Using Mailgun vs. Your Company Mailbox

What This Article Covers

This article explains how your website sends emails — like order confirmations, contact form replies, and password resets — and what options are available if those emails stop arriving.

How Website Email Works

Your website needs to send emails automatically. When a customer places an order, fills out a contact form, or resets their password, your site sends an email right away. That email has to come from somewhere.

There are two ways we can set this up:

1. Through our email delivery service — We include access to a professional email delivery service called Mailgun on our higher-tier hosting plans. Your site uses our Mailgun account to send emails on your behalf.
2. Through your own email mailbox — Your site logs in to your real email account (like sales@yourdomain.com) and sends email directly from there, just like you would manually.

Both options work. Each has trade-offs. Here's what you need to know.

Option 1: Mailgun (Email Delivery Service)

Mailgun is a service built specifically for sending website emails. It handles delivery, tracks whether emails bounced, and is designed to work reliably at scale.

Benefits

• Works automatically — no setup needed on your end
• Handles high volumes of email without slowing down your website
• Better than the default "no name" sending method that comes with WordPress out of the box
• No risk of locking your personal email account if your site sends too many messages

Limitations

• Mailgun uses shared sending addresses, not your personal email address. Some spam filters are stricter about shared senders.
• On rare occasions, a shared sending address can get flagged as spam — not because of anything you did, but because of other senders using the same shared system.
• If Mailgun has a service issue, your site's emails may be delayed until the issue is resolved.

For most clients, Mailgun works well the vast majority of the time. If you occasionally miss an email, it's worth checking your spam folder first.

Option 2: Your Own Mailbox

Instead of using Mailgun, we can connect your website directly to your own email account — for example, sales@yourdomain.com. When your site sends an email, it goes out as if you sent it yourself.

Benefits

• Your emails come from a real, recognizable address — your own
• Recipients and spam filters are more likely to trust email coming from a known business address
• You have more direct control over what's being sent and from where
• Less reliance on a third-party service for delivery

Limitations

• You'll need to provide your email address, password, and server settings to set this up
• If you change your email password, the connection breaks and your site will stop sending emails until we update the settings
• Some email providers limit how many emails can be sent per hour or per day — your website counts toward that limit
• If something goes wrong with your email account (expired, suspended, over quota), your site's emails stop too

Your Built-In Safety Net: Email Logs and Resending

Regardless of which sending method your site uses, we install an add-on on your website that keeps a log of every email your site tries to send. Think of it like a sent-items folder for your website.

If an email didn't go through — or you're not sure whether it was sent — we can look at that log and resend the message with one click. No information is lost, and no one has to re-enter anything.

If your site has a WooCommerce online store, there's an additional layer of protection built into WooCommerce itself. Every order is stored on your site permanently. If an order confirmation email was missed or ended up in spam, we can resend it directly from the order record — to you, to your customer, or to both.

Which Option Is Right for You?

If you're happy with how your email is working today, there's nothing you need to do. If you regularly miss order notifications or contact form emails even after checking your spam folder, connecting your own mailbox is the better long-term fix.

Common Questions

I'm not getting order notifications. What should I check first?

Check your spam or junk folder. Email filters sometimes catch automated messages from websites. If you find them there, mark them as "Not Spam" to train your email program to allow them through.

Will I be charged extra for using Mailgun?

Mailgun is included on eligible hosting plans at no extra charge for normal usage. If you have questions about what's included in your plan, just reach out and we'll confirm.

Can I use both options at the same time?

Yes. We can set up your own mailbox as the primary sending method and keep Mailgun as a backup. If your mailbox is unavailable for any reason, Mailgun steps in automatically.

What if I change my email password?

Please let us know as soon as possible. Your website stores your email credentials to send on your behalf — if the password changes and we don't update it, your site will stop sending emails silently.

Still Need Help?

If your website emails aren't arriving — or if you'd like to switch to sending through your own mailbox — contact our support team and we'll get it sorted out for you.