DadsFam SMTP
WordPress sends email with PHP’s mail() function, which most hosts either block or deliver straight to spam. DadsFam SMTP replaces it with a real authenticated SMTP connection, so your password resets, contact forms and WooCommerce order emails actually arrive.
Everything described below works on every site. Nothing is disabled, blurred out, time-limited or reduced.
Set up in about two minutes
Pick your provider from the list and the host, port and encryption fill themselves in. Enter your username and password, save, then send a test email. The test shows you the full SMTP conversation, so if something is wrong you can see exactly which step failed.
Supported providers
Gmail, Outlook and Office 365, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Brevo, Postmark, SparkPost, Zoho Mail, Yahoo Mail, Hostinger, cPanel, and any custom SMTP server.
Features
- 13 pre-configured providers with automatic host, port and encryption defaults
- Per-provider setup notes built into the interface, including the common gotchas
- AES-256-CBC encrypted credentials — passwords are never stored as plain text
- Full sender control — From Name, From Email, Reply-To and Return-Path
- Unlimited email logging with status, subject, recipient, connection and timestamp
- Retention control — keep logs for as many days as you choose, or forever
- One-click resend of any logged email
- Full email body viewer in a sandboxed preview frame
- CSV export of your entire delivery history
- Send test email with live SMTP diagnostic output
- Connection test that opens a real socket and speaks SMTP, without sending anything
- Deliverability checker for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX records
- Email health score combining DNS authentication, configuration and real send history
- Delivery failure alerts by email
- Blocking mode stops all outgoing mail on staging sites while still logging attempts
- Suppression list for addresses and domains that must never be contacted
- Analytics with a seven-day delivery chart and per-connection success rates
- WooCommerce diagnostics — confirm store emails route correctly and test each type
- Dashboard widget with sent, failed and success rate at a glance
- Backup and migrate your configuration as JSON
- Documented hook API for developers
WooCommerce
DadsFam SMTP hooks in at a late priority, so it wins over WooCommerce’s own From address settings and your store emails always send from the address you configured. The diagnostics screen flags any mismatch between the two and lets you test-send each WooCommerce email type.
Declared compatible with High-Performance Order Storage and Cart & Checkout Blocks.
Extending the plugin
The plugin exposes documented actions and filters — dfsmtp_configure_mailer, dfsmtp_after_configure_mailer, dfsmtp_mail_failed, dfsmtp_mail_logged, dfsmtp_save_settings, dfsmtp_settings_page_end, dfsmtp_nav_pages and others — so you can layer your own behaviour onto the send pipeline. The full list is documented in the header of dadsfam-email-smtp.php.
An optional commercial add-on, DadsFam SMTP PRO, uses this same API to add multiple saved connections, smart routing, failover, auto-retry, open and click tracking, webhook alerts and send rate limits. It is a separate plugin and is not required — this plugin is complete on its own.
External services
This plugin does not connect to any service of its own. It has no home-phoning, no analytics and no licence checks.
It does, however, exist to hand your website’s email to an SMTP server that you choose and configure. That server is a third party service, and what it receives is entirely determined by your own settings.
What is sent: the emails your WordPress site produces — sender, recipients, subject, message body and any attachments — together with the username and password you entered, so the server will accept them.
When it is sent: only when WordPress sends an email, and only once you have entered SMTP details and saved them. With no details entered, the plugin sends nothing anywhere.
Where it is sent: to the host you type into the settings, and nowhere else. The plugin includes ready-made host and port presets for a number of well-known providers purely so you do not have to look them up. A preset is only a shortcut for filling in the form; selecting one does not contact anybody, and no provider is contacted unless you have entered credentials for it and WordPress sends an email.
Because you choose the provider, you are agreeing to that provider’s terms. The presets included cover, among others:
- Google Gmail / Workspace — terms, privacy
- Microsoft Outlook / Microsoft 365 — terms, privacy
- Amazon SES — terms, privacy
- SendGrid (Twilio) — terms, privacy
- Mailgun — terms, privacy
- Postmark — terms, privacy
- Brevo — terms, privacy
- Zoho Mail — terms, privacy
If you use your own mail server, or a provider not listed above, then that server is the only third party involved and its own terms apply.
Support
Email: support@dadsfam.co.za Website: https://www.dadsfam.co.za