Sending an email in WordPress happens as a chain of events. Any time a form that contains an active email action is submitted, the email action triggers and Ninja Forms passes the form data through WordPress and to your host. Your host takes the data passed to it, packages it as an email, and sends it.
If your email isn’t delivering, or is delivering but doesn’t look or behave like you’d expect it to, there’s a breakdown somewhere in that chain of events. The two most common places for a break to happen are:
- In your Ninja Forms email action
- As the email data is managed and sent by your host
This document focuses on how the email data is managed and sent. By default in WordPress, your host handles this. Hosts have a ton of different responsibilities keeping your site up and running, so even the best hosts are not specialists in sending email. Mistakes happen, things fail to send sometimes or send a little wonky. This doesn’t mean your host is doing a bad job. They just have a lot to juggle and email can be a headache for all of us.
Fix email delivery issues with one of these specialist plugins
The fix is to use a specialized service for sending email. These will take over the host’s role in packaging and sending email, and because they specialize in it they tend to be far more reliable. There are quite a few good ones with easy to use WordPress plugins. Here’s what we recommend.
SendWP
Send WP is a best-in-class transactional email service. They deliver with a >99.5% success rate across millions of emails sent monthly. They offer a WordPress plugin that features one-click setup, and support if you need help or have questions. They are also close partners of ours, meaning their staff is very familiar with Ninja Forms and we work together to ensure the highest degree of compatibility.
SendWP is your best option if:
- it is critical that every email be delivered every time for your organization
- maintaining the highest possible sending reputation for your domain is important to your business
- you currently send, or are scaling towards, a high volume of monthly email
- you prefer automated setup and guided support over do-it-yourself setup and maintenance
SendWP is a business-grade service, so they do come at a cost and won’t be for everyone. If you’re not sending that much email to begin with and it’s ok if the occasional email doesn’t go through, there are free options out there. See below.
SMTP Options
Most SMTP plugins are reasonably reliable at sending email at smaller volumes. They’re great if you’re just starting out, needing something to handle lower volumes of email, and email delivery isn’t make-or-break for your day to day operations. They are more reliable than most hosts, and they’re free! Here are several we have tested and can recommend:
There are many others out there, but they can be hit or miss (even some of the more popular ones). Each of these services will require manual setup, but offer documentation of their own on how to do the thing.