If you’re searching for Hostinger’s SMTP settings, you’re probably not setting up an email client. You’re more likely plugging outgoing mail into a WordPress contact form, a custom script, or an app that needs to send transactional email through your domain.
That’s a different job than connecting Gmail or Outlook, so I’m approaching this guide from that angle: get the SMTP values right, understand what limits you’re working within, confirm the DNS records that keep your mail out of spam, and check a recent security change that can silently break connections if your app hasn’t caught up.
Step 1: Get Your SMTP Hostname, Port, and Encryption
Everything starts with three values, found in hPanel under Emails > Mailboxes > Connect apps & devices > Advanced settings.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Hostname | smtp.hostinger.com |
| Recommended port | 465 (SSL/TLS) |
| Alternative port | 587 (STARTTLS/TLS) |
Port 465 is what’s known as implicit TLS, meaning the encrypted connection is established right away rather than starting unencrypted and upgrading partway through.
That’s the port hPanel shows by default, and it’s the one I’d start with. But hPanel’s own settings screen doesn’t mention port 587 at all, so I asked Hostinger’s Kodee AI assistant directly whether it’s supported.
Kodee confirmed that smtp.hostinger.com does support port 587 with STARTTLS as an alternative, and suggested trying it if you run into encryption issues on 465. So both of these work:
- 465 with SSL/TLS (the recommended default)
- 587 with STARTTLS/TLS (an alternative if 465 causes issues)
Step 2: Set Your Authentication Correctly
SMTP authentication uses your full mailbox address as the username and the mailbox password as the password, the same password you set when the mailbox was created.
This trips people up in one specific way: it’s not your hPanel account password.
Those are two separate credentials, and using the wrong one produces an authentication failure that looks identical to a wrong-password error, so it’s easy to waste time assuming the whole configuration is broken when it’s really just one mismatched credential.
One question I’d expect from anyone security-conscious: does two-factor authentication on the mailbox interfere with SMTP login? It doesn’t.
2FA in Hostinger Webmail applies only to the webmail login screen, not to SMTP, IMAP, or POP3 authentication. Your app keeps using the standard email and password combination regardless of whether 2FA is turned on for that mailbox.
Step 3: Check Your Sending Limits Before You Build Anything
This is the step most SMTP setup guides skip, and it’s the one most likely to bite you later. Hostinger applies daily sending limits per mailbox, and they vary a lot depending on your plan.
Before wiring SMTP into an app that might send in bulk, or on a schedule, it’s worth knowing exactly what you’re working with.
You can check your own limits in hPanel: go to Emails > Mailboxes, then click View limits next to your plan.
On the test account here, a Free Business Email plan, the numbers looked like this:
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Storage per mailbox | 1.00 GB |
| Emails per mailbox | 15,000 |
| Daily message sending | 100 in 24 hours |
| Outgoing email size | 35 MB |
| Email attachment size | 25 MB |
| Recipients per message (To, Cc, Bcc) | 100 |
| Aliases per mailbox | 5 |
| Forwarders per mailbox | 1 |
That 100-per-day figure applies to sending alone, and it’s separate from your inbound limit, meaning receiving 50 emails that day doesn’t count against your 100 outgoing.
But if you’re planning to send transactional email at any real volume, like order confirmations or password resets from an app with active users, 100 a day disappears fast.
If that sounds like your use case, it’s worth checking current Hostinger email deals before you build against a limit you’ll outgrow quickly.
Here’s how sending limits change across plans:
| Plan | Storage | Message Limit | Daily Rate (In/Out) | Recipients per Message |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Business Email (legacy) | 1 GB | 15,000 | 100/day | 100 |
| Business Starter | 5 GB | 100,000 | 1,000/day | 100 |
| Business Premium | 50 GB | 300,000 | 3,000/day | 100 |
Two things stand out here. First, the daily rate applies separately to inbound and outbound, so a 1,000/day limit on Business Starter means 1,000 sent and 1,000 received, not 1,000 combined. Second, the 100-recipients-per-message cap doesn’t change between plans at all.
A few additional technical limits apply no matter which plan you’re on: inbound email size caps at 50 MB including attachments, outbound caps at 35 MB, and individual attachments are capped at 25 MB. If your app is generating large PDF invoices or attaching media files, these are the ceilings to design around.
SMTP Settings: Ports, DNS Records, and Sending Limits
Step 4: Set Up the DNS Records That Keep Your Mail Out of Spam
SMTP settings get your app talking to Hostinger’s mail server, but whether the mail you send actually lands in an inbox instead of spam depends on DNS records that authenticate your domain as a legitimate sender.
This matters more, not less, when you’re sending through an app or script rather than a normal email client, since automated mail from unfamiliar sending patterns is exactly what spam filters scrutinize hardest.
| Record | Purpose | Where to Find It |
|---|---|---|
| MX | Routes incoming mail to your mailbox | Emails > Domain settings |
| SPF | Lists which servers can send as your domain | Emails > Domain settings |
| DKIM | Signs outgoing mail to prove it wasn’t altered | Emails > Domain settings (automatic) or Emails > Custom DKIM (manual) |
| DMARC | Tells receivers what to do if SPF/DKIM checks fail | Emails > Domain settings |
If your domain uses Hostinger’s own nameservers, all four of these get added automatically and show as verified without any action from you. If your domain’s DNS is managed elsewhere, you’ll need to copy the values over manually.
I’ve covered the exact record values, plus a detail worth knowing about Hostinger offering two separate DKIM setups depending on where your DNS lives, in our full Hostinger email setup guide rather than repeating the entire walkthrough here.
Step 5: Confirm Your App Supports TLS 1.2 (This Can Silently Break Connections)
This is the part of Hostinger SMTP settings that’s easy to miss because it’s not really a “setting” you configure; it’s a requirement your sending software either meets or doesn’t.
For most people, this changes nothing, since modern email clients and current programming libraries have defaulted to TLS 1.2 or higher for years. Hostinger’s own data puts affected traffic at under 0.01%. But if your app runs on older infrastructure, an outdated SMTP library, a legacy server operating system, or hardware that’s never been updated, this is worth checking directly rather than assuming it’s fine.
The systems most likely to be affected are things like Windows XP-era servers or very old versions of macOS mail software, environments that were already showing their age before this change.
If you’re troubleshooting a connection that suddenly stopped working with no configuration changes on your end, an outdated TLS version is a real possibility worth ruling out before you assume the SMTP settings themselves are wrong.
Hostinger’s SMTP settings themselves are simple, one hostname, one port, one encryption method, but the details that actually determine whether your integration works reliably sit around those settings.
Know your real sending limits before you build something that’ll hit them, get DNS authentication right so automated mail doesn’t get flagged, and confirm your sending software meets the current TLS requirement.
Troubleshooting Common SMTP Issues
- Authentication keeps failing. Confirm you’re using the full mailbox address as the username and the mailbox password, not your hPanel account password.
- Connection fails immediately. Check that port 465 is set with SSL/TLS enabled, not a different port or an unencrypted setting. Either of those will fail to connect at all.
- Emails stop sending with no config changes. Verify your app or library supports TLS 1.2 or higher. Connections using TLS 1.0 or 1.1 are rejected as of the March 2026 protocol change.
- Hitting a sending limit unexpectedly. Check your actual daily rate under Emails > Mailboxes > View limits. Free and legacy plans cap out at 100 sends a day, which is easy to hit with an active app.
- Message rejected for too many recipients. Every Hostinger email plan caps messages at 100 recipients across To, Cc, and Bcc combined. This applies regardless of plan tier.
- Large attachments failing to send. Outbound email size, including attachments, is capped at 35 MB, with individual attachments capped at 25 MB.
