Setting up SMTP mail settings

The difference between the Mail and SMTP function

The regular Mail system in OpenCart is the default option that uses the standard PHP Mail() function to send emails. If you want to receive the notifications coming from your store on a different email address, simply use the Additional Alert E-Mail field and input all of the third party email addresses, separating them with commas.

If you decide to use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), you will be able to receive emails separate from the native PHP Mail() in OpenCart. They will be delivered on your own SMTP server as well via a third party mailing service.

To improve your emails delivery you might consider setting up your store to use SMTP for all outgoing mail settings. This can improve the mail delivery and reduce the bounce rate of your transactional emails.

The SMTP option allows you to use own mail SMTP server but an external mail service. For large stores which generate a large volume of emails it is recommended to setup your store with SMTP to improve the delivery rate and avoid having your emails filtered as spam.

To configure OpenCart 2 SMTP settings, please login your admin Dashboard and refer to the settings section from the main navigation menu.

From the Stores List click the edit button and refer to the Mail tab.

If you would like to use the standard PHP mail function you do not need to configure the SMTP settings on this page. If you would like to add an additional email that will receive all notifications from your store you can set it in the 'Additional Alert E-Mail' field. If you need to have several emails  configured separate the email addresses with commas.

In order to configure your OpenCart 2.x to send all emails via SMTP please select the SMTP option in the drop down menu and set to SMTP see below.

SMTP Hostname: This is the domain name or the IP address of your SMTP server. If you use the local SMTP server of your hosting account you can input just 'localhost' without the quotes.

SMTP Username: In most cases this should be your email address name. In case your SMTP server uses a different SMTP username than your email address, please contact your system administrator for the correct credentials.

SMTP Password: In most cases this should be your email account password. In case your SMTP server requires separate login credentials, please contact your system administrator for the correct credentials.

SMTP Port: The default SMTP port is 25, please consult with your SMTP server system administrator or documentation in case your SMTP server uses a different port like 587. 

If you do not have an existing email account yet you can always create your first email account in your cPanel.