Introduction to Solid Mail

Solid Mail is a WordPress plugin designed to send emails via SMTP. It ensures secure, reliable email delivery without relying on the default PHP mailer. Using an SMTP service, Solid Mail helps prevent emails from being flagged as spam, improving deliverability for notifications, confirmations, and newsletters.

This guide will walk you through the setup of Solid Mail and the key configuration steps and address common questions to get you started. By the end, you’ll be able to:

• Set up Solid Mail in WordPress
• Configure email settings based on your provider
• Test and ensure email delivery

If you need further assistance, SolidWP’s expert support team is ready to answer any questions you may have via support channels.

Connecting

To connect Solid Mail with your chosen SMTP provider, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Solid Mail > Solid Mail.
2. Select Add Connection
3. Select a Provider from the dropdown list (options include Mailgun, SendGrid, Brevo, Amazon SES, or Generic SMTP).
4. Once selected, fill in the required fields for your specific provider.
5. Save your settings to establish the connection.

After configuration, use the Email Test tab to verify the connection by sending a test email. If successful, your Solid Mail plugin is ready to use.

 

Send Grid

To use SendGrid as a mailer, you’ll first need to create an account with them here. 

 

After setting up your SendGrid account, you’ll need to do the following to start sending your website emails:

• Create a sender identity
• Generate an API key 

How to create a sender identity?

SendGrid offers two options in creating a sender identity: (1) Domain Authentication and (2) Single Sender Verification.

 

Domain Authentication proves that the emails come from a domain that you own and will remove the “via sendgrid.net” information in the emails. This method needs you to access your site’s DNS settings and configure things there. If you’re unsure how to access your DNS settings, we’d recommend reaching out to your hosting provider for assistance.

 

Browse this article for a complete guide on authenticating your domain: https://www.twilio.com/docs/sendgrid/ui/account-and-settings/how-to-set-up-domain-authentication

 

Single Sender Verification is another method that you can use if the first option isn’t doable for you. This lets you create and approve a sender identity which would be the “From” email address your recipients would see.

 

To create a sender identity, log into your SendGrid account and open the Settings > Sender Authentication page. Under the Single Sender Verification section, select “Verify a Single Sender”.

A form will open up and you need to fill-in the sender details. Make sure the “From Email Address” is the email address you want your recipients to see and the one you’ll use in Solid Mail’s SendGrid settings.

Once done, you’ll receive a confirmation link to the email address you entered and clicking it lets you verify the single sender identity.

 

We highly recommend choosing the Domain Authentication option to ensure email deliverability and domain reputation.

 

How to generate an API key?

After setting up your sender identity, the next step is to generate an API key so you can connect your website to SendGrid.

Within your SendGrid account, open the Settings > API Keys page and select “Create API Key”

Enter the API Key Name and choose the permission you prefer.

 

After selecting “Create & View”, an API Key will be generated. Make sure to take note of this API key and save it on a private note or password manager, as you will need to add this in Solid Mail’s SendGrid settings later.

 

Setting up Solid Mail SendGrid settings

Now that you’ve finished creating your sender identity and generating an API key, it’s time to set up your Solid Mail SendGrid settings.

 

Open your site’s Solid Mail settings, select “Add new Connection”, and choose SendGrid as the provider.

 

Add your sender identity email address in the “From email” field and paste your API Key in the “Password” field. As for the “From name” field, you can put your preferred email name there.

 

Save the settings by selecting “Save Connection” at the bottom and confirm that it works by sending a test email in the “Email Test” tab.

Brevo

To use Brevo as your mailer, start by creating an account here.

After setting up your Brevo account, you’ll need to do the following to start sending your website emails:

• Create a sender identity
• Generate an API key
  
  

How do you create a sender identity?

Brevo requires an authenticated email domain to create an authorized sender identity for SMTP. An email domain is the part of your email address that comes after the @ symbol. It helps your recipients recognize your brand and trust your emails. The domain must be authenticated for better deliverability results.

Example: sample-email@your-domain-name.com

So, to create a valid email domain, you’ll first need to authenticate your website domain.

Domain Authentication to authenticate your website domain you’ll need to add a few DNS records, which requires access to your DNS registrar settings. If you’re unsure how to access your DNS settings, we’d recommend reaching out to your hosting provider for assistance.

To start the authentication process, from your Brevo Dashboard, navigate to:

Profile > Sender, Domains, & Dedicated IPs

From here, you should see four options
Sender, Domains, Dedicated IPs, & Email Overload Prevention Rule



Select Domains, then Add a Domain. This will open a model that will prompt you for your domain name. Input your website domain name, click Add a Domain at the bottom right of the model to continue.



Next, you’ll be given three authentication options.
Authenticate the domain automatically— If using Cloudflare, this will automatically redirect you to your Cloudflare account and input the necessary DKIM and DMARC DNS Records for you

Authenticate the domain yourself— Brevo will provide the required DNS records for you to add to your domain DNS manually; this requires DNS management access.

Ask someone else to authenticate the domain for you— This will allow you to email the new Brevo DNS records to the person responsible for maintaining your domain DNS records if you don’t have access or the ability to do so yourself.

After authenticating your domain

You can now begin the sender identity creation process. From the same page as domain authentication, just this time you will select Senders, then Add a sender. This will open a model with two input fields: From Name and From Email.



The From Name will be used as an organizational method for your Brevo Dashboard and can be named anything you would like for your convenience. The From Email will be:

what-ever-you-want@the-domain-you-authorized

For example, If I authorized a website domain called “mydomain.com” and I want the email to be from “index” it would be “index@mydomain.com”

Once you’ve completed filling out the two input fields, click the Save button.

You should now have a verified sender displayed under the Senders tab.

How do you generate a Brevo SMTP username and password?

 

To get the last two items required to complete your SMTP connection from the Brevo Dashboard, navigate to Profile > SMTP & API


From here, you should see two tabs, SMTP & API Keys; select SMTP. This should display a Your SMTP Settings field if it doesn’t - click Regenerate SMTP Login and Master password

When the settings are properly generated, they should look like this:

Be sure to note the Login, which will be used as the Username during the connection process through the Solid Mail plugin. 

Setting up Solid Mail Brevo settings

Now that you’ve finished creating your sender identity and generating SMTP settings, it’s time to set up your Solid Mail Brevo settings.

 

Open your site’s Solid Mail settings, select “Add new Connection”, and choose Brevo as the provider.

Add your sender identity email address in the “From email” field and paste your API Key (or Master Password) in the “Password” field and the “SMTP- Login” for Username. As for the “From name” field, you can put your preferred email name there. 

 

Save the settings by selecting “Save Connection” at the bottom and confirm that it works by sending a test email in the “Email Test” tab.

 

MailGun

(Instructions coming soon)

 

Amazon SES

To use Amazon SES as your mail provider, start by creating your AWS account.

 

Once logged in to your AWS account, the quickest way to access the Amazon SES page is to select the search box at the top and type SES. You will see Amazon Simple Email Service pop-up which you can then select. 

 

This will take you to the SES Account Dashboard. From here, you will select SMTP settings in the left column.

You will then see your SMTP endpoint on this page. When setting up your Amazon SES connection, this endpoint will be your SMTP Host in Solid Mail. 

Now, we need to create your SMTP credentials to obtain your username and password, which will be used to complete your connection. To do that, please select the Create SMTP credentials button in the top right.

 

You will first see a User name field. You can keep this as the autogenerated user name, as we will not be using this within the plugin.

The next section is where you can edit permissions if you wish. We recommend leaving this as it is.

The tag section allows you to organize your SMTP credentials should you wish. This is optional.

Now, we can create the user, which will take you to the credentials you will need to add to Solid Mail's connection setup.

This page will display your SMTP username and password. Copy these to the Solid Mail connection page. 

Now, we can return to the SES console and obtain other settings you will need, such as your DKIM keys, SPF records, and a custom mailer to ensure the highest mail delivery.

 

 

 

Generic SMTP

Choosing Generic SMTP as a mailer lets you send emails from any email address using the standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

 

While this is easier to configure than the other mailers, it is also more likely to run into configuration and/or email deliverability issues due to various factors related to server configurations, security protocols, and third-party services.

 

To start, open your site’s Solid Mail settings, select “Add new Connection”, and choose Generic SMTP as the provider.

 

For the Sender Setting fields, make sure to enter the email address you’ll use to send SMTP emails for the “From email” field. As for the “From name” field, you can put your preferred email name there.

 

As for the SMTP Settings, the following details are needed:

• SMTP Host: The address of the SMTP server you want to use to send emails
• SMTP Port: The port your provider uses to connect
  • 587: Typically used for TLS (STARTTLS encryption) and is the most common setting
  • 465: Typically used for SSL (older standard but still supported by many providers)
• Secure: The type of encryption that will be used for the SMTP connection
  • TLS (Transport Layer Security) is more common for modern email providers.
  • SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is an older security protocol, but still required by some SMTP services.
• SMTP Authentication: Enables mail server authentication (most providers require authentication)
  • Username: The username for your mail server
  • Password: The password to log into your mail server

 

Here are some SMTP settings of the known email providers. If you’re unsure of the SMTP Settings for your mail server, it is best to reach out directly to your provider.

 

Mail Logging

The Mail Log page in Solid Mail provides a comprehensive view of all emails sent through your WordPress site. On the left, you can see a list of emails with details such as the sender's email address, subject, and the time the email was sent. Clicking on any entry will display more information about the email on the right side, including the full content of the message. The log also allows you to delete specific entries, offering an easy way to manage and monitor email activity on your site.

Settings

Email Logging

To enable email logging in Solid Mail, you should ensure the logging function is on by toggling the "Enable Logs" option and saving the settings. This will start capturing data about emails sent through the plugin. 

Export Logs

You can also export logs by specifying a date range using the "Date From" and "Date To" fields. Once the range is set, clicking the "Export CSV" button will download a CSV file containing all email activity within the selected dates, allowing for detailed tracking and troubleshooting.