Set up an SMTP plugin

If the emails sent from your site are not received by all intended recipients, you may require an SMTP plugin. This guide will explain what an SMTP plugin is and how to set one up on your website.

This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites, upgrade your plan to access this feature.

In this guide

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When you might need an SMTP plugin

A WordPress site is automatically set up to send transactional emails such as:

Comment notifications
Contact form submissions
WooCommerce emails (such as order confirmations)
New user registration emails
Password reset emails

For most sites, the default email server is sufficient to deliver emails reliably. However, if your site is heavily dependent on emails (for example eCommerce sites with frequent sales, membership sites, or other types of sites that would send a high volume of emails), it’s recommended to use an SMTP plugin to set up a dedicated email server that will allow for a high volume of emails.

Consider an SMTP plugin if you experience any of the following:

You’re using contact forms and not receiving submissions to your email.
Your store’s customers aren’t getting order emails (such as those sent from WooCommerce).
Password reset or user registration emails don’t arrive.
Your site’s emails become blocked.

Before using an SMTP plugin

By default, WordPress.com sites using plugins such as WooCommerce will send emails to your site’s users, but there are many possible reasons why emails sent from your site may not be received.

If your site is facing this issue, first try the following troubleshooting steps:

Check common email issues

If a visitor to your site reports not receiving an email, and it doesn’t seem to be widespread problem, it’s often a simple issue.

Check the spam folder: Ask your visitor to search through their spam/junk or other email folders as the first troubleshooting step — you’d be surprised how often emails are missed there.
Investigate the email address: Check if it’s just one specific email address or a particular email provider that is not receiving messages. For example, some university email systems heavily filter emails received regardless of the sender.
Log outgoing emails: Install an email logging plugin, which can provide you more information as to why an email may not be sent or delivered correctly.

Use a domain email address

In the settings of the plugin that is sending emails from your site, use an email address that matches your site’s primary domain. When a domain and email address don’t match, email providers are more likely to flag the messages as spam or reject them entirely.

For example, if your primary domain name is yourgroovydomain.com, emails will be delivered more reliably by using an @yourgroovydomain.com email address, not a @gmail or @yahoo address. Check our guide on how to add email to your domain.

Plugins that send emails usually have a setting where you can specify a ‘From’ address that emails are sent from. For example, you can set the sender email address for WooCommerce via WooCommerce → Settings → Emails.

Check plugin documentation

Check the guides or help center for the plugins you are using, as they might have helpful troubleshooting steps you can follow. For example, WooCommerce has an email troubleshooting guide with several settings to check.