Setting up WordPress email on Indian infrastructure (without losing mail)

WordPress doesn’t ship an SMTP server — it relies on the PHP mail() function by default, which on a container host either doesn’t work or sends through the host’s default MTA with poor deliverability. This post walks through the practical setup for a WordPress site hosted on our Apps T2-T10 plans.

Step 1: Pick a transactional email provider

We don’t ship email in v1 (per AGENTS.md 2.2 the R220 email product was deleted in the marketing-only cut). For transactional email, we recommend:

• Zoho ZeptoMail (Indian, INR billing, SMTP + API) for transactional + bulk marketing at 1-2 paisa / email.
• Amazon SES for high-volume transactional (50K+ emails / month) at $0.10 per 1000.
• Brevo (ex-Sendinblue) for transactional + marketing at the $9 / month starter tier.

The rest of this guide assumes you picked one and have your SMTP credentials.

Step 2: Configure DNS

Add the SPF + DKIM + DMARC records your provider gives you. For Zoho, the records are:

@  IN  TXT  "v=spf1 include:zoho.com ~all"
zmail._domainkey  IN  TXT  "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSq..."
_dmarc  IN  TXT  "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:hello@..."

In our hosting dashboard, paste these into the DNS management for your domain. Propagation is 5-30 minutes for SPF + DKIM; DMARC can take up to 24 hours to be picked up by some receivers.

Step 3: Configure WordPress

Install the WP Mail SMTP plugin (free on the WordPress plugin repo). Go to Settings → Email and:

• From Email: hello@yourdomain.com
• From Name: Your site name
• Mailer: Other SMTP
• SMTP Host: smtp.zoho.in
• Encryption: TLS
• SMTP Port: 587
• Auto TLS: On
• Authentication: On (username = your Zoho address, password = app password)

Click Save, then go to the Email Test tab and send a test email to yourself. If the SMTP credentials are right

• the DNS records propagated, you should receive it within a minute.

Step 4: Verify deliverability

Free tools to verify:

• mail-tester.com (score 10/10 is perfect)
• mxtoolbox.com (DMARC + DKIM + SPF check)
• Google Postmaster Tools (after sending >100 emails)

Common issues:

• DMARC p=quarantine is the default. Bump to p=reject once your DKIM + SPF alignment is consistent.
• Some Indian ISPs (BSNL, MTNL) have aggressive spam filters. Use a transactional provider that warms IPs (Zoho + SES do this).
• WordPress contact-form plugins (CF7, WPForms) need SMTP configured separately from WP_Mail_SMTP. The WP_Mail_SMTP plugin handles both via the wp_mail filter.

Once you’ve sent a few hundred emails with a clean DMARC + DKIM alignment, you’ll be in good shape for Indian inbox delivery.