Gmail SMTP vs Simple SMTP

Gmail SMTP plugin allows you to authenticate with your Gmail account to send email via Gmail SMTP server. Most shared hosting servers have restrictions when it comes to email. Usually email will get blocked or missing for no reason. Sometimes it will get blocked when your website reaches the daily limit of outgoing email. This plugin can bypass this issue by routing the email through Gmail’s SMTP server. Gmail SMTP Add-ons Reply-To Cc Email Logger Gmail SMTP Benefits Gmail SMTP plugin is not like most SMTP plugins. It uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol to authorize access to the Gmail API – which means a more secure login system and users won’t have to enter any username or password. Gmail SMTP plugin uses PHPMailer – a very popular library used for sending email through PHP’s mail function. This libary is also used in the core WordPress to send email. Gmail SMTP plugin utilizes “wp_mail” (A function used by WordPress to send email) instead of completely overriding it. This way you still get all the benefits of the default mail function. You no longer need to enable Allow less secure apps on your gmail account to fix SMTP connection issue. This issue became prominent from December 2014, when Google started imposing XOAUTH2 authentication (based on OAuth2) to access their apps. This issue still affects almost all the SMTP plugins because they authenticate via username and password. How OAuth 2.0 Authorization Works You register an application in the Google Developers Console. The application is launched and it requests that you give it access to data in your Google account. If you consent, the application receives credentials to access the Gmail API. Gmail SMTP Features Configure your website to send email using Gmail SMTP server Authenticate using OAuth 2.0 protocol Authenticate with encryption when sending an email (TLS/SSL) Gmail SMTP Basic Setup Create a new project in Google Developers Console. Enable Gmail API in it. Create credentials (OAuth client ID) to access this API. Configure the consent screen for the web application. Enter a Product Name and a Privacy policy URL. Once the consent screen is configured, create a web application. Go to the plugin settings (Settings->Gmail SMTP). Set the Authorized Redirect URL of the application as the one shown in the settings. Finish creating the web app. Copy the newly created Client ID and Client secret and paste into the settings area. Enter your OAuth Email, From Email and From name. Select an encryption. Enter a port number. Save the settings. Now you can authorize your application to access the Gmail API by clicking on the Grant Permission button. Once the application has been authorized Gmail SMTP plugin will be able to take control of all outgoing email. Gmail SMTP Settings Authorized Redirect URI: Authorized redirect URL for your website. You need to copy this URL into your web application. Client ID: The client ID of your web application. Client secret: The client secret of your web application. OAuth Email Address: The email address that you will use for SMTP authentication. This should be the same email used in the Google Developers Console. From Email Address: The email address which will be used as the From Address when sending an email. From Name: The name which will be used as the From Name when sending an email. Type of Encryption: The encryption which will be used when sending an email (TLS/SSL. TLS is recommended). SMTP Port: The port which will be used when sending an email. If you choose TLS it should be set to 587. For SSL use port 465 instead. Disable SSL Certificate Verification: As of PHP 5.6 a warning/error will be displayed if the SSL certificate on the server is not properly configured. You can check this option to disable that default behaviour. Gmail SMTP Test Email Once you have configured the settings you can send a test email to check the functionality of the plugin. To: Email address of the recipient. Subject: Subject of the email. Message: Email body. For detailed setup instructions please visit the Gmail SMTP plugin page.

Adds a simple, no-fuss SMTP settings to your WordPress installation that lets you define custom settings, which is especially useful for hosts with no control over the php mail functionality. If logging is enabled, a new segment in the settings panel will show up with a 30-day overview of recent emails, and will automatically prune older logs. Please see the FAQ if you want a more permanent solution. For more information, please see the project wiki on GitHub. Environment and constant overriding (optional) This plugin will prefer environmental and constant-stored values over the plugin-saved equivalent settings, making it easier to use this plugin via deployment. These can be either stored in your systems env setup, or in wp-config.php as define( 'SEE_BELOW', 'your_value_here' );. Accepted Parameters SMTP_HOST (string) Mail server hostname. SMTP_PORT (integer) Port address (usually 25, 465 or 587). SMTP_AUTH (integer, 1 or 0) Pass below credentials to your mail server. SMTP_USER (string) The mail username for this account. SMTP_PASS (string) The password for the mailer account. SMTP_FROM (string) Enforce all emails come from this email address. SMTP_FROMNAME (string) Enforce all emails to have a certain email name. SMTP_SEC (string) Use a particular email security method (accepts ‘def’ (default), ‘ssl’, ‘tls’ and ‘off’). SMTP_NOVERIFYSSL (boolean) Disable validation of the SMTP server certificate (not recommended). SMTP_LOG (boolean) Controls the logging capability and visibility. SMTP_DISABLE (boolean) Disables the mailer. They will still be logged if enabled, but won’t send out. It is recommended to store at least SMTP_PASS in your wp-config.php file (with the correct file permissions set). If the openssl extension is available, the plugin will attempt to encrypt the password in the database.