Send email in Craft CMS over SMTP

Craft sends account activations, password resets and anything your templates or plugins mail out through one mailer, which by default uses the server's sendmail. SMTP is built in — no plugin needed — and switching it to Postwing takes one settings screen.

SMTP connection settings

Add the credentials to .env

Email settings are stored in project config, which is usually committed. Keep the values in .env and reference them from the control panel:

SYSTEM_EMAIL=noreply@your-domain.com
SMTP_HOST=smtp.postwing.app
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USERNAME=token-login@your-domain.com
SMTP_PASSWORD=your-token-password

Configure Settings → Email

In the control panel go to Settings → Email and fill in:

Or configure it in config/app.php

To keep mail out of the control panel entirely — or to use a different transport per environment — override the mailer component:

<?php
// config/app.php — overrides the SMTP settings from the control panel
use craft\helpers\App;
use craft\helpers\MailerHelper;
use craft\mail\transportadapters\Smtp;

return [
    'components' => [
        'mailer' => function() {
            $config = App::mailerConfig();

            $adapter = MailerHelper::createTransportAdapter(Smtp::class, [
                'host' => App::env('SMTP_HOST'),
                'port' => App::env('SMTP_PORT'),
                'useAuthentication' => true,
                'username' => App::env('SMTP_USERNAME'),
                'password' => App::env('SMTP_PASSWORD'),
            ]);
            $config['transport'] = $adapter->defineTransport();

            return Craft::createObject($config);
        },
    ],
];

Send a test email

Press Test at the bottom of Settings → Email, or run the same check from the command line, which prints the full SMTP error:

php craft mailer/test --to=you@example.com

On staging, the testToEmailAddress general setting routes every outgoing email to one address so real users are never mailed.

Troubleshooting