UWH SMTP Connect

Description

UWH SMTP Connect is a free WordPress SMTP plugin for configuring outgoing email and troubleshooting transactional email failures. It works with a custom SMTP provider, offers guided settings for Google and Microsoft 365, and adds optional backup delivery and automatic retry controls.

Instead of treating every SMTP failure as a reason to resend, UWH SMTP Connect takes a conservative approach to delivery recovery. It combines transport-aware failover, a limited encrypted retry queue, practical SMTP diagnostics and privacy-conscious email reports in one dashboard.

Key features

• SMTP configuration: Connect a provider using SMTP host, port, TLS/STARTTLS or SSL/SMTPS, sender details and optional authentication. Google, Microsoft 365 and Others provider cards help populate settings. Google may require an app password. OAuth is not included.
• Backup SMTP: Optionally configure a secondary SMTP connection with separately encrypted credentials. Failover is attempted only for identifiable pre-connection failures, not authentication failures, recipient rejection or uncertain outcomes.
• Automatic Email Retry: Optional, OFF by default. Selected temporary connection failures can be retried twice through WP-Cron; message data is encrypted while queued. See Privacy & limitations below.
• Email Logs & CSV Export: Review accepted and failed transport attempts with AJAX filters, pagination, error categories and CSV export of up to 500 metadata-only rows. No regular log stores message bodies or recipient email addresses.
• SMTP Connection Doctor: Administrator-initiated checks for DNS, public SMTP host connectivity, SPF, DMARC, MX and potential mail-hook conflicts. DKIM setup guidance is included; these checks do not guarantee delivery.
• Delivery Recovery Insights: Review primary failures, backup-accepted attempts and pending retries in one view. Copy a privacy-safe support summary without revealing mail content or server credentials.
• WooCommerce Email Reports: When WooCommerce is active, inspect email types, related order references and accepted/failed attempts using 7-, 30- or 90-day filters. This section is hidden on non-WooCommerce sites. Compatible with WooCommerce HPOS order lookups.
• Test Email: Send a branded HTML test email with a plain-text alternative. Acceptance by the mail transport is not confirmation of inbox placement.
• Privacy-first design: Local settings, encrypted SMTP passwords and no plugin telemetry or account registration requirement.

Where it helps

UWH SMTP Connect can help WordPress website owners, agencies and WooCommerce store administrators identify outgoing email problems, keep basic transport records and configure safer recovery options for order notifications, contact forms and other messages sent via WordPress wp_mail().

The plugin uses WordPress’s bundled PHPMailer. It does not supply an email account, SMTP host or sending service. Some hosts block outbound SMTP ports, and other plugins that replace the PHPMailer transport may conflict.

Privacy & limitations

Regular email logs store timestamps, sending transport, recipient counts, accepted/failed status and categorized error details, not recipient addresses, subjects or message bodies. WooCommerce reports store email type, optional order reference, result and timestamp only when WooCommerce is active and logging is enabled.

If you explicitly enable Automatic Email Retry, eligible attachment-free failed messages of up to 128 KB can have recipients, subjects, bodies and headers stored temporarily encrypted in your WordPress database. The queue holds at most 50 messages; each item is removed on success, after two unsuccessful retry attempts, or by scheduled 24-hour cleanup. Retry and cleanup depend on WP-Cron. Attachments and uncertain delivery outcomes are not queued. No retry system can guarantee zero duplicates. Document this temporary processing in your site’s privacy policy.

SMTP credentials are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM with keys derived from WordPress security salts. Changing those salts requires entering saved passwords again. SMTP transport TLS certificates are verified. A provider accepting email does not guarantee inbox delivery or bypass SPF, DKIM, DMARC or recipient filtering.

External services

When SMTP is enabled, WordPress emails are sent through the mail server you configure, not through United Web Host. That provider receives relevant authentication data, recipient addresses, email content, attachments (when present) and transport metadata as necessary to send the email. Refer to the privacy policy and terms of your chosen email provider. The optional Connection Doctor performs administrator-requested DNS resolution and non-authenticated public SMTP connectivity checks; it does not send SMTP passwords. No usage analytics are sent to UWH.

Examples of provider policies: Google Privacy Policy, Google Terms, Microsoft Privacy Statement and Microsoft Services Agreement.

Documentation & support

• Official plugin website
• Installation and SMTP setup guide
• Features
• Frequently asked questions
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Developed by United Web Host

The plugin is free and requires no UWH account or license. Your chosen SMTP service may have usage limits or charges.