What is SMTP?

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the standard protocol for email services on a TCP/IP network. SMTP is one of the most common and popular protocols for email communication over the Internet and it is used by mail servers to send and receive e-mails and by webmail systems that use their own protocols (e.g. Yahoo! Or Gmail) to send emails outside their system.

Why Do You Need Magento 2 SMTP EMail Extension?

SMTP Mail extension lets you have complete control of custom SMTP server settings for sending Magento 2 emails and greatly helps customers receive all emails you send. It prevents your emails from going into the junk/spam folder of the recipients or be rejected by a third party.

Read more about preventing your emails from going into the junk/spam folder here

Key Feature of Magento 2 SMTP Email Extension

If you use your own custom SMTP server for sending emails, you can easily add its configuration in the extension settings and make it work for your Magento 2 store. What is more, the extension has several pre-configured options for the following popular services: AOL Mail, Comcast, GMX, Gmail, Hotmail, Mail.com , O2 Mail, Office365, Orange, Outlook, Yahoo, and Zoho

The internal menu of the extension embraces three main sections: Settings, Mails Logs and Debug Logs.

Configuration

The settings of the extension consist of four areas: General, logs, SMTP, Clear.

The General sections provide you with an option to enable or disable the extension and choose whether to log and send emails or only logs emails. 

The Logs section allows to enable the outgoing email log, debug mode, and email delivery.

The SMTP  section provides you with the necessary SMTP provider settings as well as testing your email settings before start using it.

The Clear section determines the period of time for keeping sent emails and debug log-in mail logs.

Sent EMails Log

The built-in Email Log is a powerful resource for diagnosing problems with emails.  It allows you to record in the backend, all emails sent from your store with a detailed view in order to see what exactly was sent to a customer. With the help of this feature you can see:

• Log all emails sent from your store in the backend
• View the list of all emails sent in the admin panel, no need to go to the file system
• View any email sent detail, when and to whom the email was sent, the current status of the email (pending, in process, or failed), and the content of the email.
• Have the log automatically cleared after a specified time period, e.g. remove the messages sent 30 or more days ago.
• Clear the log manually whenever needed.

Debug Log

The Debug Log feature allows you to test all Magento 2 SMTP email settings and easily detect the wrong email settings. If something works incorrectly, you’ll see it right away and will be able to correct the settings. With the help of this feature you can see:

• Test your emails using debug mode
• Check SMTP connection. If there’s an error, you will see it in the debug log.
• Run a self-test of the extension without sending out any emails
• See the debug log to make sure the SMTP settings work correctly
• Have the debug log automatically cleared after a specified time period, e.g. 40 days or more days ago.
• Clear the debug log manually whenever needed.

Feel free to read through the SMNTP Email product page for more details and try out the live demos.