Hostinger Reach: Double Opt-in Explained And How To Use It

Updated 4 weeks ago

Double opt-in is a feature in Reach that helps you verify new subscribers before they are added to your newsletter audience.

This helps ensure:

  • The email address exists and is valid
  • The subscriber intentionally signed up
  • Your mailing list quality stays high

Double opt-in is recommended for improving deliverability and reducing fake or mistyped email addresses.

How Double Opt-in Works

Double opt-in  works by sending a confirmation email to every new contact who subscribes. The subscriber must confirm their subscription by clicking a button in the email.

When double opt-in is enabled:

  1. A user submits their email address to subscribe your newsletter
  2. Reach automatically sends a confirmation email.
  3. The user must click Confirm your email button.
  4. Only after confirmation the contact appears as a Subscribed contact in your Reach account.

This means you can be confident that your email marketing campaigns are sent only to real and confirmed subscribers.

When Double Opt-in Applies

Double opt-in works only for automatically synced contacts, meaning contacts that are submitted through integrations where you do not manually control each email address.

This includes contacts synced through:

  • WordPress forms and plugins
  • Hostinger Website Builder forms and eCommerce checkout forms
  • Public API integrations such as custom subscription forms connected via API

Double opt-in does not apply when:

  • You add contacts manually in the Reach dashboard
  • You upload contacts via a CSV file

In these cases, it is expected that you already have the subscriber’s consent to send email marketing.

Double Opt-in Emails and Email Limits

Confirmation emails are sent automatically and do not require any extra automation setup to send confirmation emails.

Additionally:

  • Double opt-in confirmation emails do not count toward your monthly email sending limits.
  • If the feature is enabled, it works automatically for all contacts who were added automatically..

How to Enable Double Opt-in in Reach

To manage double opt-in settings:

  1. Open your Reach dashboard.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Select Subscribe settings.
  4. Toggle Double opt-in ON.

To enable and use double opt-in, you must first connect a working domain.

You can connect:

  • A domain purchased at Hostinger
  • A domain purchased from another provider

If you do not have a domain, you will need to purchase one before you can send professional email marketing campaigns.

Customizing the Double Opt-in Email

After enabling double opt-in, you will be able to preview the confirmation email in the Subscribe settings section.

You can customize the confirmation email by:

  • Applying your brand details (based on your Reach brand details settings)
  • Resetting the style to use the default Reach style
  • Editing the subject line
  • Editing the sender email

You can also preview the confirmation page that subscribers see after clicking the confirmation button.

Note: If you are using the Reach free plan, the double opt-in confirmation email includes a Reach watermark. To remove the watermark, you need to upgrade to a paid Reach plan. Once upgraded, the watermark will be automatically removed.

Contact Statuses and Double Opt-in

When double opt-in is enabled and a contact is automatically synced, their status will initially be:

  • Waiting for opt-in

Once the subscriber confirms their email through the confirmation email, their status changes to:

  • Subscribed

Reach also shows whether a contact joined through:

  • Double opt-in (confirmation required)
  • Single opt-in (no confirmation email)

Single opt-in means the contact was added as subscribed immediately, without receiving a confirmation email.

Sending Emails to Contacts Waiting for Opt-in

You can only send email marketing campaigns and automations to contacts with the Subscribed status.

If a contact is still Waiting for opt-in, they will not receive:

  • Scheduled newsletters
  • Marketing campaigns
  • Automations

Once the subscriber confirms their email, contact status automatically changes to Subscribes, and all campaigns and automations will work normally.

Tip: If you have contacts who have been stuck in ‘Waiting for opt-in’ status for 3+ weeks, it is recommended to delete such contacts from your Reach Contacts.

How Double Opt-In Affects Smart Segments

When your form is connected to Hostinger Reach, every form submission is synced automatically. Reach also creates unique tags based on your form titles and generates segments to help you easily target contacts coming from specific forms.

Normally, a segment is created automatically as soon as the first submission from that form appears in Reach.

However, if Double Opt-In is enabled, keep in mind that segments are created only after the subscriber confirms their subscription. This means:

  • Segments for a form will not appear immediately after the first form submission, the segment is created only once the first contact from that form becomes Subscribed
  • Automations that are triggered by related segment will also start working only after the segment is created and contact is Subscribed

Double opt-in is a powerful way to build a cleaner and more engaged subscriber list while ensuring that your marketing emails are delivered to real and interested recipients.