Why and When You Need Amazon SES for WordPress Emails

All too often we hear that users have trouble sending emails from their WordPress website. That’s a problem because you rely on email to keep your website running smoothly.

For example, your site relies on email to reset lost passwords, or send notifications when new users register or someone fills in your contact form.

By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to send out emails. However, this function doesn’t always work as expected. That’s often because WordPress hosting companies block it to prevent abuse and spam.

Also, spam filters on popular email service providers check incoming emails to verify the sender. Default WordPress emails fail this check and sometimes may not even make it to the spam folder.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the industry standard for sending email. Unlike the PHP mail function, SMTP uses proper authentication, which increases the chances your emails will be successfully delivered.

Amazon SES is an SMTP service designed for business email. It’s a good solution for sending WordPress notification emails to just you and your team, and also sending email newsletters to large mailing lists.

The service is free for the first year. After that, you may need to pay as you go, depending on the number of emails you send and other factors. You can get an idea of what it will cost you on the Amazon SES pricing page.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to send email to the Amazon SES service from your WordPress website using the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Editor’s Note: we believe that Amazon SES is a bit complicated for beginners. This is why we generally recommend users to use SMTP.com or Sendinblue which both works with WP Mail SMTP plugin as well.

Configuring Your Amazon AWS Account

First, you’ll need to sign up for a free account by visiting the Amazon Web Services website. While the account is free, you will need to enter credit card details when setting up the account.