WP Mail SMTP on Cloudways with Rackspace: How do you configure it?

If you’re running a WordPress or WooCommerce store on Cloudways and your order confirmation emails just… aren’t showing up, I’ve been exactly where you are 👋. I ran into this myself with a print on demand store I was setting up. Did test purchases, sat there refreshing my inbox, and nothing.
No confirmation email. No receipt. Nada. That’s a massive problem when you’re trying to run a real business and your customers have no idea if their order actually went through 😤.

So I figured out how to configure WP Mail SMTP on Cloudways with Rackspace, and I’m gonna walk you through the whole thing so you don’t have to bang your head against the wall like I did.

Why Your WordPress Emails Aren’t Sending in the First Place

WordPress, by default, uses something called the PHP mail() function to send emails. And it’s terrible. I don’t mean “kind of unreliable.” I mean it can actively sabotage your business without you even knowing about it.

The reason is that PHP mail() lacks proper authentication. It sends emails from your server without verifying that your server is actually authorized to send on behalf of your domain.
Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo look at that and go, “Yeah, this looks like spam.” So your perfectly legitimate order confirmation gets tossed into the junk folder or just disappears entirely into the void.

And it gets worse. If you’re on a shared server (which many Cloudways setups technically are at the infrastructure level), other users on that same server might be sending spammy stuff. That can tank the server’s IP reputation, which drags your emails down with it.
You didn’t do anything wrong, but your emails still get flagged because of some other guy on the same box.

When I did test purchases, no email came in, and that’s how I knew there was a problem with the default mailing SMTP provider, because no order purchase confirmation emails were coming out. Which is a big deal. You can’t run a store where people buy things and then hear crickets.

What SMTP Actually Does (And Why Rackspace)

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Instead of your WordPress site trying to send emails through its own server (and failing), SMTP routes those emails through a dedicated, authenticated mail server. The receiving email provider sees that authentication, checks the records, and says “okay, this is legit” and your email lands in the inbox instead of the trash.

Now, why Rackspace specifically? If you’re already on Cloudways, Rackspace is built right in as an add-on. You don’t need to go sign up for a separate service, mess with third-party integrations, or deal with complicated API keys. Cloudways has it sitting right there in your dashboard.
It’s $1 per mailbox per month. That’s it. You get a professional, branded email address (like [email protected]) with webmail access and email forwarding, plus the authentication your emails need to actually get delivered.

Could you use something like SendGrid or Mailgun instead? Sure. But for most WordPress and WooCommerce store owners who just need their transactional emails to actually work, Rackspace through Cloudways is the simplest, most affordable path. No overthinking required.

Step 1: Set Up Your Rackspace Mailbox in Cloudways

First thing, log into your Cloudways dashboard. You’re going to look for the Rackspace email add-on. It’s under your account settings, not buried in some obscure menu.

Once you’re in the Rackspace section, you’ll see tabs for Mailboxes, Aliases, and Forwarding Mail. Click on Mailboxes and then hit the “Add Mailbox” button.

A pop-up will appear asking for two things:

• Email address — this is the address you want to send from (like [email protected] or [email protected])
• Password — make it strong, you’ll need this later for the SMTP configuration

That’s the whole process on the Cloudways side. You now have a Rackspace-hosted email address tied to your domain. Write down that email and password because you’re going to need both in a minute.

Step 2: Install the WP Mail SMTP Plugin

Now hop over to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin and search for “WP Mail SMTP.” It’s the one by WPForms, you can’t miss it, it has over 4 million active installations.

Click Install Now, then Activate.

Once activated, you’ll see a new menu item in your WordPress sidebar for WP Mail SMTP. Click into it and go to the General settings tab. This is where everything comes together.

Step 3: Configure the SMTP Settings

This is the part that tripped me up too, I’ll be honest with you.

This information, I had no idea how to get it. And what did I do? I just used ChatGPT for it. Yeah. I’m not a developer. I’m a store owner who needed emails to send. Sometimes you just need the answer and don’t care where it comes from as long as it’s right.

I’ve since verified these against official documentation and Rackspace’s own support pages, so you don’t have to take ChatGPT’s word for it. Here’s what you need to enter:

Fill in each field exactly as shown. The SMTP Host is the one most people get stuck on; it’s secure.emailsrvr.com for Rackspace. The port is 465 when using SSL encryption.
These two go hand-in-hand; if you pick the wrong combo, the connection fails silently and you’ll be right back where you started wondering why emails aren’t going out.

Once you’ve filled everything in, hit Save Settings.

Step 4: Send a Test Email

Don’t skip this. Go to WP Mail SMTP → Tools in your WordPress sidebar and click on Email Test.

Enter an email address you have access to (your personal Gmail, whatever) and fire off a test. If everything’s configured correctly, you’ll see a success message confirming the email was sent and you should also see the confirmation that your SPF record is set up and working correctly.

Go check your inbox. If the test email is sitting there (and not in spam), you’re golden. Your WooCommerce order confirmations, password reset emails, contact form submissions, all of it will now route through your authenticated Rackspace SMTP server instead of WordPress’s unreliable default.

What About SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?

Quick rundown since these matter more than ever now. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a DNS record that tells email providers which servers are allowed to send email for your domain. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a digital signature to verify the email wasn’t tampered with in transit.
And DMARC ties it together by telling receiving servers what to do if an email fails those checks.

When you set up Rackspace through Cloudways, the SPF record is typically handled for you; the successful test email confirms this. For DKIM and DMARC, you may need to add additional DNS records through your domain registrar. This varies depending on where your domain is registered, but Cloudways and Rackspace documentation cover the specifics for their setup.

The point is these aren’t just nice-to-have anymore. With the 2024 changes from Gmail and Yahoo, emails without proper authentication records are getting blocked at much higher rates than before. Getting your Rackspace SMTP set up handles the biggest piece of this puzzle.

Final Thoughts

I know this whole SMTP thing sounds intimidating when you first hear about it. I literally used ChatGPT to figure out the server settings because the documentation wasn’t making sense to me at the time, and that’s totally fine. You don’t need to be a developer to get this right. You just need the correct settings, 10 minutes, and this guide.

If your WordPress or WooCommerce emails aren’t sending on Cloudways, setting up the Rackspace add-on and configuring WP Mail SMTP is the move. It’s a dollar a month, it takes less time than making coffee, and it means your customers actually get their order confirmations instead of wondering if their purchase went through.
Go set it up, send that test email, and stop worrying about it. If this helped you out in any way, I’m glad, that’s the whole point of putting this together.