# Email (/docs/v7/config/email)



# Email [#email]

It is recommended to use a 3rd party service for sending email. They usually
offer SMTP support, and great logging and analytics. Especially on a shared
host, where email is locked down, and a "naughty neighbor" can quickly get the
server/IP you're emailing from blacklisted. I highly recommend using a service
over SMTP, because SMTP slows response times down.

These services are supported by Laravel natively;

* [Mailgun](http://www.mailgun.com) - Free, up to 10k messages/month
* [Postmark](https://postmarkapp.com) - Tell their support you were referred for
  a free month
* [Amazon SES](https://aws.amazon.com/ses/) - Super cheap, free if you're using
  EC2

<Callout type="warning">
  Do not forget cleaning application cache after editing `.env` variables.
  Otherwise, settings you defined/altered will not be loaded.
</Callout>

***

### SMTP Configuration [#smtp-configuration]

To configure SMTP, in your `.env` file, you need to configure the following
options:

```bash title=".env"
MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_FROM_NAME='phpvms No-Reply'
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS='no-reply@phpvms.net'
MAIL_HOST=
MAIL_PORT=
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=
MAIL_USERNAME=
MAIL_PASSWORD=
```

For detailed settings about host, port and encryption details please check your
hosting control panel (or VPS). These settings are not generic and can differ
between hosting companies, even on a custom VPS these settings are local to your
install (packages installed etc.) Therefore there a no generic examples for SMTP
and mail settings.

### Mailgun Configuration [#mailgun-configuration]

To use Mailgun, set your `.env` like:

```bash title=".env"
MAIL_MAILER=mailgun
MAILGUN_DOMAIN='your mailgun domain'
MAILGUN_SECRET='your mailgun secret',
```

### Postmark Configuration [#postmark-configuration]

To use Postmark, set your `.env` like:

```bash title=".env"
MAIL_MAILER=postmark
POSTMARK_TOKEN='your postmark token'
```

### SES Configuration [#ses-configuration]

To use SES, set your `.env` like:

```bash title=".env"
MAIL_MAILER=ses
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID='key id'
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='access key'
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION='the region if not us-east-1'
```

***



## Debugging [#debugging]

For debugging mail, you can use the service [mailtrap.io](https://mailtrap.io).
Mail-trail will show all of the incoming and outgoing email in an inbox, so you
can test registrations, accepts, etc. It will provide you Laravel-specific
configuration, which looks something like:

```bash title=".env"
MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_FROM_NAME='phpvms Admin'
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS='no-reply@phpvms.net'
MAIL_HOST=smtp.mailtrap.io
MAIL_PORT=2525
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_USERNAME='as provided'
MAIL_PASSWORD='as provided'
```