Which From address a WordPress contact form should use

What WordPress uses if you do nothing

WordPress sends from wordpress@ followed by your site's domain, without the “www.”. That is on your domain, which is good — but it only helps if the domain allows your web server to send, and some hosts reject a mailbox that doesn't exist.

When the domain doesn't match

Receiving servers compare the domain in From with the domain that passed SPF or DKIM. If your site is example-bakery.com and From says info@bakery-mail.net, or a visitor's Gmail address, that comparison fails and the message is treated as unverified. It's the single most common reason contact form notifications are filtered.

Check it from a real message

Paste the source of a notification below with your site's domain, and the checker compares them, including subdomains such as mail.example.co.uk.

How Mailbag handles From

Mailbag Contact Form sends its notifications from an address on your site's domain, and the General tab of its settings checks the From address you've set against the site's domain, with a clear line saying whether it's on it. If you send through an SMTP plugin that forces its own From address, that plugin wins — and the checker above will show you which address actually went out.

Sending from a different domain on purpose

Some businesses run their email on a separate domain. That works when that domain's SPF or DKIM covers your sending service — typically by sending through an SMTP plugin logged in to that mailbox. What doesn't work is a web server claiming to be a domain that never authorised it.