settings.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully set up the Mailgun mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to use the SendLayer mailer with Easy WP SMTP.

1. Setting Up a SendLayer Account

To connect your WordPress site with SendLayer, you’ll need an active SendLayer account. If you don’t already have one, follow SendLayer’s guidelines for setting up a new account.

Once you’ve established a SendLayer account, log into your SendLayer dashboard. You’re now ready to start the mailer setup process, which we’ll go through in the following steps.

2. Authorizing a Domain in SendLayer

To use SendLayer for email sending, you’ll need to authorize your domain. This authorization process proves to email servers that you’re the verified owner of the sending domain and that the emails are being sent from a trustworthy source.

For a step-by-step explanation of the domain authorization process, see SendLayer’s guide to authorizing a domain.

3. Configuring Easy WP SMTP Settings

Once you’ve authorized your domain in SendLayer, you can go ahead and configure your Easy WP SMTP settings. To access the settings from the WordPress dashboard, go to Easy WP SMTP » Settings.

In the next steps, we’ll go through each of the settings located on this page.

Mailer Settings

Select the SendLayer option from the list of available mailers. Once you choose SendLayer, more settings related to this mailer will appear.

API Key

Go to your SendLayer dashboard to locate your SendLayer API key. For details on locating your API key, check out SendLayer’s guide to managing API keys.

Once you’ve obtained your API key, paste it into the API Key field.

General Settings

From Email

The From Email is the email address that your WordPress site’s emails are sent from. For emails to deliver correctly, this email address must match the sending domain you authorized in SendLayer. For example, if you authorized example.com as your domain, the From Email must contain @example.com.

We also strongly recommend turning on the Force From Email box. If enabled, your From Email will be used for all emails sent from your site, ignoring values set by other plugins.

From Name

The From Name is the name that appears in the emails sent from your site, letting the recipient know who sent the email. By default, the From Name is set to your site’s name. However, you can change the name to whatever you’d like.

Similarly, you can enable the Force From Name toggle to apply the settings site-wide.

When you’re done with the configuration, be sure to save your settings by clicking the Save Settings button.

That’s it! You’ve now successfully set up the SendLayer mailer with Easy WP SMTP.