If your WordPress emails vanish or worse, get hijacked, your entire online business could break down. WP Mail SMTP helps with email deliverability issues, but you might be concerned about the security of the plugin itself. Should you trust it to send your important emails?
So, is WP Mail SMTP secure? Yes! It works for websites of all sizes and meets strict compliance requirements. In this guide, I’ll explain how it protects your site and give you some more tips to ensure maximum email security security.
Many WordPress sites depend on transactional email for sending form notifications, order confirmations, password resets, and other important messages. And keeping these critical emails secure is crucial to protect your customers’ and users’ private information as well as your all-important brand reputation.
WP Mail SMTP locks down every weak point: credentials, transport, and logs. Here’s how.
What You’ll Learn:
- How WP Mail SMTP’s security architecture protects your site’s emails
- Why default WordPress email settings put your data at risk
- A simple 5-minute security checklist to lock down your email system
Why Email Security Matters for WordPress
Before I get into the specifics of how WP Mail SMTP secures your email, you should understand why WordPress email security matters in the first place – and what risks you face without proper protection.
WordPress sites face three major email security risks:
- Stolen passwords – Bad actors can grab your SMTP credentials and send emails pretending to be you
- Name spoofing – Attackers can fake your sender name without even having your password
- Data leaks – Customer info in your emails can be exposed if they’re not encrypted
What makes this worse? WordPress doesn’t secure email by default. The built-in wp_mail() function sends emails in plain text without proper authentication, which has several security weaknesses:
- No encryption for data in transit
- No sender authentication
- No protection against spoofing
- Limited delivery reporting
It’s like sending a postcard instead of a sealed letter. Anyone along the way can read what’s inside.
WP Mail SMTP fixes this problem by forcing your site to use proper authentication and encryption when sending emails. It connects your WordPress site to reliable email providers through secure channels, preventing snooping and spoofing.
Fix Your WordPress Email Security Now
Security Affects Deliverability
Here’s something most site owners miss: Secure email is also more deliverable email.
Gmail, Yahoo, and other main providers now reject messages that aren’t properly authenticated. Their latest sender guidelines require:
- SPF/DKIM authentication: These DNS records verify you are who you say you are. They’re like digital ID cards that prove emails are really coming from your domain.
- TLS encryption: This creates a secure tunnel for your email to travel through. Without it, your messages are vulnerable to interception.
- Proper sender identification: Your “From” name and email need to match your actual domain, with verified ownership records.
WP Mail SMTP guides you through setting up these technical requirements to make sure your emails don’t end up in the spam folder.
Unsecured WordPress email can lead to:
- Blacklisted domains: Your site gets flagged as a spam source
- Compliance problems: GDPR and CCPA violations can trigger hefty fines
- Lost customers: When transactional emails fail, sales and support suffer
- Reputation damage: Fake emails sent from your account can destroy trust
The important point to remember is that when your emails aren’t secure, they often don’t reach inboxes at all. And with email open rates already challenging enough, you can’t afford to have deliverability problems on top of everything else.
How WP Mail SMTP Keeps Your Emails Secure
Now let’s look at exactly how WP Mail SMTP protects your site’s emails.
There are three ways to connect WP Mail SMTP to an email provider, and all of them avoid the old-fashioned “type your password into WordPress” method that’s easy to hack.
Option 1: API Keys (Available with certain providers like SendLayer, Brevo, and SMTP.com)
How it works: The email service gives you a special random code (an API key) that you paste into WP Mail SMTP.
Why it’s safer: These keys can only send email and can’t access your inbox or account settings. If there’s ever a problem, you can instantly turn off that key without changing your main password.
Option 2: Regular SMTP with SSL/TLS
How it works: You still enter a username and password, but WP Mail SMTP forces the connection through a secure, encrypted channel.
Most people know about the padlock icon in their browser that keeps their credit card details safe. WP Mail SMTP does the same thing for your outgoing email. Before any message leaves your site, the plugin verifies that your email provider is ready to speak in secure code, and the encrypted connection uses the same modern standards (TLS) that banks rely on.
Why it’s safer: This encryption means that even if someone intercepts your message, they can’t read what’s inside.
Option 3: One-click connection for Google / Microsoft and Outlook / Microsoft 365 / Hotmail accounts
How it works: You connect to your email provider, approve the connection in a popup from that provider, and you’re done.
Why it’s safer: Your password never touches WordPress, so it can’t leak. Even if someone hacks your site, they can’t steal your email password because it’s not stored there.
How Your Login Details Are Stored
Two big security concerns most people have are: “Can my staff see my password?” and “Will a hacker find it in my database?”
WP Mail SMTP handles both problems:
- Hidden from view: Any sensitive field is masked with ••••• in the dashboard. Even site admins can’t see the full details once they’re saved.
- Encrypted in storage: Your credentials are locked away using WordPress’s security keys. If someone somehow exports your database, they won’t see plain text passwords.
Fast Updates and Bug Fixes
Security depends on staying current with updates, and WP Mail SMTP takes this seriously:
- New releases come out regularly with improvements and maintenance updates.
- If a security vulnerability is discovered, fixes are released quickly, before hackers can take advantage.
- You can enable automatic updates so WordPress installs new versions as soon as they’re available.
Prompt updates are the single most important factor in maintaining security. No setting or feature can protect you if you’re running an outdated version with known vulnerabilities.
Extra Security Features in WP Mail SMTP Pro
WP Mail SMTP Pro includes additional security features that go beyond the basics. These advanced tools help prevent email problems before they affect your business and protect sensitive information from exposure.
Email Failure Alerts
When your emails stop sending, time is critical. Most site owners don’t discover email problems until a customer complains about missing order confirmations or password resets.
WP Mail SMTP Pro monitors your email system and sends real-time alerts via email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, SMS or push notification when something goes wrong. This early warning system lets you fix credential issues or server problems before they impact your customers.
You’ll know immediately if your email provider rejects your authentication or if your server configuration changes, giving you time to update credentials or switch providers without disrupting your business.
Backup Connections & Smart Routing
Email is too important to rely on a single provider. WP Mail SMTP Pro lets you set up backup mailers that automatically take over if your primary connection fails.
This failover system means you never need to scramble to update SMTP credentials during an outage. The plugin simply routes your messages through your backup provider while you resolve issues with the primary connection.
For sites with different types of emails, smart routing lets you send certain messages through specific providers. You might route customer receipts through your most reliable provider while sending marketing messages through a service with better analytics.
Secure Email Logging
When troubleshooting email issues, email logs are essential, but they can also expose private information if not handled properly.
WP Mail SMTP Pro includes email logging with security in mind:
- Logs are optional so you can activate them only when needed
- Logs can be turned on without logging the actual content of the email to maintain privacy.
- You can set log retention periods to automatically delete old records
- You can control which user roles can access email logs
This gives you the troubleshooting tools you need while maintaining privacy and compliance with data protection regulations.
Get WP Mail SMTP Pro Security Features
For business-critical websites where email deliverability directly affects revenue, these tools provide both protection and peace of mind.
Five-Minute WP Mail SMTP Security Checklist
Setting up WP Mail SMTP securely doesn’t have to be complicated. Follow this straightforward checklist to protect your WordPress site’s emails in just a few minutes.
✅ Enable plugin auto-updates Keep your plugin current with the latest security patches by turning on WordPress auto-updates for WP Mail SMTP.
✅ Use the built-in mailers Connect with SendLayer, SMTP.com, Brevo or any one of the other supported mailers whenever possible. The “Other SMTP” option stores your email login and password in the WordPress database where other administrators can access it. The WP Mail SMTP mailers keep your credentials protected and are less likely to be blocked by hosting providers who often restrict SMTP ports.
✅ Verify encryption is active Make sure the Encryption option is set to TLS or SSL in your WP Mail SMTP settings. TLS encryption is the most secure option but some email provider only support SSL.
✅ Add SPF/DKIM records to your domain These DNS records verify that your emails are genuinely from your domain. Follow our guide to set these up. You can check these are set up properly by sending a test email.
✅ Limit WordPress admin accounts Restrict admin access to only those who absolutely need it, and enable two-factor authentication for all admin users.
✅ Set email log retention to 30 days or less If using email logging, don’t keep logs indefinitely. Set a reasonable retention period that gives you time to troubleshoot without storing sensitive data forever.
Complete these steps once, and your WordPress emails will stay protected for as long as you have the plugin installed. For most sites, this basic security configuration is enough to ensure your emails are both secure and deliverable.
WP Mail SMTP keeps your WordPress emails secure, reliable, and deliverable. It fixes the built-in weaknesses of WordPress email, updates quickly to address security issues, and warns you before problems affect your business with security features including:
- Secure authentication that prevents credential theft
- Encrypted transport that stops message interception
- Optional logging that helps troubleshoot without exposing sensitive data
- Automatic updates that keep your protection current
Email security doesn’t have to be complicated. WP Mail SMTP handles the technical details so you can focus on your business, knowing your messages are protected and will reach their destination.
Next, Protect Your Forms From Spam
Are you sick of spambots attacking your contact forms? Our guide to stopping contact form spam explains all the options to easily protect your WordPress forms.
Ready to fix your emails? Get started today with the best WordPress SMTP plugin. If you don’t have the time to fix your emails, you can get full White Glove Setup assistance as an extra purchase, and there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans.
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