SMTP for PrestaShop — order emails that arrive
By default PrestaShop sends through the web server's PHP mail function. Technically that works, but without authentication: to Gmail and Outlook such a message is barely distinguishable from spam. You only notice it on the customer side — order confirmations that do not arrive and password reset emails landing in the spam folder.
PrestaShop has a setting for this: you switch from the PHP mail function to your own SMTP server. The five fields below are all you need.
Why it goes wrong without a relay
A webshop lives on trust at the moment of ordering. If the confirmation fails to arrive, the customer doubts whether the order went through — which produces a support question, or a cancelled payment. The insidious part is that you cannot see it yourself: no error appears, the email simply looks sent.
Setting up SMTP in PrestaShop
Collect your details
Log in to your 2mail account and retrieve your SMTP server, username and password there.
Fill them in inside PrestaShop
PrestaShop has an email section in its settings where you choose between the PHP mail function and your own SMTP server. Pick the latter and fill in the details below. PrestaShop offers a test email at the bottom — send it to an external address, not to an address on your own server.
Authenticate your domain
Make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set correctly for your domain, so recipients can verify that the mail comes from you.
Test
Send a test message to an address at a major provider and check that it arrives in the inbox and not in the spam folder.
The fields PrestaShop asks for
Every platform names them slightly differently, but it is always the same five. The actual values are tied to your account and can be found in your 2mail account — take them from there, so you are sure to use the right ones.
| Field | What you enter |
|---|---|
| SMTP server (host) | The server name from your 2mail account. |
| Port | The port that matches your chosen encryption; your account shows which one. |
| Encryption | TLS. Never send unencrypted — your credentials would otherwise travel in plain text. |
| Username | The SMTP login of your 2mail account. |
| Password | The matching password. Never use the password of an employee's mailbox. |
Which emails PrestaShop sends
As soon as the relay is set up, all of these run through 2mail — you do not have to configure them one by one.
Pitfalls with PrestaShop
The sender address on your own domain
Have the shop send from an address on your own domain — the same domain SPF, DKIM and DMARC are configured for. A sender on a free address fails DMARC, however correct the SMTP settings otherwise are.
Test to an external provider
The built-in test email to an address on your own server proves nothing: that server trusts you anyway. Test to a Gmail and an Outlook address.
Check after a migration or update
During a move to different hosting or a major update, email settings are sometimes reset. Place one test order after every such change.
A different platform?
SMTP is a standard protocol: any system that speaks SMTP — a CRM, an ERP, a custom application or a server — can send through 2mail using the same five fields.
