Title: Wonderful SMTP Mailer and Log Author: wonderfulplugins Published: September 10, 2026 Last modified: September 10, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3689488) # Wonderful SMTP Mailer and Log By [wonderfulplugins](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wonderfulplugins/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log.1.0.1.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/) ## Description A small SMTP plugin that does three things and nothing else: it sends your mail over SMTP, it writes down what happened, and it tells a webhook when a message fails. We built it because the SMTP plugin we had relied on for years kept growing. More features, more integrations, more settings — most of which we simply didn’t need. Eventually, that added complexity started causing problems on production sites. Many alternatives had gone the same way: email logs behind paid tiers, API providers, OAuth flows, deliverability dashboards, upgrade banners, and entire mail suites around what should be a simple job. We wanted the opposite: connect to a mail server, send the email, log the result, and stay out of the way. Email is critical infrastructure. Every additional feature is another dependency and another potential failure point — and when mail breaks, customers notice immediately. So we built the slim alternative we wanted ourselves, and we run it in our own production environment and on our client sites. **What it does** * Routes every `wp_mail()` call over your SMTP server — WooCommerce, contact forms, core password resets, all of it, without touching their code. * Host, port, encryption (STARTTLS, SSL/TLS or none), optional authentication. * Sender address and name, with an explicit switch for whether they override a sender another plugin already set. * A **connection check** that logs in to your mail server and hangs up without sending anything — the safe way to find out whether the settings are right. * A test message that shows you the **actual SMTP conversation** — when a server answers “535 5.7.139 Authentication unsuccessful”, you read that line instead of guessing. * A detail view for every logged message: the full server response, the headers, the attachments and the message body as source, so you can see exactly what a resend would deliver. * An email log: date, recipient, subject, status and the server’s response, with its own menu entry rather than another item buried under Settings. * A date range filter, so an entry from six months ago is two clicks away instead of forty pages down. * Full-text search across recipient, subject and message body, scoped to the period you filtered — “find the mail that mentioned invoice 0912”. * Attachments listed on every logged message, downloadable in one click and re- attached automatically when you resend. * **Attachment storage** — the part most email logs leave out. A log that records a filename cannot resend the file, and plenty of plugins delete theirs the moment the message is sent. Switch storage on and a copy is kept for as many days as you choose, in a directory that denies web access, so a message resent three weeks later still carries what it was sent with. Off by default, and every copy is deleted again on schedule. * Delivery counts for the filtered period, next to the all-time totals. * A resend button on every logged message, which asks before it sends and lets you correct the address first — the usual reason to resend is that the original one was mistyped. * A **log-only mode** that records every message and hands none of them to the mail server — the setting a staging site needs so a real customer can never receive anything. * A dashboard as the landing screen: delivery counts for the last seven days, the active delivery mode, and every setting with its current value and where it came from — the database, or a constant your `docker-compose` passed in. * An optional webhook that fires on failure, so Zapier, n8n, Make or your own endpoint can raise an alert. **What it deliberately does not do** No API providers, no OAuth, no fallback connections, no deliverability score, no dashboard widget, no newsletter integration, no pro tier, no advertising for one, and no upsell notices. If you need those, one of the big plugins will serve you better, and that is a fine outcome. **Safety rails** * With no SMTP host configured the plugin stays out of the way entirely and WordPress keeps using PHP `mail()` — installing it cannot take your email down. * **Every** setting can be defined as a constant in `wp-config.php`, following one mechanical rule: the option name in upper case. That keeps credentials out of the database and out of any dump copied to a staging site, and lets a Docker container pass them in as environment variables: * define( ‘WONDERFUL_SMTP_MAILER_AND_LOG_HOST’, getenv( ‘SMTP_HOST’ ) ); define(‘ WONDERFUL_SMTP_MAILER_AND_LOG_PASSWORD’, getenv( ‘SMTP_PASSWORD’ ) ); * A defined constant wins over the settings field, and the field is then shown read-only so the two cannot silently disagree. * No runtime dependencies. The plugin uses the PHPMailer that ships with WordPress itself — there is no vendor directory and nothing to keep patched. * The stored password is never written into the HTML of the settings form. A toggle next to the field fetches it on request, so it stays out of the page source, the browser cache and any screenshot until you deliberately ask. * Log-only mode is announced on every admin screen, not just this plugin’s own. It is a silent state by design — `wp_mail()` keeps reporting success — and the person who needs the warning is the one wondering why a customer never got their confirmation. * Stored attachments are deleted when the plugin is deactivated, not just when it is uninstalled — switching it off should not leave a folder of customer documents on the server. * “Force sender” is off by default, so plugins that set their own sender on purpose keep it. * Resending is a manual button. Nothing retries by itself, so a failing server can never turn into a mail loop. **How it is built** Development is test driven, and the suite covers the behaviour that decides whether your mail actually leaves the building: that an unconfigured plugin keeps its hands off PHPMailer entirely, that “none” really disables TLS instead of quietly upgrading, that a sender another plugin set on purpose survives, that a corrupt delivery-mode value falls back to sending rather than silently swallowing your mail, that log- only mode never once reaches the mailer, that the retention purge deletes what is past the cutoff and nothing else, and that a webhook fires with the failure details but no credentials. Those tests run together with the WordPress coding standards, a PHP 7.4 compatibility lint and WordPress.org’s own Plugin Check every single time, before a release is built at all. An error in any of them stops the release — the pipeline refuses, it is not a checklist someone waves through. The tests themselves stay in the repository and are not part of this download. Nothing ships here that your site does not need at runtime: a small set of PHP classes and four assets, with no vendor directory and no framework. That discipline is also why the feature list is short. Every feature is a promise that has to keep working. ### External services This plugin contacts two kinds of external endpoints, both of which you configure yourself. It has no vendor backend, sends no telemetry, and phones home nowhere. **1. Your SMTP server** The host you enter in the settings receives your outgoing messages: sender, recipients, subject, body, attachments, and — if authentication is enabled — the username and password you configured. This is the entire purpose of the plugin. Which company that server belongs to, and which terms and privacy policy apply, is determined by you when you enter the host name. No connection is made until you configure one. **2. Your failure webhook (optional, off by default)** If, and only if, you fill in the webhook field, a JSON request of the form {“text”:“…”} is sent to that URL whenever a message fails. It contains your site URL, the recipient address, the subject and the error the mail server returned. It contains no message body and no credentials. Nothing is sent while the field is empty. The receiving service is one you choose — Zapier, n8n, Make, Slack or your own endpoint — and its terms and privacy policy apply to what you send it. Message contents and log entries stay in your own database. No data is transmitted to Wonderful Plugins. ## Screenshots [⌊The dashboard: delivery counts, active mode, and every setting with its source.⌉⌊ The dashboard: delivery counts, active mode, and every setting with its source.⌉[ The dashboard: delivery counts, active mode, and every setting with its source. [⌊SMTP settings, with every value optionally pinned from wp-config.php.⌉⌊SMTP settings, with every value optionally pinned from wp-config.php.⌉[ SMTP settings, with every value optionally pinned from wp-config.php. [⌊The testing screen: connection check and test message, both showing the raw SMTP conversation.⌉⌊The testing screen: connection check and test message, both showing the raw SMTP conversation.⌉[ The testing screen: connection check and test message, both showing the raw SMTP conversation. [⌊The email log with delivery counts, the date filter and the resend action.⌉⌊The email log with delivery counts, the date filter and the resend action.⌉[ The email log with delivery counts, the date filter and the resend action. [⌊A logged message opened in place, without leaving the list: the server's response, the headers, the stored attachment and the body a resend would deliver.⌉⌊A logged message opened in place, without leaving the list: the server's response, the headers, the stored attachment and the body a resend would deliver.⌉[ A logged message opened in place, without leaving the list: the server’s response, the headers, the stored attachment and the body a resend would deliver. [⌊A message whose stored attachment has expired, warning before the resend.⌉⌊A message whose stored attachment has expired, warning before the resend.⌉[ A message whose stored attachment has expired, warning before the resend. ## Installation 1. Install and activate the plugin. 2. Go to **SMTP Mailer Settings** in the admin menu. 3. Enter host, port and encryption for your mail server. Port 587 with STARTTLS fits most providers. 4. If your server requires a login, leave authentication enabled and fill in username and password. To keep the password out of the database, define WONDERFUL_SMTP_MAILER_AND_LOG_PASSWORD in `wp-config.php` instead. 5. Set the sender address. Most providers reject a sender that differs from the account you authenticate with. 6. Optionally add a webhook URL for failure alerts. 7. Go to **SMTP Mailer Testing** and run the connection check. If it comes back green, send a test message from the same screen. ## FAQ ### I installed it but configured nothing. Did my email break? No. Without an SMTP host the plugin does not touch outgoing mail at all and WordPress keeps using PHP `mail()` exactly as before. ### What is the difference between the connection check and the test message? The connection check opens a session with your mail server, negotiates encryption, logs in and hangs up. Nothing is sent and nothing is logged, so you can run it as often as you like while you are getting the settings right. The test message actually delivers an email and records it in the log, which also proves that logging works. ### The test message fails. What now? Read the SMTP conversation printed underneath the error. It is the unedited exchange with your mail server, and the reason is almost always in the last few lines — wrong credentials, a blocked port, or a sender your provider will not accept. ### Where are my credentials stored? In the WordPress options table, unless you define them as constants in wp-config. php, which is what we recommend for production. The password is never echoed back into the settings form. ### Can I get an attachment back out of the log? Yes. Open the message and click the attachment. The download only ever serves a file this site itself attached to that logged email — the request names a log entry and a position in its attachment list, never a path — and a resend re-attaches whatever is still on disk. Files deleted since are marked as gone. ### Why would I turn on attachment storage? Because the log records where an attachment _was_, not the file itself. Some plugins keep what they send — the well-known WooCommerce invoice plugins file their PDFs away and can hand them back later. Plenty of others do not: form uploads written to a temporary directory, one-off exports, reports generated for a single send. Those are gone within the hour, and a resend then goes out without them. With storage on, a copy is kept regardless of what the sending plugin does, for as many days as you choose. Copies are off by default because they are customer documents sitting on disk. When you turn them on they go into a directory that denies web access and carries an `index.php`, and each file is stored under a random 32-character name with a neutral `.bin` extension — so nothing there is guessable, and nothing there is something a web server would execute even if the directory protection were bypassed. The original filename lives in the database and is restored on download. Files over 10 MB are never copied. A daily job deletes copies past the period you set. Setting it to 0 keeps a copy for as long as its log entry lives — deleting the entry always takes its copies with it, so a file is never left on disk with no record pointing at it. Deactivating the plugin deletes them all, and uninstalling removes the directory. Once a copy is gone the message shows the attachment struck through as no longer available, and warns you before you resend rather than quietly sending it short. ### Does the log store the message body? Yes — it has to, otherwise the resend button could not work. Log entries live in your own database and are deleted after the retention period you set, 30 days by default. Set it to 0 to keep everything. ### How do I find an old log entry? Open **SMTP Mailer Email Log** and set the two date fields above the table. The counters at the top follow the filter, so you also get the delivery numbers for exactly the period you picked. Entries older than your retention setting are gone for good, so pick that setting with the audit trail you want in mind. ### How do I stop a staging site from mailing real customers? Set **Delivery mode** to “Log only”. Every message is still recorded in full — recipient, subject, headers and body — and none of them reaches the mail server. wp_mail() still reports success, so plugins that check its return value behave normally. Suppressed messages show up in the log as “Not sent” and are not counted as delivered. ### Does anything retry automatically? No. Resending is always a deliberate click. That is intentional: automatic retries against a misconfigured server are how a mail problem becomes a mail flood. ### Will this grow into a pro version later? No. Staying small is the point of the plugin. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Wonderful SMTP Mailer and Log” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ wonderfulplugins ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wonderfulplugins/) [Translate “Wonderful SMTP Mailer and Log” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.1 * Connection test gives up after ten seconds instead of hanging when host, port or encryption are wrong, and says which of them do not match. * The test runs without reloading the screen, so you can see it working. * Resending from the log reloads the table, so the new entry is in it. #### 1.0.0 * Initial release. ## Meta * Version **1.0.1** * Last updated **9 hours ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.2 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.1** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Tags * [email](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/email/)[log](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/log/) [mail](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/mail/)[smtp](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/smtp/) [webhook](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/webhook/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ wonderfulplugins ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/wonderfulplugins/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wonderful-smtp-mailer-and-log/)