Send WordPress email reliably
Order confirmations and form notifications should leave through an authenticated service, not PHP mail.
By default WordPress hands mail to the server's local sender. That mail is unsigned and arrives from an address nobody authorised, so receiving servers distrust it. Order confirmations end up in spam.
The fix
- Install an SMTP plugin
FluentSMTP and WP Mail SMTP are both fine. Install one, not two.
- Authenticate against a real mailbox or API
Your Workspace, 365 or Titan account, or a transactional provider such as Postmark, SendGrid or Brevo.
- Set the from address to that domain
Sending as
orders@example.comwhile authenticating asexample.compasses alignment. Sending as a Gmail address does not. - Send a test, then check the headers
In Gmail, Show original should show SPF, DKIM and DMARC all passing.
Newsletters to thousands of recipients belong with a marketing platform, not a mailbox. Sending them through Workspace or 365 hits daily limits and risks the account being suspended.
Transactional or marketing?
| Type | Examples | Send through |
|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Order confirmation, password reset, form notification | Your mailbox provider, or a transactional API |
| Marketing | Newsletter, campaign, abandoned cart | Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Brevo |