Forminator’s form notifications go through the standard wp_mail() API. SecureSMTP catches every one — Stripe receipts, quiz results, poll confirmations, contact-form replies — and routes them through DKIM-signed infrastructure. No SMTP credentials required, and one DNS record for your sending domain.
Free tier: 5,000 routed Forminator notifications / month · all 5 reliability layers · works with Forminator Pro and free.
Last 10 Forminator notifications
RoutingForminator delivery problems
Forminator is feature-rich — quizzes, polls, Stripe and PayPal payment forms, multi-step flows — but email reliability lives outside the plugin. Three host-level failure modes account for ~95% of the support tickets.
Forminator falls back to PHP's native mail() unless an SMTP plugin is wired in. On shared hosts, mail() is often broken at the OS level — sendmail is missing, port 25 is blocked outbound, or the from-address is rewritten. Forminator returns "Sent" but nothing leaves the server.
Even when PHP mail() does work, your shared-IP sender has zero reputation with Gmail and Outlook. Forminator quiz results, Stripe payment confirmations, and contact-form replies routinely land in spam or get bounced.
Forminator's submission dashboard shows the row was saved — but doesn't tell you the notification email never made it. Customers think you ignored them. By the time you spot the problem, weeks of leads are already lost.
One canonical hook — pre_wp_mail — is all it takes. Forminator’s entire feature surface keeps working unchanged.
On every form submission, payment confirmation, quiz result or poll notification, Forminator builds its standard notification message and calls wp_mail() — exactly as it would normally.
The SecureSMTP plugin attaches to the canonical pre_wp_mail WordPress filter, capturing the message before PHP’s native mail() runs. Forminator’s headers, attachments, BCCs and reply-to all stay intact.
We send the message from our own mail servers, sign it with a 2048-bit DKIM key for your domain, so DMARC passes (Advanced mode also aligns SPF). Recipients see an authenticated, reputable sender. Inboxes treat it as legitimate mail.
End-to-end Forminator path
Forminator
Form / quiz / payment
wp_mail()
Forminator native API
pre_wp_mail hook
SecureSMTP intercepts
SecureSMTP Mail Router
Quota + audit
SecureSMTP MTA
DKIM-signed
Recipient inbox
Delivered
Fail-safe by design.
If SecureSMTP is unreachable, the plugin falls back to native wp_mail() — Forminator notifications never get silently dropped. The fallback is logged so you know it happened.
No SMTP credentials. One DNS record. No Forminator template edits. The summary below covers most installs; for stuck-points and edge cases see the full setup guide.
Upload securessmtp.zip (v1.25.0) via WP-admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload. Activate. Works alongside Forminator — no plugin conflicts.
Sign up at securessmtp.com/signup. Forms → Sites → + Add Site. Copy your site API key.
In the SecureSMTP dashboard, open Sending domains, add your domain and publish the DNS record it shows. Mail sends from your domain once it shows as verified.
In WP-admin → SecureSMTP → Settings, paste the API key. Flip "Route outgoing email through SecureSMTP" to ON.
Submit any Forminator form (or trigger a quiz result, payment confirmation). The row appears in SecureSMTP → Email log in real time.
SecureSMTP hooks WordPress at the wp_mail() layer — not inside Forminator — so Forminator’s entire feature surface stays intact. Here are the integrations our customers ask about most.
Forminator's Stripe payment form sends the customer a receipt via wp_mail() and the site owner an admin notification. Both are routed through SecureSMTP — recipients see a DKIM-signed receipt from your domain, not from a shared host's anonymous IP. Stripe's own webhook receipts are unaffected.
Same flow as Stripe: Forminator emails its own payment confirmations via wp_mail() — those go through SecureSMTP. PayPal's own transactional emails are sent by PayPal directly and aren't part of the wp_mail() path; they're unaffected either way.
If you've configured Forminator to email quiz results to the participant or poll outcomes to admin, both go through wp_mail() and are routed via SecureSMTP. The quiz-result email template (with score, correct answers, certificate link) is preserved exactly.
Forminator's file-upload field — both single and multi-file variants — attaches uploaded files to the notification email. SecureSMTP forwards the attachments as-is, up to 15 MB per email (plugin 1.23.0 or later). PHP upload_max_filesize can set a lower cap.
Forminator's registration form sends the WP welcome email via wp_mail() — caught by SecureSMTP. The new-user notification to admin (with username + first IP) also routes through. Password-reset emails (later, when the user clicks 'forgot password') route through too.
Forminator's conditional-field logic and multi-step pagination both alter the form payload before wp_mail() runs — so by the time SecureSMTP receives the notification, only the resulting submission is in the email body. Multi-page flows just work; we receive the final assembled message.
WPMU DEV’s Hub bundles SMTP relay with the rest of its tooling — a fine fit if you’re already paying for the Hub. SecureSMTP sits on a different axis: standalone, hosted, AI-layered, cross-site. Pick what matches your stack.
| Feature | Forminator + SecureSMTP | Forminator + WPMU DEV Hub SMTP | Forminator alone (PHP mail) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | A few min + DNS | 15–40 min | 0 min, but broken |
| Needs SMTP credentials | — | Yes (SendGrid/SES/…) | — |
| DKIM signing built-in | DIY config | — | |
| Cross-site dashboard | WPMU DEV Hub only | — | |
| AI outbound abuse detection | — | — | |
| Per-site rate limiting | — | — | |
| Fail-safe fallback to native | — | N/A — native is the failure mode | |
| Stripe / PayPal receipt routing | |||
| Quiz / poll notification routing | |||
| File uploads on form notifications | |||
| Standalone of WPMU DEV ecosystem | — | ||
| Free tier — paid features | All 5 layers | Hub subscription req. | Free, unreliable |
Comparison based on default behaviour as of 2026-06. Verify on each vendor’s page before committing.
"We’d been using Forminator’s Stripe payment forms for two years. Receipts to customers were hit-or-miss — Stripe’s own emails worked fine but Forminator’s custom-formatted ones often didn’t reach Gmail addresses. Switched to SecureSMTP and the problem disappeared. Every Stripe receipt, contact form, and quiz result has landed since."
Every plan includes all 5 reliability layers, the email log, cross-site dashboard, and AI abuse detection. The only thing that changes between tiers is your monthly routed-email quota.
Free
$0 /mo
For solo sites and side projects.
Forminator routed emails
5k
per month
Starter
$7 /mo
or $5/mo billed yearly
For small businesses sending real volume.
Forminator routed emails
50k
per month
Pro
$19 /mo
or $15/mo billed yearly
For growing teams with multiple brands.
Forminator routed emails
250k
per month
Business
$49 /mo
or $39/mo billed yearly
For agencies and high-volume senders.
Forminator routed emails
1,000k
per month
Every paid plan has a 14-day free trial — no credit card.
The Forminator-specific compatibility questions we hear before someone switches.
Forminator email setup
Configure Forminator notifications that arrive.
Contact form not sending email? Why it happens and how to fix it
The five places a form email can fail, and a ten-minute check to find yours.
Why your form must not send “From” the visitor’s email
Send from your domain, reply to the visitor. Settings for each form plugin.
Form submissions are saved but no email arrives
The form works and the mail step fails. How to prove it and fix it.
“WordPress successfully passed the notification email to the sending server”: what it means
What this message means and what to check when the email still does not arrive.
Contact form emails not reaching Gmail or Google Workspace
Find the email, read Gmail’s SPF/DKIM/DMARC verdict, fix the cause.
Forminator isn’t the only form plugin that needs help with delivery. Same fix, same plugin — different surface area.
SecureSMTP SMTP — umbrella overview
Every form plugin, every wp_mail() call, one relay.
Read moreContact Form 7 SMTP
Same fix for the CF7 5M-install ecosystem.
Read moreWordPress SMTP (umbrella)
The modern alternative to WP Mail SMTP / Post SMTP.
Read moreAI-powered SMTP
How we use Claude Haiku to read outbound mail.
Read moreInstall SecureSMTP, paste your API key, add your sending domain, flip Email Delivery on. Once the domain is verified, every Forminator contact form, Stripe receipt, and quiz result is delivered.
Free tier · 5,000 routed Forminator emails / month · all 5 reliability layers included.
