SS
SecureSMTPMail · forms · delivery
Get started
Browse help docs
WordPress plugin · v1.22.1

Install the WordPress plugin

The SecureSMTP Form plugin connects your WordPress site to your SecureSMTP account. Five small steps, about ninety seconds from download to a live form.

Download v1.22.1Get my API key →
  1. 1

    Download the plugin zip

    The plugin lives behind your dashboard. Sign in at /app and click the Download plugin link in the sidebar — or use the button above. The file is called qcs-form.zip (v1.22.1 currently).

    Once the WordPress.org listing is approved, you’ll also be able to install it via WordPress’s built-in Plugins → Add New search (search “SecureSMTP”). The two paths get you the same plugin.

  2. 2

    Upload it in WordPress

    1. In your WordPress admin sidebar: Plugins → Add New
    2. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page
    3. Choose File → pick qcs-form.zip from your downloads
    4. Click Install Now and wait a few seconds
    5. Click Activate Plugin
    Hitting a size limit? Some managed hosts cap upload size at 2 MB. The plugin is only ~600 KB, so you should be fine, but if WP complains, ask your host to bump upload_max_filesize to 8 MB.
  3. 3

    Connect via API key

    After activation you’ll see a new SecureSMTP item in your WordPress admin sidebar. Click it, then go to QCS Forms → Settings.

    1. In a new tab, open /app/forms/api-keys in your SecureSMTP account.
    2. If you haven’t added this site yet, click Add site first — paste your WordPress URL (e.g. https://acme.com) and SecureSMTP generates a per-site key for you.
    3. Copy the API key — looks like qcs_sk_live_a1b2c3....
    4. Back in WordPress, paste it into the SecureSMTP API key field.
    5. Click Save and test connection.

    You should see a green Connected to SecureSMTP banner showing your site name, plan, and current usage. If you see a red error, scroll to troubleshooting below.

    Keep your key private. Never paste it into a frontend file or a public git repo. If it leaks, rotate it from /app/forms/api-keys — the old key stops working immediately.
  4. 4

    Insert a form via shortcode or block

    There are three ways to embed:

    A. Shortcode (works everywhere)

    Create a form via QCS Forms → Add New, publish it, and copy the shortcode from the Embed meta-box.

    > [qcs_form id="42"]

    Paste into any page/post, a Classic editor area, a Gutenberg Shortcode block, or even a theme template via <?php echo do_shortcode('[qcs_form id="42"]'); ?>.

    B. Hosted-form embed (multi-site)

    Build the form once in the SecureSMTP dashboard at /app/forms/builder and embed it on every site with the slug:

    > [qcs_form slug="contact"]

    C. Gutenberg block

    In the block editor, search for SecureSMTP Form in the block inserter. Pick a form from the dropdown — no shortcode needed.

  5. 5

    Send a test submission

    Visit the page where you embedded the form. Fill in the fields with your own email and submit. Within ~1 second:

    • The submission shows up in QCS Forms → Submissions inside WP.
    • It also shows up at /app/forms/submissions.
    • You get an email notification at your account address.

    That’s the whole flow. Anything you do from here — building more forms, styling them, adding multiple recipient emails — happens in the same plugin admin.

Troubleshooting

Three issues account for nearly every support email about plugin install. Fix any of them in under a minute.

The SecureSMTP menu didn’t appear in WordPress after activation
Three usual causes. (1) Activation silently failed — check Plugins → Installed Plugins and confirm SecureSMTP Form is listed with an Active status. (2) Your role doesn’t see top-level menus other than Dashboard — log in as Administrator and the menu reappears (this is a WordPress capability thing, not the plugin). (3) A different plugin is hiding the menu via admin_menu filtering — disable “role manager” or “white label” plugins one by one and recheck. The diagnostic we wrote up in the troubleshooting guide walks through this in more detail.
I see a red “Failed to connect” error after Save and test connection
Three usual culprits. (1) Typo or trailing whitespace in the API key — re-copy from /app/forms/api-keys and re-paste. (2) Your site URL in SecureSMTP doesn’t match where the plugin is running (e.g. you registered https://acme.com but it’s actually https://www.acme.com). Confirm at /app/forms/sites and either edit the URL or rotate to a new key. (3) Your WordPress host blocks outbound HTTPS to securessmtp.com — rare, but ask your host or run curl -I https://securessmtp.com/api/v1/health via SSH.
I added a block but it says “this form isn’t connected”
The block was inserted before the plugin connected to SecureSMTP — the dropdown shows zero forms, so the embed has nothing to render. Resolve in two clicks: QCS Forms → Settings, paste the key, save. Edit the page containing the block, click into the block, and re-pick the form from the now-populated dropdown.

Plugin connected — what next?

Build your first form →Set up custom-domain email