Configuring Mail Providers

Mail Providers determine how your installation sends mail. The mail provider you choose can affect your mail deliverability. You can configure mail providers at Configuration () > System Settings > General Settings > Mail, or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Setup > General Settings > Mail.

Prior to WHMCS 8.0, WHMCS supported two mail providers: PHP Mail and SMTP. In WHMCS 8.0 and later, WHMCS supports three additional mail providers: MailGun, SendGrid, and SparkPost. Additionally, SMTP supports OAuth authentication via Google.

Mail Providers
For more information about the available mail providers, see Mail Providers.

Mail Provider in version 8.0 and later

For version 8.0 and later, Mail Provider displays your selected Mail Provider, which you can't edit from this page. To change and configure it, perform these steps:

1. Click Configure Mail Provider.
2. Choose a Mail Provider from the menu.
3. Fill out the information for your chosen provider. This information is different for each Mail Provider:
   • PHP Mail (default) — Choose an encoding type from Mail Encoding.
   • SMTP — Enter the indicated information, which differs depending on your chosen type of SMTP Authentication.
     • Check SMTP Debug if you want to log debugging output for SMTP email. Go to Configuration () > System Logs > Activity Log to view this log.
     • WHMCS currently only supports OAuth via Google. For help setting up Google as your Service Provider, see Setting Up Google As Your Mail Service Provider.
   • MailGun — Select a region, and then enter your sending domain and MailGun API key.
   • SendGrid — Enter your API key.
   • SparkPost — Select a SparkPost account and enter a SparkPost API key. Check Use Sink Testing to allow you to check email sending without actually sending emails.
   • Click Test Configuration. The system will send an email to test your configuration. If the test doesn't succeed, you will see an error.
   • Click Save. The system will send an email to test your configuration, and it won't save your changes unless the test is successful. 

Mail Type in version 7.x and earlier

For version 7.x and earlier, use Mail Type to choose one of these options:

• Use PHP Mail to send emails from inside WHMCS. This requires no further configuration, but some email providers may treat email sent this way with increased suspicion.
• Use your SMTP server to send emails. The related SMTP fields are required.

SMTP Port

In this field, specify the port on which your SMTP server operates. This will usually vary depending upon SMTP SSL Type and your particular mail server configuration. Check with your mail server administrator for the appropriate port to use. These are the most commonly-used ports by SSL type:

• None: 25 or 26
• SSL: 465 or 587
• TLS: 587

SMTP SSL Type

Use this option to specify whether a secure connection is used when communicating with your mail server. Changes to this option will usually also require changing the SMTP Port.