diff --git a/packages/database/auth/auth-options.ts b/packages/database/auth/auth-options.ts
index 4d9fa71a10..411601b1de 100644
--- a/packages/database/auth/auth-options.ts
+++ b/packages/database/auth/auth-options.ts
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ export const authOptions = (): NextAuthOptions => {
 					async sendVerificationRequest({ identifier, token }) {
 						console.log("sendVerificationRequest");
 
-						if (!serverEnv().RESEND_API_KEY) {
+						if (!serverEnv().RESEND_API_KEY && !serverEnv().SMTP_HOST) {
 							console.log("\n");
 							console.log(
 								"━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━",
diff --git a/packages/database/emails/config.ts b/packages/database/emails/config.ts
index 0f27b402b9..9eba2b2c5b 100644
--- a/packages/database/emails/config.ts
+++ b/packages/database/emails/config.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,33 @@
 import { buildEnv, serverEnv } from "@cap/env";
+import { render } from "@react-email/render";
+import nodemailer from "nodemailer";
 import type { JSXElementConstructor, ReactElement } from "react";
 import { Resend } from "resend";
 
 export const resend = () =>
 	serverEnv().RESEND_API_KEY ? new Resend(serverEnv().RESEND_API_KEY) : null;
 
+let _smtpTransport: ReturnType<typeof nodemailer.createTransport> | null | undefined;
+
+export const smtp = () => {
+	if (_smtpTransport !== undefined) return _smtpTransport;
+	const env = serverEnv();
+	if (!env.SMTP_HOST) {
+		_smtpTransport = null;
+		return null;
+	}
+	_smtpTransport = nodemailer.createTransport({
+		host: env.SMTP_HOST,
+		port: env.SMTP_PORT,
+		secure: env.SMTP_SECURE,
+		auth:
+			env.SMTP_USER && env.SMTP_PASS
+				? { user: env.SMTP_USER, pass: env.SMTP_PASS }
+				: undefined,
+	});
+	return _smtpTransport;
+};
+
 export const sendEmail = async ({
 	email,
 	subject,
@@ -26,23 +49,51 @@ export const sendEmail = async ({
 	replyTo?: string;
 	fromOverride?: string;
 }) => {
-	const r = resend();
-	if (!r) {
-		return Promise.resolve();
-	}
-
 	if (marketing && !buildEnv.NEXT_PUBLIC_IS_CAP) return;
-	let from;
 
+	let from: string;
 	if (fromOverride) from = fromOverride;
 	else if (marketing) from = "Richie from Cap <richie@send.cap.so>";
 	else if (buildEnv.NEXT_PUBLIC_IS_CAP)
 		from = "Cap Auth <no-reply@auth.cap.so>";
-	else from = `auth@${serverEnv().RESEND_FROM_DOMAIN}`;
+	else if (serverEnv().SMTP_FROM) from = serverEnv().SMTP_FROM!;
+	else if (serverEnv().RESEND_FROM_DOMAIN)
+		from = `auth@${serverEnv().RESEND_FROM_DOMAIN}`;
+	else {
+		// No from-address configured. Most SMTP servers reject "noreply@localhost"
+		// as invalid sender, which would silently drop the email. Fail loudly instead.
+		throw new Error(
+			"No email from-address configured. Set SMTP_FROM (when using SMTP) or RESEND_FROM_DOMAIN (when using Resend).",
+		);
+	}
+
+	// Resend has a sandbox sink at delivered@resend.dev for test mode;
+	// over SMTP we just use the real recipient
+	const to = test && !smtp() ? "delivered@resend.dev" : email;
+
+	// Try SMTP first if configured (preferred for self-hosted)
+	const transport = smtp();
+	if (transport) {
+		const html = await render(react);
+		return transport.sendMail({
+			from,
+			to,
+			subject,
+			html,
+			cc: test ? undefined : cc,
+			replyTo,
+		}) as any;
+	}
+
+	// Fall back to Resend if configured
+	const r = resend();
+	if (!r) {
+		return Promise.resolve();
+	}
 
 	return r.emails.send({
 		from,
-		to: test ? "delivered@resend.dev" : email,
+		to,
 		subject,
 		react,
 		scheduledAt,
diff --git a/packages/env/server.ts b/packages/env/server.ts
index febc9e3e87..5af6510b02 100644
--- a/packages/env/server.ts
+++ b/packages/env/server.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,15 @@ function createServerEnv() {
 			RESEND_API_KEY: z.string().optional(),
 			RESEND_FROM_DOMAIN: z.string().optional(),
 
+			// SMTP configuration (alternative to Resend)
+			// If SMTP_HOST is set, emails will be sent via SMTP instead of Resend
+			SMTP_HOST: z.string().optional().describe("SMTP server hostname"),
+			SMTP_PORT: z.coerce.number().optional().default(587).describe("SMTP server port"),
+			SMTP_USER: z.string().optional().describe("SMTP username"),
+			SMTP_PASS: z.string().optional().describe("SMTP password"),
+			SMTP_FROM: z.string().optional().describe("Default From address (e.g. cap@mail.example.com)"),
+			SMTP_SECURE: boolString(false).describe("Use TLS/SSL (true for port 465, false for 587/STARTTLS)"),
+
 			/// S3 configuration
 			// Though they are prefixed with `CAP_AWS`, these don't have to be
 			// for AWS, and can instead be for any S3-compatible service