SMTP Mailer Review

If you have used WordPress, You might have noticed its email delivery system is yet to advance into a similar level of the web component.

At a glance

  • Active Installations: 0
  • Last Updated: 25 Mar 2023
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WordPress is shipped with PHP mail() by default, which is often troublesome due to various security and compatibility issues with hosting providers. 

Therefore, you will experience email delivery issues if you choose to stick to the default configuration of WordPress. There might be various reasons for this, including but not limited to server configurations, security policies, abuse prevention rules, etc.

The easiest and best solution for this issue will be using a third-party SMTP service. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, which offers a number of extra features that will come in handy when it comes to email delivery. Some of those features are listed below.

  • Easy to connect (You just need SMTP credentials)
  • Higher security
  • Reliability
  • Automatically attempts to re-send any emails on sending failures.
  • Scalability

Alright then, let’s go ahead with SMTP… Yet, how can we use SMTP with WordPress?

Again, very easy. You can choose an SMTP plugin from tons of available plugins in the WordPress plugin repository.

Within this article, let’s focus on the SMTP Mailer plugin developed by Noor Alam at wphowto.net.

Plugin Features

  • Provides an excellent email delivery method via SMTP, regardless of the potential of the server where the website is hosted. Moreover, it outsmarts the restrictions set up by the hosting service provider.
  • It is empowered with widely-used SMTP services from popular Email service providers (Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, Microsoft’s Hotmail, and Live mail, etc.. ) and presents valid credentials/API tokens.
  • Securely deliver email to recipients with support for SSL or TLS encryption with SMTP authentication. 
  • Has the ability to skip using email encryption if needed. (not recommended).
  • Effectively use an email delivery service via SMTP on your website, whether it’s a personal blog, online shop, company website, or an online portfolio, without any issues. Further, there is no fee or any extra configuration required.
  • Option to specify a custom From email address and a From name to be used when an email address/name is not specified (kept empty) in the mail function.
  • Compatible with popular contact form plugins, a number of newsletter plugins, and many more.
  • Simple and easy-to-use interface.
  • Minimalistic design and low disk space requirement. The plugin only comes with necessary files and holds a big difference in this matter compared to some other popular SMTP plugins.
  • Ability to send test emails to any email address you need.
  • Option to bypass SSL certificate verification of your host that was introduced in PHP 5.6. This feature is useful when debugging or trying out in a development server. (It is recommended to disable this feature on production for better security).

SMTP Mailer Pro Features

SMTP Mailer does not offer a pro (paid) version.

Installing and setting up the SMTP Mailer plugin

Similar to any other plugin, SMTP Mailer can also be installed using two methods.

Method 1

Go to Plugins -> Add New in the admin dashboard and search for “SMTP Mailer.” Select the SMTP Mailer plugin from the search results, click on Install Now, and then Activate.

Method 2

Download the plugin as a zip file from https://wordpress.org/plugins/smtp-mailer.  Then, go to Plugins -> Add New in the admin dashboard and click Upload Plugin. Select the downloaded file and install it.

Configure The Plugin

In this article, we’ve used nanoPost’s free SMTP service for demonstration purposes. Any other SMTP service should provide a similar setup process/credentials. If you’re using a different service other than nanoPost, it’s best to check with the relevant service provider for best results. 

After installing and activating the plugin, go to Settings -> SMTP Mailer in the admin dashboard.

SMTP Host: The outgoing mail server used for sending emails. Here it’s smtp.nanopo.st .

SMTP Authentication: Whether to use or skip SMTP authentication. (It is recommended to set it as True.)

SMTP Username: Username credential received from your SMTP service provider. It’s required for authentication.

SMTP Password: Password credential of your SMTP account at your SMTP service provider. It is used to authenticate your requests on their servers.

Type of Encryption : Encryption method to be used when sending emails. Available options are TLS or SSL, or skip encryption. You should refer to the documentation of your SMTP service provider to determine which option will be the best and/or supported by them. TLS is most common and uses port 587, while SSL uses port 465. It’s recommended to use an SMTP service that supports any kind of encryption.

SMTP Port: The port which will be utilized when sending emails. Standard is 587 for TLS encrypted, 465 for SSL encrypted, and port 25 if no encryption is applied.

From Email Address: Here, you can specify an email address to be used when From Email Address value is not set in the email function of a form plugin or email function utilized by any other plugin and/or section.

From Name: Here, you can specify a name value to be used when From Name value is not set in the email function of a form plugin or email function utilized by any other plugin and/or section.

Disable SSL Certificate Verification: You can bypass the SSL certificate verification by enabling this option. It enables you to send emails even when the SSL certificate of your host is absent or not properly configured. However, it’s recommended to disable this option and fix any issues with your SSL certificate if there are any.

Sending a Test Email


You can send a test email to any email address to verify the email delivery is functioning as expected. Please note that you can only use text in the Message box as HTML emails are not yet supported for Test Emails.

Server Info Tab

This section provides a log of server information which is useful for debugging purposes. There are not any settings here.

Reasons to choose SMTP Mailer over other plugins

  • The plugin is available free of charge.
  • All the features are available for free, and there are no “pro” functionalities hidden behind a paywall.
  • The plugin is lightweight, only containing four files. Furthermore, it contains only essential code without any bloated code. Thus it requires a very low disk space while performing the intended job properly.
  • Minimalist, straightforward, and easy configuration setup process. 
  • Compatible with a vast number of contact form plugins, newsletter plugins, and core WordPress/Woocommerce features.

Choosing an SMTP service provider

Selecting the best SMTP service provider would not be an easy task. Among them, choosing what fits best for your requirements would be even harder. 

You can always choose a free SMTP service provider such as Gmail. However, it will have a highly complicated setup process, not to mention its limitations and complicated debugging processes.

A good SMTP service should be easy to set up for anyone with a straightforward process on both the server-side and client-side (in this case, a WordPress SMTP plugin). Moreover, it should be reliable, secure, and compatible with all major email clients while offering satisfactory customer service.

nanoPost meets all these requirements and more.

It offers an extremely simple and straightforward setup process. Quick registration and email verification are all that is needed on the server side. The whole process of configuring nanoPost as an SMTP service provider includes only a handful of details on the SMTP plugin for the client side.

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