When running an online business, reliable email delivery is a must. Whether you’re sending user registrations, password resets, or order confirmations, you need to ensure that your emails reach your users’ inboxes, not their spam folders.

But here’s the problem. Applications like WordPress’s default email system aren’t built for reliable email delivery. It can fail without warning, leaving your important emails undelivered or flagged as spam. That’s where SMTP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, comes in. It ensures that your emails are verified and sent through a trusted service so they reach inboxes instead of getting lost or marked as spam. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to set up custom SMTP on Cloudways. Let’s get started.

First, log in to your Cloudways account. Once logged in, click on the Servers tab. At the top, select the server, and from the left side menu, click on SMTP. In the SMTP settings, click the dropdown menu. You will find two options: Elastic Email and Your Own SMTP. To learn how to configure the Elastic Email add-on, you can watch the pinned video.

To configure your own SMTP, click the dropdown menu and you will find many SMTP clients listed. But if you want to set up a custom one, choose Other. We are using Brevo here, or you can use any service. Go to its platform and find your SMTP settings. Copy and paste all the information provided into the Cloudways platform: host, port, username, password. Once all details are entered, click the Save button to apply the settings.

Now let’s verify if the SMTP configuration is working correctly. Scroll down and click Send Test Email. Enter the sender’s email address and recipient’s email address, then click Send Test Email. If configured correctly, you’ll receive a confirmation message that the test email was successfully sent.

That’s it. You have successfully configured the custom SMTP on Cloudways. All your outgoing emails from this server will now be sent through your chosen SMTP gateway provider. Stay tuned for more helpful Cloudways tutorials.