Other SMTP

Would you like to improve email deliverability for your WordPress site in just a few steps? By setting up Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), you can quickly fix email delivery issues.

This tutorial will show you how to use the Other SMTP mailer in WP Mail SMTP to improve email delivery for your site.

Note: The Other SMTP mailer is less secure than other mailer options in WP Mail SMTP because it stores your email login and password in your WordPress dashboard. Other WordPress administrators have access to this, so whenever possible, we recommend using one of WP Mail SMTP’s more secure mailers.

Additionally, many hosting providers block their SMTP ports by default, which prevents an SMTP connection. In such cases, you’ll have to contact your web host to see if anything can be done to fix the issue.


What is Other SMTP?

The Other SMTP mailer allows you to send emails from any email address, using standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). As a result, it is easier to set up than most other mailers.

You are more likely to run into server configuration issues when using this mailer. Also, you will have to update your mailer password settings if you change your email account’s password. These and other limitations can make for a less than ideal experience.

  • Cost: There is no cost with the Other SMTP mailer.
  • From Email Requirements: Can be used with any From Email address, but this address must be used site-wide.
  • Bottom Line: Set up with the Other SMTP mailer is quick and easy, compared to most other options. It is useful for sites that cannot use other mailers, but it should not be the first choice, due to its security limitations.

Note: For more information about all the available mailers, please view the complete guide to mailers in WP Mail SMTP.

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP

Before you get started, be sure to install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Once you’ve installed the plugin, click on WP Mail SMTP » Settings in your WordPress sidebar menu. Then select the General tab to open the plugin’s Settings page.

WP Mail SMTP Settings page

We’ll cover each of the available options to set up a Primary Connection below.

From Email

This is the email address that all of your site’s emails will be sent from.

Entering the From Email in the WP Mail SMTP settings

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 recommend that you also check the box labeled Force From Email. Doing so will ensure that the From Email setting within WP Mail SMTP matches the From Email settings for all plugins site-wide.

Forcing the From Email site wide

Note: For more details, see our guide to understand how the Force From Email setting works.

From Name

By default, the From Name will be set to the name of your site. However, you can change this to anything you’d like.

Adding a From Name to the WP Mail SMTP settings

You can also choose to enable the Force From Name setting to apply this name to all emails site-wide.

Forcing the From Name site wide

Return Path

We recommend checking the optional Return Path checkbox to Set the return-path to match the From Email. With this setting enabled, you’ll receive an email if any messages bounce due to issues with a recipient’s email.

The WP Mail SMTP Return Path setting

Mailer

In the Mailer field, you’ll need to select the Other SMTP option.

Select other mailer

Configuring the Other SMTP Mailer

Once you’ve selected Other SMTP as your mailer, a new section will appear with additional SMTP settings for you to configure.

  • SMTP Host: The outgoing server listed in your email provider’s SMTP settings.
  • Encryption: The type of encryption used for the SMTP connection (TLS, SSL, or none).
  • SMTP Port: The port your provider uses for SMTP connections.
  • Authentication: Turns authentication on or off. Most providers require it to be on.
  • SMTP Username: Your email address.
  • SMTP Password: You’ll need to generate an app password for your account, as detailed later in this tutorial.

WP Mail SMTP settings

Each email provider requires slightly different SMTP configurations. We’ve compiled a list of SMTP configurations for popular email providers below if you’re not sure what to enter for these settings.

Note: For better security, we recommend adding your SMTP Username and SMTP Password to your site’s configuration file using constants. Check out our guide to using constants for WP Mail SMTP for details.

Here are the SMTP settings you’ll need for the most popular email providers:

SendLayer Settings

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

Note: SendLayer generates credentials for your site automatically when you authorize your domain. Check out SendLayer’s guide to managing SMTP credentials for more information.

Gmail or Google Workspace SMTP Settings

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

Note: We recommend using our built-in Gmail integration instead of the less secure Other SMTP mailer.

Outlook (Including Hotmail or Live) SMTP Settings

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

Yahoo Mail SMTP Settings

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

AOL SMTP Settings

SMTP Host: smtp.aol.com
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587
Authentication: On
Username: Your AOL screen name
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.

Note: We recommend using the built-in Zoho Mail option instead of connecting Zoho through the Other SMTP mailer.

Emails @zoho.com

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

Emails @yourdomain.com

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

Proton Mail SMTP Settings

SMTP Host: smtp.protonmail.ch
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587
Authentication: On
Username: You will need to generate an SMTP username for your account
Password: You will need to generate an SMTP password for your account

DreamHost

SMTP Host: smtp.dreamhost.com
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587
Authentication: On
Username: Your DreamHost account email (e.g., [email protected])
Password: Your DreamHost account email’s password

Mailchimp

SMTP Host: smtp.mandrillapp.com
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
Authentication: On
Username: The email address associated with your Mailchimp account
Password: You will need to generate a transactional API key for your account

HostGator

SMTP Host: gator12345.hostgator.com
Encryption: SSL
SMTP Port: 465
Authentication: On
Username: The email address associated with your HostGator account
Password: Your HostGator account’s password

Note: Your SMTP Hostname can be found in your welcome email or in HostGator’s customer portal. Check out HostGator’s guide on finding your server name for more information.

Mailjet

SMTP Host: in-v3.mailjet.com
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587 (or 465 using SSL encryption)
Authentication: On
Username: You will need to generate an SMTP username for your account
Password: You will need to generate an SMTP password for your account

iCloud Mail

SMTP Host: smtp.mail.me.com
Encryption: TLS
SMTP Port: 587
Authentication: On
Username: Your iCloud Mail email address (e.g., [email protected])
Password: You will need to generate an app password for your account

Backup Connection

Setting up a Backup Connection is optional and isn’t required to complete your Other SMTP mailer setup. However, to further improve email deliverability, we recommend configuring an additional connection to serve as a backup in case your Primary Connection fails.

backup-connection-settings

Note: Want to route your emails through a specific additional connection based on a set of rules or conditions? Be sure to check out our tutorial on Smart Routing to learn how.

Once you’ve entered these details, be sure to click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the screen.

Saving WP Mail SMTP settings

Generating an App Password

To use SMTP on your WordPress site, you’ll most likely need to generate an app password in your email account. Below, we’ll show you how to do this for the following email providers:

Generating an App Password in Gmail

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

To create an app password in Gmail, log in to your Gmail or Google Workspace account.

Then, go to App passwords in your security settings. On this page, click on the Select app dropdown.

Click select app dropdown

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

Select the other custome name option

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

Add name for app password

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

Generated-app-password

You’ll want to copy this password, then return to your WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. From here, paste the password into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

SMTP Password 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 block, 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.

Gmail SMTP security email

Generating an App Password in 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. Then open your account’s security settings.

In your account’s settings, you’ll need to generate a special password for your WP Mail SMTP integration. To do so, click on Generate app password.

Generate App Password in Yahoo

This will open up an overlay, where you’ll need to select the app you’ll be granting permission to. From the dropdown, select the Other option and enter WP Mail SMTP in the field provided. Then click the Generate button.

Generate WP Mail SMTP password in Yahoo

This will generate a one-time password that you can use with WP Mail SMTP.

App Password for WP Mail SMTP

Copy this password, then go back to your WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. Paste the password into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

SMTP Password settings

Generating an App Password in AOL

To generate an app password in AOL, log in to your account. Then open your security settings.

You’ll need to generate a special password for your site’s WP Mail SMTP integration in your account’s settings. To do so, click on Generate app password.

Generate App Password in Yahoo

This will open up an overlay, where you’ll need to select the app you’ll be granting permission to. From the dropdown, choose the Other option and enter WP Mail SMTP in the field provided. Then click the Generate button.

Generate WP Mail SMTP password in AOL account

This will generate a one-time password that you can use with WP Mail SMTP.

App Password for WP Mail SMTP

Copy the password, then return to your WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. Paste the password into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

SMTP Password

Generating an App Password in Outlook

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

From here, select the Advanced security options to open up additional security settings.

Advanced Security Options in Microsoft

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 WP Mail SMTP.

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

Create a new app password in Microsoft

This will generate a random password that you can use for your account.

App Password in Microsoft

Copy the password, then go back to your WordPress dashboard and WP Mail SMTP settings. Paste the password into the SMTP Password field and save your changes.

SMTP Password Setting

Generating an App Password in Zoho

To generate an app password for Zoho, you’ll first need to log in to your account.

Once you’re logged in, head to your account’s security settings.

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

click-generate-new-password-zoho

In the field that pops up, enter WP Mail SMTP and click the Generate button.

Enter app name and click generate

Next, copy the password that Zoho has generated for you.

Copy app specific password

Then, head over to your WP Mail SMTP settings. Be sure to paste this password into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

SMTP Password Setting

Generating a Username and Password in Proton Mail

Note: Before getting started, you’ll need to add and verify a domain on your Proton Mail account dashboard. For a detailed guide, please see Proton Mail’s custom domain documentation.

After verifying your domain, proceed to generate your SMTP tokens. For this, log in to your Proton Mail account and open your account settings.

On your Account settings page, click IMAP/SMTP near the bottom of the left sidebar.

On the next page, scroll to the SMTP submission section and click the Generate token button.

Generate token

Note: If you don’t see the Generate token button, you’ll need to reach out to Proton Mail’s support to enable SMTP submission for your account.

In the overlay that appears, enter WP Mail SMTP in the Token name field and select one of your active custom domain email addresses from the Email address dropdown.

Select email address

Then click the Generate button to continue.

Click the generate button

As an additional verification step, you’ll need to enter your account password and click Authenticate to proceed.

Enter password to authenticate

This will generate an SMTP username and SMTP token (password) for you to use with WP Mail SMTP.

Note: The SMTP username will be the same as the custom email address you selected. Also, SMTP token is the SMTP Password you’ll use in WP Mail SMTP.

Copy your SMTP token details

Go ahead and copy the username and password. To copy a value, click the Copy icon next to it.

Copy SMTP token value

Note: You won’t be able to access your SMTP token (password) again after closing the overlay. We recommend storing this value in a secure location in case you need to refer back to it. However, you can always generate a new token if you need to.

After copying your SMTP token values, return to WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. Next, paste the copied username and password into the corresponding SMTP Username and SMTP Password fields.

Enter SMTP username and password

Be sure to save your changes afterward.

Generating a Transactional API Key in Mailchimp

To generate a transactional API key for Mailchimp, you’ll first need to log in to your account. Then open your account’s settings.

From there, click on Extras from the menu at the top and select API keys from the dropdown.

Select API keys option

On the next page, scroll down to the Your API keys section and click on Create A Key button.

Click button to create new API

Next, enter WP Mail SMTP as the API Key Name and click the Generate Key button.

Generate API key mailchimp

Next, copy the API key that Mailchimp has generated for you.

Copy API key mailchimp

Then, head over to your WP Mail SMTP settings. Be sure to paste this API key into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

SMTP Password Setting

Generating a Username and Password in Mailjet

To generate an app password in Mailjet, log in to your account. Then open your account settings.

Next, click on SMTP and SEND API Settings in the Senders & Domains section.

Then, click on the See all API credentials button on the next page.

Next, click on the Generate Secret Key button on the next page.

This will generate and display the API Key (SMTP Username) and Secret Key (SMTP Password) for you to use with WP Mail SMTP. To copy a value, click the Copy icon next to it.

After copying your API Key and Secret Key values, return to WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. Next, paste the copied username and password into the corresponding SMTP Username and SMTP Password fields.

Enter SMTP username and password

Be sure to save your changes afterward.

Generating an App Password in Apple iCloud Mail

Note: Before you can generate an app password in iCloud Mail, you’ll need to turn on Apple’s two-factor authentication.

To generate an app password for iCloud Mail, log in to your Apple account. Then, from the Sign-In and Security settings, click on App-Specific Passwords.

App specific password iCloud

Next, click on the Generate an app-specific password button from the overlay that appears.

Generate an app-specific password in Apple

Then, enter WP Mail SMTP in the field provided and click on the Create button.

Create app password

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

generated app password

Copy the password, then return to your WP Mail SMTP settings in your WordPress dashboard. Paste the password into the SMTP Password field and save your settings.

Enter SMTP password

Sending a Test Email

Now that all of your SMTP settings are in place, the next step is to make sure everything is working correctly. To do so, go to WP Mail SMTP » Tools and click on the Email Test tab.

Opening the Email Test tool in WP Mail SMTP

In the Send To field, you can enter any email address whose inbox you have access to.

Note: If you’ve set up an additional connection, you’d be able to choose between your Primary Connection and other connections when sending a test email.

Next, we recommend leaving the HTML setting ON unless you know you’ll only be sending plain text emails.

After you’ve filled out the required settings, go ahead and click the Send Email button to send your test email.

Click send email button

Once the test email has been sent, you should see a success message that reads, “Success! Test HTML email was sent successfully! Please check your inbox to make sure it was delivered.”

WP Mail SMTP test email success message

If you check the inbox for the email address you entered, you should see the email for this test.

Note: If you’re using a Yahoo email address, it may take 5–10 minutes for emails to arrive in your inbox (including test emails).

Successful test email from WP Mail SMTP

Note: If you have forms that send emails through your site, be sure to also test these out by submitting a couple of test entries. That way, you can be certain that these SMTP settings apply to your form emails as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below, we’ve answered the top questions we receive about using the Other SMTP mailer with WP Mail SMTP.

Why am I getting the following error?

SMTP Error: Could not authenticate

In the sections below, we’ll go over some of the causes of this issue, and a few courses of action you can take to fix it:

Incorrect SMTP Username and Password

In your WP Mail SMTP settings, double-check that your SMTP Username and SMTP Password are correct.

SMTP username and password

Note: The following mailers require you to generate an app-specific password: Gmail, Outlook (Hotmail or Live), Yahoo, Yahoo Business, and AOL. For details on generating passwords for each of these apps, please refer to the Generating an App Password section.

Misplaced Constants

If you are using constants to set up WP Mail SMTP, please double-check to be sure you’ve added them in the correct place. Please refer to our guide on securing SMTP settings with constants for more details.

Adding a Custom Filter

The WordPress (PHPMailer) uses these auth types in order:

CRAM-MD5, LOGIN, PLAIN, XOAUTH2

If the receiving SMTP server is not configured correctly, it will fail at the first one.

If you’ve covered the two troubleshooting options above, and you’re still receiving the error, you can try adding the following filter:

add_filter( 'wp_mail_smtp_custom_options', function( $phpmailer ) {
    $phpmailer->AuthType = 'LOGIN';
    return $phpmailer;
} );

Note: For extra guidance, please see WPBeginner’s tutorial on adding custom code.

How do I fix the ‘Could not connect to SMTP host’ error?

This is a common SMTP error that occurs on WordPress sites. It indicates that your site was unable to establish a connection with the SMTP server you configured.

The error can occur due to a variety of reasons. The most common causes are incorrect SMTP settings, firewall restrictions, or server downtime.

To learn more about troubleshooting this error, be sure to check out our guide on fixing the could not connect to SMTP host error in WordPress.

That’s it! You’ve now configured the Other SMTP mailer on your WordPress site, and your site’s emails should start delivering successfully and reliably.

Next, would you like to keep a record of all the emails sent out from your WordPress site? Be sure to check out our doc on setting up email logging so you can always see what emails have been sent.