did you know that gmail also offers a free smtp server? well it’s true, and it’s a very little known feature of gmail, which allows you to integrate google smtp server settings with your web application(s) and server(s) from which you want to send outgoing emails without having to manage your outgoing mail server. Those outgoing emails are perhaps part of email marketing campaigns or transactional emails, such as password reset emails, order confirmation emails, user registration emails, etc. more reliable than emails sent from your cloud server.
In this article, you will learn how to integrate the gmail smtp plugin to your cloudways server using the cloudways platform, so follow the steps below for quick and easy integration.
why use a free gmail smtp server?
let’s dig into this question to see why one should use a free gmail smtp server. If you are a small business or an individual with minimal email volume, then Free Gmail SMTP can be considered a good option as a daily handler for your outgoing emails. offers several other benefits that you may want to consider:
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google’s infrastructure is extremely reliable and also gmail’s smtp does not use port 25, which prevents spam from being flagged and limits blocking of your emails by isp.
It is also secure as it requires two-factor authentication.
also provides the option for google to save and index the emails you send through the gmail smtp server. Therefore, your sent emails are backed up on Google’s servers, which means you also get detailed and searchable records.
Note that you can send up to 100 emails per day based on google’s sending limit policy if you are relaying the emails through your portable smtp server. also add up to 3000 emails per month for free.
tip
if your email volume is higher and you are looking for a reliable email gateway provider, you may also consider using the elastic email plugin at cloudways, starting at just $0.10 for 1000 emails electronics.
how to configure gmail smtp
first of all you need to get your gmail smtp credentials to use when integrating gmail smtp with your cloudways server.
important
Please note that you need a gmail account or a paid google apps account to integrate smtp. If you don’t have an account and choose to use gmail as your email gateway provider, then you can create an account before proceeding with this guide.
step #1: sign in to your google account
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sign in to your google account with your login credentials. First, enter your email address and click next.
2. now, enter your login password and click next.
Step #2: Enable 2-Step Verification
now you need to make sure your google account is well protected to avoid any intervention when using smtp service; Therefore, we recommend enabling the two-step verification offered by Google. If you have already enabled 2-step verification, then you can skip to step #3.
important
You may receive an invalid password error in later steps when validating your email if you don’t enable 2-Step Verification.
how to enable two-step verification
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Sign in to your google account with your login credentials.
select securityfrom the left navigation bar.
3. Now, click on the two-step verification option from the given options and complete the additional settings.
Step #3: Generate the app password
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Now, you need to generate an app password, which will be used for smtp integration, so click here to visit the google app password page to generate an app password.
2. then select the app from the dropdown option and choose another (custom name).
3. assign any name of your choice to your app password and press generate. in this example, we name the password for this app as business email.
4. once the app password is generated, you need to save it for later.
Step #4: Configure the smtp service on the server
Log in to your cloudways platform with your email address and password.
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from the top menu bar, go to the servers tab.
then choose your destination server.
3. then click the smtp option on the left menu bar.
Step #5: Configure the smtp service on the server
now, click on this dropdown box, which will ask you to select smtp, so choose an option called your own smtp.
Now, you will see a few more fields below after choosing the your own smtp option.
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choose other where you are prompted to choose your email gateway provider.
Enter smtp.gmail.com as your host.
Enter 465 (ssl) or 587 (tls) as the smtp port. postfix (mail transfer agent) on the server prefers starttls (sending port/587) over port 465; therefore, it is recommended to use port 587.
Enter your gmail account email (for example, myemail@gmail.com) in the username field.
enter your application password in the password field.
finally, press save.
Step 5: Verify the smtp settings
cloudways gives you the on-site functionality of testing your smtp configuration immediately after configuring the smtp service on the server. you can check if the emails are sent correctly from the server by sending yourself a test email.
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first, click send test email.
2. then enter the sender’s email address (from address).
3. enter your email address as the recipient (to address).
4. finally click send test email.
tip
the sender’s email address (from address) should be the verified email for which the dns records correctly point. sender email without dns authentication will mostly end up in spam.
You will also receive a notification there once the test email has been successfully sent.
Your gmail email service has been successfully configured on your server for outgoing transactional emails.
that’s it! We hope this tutorial has been helpful. If you need help, feel free to search your query in cloudways support center or contact us via chat (need help > send us a message). alternatively, you can also create a support ticket.
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