Mandrill (now Mailchimp Transactional Email) mailer plugin review

Introduction

Send Emails with Mandrill by Miller Media is a forked version of the now unsupported wpMandrill plugin, created by Matt Miller. It uses Mandrill (now Mailchimp Transactional Email, MTE) API to send outgoing emails, with or without attachments, from your WordPress installation. This plugin replaces the wp_mail function included with WordPress.

Features and Functionality

The plugin offers the regular feature set of high-end email providers, including subscriber management, email campaign creation, improved deliverability, logging, and reporting.

The plugin offers the following feature set:

• Uses the MTE API to send emails from WordPress installation
• Replaces the wp_mail function included with WordPress
• Tracks and automatically tags emails for statistics within the MTE Dashboard
• Can add general tags to every email sent
• Can use your own templates that have been added to your MailChimp account and shared with your Mandrill account
• Can fine-tune certain emails by creating a filter for the mandrill_payload hook

The plugin offers different levels of integration, from a simple installation and configuration to advanced customization using filters and exposed functions.

All emails are routed through MTE, with a fallback to the native wp_mail() function if sending fails. This means that a second, backup mailer plugin could be installed to handle failures of this plugin.

The plugin also offers useful a debugging feature. If an email cannot be sent via Mandrill, the plugin attempts to log the API response in the server’s log. Additionally, setting the WP_DEBUG constant in the wp-config.php file to ‘true’ enables users to view informative messages from the plugin at key points in the process.

Pricing

Send Emails with Mandrill is available for free on the WordPress plugin directory. There is no paid pro version.

Configuring the plugin

The plugin requires a valid MTE API key and a MailChimp account on a “Standard” Monthly Plan to function. For more about this see our review of the Mailchimp Transactional service below:

Mailchimp Transactional Email (formerly Mandrill) as a WordPress SMTP server

Discover how Mailchimp’s Transactional Mail can power WordPress emails. Read our review.

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To configure the plugin visit Settings > Mandrill. You can enable the connection by entering a valid API key in the settings page or adding the line define('SEWM_API_KEY', '{YOUR_API_KEY}') your site’s wp-config.php file.

Customer support and resources

Support is available through the plugin’s support page on WordPress.org.

The plugin has received positive reviews for its continued support, compatibility with modern PHP, and its ability to solve issues encountered with the original Mandrill plugin.