Free SMTP Email Service for WordPress w/ SendGrid
I have a few WordPress installations and have been wanting to configure them to send emails using an external service provider for free to send notifications. In this guide I’ll share with you how I do this using SendGrid’s free SMTP service plus the free WP Mail SMTP WordPress plugin.
SendGrid Free SMTP Email Service
SendGrid is a popular cloud-based email delivery service that provides reliable and scalable solutions for sending emails, particularly for transactional emails, marketing campaigns, and other types of automated emails.
With SendGrid, you can easily integrate their API or SMTP relay service into your application or website to handle your website’s email delivery. As you grow your site and business, SendGrid offers advance features for such as email analytics, template customization, list management, and advanced email deliverability options (ex. fixed IP address).
For now you can use the free version. Go to SendGrid and sign up for a free account. Make sure to also verify your email address or domain name.
Generate an API Key on SendGrid
While in SendGrid, go to Settings > API Keys and create a new API key. Once the API key is displayed, copy it and store in a safe place — ideally a password manager.
Configure Sender Authentication in SendGrid
While still on SendGrid, go to Settings > Sender Authentication and either
- Authenticate an entire domain: you’ll have to add CNAME records to your domain’s DNS either in your registrar (ex. GoDaddy) or in your DNS provider (ex. Cloudflare)
- Authenticate a single email address: you’ll have to click on a link that SendGrid will email you.
WP Mail SMTP WordPress Plugin
WP Mail SMTP is a WordPress plugin by WPForms. It helps reconfigure WordPress to use a third party SMTP provider when sending emails.
WP Mail SMTP has a Free and Pro version. The Free version has everything you need to send emails. The Pro version has more powerful features like email logging, advanced reports, backup connections, alerts, and conditional routing.
- Go to your WordPress admin area > Plugins > Add Plugin
- Search for the WP Mail SMTP plugin
- Click Install Now
- Click Activate
- Click on Let’s Get Started
- Select SendGrid
- Click Save and Continue
- Add your SendGrid API key from previous step.
- In the “Sending Domain” field, add the same domain that you verified in SendGrid.
- Set the “From Name” field to your name or another name. You have the option to force this value here so other plugins wouldn’t overwrite it.
- In the “From Email” add an email address that you’ve verified on SendGrid.
- Click Save and Continue
- You can skip the next two steps
- Click Complete Setup
Test Configuration
Now that you’ve set everything up, go to the plugin setting page inside WordPress admin area and send a test email. Verify that you received the email.
I hope you found this guide useful. I find this solution excellent for early stage websites in terms of cost and quality. It can also easily scale as the website scales.
