How to Send Email using PHP mail() Function

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an easier programming language used for faster development. The PHP mail() function allows sending emails directly from a script. This function returns true for the successful delivery of email, otherwise returns false.

PHP mail() function uses sendmail_path value from ini file. For Unix systems the default value is used as /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/sendmail. Systems not running with sendmail should set this directive to other mail replacement like /var/qmail/bin/sendmail for Qmail.

In this article, you will learn 3 methods of sending emails using sample PHP scripts.

Simple PHP script for sending emails
Send email using PHP with HTML format
Sending emails using PHP via remote SMTP server

1. Simple PHP Script for Sending Emails

Lets create a php file sendEmail.php in your web document root with following content. Change the $to_email with your recipient email address, $subject and $body as per your need, Keep as it is for testing purpose, $from_email with sender email address.

nano sendEmail.php

Add the following sample PHP code for sending email:

<?php
   $to_email = "recipient@example.com";
   $subject = "Simple Email Test via PHP";
   $body = "Hi,\n This is test email send by PHP Script";
   $headers = "From: sender@example.com";

   if ( mail($to_email, $subject, $body, $headers)) {
      echo("Email successfully sent to $to_email...");
   } else {
      echo("Email sending failed...");
   }
?>

<?php

$to_email = "[email protected]";

$subject = "Simple Email Test via PHP";

$body = "Hi,\n This is test email send by PHP Script";

$headers = "From: [email protected]";

if ( mail($to_email, $subject, $body, $headers)) {

echo("Email successfully sent to $to_email...");

} else {

echo("Email sending failed...");

}

Now we can test it by access in a web browser or simply execute it from the command line like below.

php sendEmail.php

Output:
Email successfully sent to [email protected]

2. Send Email using PHP in HTML Format

In the previous example, we executed the PHP script via the command line. Let’s try another example to create a web form and send an email with a PHP script.

Assuming you already have a website hosted on a server enabled with PHP. Create a PHP script sendEmail.php under the website document root of your domain with following content. This will show a simple form in the browser, using that we can also send an email for testing purposes.

<?php 
if (!isset($_POST["submit"])) { ?>

  <form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"];?>">
	  To: <input type="text" name="to_email"><br>
	  From: <input type="text" name="from_email"><br>
	  Subject: <input type="text" name="subject"><br>
	  Message: <textarea rows="10" cols="20" name="message"></textarea><br>
	  <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send Email">
  </form>
<?php
} else {

  if (isset($_POST["to_email"])) {
    $to_email = $_POST["to_email"];
    $from_email = $_POST["from_email"];
    $subject = $_POST["subject"];
    $body = $_POST["message"];

    if ( mail($to_email, $subject, $body, $headers)) {
      echo("Email successfully sent to $to_email...");
    } else {
      echo("Email sending failed...");
    }
  }
}
?>

<?php

if (!isset($_POST["submit"])) { ?>

To: <input type="text" name="to_email"><br>

From: <input type="text" name="from_email"><br>

Subject: <input type="text" name="subject"><br>

Message: <textarea rows="10" cols="20" name="message"></textarea><br>

</form>

<?php

} else {

if (isset($_POST["to_email"])) {

$to_email = $_POST["to_email"];

$from_email = $_POST["from_email"];

$subject = $_POST["subject"];

$body = $_POST["message"];

if ( mail($to_email, $subject, $body, $headers)) {

echo("Email successfully sent to $to_email...");

} else {

echo("Email sending failed...");

}

Now access sendEmail.php in the web browser

 http://localhost/sendEmail.php

PHP email() function example — A sample web form for sending email with PHP

A form will be displayed with input fields. Fill in all the fields and hit the Send Email button to submit the form. On submission, the PHP script added in the form will send the email.

3. Sending Emails using PHP via Remote SMTP Server

You can also use a remote SMTP server for sending emails using PHP applications. In order to use this options, you must have a remote SMTP server access like Gmail, Amazon SES and Sendgrid etc. We will use PHPMailer module in PHP script for sending emails via remote SMTP server.

First of all, You need to Install the phpmailer module using composer under your application.

composer require phpmailer/phpmailer

<?php

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$mail = new PHPMailer(true); 
try {
    //Server settings
    // $mail->SMTPDebug = 2; //Uncomment to view debug log
    $mail->isSMTP();
    $mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';
    $mail->SMTPAuth = true;
    $mail->Username = 'username@gmail.com';
    $mail->Password = '_password_';
    $mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
    $mail->Port = 587;

    $mail->setFrom('sender@example.com', 'Admin');
    $mail->addAddress('recipient1@example.net', 'Recipient1');
    $mail->addAddress('recipient2@example.com');
    $mail->addReplyTo('noreply@example.com', 'noreply');
    $mail->addCC('cc@example.com');
    $mail->addBCC('bcc@example.com');

    //Attachments
    $mail->addAttachment('/backup/test.log');

    //Content
    $mail->isHTML(true); 
    $mail->Subject = 'Mail Subject Here!';
    $mail->Body    = 'Mail body content goes here';

    $mail->send();
    echo 'Message has been sent';
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Message could not be sent.';
    echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}

<?php

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

try {

//Server settings

// $mail->SMTPDebug = 2; //Uncomment to view debug log

$mail->isSMTP();

$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com';

$mail->SMTPAuth = true;

$mail->Username = '[email protected]';

$mail->Password = '_password_';

$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';

$mail->Port = 587;

$mail->setFrom('[email protected]', 'Admin');

$mail->addAddress('[email protected]', 'Recipient1');

$mail->addAddress('recipient2[email protected]');

$mail->addReplyTo('[email protected]', 'noreply');

$mail->addCC('[email protected]');

$mail->addBCC('[email protected]');

//Attachments

$mail->addAttachment('/backup/test.log');

//Content

$mail->isHTML(true);

$mail->Subject = 'Mail Subject Here!';

$mail->Body = 'Mail body content goes here';

$mail->send();

echo 'Message has been sent';

} catch (Exception $e) {

echo 'Message could not be sent.';

echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;

}

Conclusion

In this tutorial, You have learned 3 methods of sending emails via PHP scripts. You can get more information about PHP mail() function from its official website.

12 Comments

shoji on March 20, 2022 7:07 am
Stop provide insecure email sending, whoever gonna use this it will be easily hackable. at least show them how to escape or stop giving vulnerable code
Amit Sharma on February 10, 2022 7:42 am
Thanks For This Useful article
Gabriele Giles on April 22, 2021 8:30 pm
Hi. How do l make my submit button to work? How do l write the php and can l write the php code inside my index.html file? I have my hosting and domain with namecheap.
Sourav Das on October 2, 2019 5:24 pm
how to send mail from localhost without using FTP server in php
- anurag tripathi on April 18, 2021 12:08 pm
  no you cant send email on localhost
Takinmall on September 15, 2019 10:03 am
Thanks please post how to send email using google SMTP.
Frank on September 12, 2019 8:17 am
thanks, it really worked
- Lefan Billips on September 28, 2021 7:01 pm
  didnt work AT ALL where u tested it??
Ayo Celestine on August 21, 2019 7:41 pm
Thanks for this script. It works fine
Zubair shah on June 27, 2019 4:07 pm
thanks for the sugestion
Raj on June 16, 2019 7:28 pm
Thanks please post how to send email using google SMTP.
Noel Springer on July 24, 2018 1:33 am
Hi Rahul,
Should the line endings in the script be “\r\n” ?
Also, on Debian 9 with php-mail installed to provide PEAR’s Mail:: package how would this be used to send SMTP email?
Cheers,
Noel

3 Sample PHP Scripts for Sending Emails

1. Simple PHP Script for Sending Emails

2. Send Email using PHP in HTML Format

3. Sending Emails using PHP via Remote SMTP Server

Conclusion

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12 Comments

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3 Sample PHP Scripts for Sending Emails

1. Simple PHP Script for Sending Emails

2. Send Email using PHP in HTML Format

3. Sending Emails using PHP via Remote SMTP Server

Conclusion

Related Posts

How To Install PHP (8.1, 7.4 or 5.6) on Ubuntu 22.04

How To Install Linux, Nginx, MySQL, & PHP (LEMP Stack) on Ubuntu 22.04

How To Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

How To Setup Apache, PHP & MongoDB in Ubuntu & Debian

How To Install and Use PHP Composer on Debian 11

How To Install PHP (8.1, 7.4 & 5.6) on Debian 11

12 Comments

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply