Pinny’s Simple SMTP – Lightweight SMTP Mailer vs WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and

Pinny’s Simple SMTP is a ultra lightweight SMTP plugin weighing in at just 4KB. It’s simple to use, highly secure, and includes all the basic features you need to send emails reliably. 🚀 Super Easy 30-Second Configuration Tired of bloated setup wizards, “Connect Account” popups, and endless menus? Pinny’s Simple SMTP is designed to be invisible. We removed the fluff so you can get back to work. 1. Enter your Host & Port. 2. Enter your Login. 3. Click Save. That’s it. You are done. There is no complex UI to learn. No dashboards to manage. It is a true “Set and Forget” solution that just works. Unlike most SMTP plugins (which are typically 2MB+ in size), Pinny’s Simple SMTP is ultra-lightweight, easy to set up, and never compromises on security. We ensure your sensitive credentials are always protected with automatic encryption—no more storing passwords in plain text. This plugin is different. It’s smaller than a favicon, works with any mail provider, and takes just seconds to set up. Features: Ultra Lightweight (4KB): This is the a ultra lightweight SMTP plugin. It has zero impact on your site speed. Encrypted Security: We take security seriously. Your SMTP password is encrypted in the database using native WordPress salts. We never store credentials in plain text. Dead Easy Setup: No confusing wizards or tutorials needed. Just enter your Host, Port, and Login, then click Save. All Basic Features: Supports TLS/SSL, custom ports, “From” email/name overrides, and includes a 1-Click Test Email tool. Zero Bloat: No ads, no dashboard widgets, no usage tracking, and no upsells. wp-config Configuration Mode: For added security, define SMTP settings in wp-config.php and lock the admin UI. ⚙️ Advanced: Configure SMTP via wp-config.php Pinny’s Simple SMTP supports configuration directly from wp-config.php, allowing administrators and developers to lock SMTP settings and prevent changes from the WordPress dashboard. When enabled, the plugin automatically switches the admin interface to read-only mode. To enable this mode, add the following constants to your wp-config.php file define('PINNYS_SMTP_FORCE', true); define('PINNYS_SMTP_ENABLED', true); define('PINNYS_SMTP_HOST', 'smtp.gmail.com'); define('PINNYS_SMTP_PORT', 587); define('PINNYS_SMTP_ENCRYPTION', 'tls'); define('PINNYS_SMTP_AUTH', true); define('PINNYS_SMTP_USERNAME', '[email protected]'); define('PINNYS_SMTP_PASSWORD', 'your_app_password'); define('PINNYS_SMTP_FROM_EMAIL', '[email protected]'); define('PINNYS_SMTP_FROM_NAME', 'Your Website'); Once PINNYS_SMTP_FORCE is enabled: SMTP settings are loaded from wp-config.php The WordPress settings page becomes read-only Dashboard changes cannot override your configuration Note: If PINNYS_SMTP_FORCE is not defined, the plugin behaves normally and settings can be configured from the WordPress dashboard. 🛡️ The “Zero-Retention” Security Promise Pinny’s Simple SMTP is built on a strict security philosophy: WordPress is a CMS, not an Email Archive. Most SMTP plugins log every email sent from your site into your WordPress database. While this seems convenient, it introduces massive security risks, database bloat, and privacy violations. We feature a Zero-Retention Architecture. We connect, deliver, and vanish. Here is why this is safer for you: 1. The Security Risk (Why we don’t log) Storing email logs in your database creates a high-value target for hackers. The “Big Hack” Reality: In 2024 and 2025, major SMTP plugins (such as Post SMTP) suffered critical vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-6875 and CVE-2025-11833). Hackers were able to bypass authentication, trigger password reset emails, read the plugin’s email logs to capture the reset link, and take over the entire website. Our Fix: You cannot steal what isn’t there. By not logging emails, Pinny’s Simple SMTP renders this entire class of “Account Takeover” attacks impossible. 2. The Database & Privacy Problem Bloat: Transactional logs grow indefinitely. A busy store sends thousands of emails a month. Storing these in wp_options or custom tables slows down your site and bloats your backups. GDPR & Privacy: Your database should not permanently store customer PII (Personally Identifiable Information) like password reset links, purchase receipts, or private contact form messages. If your site is compromised, those logs are a leak waiting to happen. 3. The Right Way to Log If you need to track email delivery, do it where it belongs: At your Email Provider. Gmail / Google Workspace: Has a “Sent” folder and comprehensive audit logs. SendGrid / Mailgun / SES: These services are built to archive millions of emails securely, with proper rotation policies and access controls. Microsoft / Outlook: Native “Sent Items” retention. Pinny’s Simple SMTP keeps your WordPress database clean, fast, and secure by letting your email provider do its job. 🚫 The “Anti-Bloat” Architecture: Why We Rejected OAuth Pinny’s Simple SMTP is built on a strict performance philosophy: Do not load code you do not use. The industry standard is to force users into OAuth (Log in with Google/Microsoft). While this looks fancy, for a WordPress plugin, it is technically inferior to standard SMTP. Here is why we deliberately stripped OAuth out of Pinny’s: 1. The “Universal Adapter” Trap (Bloat) Most users connect to one provider (e.g., just Gmail). However, to support OAuth, other plugins must bundle massive SDK libraries for 10–15 different services (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, Zoho, etc.). The Result: You install megabytes of vendor code just to send a simple email. Our Fix: Pinny’s uses standard SMTP. We don’t force you to host 14 unused API libraries on your server just to use the 15th. This keeps our codebase at ~4KB. 2. The Complexity Risk (Security) In security, Complexity is the Enemy. OAuth flows require redirects, token storage, refresh tokens, and constant API updates. Every external library added to a plugin increases the “Attack Surface”—more code means more places for bugs to hide. The Reality: If a plugin’s bundled “Google API Client” has a vulnerability, your site is at risk—even if you are using Outlook. Our Fix: We use native WordPress functions. No external dependencies. No third-party SDKs. No supply-chain vulnerabilities. 3. The Reality of “Shared OAuth Infrastructure” Many plugins advertise “one-click OAuth login” for Gmail or Microsoft 365. To provide this convenience without requiring users to create their own developer credentials, these plugins typically authenticate through a shared OAuth application (Client ID and Secret) owned by the plugin developer. This creates several potential risks including: Shared API rate limits OAuth quotas apply to the shared application, not your individual site. Abuse impact If other sites using the same OAuth application send spam or violate provider policies, the provider may restrict or flag the application, potentially affecting all connected users. Application suspension When the shared OAuth application is disabled or restricted by the provider, authentication will fail for every site using it. Developer infrastructure dependency Some plugins route OAuth authentication through servers operated by the plugin developer. If that infrastructure experiences downtime, users may be unable to connect accounts or refresh authentication tokens. Maintenance risk OAuth integrations require ongoing API updates. If a plugin is abandoned and the OAuth application is not maintained, authentication may eventually stop working. Pinny’s Simple SMTP avoids these dependencies entirely by using direct SMTP authentication, allowing your site to communicate directly with your mail server without shared OAuth infrastructure. 4. App Passwords: The Superior Choice We use App Passwords (Standard SMTP Authentication). This is the secure, recommended method for server-side mailing (Gmail/Workspace & Microsoft 365). Strictly Scoped: An App Password usually only has permission to send mail. Unlike an OAuth token (which can sometimes be scoped too broadly), an App Password cannot be used to change your account settings or read your Drive files. Instantly Revocable: If you suspect a breach, you can revoke that specific App Password instantly from your Google/Microsoft dashboard without changing your main login credentials. Zero Downtime: OAuth tokens expire or disconnect if the API changes. App Passwords work until you say stop. Pinny’s Simple SMTP chooses stability over shiny buttons. Enter your Host, Port, and App Password → Save. Done.

WordPress Mail SMTP Plugin Is your WordPress site not sending emails? You’re not alone. 4+ million websites use WP Mail SMTP to send emails reliably. Our goal is to make email deliverability easy so that your emails always reach the inbox. WP Mail SMTP fixes your email deliverability issues by reconfiguring WordPress to use a proper SMTP provider when sending emails. Best of all, our easy-to-use Setup Wizard and detailed documentation guide you through the process. WP Mail SMTP is free and has everything you need to reliably send your WordPress emails! WP Mail SMTP Pro unlocks even more powerful features like email logging, advanced email reporting and stats, backup connections, email alerts, smart conditional routing, and much more. What is SMTP? SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is an industry-standard for sending emails. Proper SMTP configuration helps increase email deliverability by adding authentication to the emails sent from your site. Popular email clients like Gmail, Yahoo, Office 365, and Zoho are in a constant battle with email spammers, so they check whether emails are originating from a genuine sender. If the proper authentication isn’t there, emails either go in the SPAM folder or, worse, disappear. This is a problem for a lot of WordPress sites. By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to send emails generated by WordPress or any contact form plugin like WPForms. But most WordPress hosting companies don’t have their servers properly configured for sending PHP emails. This is why WordPress emails aren’t delivered. How does WP Mail SMTP work? WP Mail SMTP plugin easily resolves email delivery problems by changing the way your WordPress site sends email. We reconfigure the wp_mail() function to use proper SMTP host credentials or an SMTP mail provider. With our built-in SMTP mail provider integrations (recommended), emails are sent using the provider’s direct API. Even if your web host is blocking SMTP ports, your emails will still be sent successfully. This helps you fix all WordPress not sending email issues. WP Mail SMTP plugin includes many different SMTP mailers: SendLayer (#1 Recommended) SMTP.com (Recommended) Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) SMTP (Recommended) Gmail SMTP (Gmail, Google Workspace, G Suite) Elastic Email Mailgun SMTP Mailjet SMTP SendGrid SMTP Postmark SMTP SparkPost SMTP SMTP2GO Microsoft SMTP One-Click Setup (Outlook.com and Office 365) [Pro] Amazon SES SMTP [Pro] Zoho Mail SMTP [Pro] Other SMTP For most options, you can specify the “from name” and “email address” for outgoing emails too. All of these powerful features make WP Mail SMTP the best SMTP solution for WordPress. If you don’t know which mailer to choose, see our Complete Guide to WP Mail SMTP Mailers. SendLayer SendLayer is our #1 recommended transactional email service. Its affordable pricing and simple setup make it the perfect choice for sending emails from WordPress. It also has open and click tracking and email logs. SendLayer is reliable, fast, and easy to set up. You can send hundreds of emails for free when you sign up for a trial. Read our SendLayer documentation for more details. SMTP.COM SMTP.com is a recommended transactional email service. With over 22 years of email delivery expertise, SMTP.com has a reputation for being one of the most reliable senders on the internet. You can start sending emails in minutes and benefit from 50,000 free emails in your first 30 days. Read our SMTP.com documentation for more details. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) SMTP Brevo is a recommended transactional email service. It serves 80,000+ companies worldwide. Brevo is reliable, fast, and gives you 300 free emails per day. Read our Brevo documentation for more details. WP Mail SMTP PRO In addition to native Microsoft, Amazon SES, and Zoho Mail integrations, WP Mail SMTP Pro provides access to many other powerful features. Click here to purchase WP Mail SMTP Pro now! Email Log Email logging is a powerful feature that keeps a record of all sent emails in WordPress. Email logging helps you to archive, audit, resend, or test email delivery and formatting. Our WordPress email logs also include: Email Log Details Our email logs provide a complete history of all emails sent from WordPress. View the subject, sender, recipients, content, headers, open and click rates, delivery status, source plugin, and more! Resend Emails Resend emails individually or in bulk, whether they failed or were delivered successfully. You can also forward important emails to an alternative email address. And many more Email Log Features Store all email attachments, export email logs, print emails, see delivery status, and more. Email Reports Review weekly sent and failed emails in a dashboard chart. Email reports make it easy to track deliverability and engagement. Open rates and click-through rates are grouped by subject line, making it easy to see the performance of your campaigns or notifications. Weekly Email Summary Get statistics about WordPress emails, including how many emails are being sent and which ones are being opened and clicked. The Summary also shows you deliverability statistics without the need to log in to WordPress to check them. Track Email Opens and Clicks View open and click stats for WordPress emails, grouped by subject line in your Email Report. Email Alerts If your emails stop sending, get notified instantly via Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, SMS/ Twilio, webhooks, or email (via secure API). In combination with our email logging and resending features, Email Alerts ensure that no important email will ever be lost. Backup Connection Configure an extra connection that kicks in if your primary connection fails. WP Mail SMTP automatically detects connection issues and automatically switches to the backup mailer. It will also automatically retry emails that failed. Smart Conditional Routing Create criteria to send different types of emails using different mailers. Filter by the contents of the email Subject or Message, From or To addresses, the plugin that generated the email, and more. This allows you to mix transactional and marketing providers to improve deliverability. Rate Limiting Control the number of emails your WordPress site sends in a specific amount of time so you stay within your SMTP provider’s rate limits. WP Mail SMTP allows you to specify the maximum number of emails that will be sent every minute, hour, day, week, or month and automatically queues emails to stay within those limits. Optimized Email Sending Are emails slowing down your site? Let WP Mail SMTP queue your emails for better performance. With optimized sending, emails are queued in the background and sent when your server has sufficient resources, avoiding bottlenecks that can slow down your site. Manage WordPress Emails and Notifications Control the default notifications WordPress sends. Use a simple switch to disable specific types of notifications if you don’t want to receive them. WordPress Multisite WordPress Multisite Network Settings For users running a multisite network, save time with a centralized location to easily configure your SMTP settings for all sites. Manage Multisite Email Logs Easily Network Admins can view and manage email logs for subsites with easy switching and dashboard views. Expert Support We provide limited support on the WordPress.org forums. World-class one-on-one email support is available to WP Mail SMTP Pro users. White Glove Setup If you’re not sure how to fix your emails, sit back and relax. We’ll set up WP Mail SMTP for you! White Glove Setup includes installation, configuration in WordPress, DNS configuration, full mailer setup, and testing. White Glove Setup is available for our recommended mailers: SendLayer, Brevo, and SMTP.com. Credits WP Mail SMTP plugin was originally created by Callum Macdonald. It is now owned and maintained by the team behind WPForms – the best drag & drop form builder for WordPress. You can try the free version of WPForms plugin to see why it’s the best in the market.