Smooth SMTP vs WP Mail Logging

Smooth SMTP gives you full control over how WordPress sends email. Configure SMTP as your primary sending method, set up a fallback for when things go wrong, get notified through your preferred channels, and keep a detailed log of every email your site sends. Primary Sending Method (SMTP) Configure any SMTP provider as your primary sending method. If you leave SMTP disabled, WordPress will continue using its default PHP mail — either way, all other features still work. Works with any SMTP provider: Gmail, SendGrid, Amazon SES, Mailgun, and more Configurable host, port, encryption (SSL/TLS), username, password, from email, and from name Secure credential storage using WordPress’s built-in options API Fallback Sending Method If the primary sending method fails, Smooth SMTP can automatically retry using a fallback. This works regardless of whether you’re using SMTP or WordPress’s default PHP mail as your primary. Fallback to WordPress Default (PHP mail) or a second SMTP server Full credential configuration for the fallback SMTP Logged separately so you can see exactly which method delivered each email Failure Alert Channels Get notified the moment an email fails — through the channels your team already uses. Slack, Discord Telegram (via Bot API — requires bot token and chat ID) WhatsApp (via CallMeBot webhook) SMS or any custom webhook endpoint Add multiple channels, enable/disable each independently Send Test Alert button per channel Alerts are throttled to at most one per 60 seconds to avoid flooding Email Summary Reports Receive a periodic HTML email summarising your site’s email activity. Hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly schedule Total sent and failed counts, breakdown by sending method, and recent failures Configurable recipient address Send Summary Now button for an instant preview Email Logging Every email your site sends is logged with full detail. Status (success / failed), sender, recipients, subject, message body Sent Via column showing which method delivered the email (Primary SMTP, Fallback SMTP, Fallback WordPress Default, etc.) Search, filter, and paginate logs from the admin dashboard View full email detail in a modal Bulk delete, bulk resend, and delete-all options Admin dashboard notice when the most recent email failed Dashboard A at-a-glance overview of your site’s email activity. Total sent, failed, and success rate stat cards Breakdown by sending method with progress bars Recent failures table Filter by day, week, month, or all time Test Email Send a test email at any time to verify your configuration. Choose which sending method to test — primary or fallback — independently Send plain text or HTML test emails Specify any recipient address Always available regardless of whether SMTP is configured Other One-click import of email logs from Post SMTP Option to keep logs and settings when the plugin is deleted Compatible with Post SMTP and WP Mail SMTP (Smooth SMTP acts as a fallback when another SMTP plugin is detected) Privacy Policy This plugin logs email metadata including sender address, recipient addresses, subject line, message body, and sending status. SMTP credentials are stored in your WordPress database. No data is transmitted to external services except through the alert channels and SMTP servers you explicitly configure.

WP Mail Logging is the most popular plugin for logging emails sent from your WordPress site. Simply activate it and it will work immediately, no extra configuration is needed. Are your WordPress emails not being sent or delivered? Use this plugin to log all outgoing emails from your WordPress site. If there are any errors when sending the email from your site, our email logs will catch that error and display it to you. This will allow you to debug and fix your email sending issue. Did a client not receive your email? Our email logs allow you to resend any email that was sent from your site. No more lost emails! Do you just want to keep a record of all emails sent from your site? By default, WordPress and your web host do not log, store or keep track of emails sent from your website. This plugin will allow you to do just that. Our email logs will store every email that is sent from your WordPress site. You can search and view a particular email log, inspect its content or attachments, and even resend that email. What email information is logged? All emails sent from your WordPress site are logged. And here is the information that is stored: Email Subject Email Content (HTML or text) Email Attachments Email Headers (to, from, reply-to, cc, bcc, …) Error Message (in case there was an error while attempting to send the email) IP Address of originating server (can be enabled in the settings) Date and Time of the email Receiver (the TO email address) Why are my logged emails still not delivered to the inbox? There are a lot of steps that emails have to make in order to be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. When your WordPress site sends an email, there’s no guarantee it will be delivered. This is what the email’s journey looks like: WordPress creates an email WordPress passes the email to your website host and that email gets logged by our plugin The host server takes the email and sends it (SMTP or Mail Transfer Agent) Recipient server receives or blocks the email If the email is accepted, the spam filter decides if it goes to the inbox or the spam folder Recipients see the email and might open it. This plugin does not track delivery after step 2. If you have deliverability issues, we suggest installing the WP Mail SMTP plugin. WP Mail SMTP fixes WordPress email deliverability problems, you can choose between 12 email providers (Gmail, Outlook, SendLayer, Mailgun, …) to resolve your email sending issue and it’s super easy to set up. WP Mail SMTP is trusted by more than 3 million websites. Credits The plugin was created and launched in 2014 by Christian Zöller.