If you are working on any WordPress sites that accept public registration then your WordPress site needs to send a lot of transactional emails to its users. These can be, in case of e-commerce emails regarding order confirmation emails, password reset emails, etc. These emails can be sent over using a simple WP SMTP Plugin.
Millions of messages get exchanged over the networks regularly, and almost all sent from websites use some form of SMTP Plugin. Alternatively, sometimes sending and receiving emails from your WordPress creates serious headaches and pain. This is because, with the native WordPress email solution — wp_mail, a significant portion of those emails will likely end up in recipients’ spam folders. And this is something that you do not desire? Am I right?
Once when an email is sent across, your hosting provider becomes responsible for properly delivering the email to the concerned recipients. And when this does not happen the email reaches the spam folder. Addressing such kind of issues takes time and effort. But fortunately, the simple solution to this comes in the form of SMTP Plugins that are available in the WordPress repository. And thus the hosting provider can be easily changed simply by installing the SMTP Plugin on your website.
What is an SMTP Plugin?
Before we look for some great SMTP plugins, let us spare some time to understand what SMTP does and how it is of use to us. Since not all emails are transferred successfully as some of them get bounced over the network, the email open rate gets lower. This is where the SMTP comes handy.
SMTP, basically stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol which is a protocol used for sending and receiving emails over a network. So how SMTP works is that when you send an email, its server breaks it down into its relevant parts. This helps move it from your email client to your recipient’s email client. And therefore most of the emails that are in your inbox probably have come from an SMTP server.
With an SMTP Plugin installed on your website, you can order your WordPress site to send emails via a properly-configured SMTP server, rather than your WordPress site’s server. And with this setup by your side, your WordPress site will send the email to the SMTP server. This then processes the email and sends it on to the proper destination which here, in this case, is the recipient’s inbox.
Now because the SMTP server is configured in such a way that it handles sending emails with proper authentication in place, your email deliverability rates are improved and the chances of your email making it to recipients’ inboxes are also better.
Here are the Top 10 WP SMTP Plugins for 2020 you should consider
So here is the list of great and recommended top 10 best WP SMTP Plugins for 2020 worth a try. You can easily integrate these plugins with your WordPress website and send emails easily. You can find the features and pricing mentioned in the listing below and better choose the one that suits you best.
Pepipost SMTP
Pepipost is basically a cloud-based SMTP service provider. It is a robust SMTP relay service that lets you send emails without worrying about the email servers. It comes as a simple email delivery service designed for developers. The feature that makes it unique from others is that the Pepipost plugin uses API integration to send outgoing emails from your WordPress installation. It replaces the wp_mail function included with WordPress.
You can send emails via Pepipost in less than a second after just a 5-minute integration. All you need to do is to change your configuration to point to Pepipost’s SMTP servers and add your credentials from Pepipost Account. Its other features include 24X7 developer support and the speed with transparency.
You can check out the plugin details here
WP Email SMTP
WP-Email SMTP plugin is by WPForms, which is on the most reliable plugin for WordPress when it comes to users sending and receiving emails in bulk. This plugin is free to use and supports interactive UI for its users. The plugin connects the users to use services like MailGUN, Amazon SES, Mailget, SendGrid, and many other such services.
This one is the trusted plugin that is used by almost millions of users. The best part about it is its key settings that include authentication, host port, encryption, mailer and much more.
Well to use WP plugin, all you need to do is specify “From name” and “Email address” across all four setup options. The users get 4 different setup options.
If you prefer sending emails in bulk then use any other third-party mail services. It has got over 1 million active installations. Once installed, the plugin allows easy reconfiguration of the wp_mail() function and redirect it to a trusted SMTP provider.
Easy WP SMTP Plugin
Easy WP SMTP Plugin is another kind of free WordPress Plugin that is responsible for managing and executing emails on your WordPress website. This Plugin is completely safe and easy to use. It uses an SMTP server to send mail to recipients.
To execute mails to/from recipients/sender, it works by connecting the website to a special mail server to facilitate the user’s necessary tasks. Moreover, users can also Test and Debug settings by sending Test emails. And to send Test emails, simply add the Test address of the recipient and Test message.
Apart from this, the Easy SMTP Plugin also provides user-controlled settings for its users. Using this, users can have access to change/add From Email Address, From Name, SMTP Host, SMTP port of Execution, Type of Encryption for emails and many other settings.
Mail SMTP Gateway Plugin
The SMTP gateway plugin is a well-defined tool to read or send emails from/to your website directly from the mail server. It is a lightweight and reliable plugin which is an effective plugin as it can alter the inbuilt wp_mail() function and authenticates the outgoing mail.
The emails are handled via SMTP Gateway plugin, for it provides a safe and secure gateway for the outgoing mails. The plugin supports email tools for its users to configure extra settings, such as WordPress SMTP integration and external SMTP mailer integration to access several SMTP service gateways.
It is compatible with almost all browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc. It gets regular updates between intervals for its users.
Gmail SMTP Plugin
The Gmail SMTP email plugin for WordPress is specifically designed to handle emails transferred via Gmail. The plugin comes with TLS/SSL authentication and supports OAuth 2.0 protocol, a security feature of this plugin and provides a secure gateway to the emails.
It also utilizes native technology like WordPress’ default wp_mail() function which gives you benefits of the default mail function. The plugin uses the popular PHPMailer library used for sending emails using PHP’s mail function. One can easily send emails to test the reliability of email and let users use other SMTP servers such as Google, Yahoo and many more.
WP Mail Bank SMTP
WP Mail Bank is built by Tech-Banker, an India based company. It is regularly updated with about 40,000 active installs and good reviews. You get two options for sending emails. One where you can simply use the provided SMTP settings which works similar to WP Mail SMTP while another option is the built-in PHP Mailer.
This plugin offers a premium version as well. Being active on a million websites, WP Mail SMTP is a freemium WordPress SMTP plugin. You can connect to any SMTP server by entering the required details. You can also directly connect to the APIs of some of the popular SMTP services.
The interface is well-designed, and users can test the working by sending test emails and messages. It has got easy to configure general email parameters.
Post SMTP Mailer/Email Log
Post SMTP plugin for WordPress comes with a lot of useful functionalities which makes it one of the most feature-rich plugins in this list. Once you install it, the plugin is capable of replacing the default WordPress SMTP library and PHPMailer with Zend_Mail, so that you are never in a position of losing any mail sent to you.
Apart from that, the plugin also introduces enhanced security features like it supports OAuth 2.0 integration, SMTPS and STARTTLS support. Other distinguishing features of this plugin include a setup wizard to scan your SMTP server, search for firewall blocks, and also fix configurationally mistakes. You even get access to a connectivity tester, built-in Email logs for diagnostics, and much more. It also supports third-party APIs including Gmail, Mandrill, Mailgun, and SendGrid.
SMTP Mailer
SMTP Mailer WordPress plugin is a plugin that helps you in setting up a dedicated mail server. It is capable of handling all the outgoing emails from your website. It supports a dedicated email tester to help you check if everything is configured properly.
You get full control over the wp_mail() function and it even allows you to use SMTP instead. Once you install this plugin and it gets activated on your WordPress website, you get access to rich settings panel that will let you specify the SMTP host, SMTP port, an SMTP username & password, and even choose between TLS and SSL encryptions.
SendinBlue Subscribe Form And WP SMTP
SendinBlue is another free WordPress plugin that serves as an all-in-one email marketing solution. It helps in setting up a custom SMTP on your website. Once you install and activate, the plugin will automatically reconfigure the default wp_mail(). It will add SendinBlue’s own SMTP configurations that improve the email deliverability and also helps with email tracking to know whether or not your emails have reached its target recipient.
The plugin supports all the required features that help you create subscription forms, create and even automate marketing campaigns, gain statistical insights, build and manage contact lists, and much more.
Contact Form & SMTP plugin for WordPress by PirateForms
And now the last in our list is Contact Form Builder and SMTP plugin in one. PirateForms comes with a thorough set of features and functionalities that helps to set up a contact form, integrate reCaptcha to reduce spam, and even integrate SMTP options that can easily make sure whether all the email transactions are properly handled or not.
You can easily integrate a form builder such as Contact Form 7 or any other popular form builder. You can easily customize attributes such as filed labels and messages. It also comes with a reCaptcha option and comes with basic SMTP options. You can check out all of their features on their WordPress plugin page.
Here are 20 other WP SMTP Plugins you might want to check out
- Post-SMTP Mailer/ Email Log
- WP SMTP
- Yandex Mail SMTP Server
- WP Mail Booster
- WP Mail Users
- WP Email Users
- WP Easy SMTP
- Postman SMTP Plugin
- SAR Friendly SMTP
- Sendgrid SMTP
- WP Mail-logging by Mailpoet
- WP SMTP config.
- Sparkpost SMTP
- GD Mail Queue
- Sendpress Newsletters
- wp_mail return_path
- Post Notification by Email
- Mailchimp SMTP
- Send Emails with Mandrill
- WP Mailster
Wrapping Up!
So these were the top 10 picks for the WP SMTP plugin for WordPress for 2020. These plugins are capable of resolving all your e-mailing problems.
Other Related Link
Check whether your emails from your domain are landing in Spam – Email Blacklist Checker Tool