When WordPress emails start going missing, an email log is the first place to look. It records every message your site tries to send and what happened when it tried, and it turns “the form isn’t emailing me” into a bug you can debug instead of a mystery.
Five plugins answer this need, and the right one depends on whether the site already runs a mailer that logs and on how much operator effort belongs on the log side versus the sending side. This roundup covers the two standalone loggers that record every send regardless of which mailer is configured (Check & Log Email, Log Emails), the two free mailers whose logging is bundled (FluentSMTP, Post SMTP), and the Pro tier of WP Mail SMTP for sites that want the Awesome Motive setup wizard and support contract alongside a logger. For the mailer side of the same choice, see the WordPress SMTP plugin roundup.
The verdict
For a WordPress site running a free mailer that does not include logging, the answer is Check & Log Email. It hooks wp_mail before the mailer takes over, so it records every send regardless of which mailer (or none) is configured. The free version covers logging, test send, sender overrides, resend from log, and configurable purge. That is the feature set WP Mail SMTP Pro charges $99 a year for, in a free plugin at 100,000+ installs.
For a site choosing a mailer from scratch that wants logging built in, FluentSMTP is the pick. WPManageNinja’s free plugin includes 10 provider APIs and OAuth flows alongside logging, fallback connections, per-address routing, and failure alerts to Slack, Discord, Telegram, and email. There is no Pro tier.
For sites that want push-to-phone alerts on failed sends alongside logging, Post SMTP is the pick. WPExperts’ free plugin logs sends the same as FluentSMTP does, and adds mobile app push notifications, Chrome extension alerts, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Twilio SMS, and webhooks, all in the free version.
For sites configuring their first mailer with a guided wizard, and prepared to pay for logging, WP Mail SMTP Pro is the pick. The setup wizard walks through mailer selection, credential entry, and a test send in a way no other plugin in the category matches. Logging is a Pro-tier feature at $99 a year on renewal.
Log Emails is the fifth pick, for a specific case: WordPress development and staging environments paired with WebAware’s Disable Emails, and production sites that need the leanest possible logger and no other capabilities.
How we read the field
Every plugin below was installed on a WordPress test site. A test email went through the configured mailer, and the resulting log entry was examined for what it captured and what it dropped. Version numbers, prices, and feature gates were verified against the plugins’ wordpress.org listings and vendor pricing pages on the dates recorded on each plugin’s review page. Current versions: Check & Log Email 2.0.15 (tested 2026-08-11), Log Emails 1.6.0 (tested 2026-08-11), WP Mail SMTP 4.9.0 (tested 2026-08-11), FluentSMTP 2.4.0 (tested 2026-09-09), Post SMTP 4.0.1 (tested 2026-09-08).
The distinction that structures the whole comparison is the hook point. A logger can attach to wp_mail (the function every WordPress plugin calls to send email), to phpmailer_init (the action that fires as PHPMailer is being built), or to a mailer’s own send routine. Plugins that hook wp_mail see every send that goes through core. Plugins that hook phpmailer_init see every send that reaches PHPMailer, but miss sends that short-circuit through pre_wp_mail (the WordPress 5.7 filter that provider-API mailers use to bypass PHPMailer entirely). Plugins bundled with a mailer see everything that mailer sends and nothing else.
Where a plugin’s coverage has holes, we say so. The categories are not “features” and “no features”: they are “captures every send”, “captures every SMTP send but not provider-API sends”, and “captures every send that goes through this specific mailer”.
Check & Log Email
Check & Log Email, by Magazine3, hooks wp_mail rather than replacing it, which is what lets it sit underneath any mailer plugin and record every outbound message without touching the sending path. The wp.org listing shows 100,000+ active installs at a 4.8 rating across 289 reviews. Current version 2.0.15 (July 2026), tested against WordPress 7.0.
The free plugin captures recipient, subject, headers (From, Reply-To, CC, BCC), message body, wp_mail return status, timestamp, and attachment filenames (contents are not stored). The admin table filters by date range, recipient, subject, and status. Individual entries open into a detail view with the full headers and body, and the plugin includes a resend action that lets you edit and replay a logged message. Resend is the feature that earns the install: WP Mail SMTP Pro charges $99 a year for it and Check & Log Email gives it away.
Because the plugin hooks wp_mail (not phpmailer_init), it captures provider-API sends the same as SMTP sends. FluentSMTP’s Amazon SES connection, WP Mail SMTP’s Postmark and SendGrid connections, and every other provider-API path in the ecosystem all call wp_mail first; Check & Log Email’s hook fires before the mailer takes over.
Retention is configurable by age, with manual bulk delete from the table view and an “on uninstall” option to clear logs. The default is no purge, so a busy site should set one during install: the log table grows one row per outbound email.
Pro tier at $49/year for one site (scaling to $199/year for unlimited or $499 lifetime) adds a “Triggered Data” debugger that inspects the internal state of hooks and filters when an email fires, plus priority support. For most sites the free tier is the right answer; the Pro debugger earns its price on sites where an email is failing for reasons a simple log will not explain.
FluentSMTP
FluentSMTP, by WPManageNinja, is the free WordPress mailer that ships with the paid-tier feature set of its largest competitor. The wp.org listing reports 600,000+ active installs at a 4.8 rating. Current version 2.4.0 (September 2026), tested against WordPress 7.1.
Logging is one line in a longer feature list. The free plugin also includes 10 provider APIs (Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Brevo, SparkPost, SMTP2GO, Elastic Email, Zoho ZeptoMail, Pepipost), Gmail and Microsoft 365 OAuth, multiple connections with per-address routing, a fallback connection, and failure notifications to Slack, Discord, Telegram, and email. There is no Pro tier.
The log captures every send that goes through the plugin: recipient, subject, status, timestamp. Failed sends can be resent from the log. Two features Check & Log Email does not have: routing (send transactional mail through one connection and marketing mail through another, decided by from-address) and multi-channel failure alerts. Two Check & Log Email features FluentSMTP does not have: hooking wp_mail from outside the mailer (FluentSMTP is the mailer), and standalone-logger positioning (FluentSMTP replaces core’s send path, which is not the right answer if a working mailer is already configured).
FluentSMTP is the right pick when a mailer is being chosen anyway. It is the wrong pick when the site already has a working mailer and only needs a log; that is Check & Log Email’s territory.
Post SMTP
Post SMTP, by WPExperts, is a full WordPress mailer whose distinguishing move is what happens after a send fails. The wp.org listing reports 300,000+ active installs at a 4.7 rating across 525 reviews. Current version 4.0.1 (August 2026), tested against WordPress 7.0.4.
The free plugin includes 14+ provider APIs, Gmail and Microsoft 365 OAuth, a backup SMTP connection, SPF/DKIM/DMARC diagnostic checks, and email logging with search across recipient, subject, status, and timestamp. When a send fails, Post SMTP can push the alert to a mobile app (free iOS and Android), a Chrome extension, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Twilio SMS, or arbitrary webhooks. None of the direct competitors cover that breadth of failure channels in a free plugin.
Operators monitoring a site at 11pm get a push notification on a phone they were already going to look at, instead of an email in an inbox they were not. Live email log and error details are on the free app; one-tap resend from the phone, and pairing more than one site to a single device, are Pro features (Pro from $59.99/year).
Post SMTP is the right pick when failed-send alerts need channels beyond email. Slack alone puts you in FluentSMTP’s territory; push-to-phone is what Post SMTP owns.
WP Mail SMTP Pro
WP Mail SMTP, by WPForms LLC (Awesome Motive), is the most-installed WordPress mailer plugin at 4M+ active installs. Its Pro tier is where logging lives, and the reason to buy Pro is more than logging itself. Current version 4.9.0, tested 2026-08-11 against WordPress 7.0.
The free version does not log. Every advanced feature (logging, backup connections, smart routing, weekly summaries) is gated behind Pro at $99 a year on renewal ($49 introductory first year). Elite at $149/year on renewal is single-site as of the 2026 restructure.
The reason to pay for Pro rather than run FluentSMTP or Post SMTP for free is the setup wizard, the Awesome Motive support SLA, and the largest free mailer catalogue in the category (15 native mailer integrations including SendLayer, Mailjet, Resend, Mailchimp Transactional/Mandrill, and MailerSend). Sites deploying their first mailer on a fresh install often find the wizard and the WP Mail SMTP knowledge base the fastest path to a working configuration. If the same operator also wants logging, it is a $99/year decision.
For sites already running WP Mail SMTP free and unwilling to pay for Pro, running Check & Log Email alongside it captures logging at no cost. The two plugins do not conflict: Check & Log Email hooks wp_mail before WP Mail SMTP takes over the send, and captures the message the same way it would capture any other wp_mail call.
Log Emails
Log Emails, by WebAware, is a two-file logger. A custom post type stores the entries, and a phpmailer_init hook captures the sends. That is essentially the whole design. The wp.org listing reports 6,000+ active installs at a 5.0 rating across 11 reviews. Current version 1.6.0 (May 2026), tested against WordPress 7.0.
The plugin records log entries as posts in a private custom post type (log_emails_log). Each entry stores the subject, body, From, To, CC, BCC, Reply-To, Content-Type, and alt-text body. There is no resend action, no test-send tool, and no sender override; this is a logger, not a mailer-adjacent utility. Password-containing lines are redacted before the log is written; the redaction is a line-level substring match, so any line containing “password” is replaced entirely, not just the credential.
The hook point matters here. Log Emails captures at phpmailer_init, not at wp_mail. That means it captures every SMTP-mode send but misses provider-API sends that short-circuit through pre_wp_mail. In practice: Log Emails is the right pick for a development environment paired with WebAware’s Disable Emails, where nothing is actually leaving the server and phpmailer_init fires normally. On production sites running a provider-API mailer (SES-native FluentSMTP, WP Mail SMTP’s Postmark or SendGrid mode, and similar), Check & Log Email is the better fit because it hooks wp_mail (which every mailer calls) rather than phpmailer_init (which API-mode mailers skip).
Retention is configurable in days; 0 disables purge entirely, and uninstall hard-deletes every log. Storage cost is one wp_insert_post() call per outbound email; a busy site sees this as noticeable growth in wp_posts row counts, invisible in real-world performance.
Considered but not covered here
Three plugins appear in competitor roundups but are not among the recommendations above:
- Email Log (originally by Sudar Muthu, taken over by WebFactory in September 2025, wp.org slug
email-log) is a long-standing logger with 80,000+ installs. It sits close to Check & Log Email in scope, but the last release under either owner is older than Check & Log Email’s monthly cadence. If a reader already has it installed and it works, there is no reason to migrate; for a fresh install, Check & Log Email covers the same job with a more current codebase. - WP Mail Logging (by MailPoet, wp.org slug
wp-mail-logging) overlaps Check & Log Email heavily in day-to-day operation. We default to Check & Log Email because the plugin is standalone (no MailPoet product dependency) and because the resend-from-log action is more polished. - WP Mail Log (wp.org slug
wp-mail-log) is a smaller-footprint alternative with 10,000+ installs. It works, but Log Emails covers the same “leanest possible logger” niche with a longer track record and the WebAware pairing with Disable Emails.
For each of these, we have not run the same hands-on test send that the five recommended plugins received.
Comparison at a glance
| Plugin | Free logging | Hook point | Resend from log | Test send | Retention control | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Check & Log Email | Yes | wp_mail |
Yes | Yes | Age-based purge | Free (Pro from $49/year) |
| FluentSMTP | Yes | Plugin (mailer) | Yes | Yes | Configurable | Free |
| Post SMTP | Yes | Plugin (mailer) | Yes | Yes | Configurable | Free (Pro from $59.99/year) |
| WP Mail SMTP | No (Pro only) | Plugin (mailer) | Pro | Yes | Pro-tier setting | $99/year on renewal |
| Log Emails | Yes | phpmailer_init |
No | No | Age-based purge | Free |
Which one to install
If a mailer is already configured and working, add Check & Log Email and change nothing else. If a mailer is being chosen from scratch and logging is part of the requirement, FluentSMTP covers the whole job in one plugin. If failed-send alerts on Slack or a phone matter more than routing, Post SMTP. If the setup wizard and Awesome Motive support are worth $99 a year, WP Mail SMTP Pro. If the site is a development environment paired with Disable Emails, Log Emails.
For the mailer side of the same choice, see the WordPress SMTP plugin roundup. For SES-specific integrations, see the Amazon SES plugin roundup. For the sending relay itself, the SMTP email services index lists every provider we cover.