SMTP for Contact Form 7 vs YaySMTP – WP Mail SMTP with

WordPress uses PHPMailer to send mail from with your local mail server, but it can happen that your mail were not accepted by mail providers… This can happen for several reasons, sometimes because the mail server is not configured or sometimes because the records DKIM, DMARC and SPF of the domain been set up correctly and so on… Anyway you can avoid any problems by using an external SMTP server and sending mail with it! Additional features ✅ OAuth2 Authentication: Securely connect to Gmail and Microsoft Office 365 without needing to store passwords in your database or enable “less secure apps”. ✅ Per-Form Custom Templates: Wrap CF7 emails with beautiful templates. You can now select a specific custom template for each form directly from the plugin settings! ✅ Global or CF7-Only Mode: Choose whether to override all WordPress emails with this SMTP configuration or limit it exclusively to Contact Form 7 submissions. ✅ Live testing: a module for testing e-mail settings with the Rest-Api (that avoid to reload the page for this kind of test). The entire output of the php mailer will be captured, which will be useful in case of configuration errors or to get the wrong parameter when is possible. ✅ Automated Reports: choose when and what email you want to receive the report and I will send you a beautifully formatted HTML summary of sent and failed emails. Includes log retention settings to keep your database clean. ✅ Advanced Headers & Security: Easily automatically set “Reply-To” headers, allow insecure options for self-signed certificates, and define custom “From Name” and “From Email” settings. This plugin is ads free and I don’t want to try to sell you any pro version! If you want to contribute, there are many ways to do so, from simple suggestions and bug reports to translating and contributing code. See below how to do it! SMTP SMTP stands for ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol’. It is a connection-oriented, text-based network protocol of the Internet protocol family and as such is on the seventh layer of the ISO/OSI model, the application layer. Like any other network protocol, it contains the rules for proper communication between networked computers. SMTP is specifically responsible for sending and forwarding e-mails from a sender to a recipient. Since its release in 1982 as the successor to the ‘Mail Box Protocol’ in Arpanet, SMTP has become the standard protocol for sending e-mails. However, the SMTP procedure remains largely invisible to the normal consumer, as it is executed in the background by the e-mail programme used. Only if the software, the webmail application on the browser or the mobile e-mail application does not automatically determine the SMTP protocol when creating an account, does it have to be set manually to ensure smooth e-mail traffic. SMTP presets Aruba Gmail (tls and ssl) Yahoo (tls and ssl) Outlook (tls and ssl) Office365 (tls) OAuth2 Setup Google Gmail To use Gmail with OAuth2, you need to create a Google Cloud Project: 1. Create Project: Go to Google Cloud Console and create a new project. 2. Enable Gmail API (Required): Go to APIs & Services > Library, search for Gmail API, and click Enable. 3. Configure Consent Screen: Go to OAuth consent screen and create an External app. * Scopes: Click Add or Remove Scopes, search for the Gmail API, and check the boxes for .../auth/userinfo.email and .../auth/gmail.compose (or https://mail.google.com/). * Publishing Status: Click Publish App to push it to production (otherwise, your connection token will expire every 7 days). 4. Create Credentials: Go to Credentials > Create Credentials > OAuth client ID. * Application type: Web application. * Authorized redirect URIs: Copy and paste the exact callback URL provided in your plugin settings. 5. Connect: Copy the generated Client ID and Client Secret into the plugin settings and click Connect. 6. Grant Permissions (Critical): During the Google login popup, click Advanced > Go to App if prompted with an “unverified app” warning. You must explicitly check the boxes that ask for permission to compose/send emails before clicking Continue. Microsoft Office 365 1. Go to the Azure Portal (portal.azure.com). 2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory > App registrations > New registration. 3. Enter an application name and set the Redirect URI (Web) to the exact URL provided in the plugin settings. 4. Go to Certificates & secrets and create a new client secret. Copy the secret’s Value. 5. Go to API permissions > Add a permission > Microsoft Graph > Delegated permissions and add SMTP.Send and offline_access. 6. Copy the Application (client) ID and the Client Secret into the plugin settings. 7. Click Connect with OAuth2. Would you like to find more presets (that you think are useful to other users)? Open a request in the support form and provide the necessary connection data (auth, server address and port). In the next cf7-smtp version you will find the required configuration among the presets. Security It’s warmly advised to use OAuth2 for supported providers (Gmail, Office365) so no passwords are saved. If using basic SMTP authentication, it is highly recommended to store at least the password into wp-config.php as a constant. And in addition, it’s also very easy! It needs only to add define( 'CF7_SMTP_USER_PASS', 'mySecr3tp4ssWord' ); into your wp-config.php just before /* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */ All passwords will be stored encrypted, but still it is not good practice to put it into database! Quick setup As with the user password other security constants can also be defined. Available constants are CF7_SMTP_USER_NAME, CF7_SMTP_USER_PASS, CF7_SMTP_OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID, CF7_SMTP_OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET. define( 'CF7_SMTP_SETTINGS', array( 'user_name' => string, 'user_pass' => string, 'oauth2_client_id' => string, 'oauth2_client_secret' => string, )); Template Wouldn’t it be better to have a small container to make our mail a little prettier? Well we have it! You can now assign specific templates to each of your forms via the plugin settings dashboard. To use your own custom templates for emails, simply create them by following these steps: 1. Create a folder named cf7-smtp/ or templates/cf7-smtp/ in your theme (or child theme) folder. 2. Create a .php or .html template file inside it. 3. Go to the plugin settings under Style > Form Email Templates, and select your newly found custom template from the dropdown menu for the desired form. 4. (Optional) You can customize the logo, website link, and other template parts. Checkout the filter documentation on GitHub/wiki. Support Community support: via the support forums on wordpress.org Bug reporting (preferred): file an issue on GitHub Contribute We love your input! We want to make contributing to this project as easy and transparent as possible, whether it’s: Reporting a bug Testing the plugin Discussing the current state, features, improvements Submitting a fix or a new feature We use GitHub to host code, to track issues and feature requests, as well as accept pull requests. By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under its GPLv2 License.

YaySMTP fixes your WordPress email deliverability and gives you something most free SMTP plugins make you pay for: full email tracking, reporting, and log management, 100% free. 💎 Connect your favorite mailer in 3 steps, then actually see what happens to every email: who opened it, who clicked, how your sending trends over time, and what failed. Every feature below is free. YaySMTP Pro adds only priority support and feature-request access, never a feature paywall. Why YaySMTP over other free SMTP plugins? Other free SMTP plugins get your mail delivered. YaySMTP gets it delivered and shows you what happened & what’s next: 📊 Email open & click tracking Know which transactional and marketing emails actually get read. 📈 Email Reports with charts & statistics Visualize your sending over time: delivery volume, opens, and clicks in clear charts, so you can spot trends and catch problems early. No paid analytics add-on required. 📁 Export email logs to CSV Keep auditable backups of everything you’ve sent. Filter, search, show/hide columns. ♻️ Import email logs from your old plugin Switching from WP Mail SMTP, Easy WP SMTP, and others brings your email history with you, not just your settings. 🛒 WooCommerce email preview & test Preview and send real WooCommerce order emails before customers see them. 🗓️ Configurable log retention Keep logs forever or 7 to 365 days, plus weekly/monthly summary reports, totally free. ⚡️ Core Features Email Reports & analytics: Track email performance over time with built-in charts and statistics, including sent volume, open rates, and click activity at a glance. Full email log: Keep all email logs with content and metadata. Filter, show/hide columns, and search by subject, recipient, and more. Open & click tracking: See which emails are opened and which links are clicked. Export/Import email logs: Save sent emails as CSV; import logs from your previous SMTP plugin. Configurable log retention: Keep logs forever or auto-retain within the latest 7 to 365 days. Weekly/monthly summary reports: Get email performance digests delivered to your inbox. WooCommerce optimized: Send and preview real WooCommerce transactional emails; works perfectly with YayMail. Fallback mailer, send test email, disable email delivery (dev mode), one-click migration, clean UI/UX. 💪 Supported Mailer YaySMTP supports mailers many other plugins skip, including MailJet, SMTP.com, SendPulse, Mandrill (Mailchimp), Yournotify, and IONOS, alongside Amazon SES, SendGrid, Gmail, Outlook/Office 365, Mailgun, Brevo, Zoho, Postmark, and any custom SMTP. SendGrid Gmail SMTP server Zoho Brevo (formerly Sendinblue SMTP) Mailgun SMTP.com Amazon SES Postmark MailJet MessageBird (formely Sparkpost) Pepipost SendPulse Microsoft Outlook, Office 365, Microsoft Exchange Online Mandrill SMTP by Mailchimp Yournotify IONOS Your hosting’s email server And more! Contact us to suggest your favorite mailer 🎯 Why use YaySMTP? Customers who buy products from your website expect regular updates and follow-ups. That’s why timely communication is crucial to your business. Sending follow-up WordPress emails on time can bring customers back while building trust and brand value. 📝 Documentation and Support If you’re having issues, do let us know, and we’ll be happy to help. ♥️ Like this YaySMTP Plugin? 👉 Rate us 5 stars on WordPress.org. ✅ Check out our best-selling WordPress plugins: YayMail – WooCommerce Email Customizer Email Customizer Addons YayCurrency – WooCommerce Multi-Currency Switcher YayPricing – WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing And Discounts YayExtra – WooCommerce Extra Product Options YaySwatches – Variation Swatches for WooCommerce ✅ Plugins to boost conversions and increase AOV in WooCommerce: YayReviews – Advanced Customer Reviews with AI Summary ✨ YayBoost – Sales Booster for WooCommerce Yay Wholesale B2B