How to Send Email with PHP in 5 Minutes

Last Updated on October 21, 2026 by Ian

Sending transactional email from PHP — user registrations, password resets, order confirmations — is straightforward once you have a reliable sending infrastructure. This guide shows you how to send email using the ConvertNow API with PHP’s built-in cURL, and with PHPMailer for SMTP.

What you need

• PHP 7.4 or above

• cURL extension enabled (enabled by default on most hosting)

• A free ConvertNow account — convertnow.co

Step 1: Get your API key

Sign up at convertnow.co, go to Email API, click + New Key, and store the key in an environment variable or your config:

// Never hardcode your API key in source code
// Use environment variables or a config file outside your web root
$apiKey = getenv('CONVERTNOW_API_KEY');
// Or from a .env file using vlucas/phpdotenv:
// $dotenv = Dotenv\Dotenv::createImmutable(__DIR__);
// $dotenv->load();
// $apiKey = $_ENV['CONVERTNOW_API_KEY'];

Step 2: Send your first email with cURL

<?php

function sendEmail(array $payload): array {
    $apiKey = getenv('CONVERTNOW_API_KEY');

    $ch = curl_init('https://api.convertnow.co/v1/email/send');
    curl_setopt_array($ch, [
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_POST           => true,
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER     => [
            'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
            'Content-Type: application/json',
        ],
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($payload),
    ]);

    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
    curl_close($ch);

    $data = json_decode($response, true);

    if ($httpCode !== 200) {
        throw new RuntimeException('Email send failed: ' . ($data['error'] ?? 'Unknown error'));
    }

    return $data;
}

// Send a basic email
$result = sendEmail([
    'to'      => '[email protected]',
    'from'    => '[email protected]',
    'subject' => 'Hello from PHP',
    'html'    => '<h1>It works!</h1><p>Your first email from PHP.</p>',
    'text'    => 'It works! Your first email from PHP.',
]);

echo $result['status']; // sent

Step 3: Common email patterns

Welcome email on user registration

// In your registration handler:
sendEmail([
    'to'      => $userEmail,
    'subject' => 'Welcome to MyApp!',
    'html'    => sprintf(
        '<h1>Hi %s!</h1><p>Your account is ready. <a href="%s">Log in here</a>.</p>',
        htmlspecialchars($userName),
        $loginUrl
    ),
    'tags'    => ['welcome', 'onboarding'],
]);

Password reset

sendEmail([
    'to'      => $userEmail,
    'subject' => 'Reset your password',
    'html'    => sprintf(
        '<p>Click <a href="%s">here</a> to reset your password. Link expires in 1 hour.</p>',
        $resetUrl
    ),
    'tags'    => ['password-reset'],
]);

Send with CC, BCC, and attachment

$pdf = base64_encode(file_get_contents('/path/to/invoice.pdf'));

sendEmail([
    'to'      => '[email protected]',
    'cc'      => '[email protected]',
    'bcc'     => ['[email protected]'],
    'subject' => 'Your invoice #INV-001',
    'html'    => '<p>Please find your invoice attached.</p>',
    'attachments' => [[
        'filename'     => 'invoice.pdf',
        'content'      => $pdf,
        'content_type' => 'application/pdf',
    ]],
]);

PHPMailer: use ConvertNow as SMTP relay

If you prefer SMTP or are using PHPMailer in an existing application:

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

try {
    $mail->isSMTP();
    $mail->Host       = 'out.convertnow.co';
    $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;
    $mail->Username   = '[email protected]';
    $mail->Password   = getenv('CONVERTNOW_API_KEY');
    $mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_SMIME; // implicit SSL
    $mail->Port       = 465;

    $mail->setFrom('[email protected]', 'My App');
    $mail->addAddress('[email protected]');
    $mail->Subject = 'Hello via PHPMailer';
    $mail->isHTML(true);
    $mail->Body    = '<h1>It works!</h1>';
    $mail->AltBody = 'It works!';

    $mail->send();
    echo 'Email sent';
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}

Laravel: configure ConvertNow as your mail driver

In Laravel, add ConvertNow to your config/mail.php mailers array and update your .env:

# .env
MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=out.convertnow.co
MAIL_PORT=465
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=ssl
[email protected]
MAIL_PASSWORD=cn_live_YOUR_KEY
[email protected]
MAIL_FROM_NAME="My App"

Then use Laravel’s Mail facade or Mailable classes as normal:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

Mail::to($user->email)->send(new WelcomeMail($user));
// Or using raw to() syntax:
Mail::raw('Your account is ready.', function ($message) use ($user) {
    $message->to($user->email)->subject('Welcome!');
});

Why not use PHP’s built-in mail() function?

PHP’s built-in mail() sends directly from your server. Without proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration, these emails almost always land in spam. ConvertNow’s domain setup checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC for you and can create the records for supported DNS providers — you get inbox placement without the ops overhead.

Start sending for free — convertnow.co — no credit card required