OnWebPoint 
If your WordPress contact form submissions are disappearing, your WooCommerce order emails are not arriving, or your password reset emails are going into spam, you are dealing with one of the most common problems on Irish WordPress sites. The cause is almost always the same: WordPress is using your server’s default mail function to send email, and that does not work reliably on shared hosting. The fix is SMTP. This guide explains what SMTP email is, why it solves the problem, and how to set it up correctly on your Irish WordPress site.
Why SMTP Email Fails by Default
WordPress sends email using PHP’s wp_mail() function, which in turn uses your web server’s built-in mail sending capability (sendmail or equivalent). On shared hosting — which most Irish business sites use — this approach has serious reliability problems:
email sent directly from a web server is not authenticated. Receiving mail servers (Gmail, Outlook, and others) cannot verify that the email actually originated from your domain, so they treat it as suspicious. Depending on how strictly the receiving server applies its spam filters, your email either lands in the spam folder or is silently dropped before it arrives at all. This happens even if your WordPress site is functioning perfectly.
The problem is compounded by the fact that shared hosting IP addresses are often shared with hundreds of other websites. If any of those sites has ever sent spam, the shared IP’s reputation is damaged, and all email from that server — including yours — inherits that reputation.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) solves this by routing your WordPress emails through a dedicated, authenticated email service instead of your web server. The receiving mail server can verify the email came from a legitimate sender, and the sending service’s IP reputation is maintained for deliverability.
The Fix: WP Mail SMTP Email Plugin
The standard solution for WordPress is the WP Mail SMTP plugin. It intercepts all outgoing WordPress email and reroutes it through your chosen SMTP email service. The free version covers all the common use cases; WP Mail SMTP Pro adds email logging, alerts when emails fail, and additional mailer options.
Install it from Plugins → Add New → search “WP Mail SMTP” → Install → Activate. Once activated, go to WP Mail SMTP → Settings to configure your mailer.
Choosing Your SMTP Email Mailer
You have several options for the actual sending service. The right choice depends on your email volume, whether you have Google Workspace, and how much you want to spend.
Google Workspace / Gmail SMTP
If your Irish business already uses Google Workspace for email (yourname@yourdomain.ie through Google), this is the cleanest option. Your WordPress emails will be sent through the same infrastructure as your regular business email, with full DKIM and SPF authentication already in place.
In WP Mail SMTP email, select Google / Gmail as your mailer and follow the OAuth setup to connect your Google account. This is the most reliable option for businesses already on Google Workspace and handles up to 500 emails per day on the free Gmail tier, or higher limits on Workspace.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
Brevo offers a free tier of 300 emails per day with no monthly cap — more than sufficient for most Irish business sites. It supports full SMTP email authentication and has a WordPress plugin integration. For a typical Irish SME sending contact form notifications and occasional WooCommerce order emails, Brevo free is an excellent choice. Sign up at brevo.com, generate an SMTP email key, and enter the credentials in WP Mail SMTP.
Mailgun
Mailgun is popular with developers and agencies managing multiple WordPress sites. It is highly reliable, has detailed delivery logs, and the free tier allows 1,000 emails per month. Requires a domain verification step (adding DNS records to prove you own your domain), but once configured it is very stable. Good choice for higher-volume sites or those needing detailed email delivery analytics.
SendGrid
SendGrid (now owned by Twilio) offers 100 free emails per day permanently. Similar to Mailgun in reliability and features. Slightly more complex to set up but well-documented. A solid choice for WooCommerce stores with higher transactional email volumes.
Hosting Provider SMTP Email
Most Irish hosting providers — including SiteGround, Digiweb, and Eir — provide SMTP email settings for your hosting account. You can use these directly in WP Mail SMTP by selecting “Other SMTP” and entering the host, port, username, and password from your hosting control panel.
For SiteGround: the SMTP host is typically mail.yourdomain.ie, port 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL), with your hosting email address and password as credentials. For Digiweb, check your hosting panel under Mail → SMTP Settings. For Eir hosting, their outgoing mail server is documented in your customer portal.
Using your hosting SMTP is simpler than setting up a third-party service, but it still shares the IP reputation of your hosting server. For most small Irish business sites with low email volumes, it is adequate. For higher volumes or for sites where email reliability is critical (WooCommerce, booking systems), a dedicated sending service is preferable.
Step-by-Step SMTP Email Setup
Once you have chosen your mailer and have your credentials ready, the WP Mail SMTP configuration is straightforward:
Go to WP Mail SMTP → Settings → Mailer. Select your chosen service (Google, Brevo, Mailgun, SendGrid, or Other SMTP). Enter the From email — use your business email address (yourname@yourdomain.ie), not a generic Gmail address. Enter your From Name — your business name as you want it to appear in the recipient’s inbox. Enter the SMTP credentials from your chosen service. Save settings.
After saving, use the email Test tab in WP Mail SMTP to send a test email to yourself. If it arrives in your inbox (not spam), your setup is working. If it goes to spam, check that your domain’s SPF and DKIM DNS records are set correctly — your hosting provider or the sending service’s documentation will have the specific records to add.
WooCommerce SMTP Email Specifically
WooCommerce sends a significant number of transactional emails: new order notifications, order confirmations to customers, shipping updates, password resets, and more. All of these go through WordPress’s wp_mail() function, so the SMTP fix applies to all of them automatically once WP Mail SMTP is configured.
Review your WooCommerce email settings at WooCommerce → Settings → Emails to ensure each email type is enabled and configured with the correct From address and subject lines. For Irish stores, pay particular attention to order confirmation emails — these are the emails your customers trust most and must arrive reliably. Unreliable WooCommerce transactional email directly damages customer trust and increases support requests.
If your WooCommerce store is sending high volumes of transactional email (dozens or hundreds per day), use a dedicated transactional sending service (Mailgun, SendGrid, or Postmark) rather than Gmail or hosting SMTP email, both of which have daily limits that can be hit on busy trading days.
Testing and Monitoring
After setting up SMTP email, test every email type your site sends: contact form submission, WooCommerce order confirmation, password reset, and any other automated email your site triggers. WP Mail SMTP Pro includes an email log that records every email sent and whether it was delivered, which is valuable for ongoing monitoring. The free version does not include logging, but tools like Mail Tester (mail-tester.com) let you check your sending reputation and DKIM/SPF setup.
Set a reminder to check your SMTP service credentials periodically — some services rotate API keys or require re-authentication after a period of inactivity. A failed SMTP credential is a common cause of email suddenly stopping on a site that was previously working fine.
Getting It Set Up Correctly
SMTP configuration is one of the tasks included in every WordPress site build and maintenance plan from OnWebPoint. If your site’s email is unreliable — forms going missing, WooCommerce order notifications not arriving — getting SMTP configured correctly is a straightforward fix that makes an immediate difference. It also reduces the risk of missing enquiries, which on a properly hosted Irish WordPress site should simply not happen.
If you need SMTP email set up on your Irish WordPress site and would rather not deal with DNS records and API keys yourself, get in touch with OnWebPoint. It is a quick job done right the first time.
