FluentSMTP
by WPManageNinja
A completely free SMTP plugin with routing rules, logging and support for the major sending APIs.
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What FluentSMTP does
A completely free SMTP plugin with routing rules, logging and support for the major sending APIs.
It sits in the email delivery part of a WordPress stack and is sold by WPManageNinja on a free basis. We recommend it in our email delivery guides because it does that one job well without asking you to rebuild the rest of the site around it.
Every plugin adds work to a page request, so treat this as a decision with a cost. Record a speed test before you install it and run the same test afterwards, on the same page, so you know exactly what it charged you.
Real user ratings
Score
4.8/5
Reviews
404
Active installs
600,000+
Downloads
5.2M
Latest version
2.4.0
Last updated
2026-09-08
These figures come straight from the public WordPress.org plugin directory API for version 2.4.0, not from us. Check them yourself on the WordPress.org listing. Our own editorial score is 4.8/5.
Where FluentSMTP ranks elsewhere
FluentSMTP does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
- Redesigned the whole admin on the shared Fluent design system and rebuilt it on Vue 3, Element Plus and Vite
- Added a dark theme, shared with FluentCart so choosing it in one plugin chooses it in both
- Simplified the navigation to Dashboard, Settings, Email Logs, Alerts and About, with Settings and Alerts rebuilt as at-a-glance lists
- Improved the dashboard with sent, failed, connections and senders at the top, a Recent Activity panel and an Alerts & Notifications summary
- Improved the email log: one-line rows, a toolbar with all filters together, and fixes for the failed-count link, Prev/Next in the viewer, filtering on a later page and pagination on phones
- Fixed Bcc recipients never receiving an email sent over the Outlook / Office 365 connection
- Requires WordPress 6.5 or newer (was 5.5)
- Added an optional Directory (tenant) ID for Outlook / Office 365, for single-tenant Entra app registrations that cannot accept personal Microsoft accounts
- Fixed "Could not instantiate mail function." on the PHP mail() connection when a host or plugin selects its own transport from the phpmailer_init hook
- Fixed mail routed outside FluentSMTP being sent through the site's own SMTP relay when a bulk sending session held a connection open
- Added Cloudflare Email Sending Provider
- Added Recipient Picker and Resend History for Email Logs (props @faisalahammad)
- Added Daily Connection Health Check with dashboard alerts and failure notifications
- Added WP-CLI commands for test email, connection health, stats and log pruning
- Added Amazon SES EU Sovereign Cloud region (Germany, Brandenburg)
- Added send time tracking on every email log
- Added fluent_mail/manage_capability filter to change the required admin capability
- Added inline image embedding for SMTP connections via the wp_mail_embed_args filter
Release notes are the developer's own words, published on WordPress.org. Read the full changelog
Pros and cons
- Logging and multi-provider routing at no cost
- Free with no licence to renew
- Actively maintained and used on production sites we test
- Support is community-led
- Support is community-led rather than guaranteed
How to use it
- 1Choose a sending provider and verify your sending domain.
- 2Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC records at your DNS host.
- 3Connect the plugin with an API key rather than a password where possible.
- 4Send a test email and check the headers for a pass on all three records.
- 5Enable logging so you can prove delivery later.
How it compares
Other email delivery plugins we recommend, with their rating and pricing model.
| Plugin | Our rating | WordPress.org | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FluentSMTP | 4.8 | 4.8 (404) | Free | Logging and multi-provider routing at no cost |
| Easy WP SMTP | 4.5 | 4.6 (707) | Freemium | Fast, minimal setup |
| Gmail SMTP | 4.4 | 4.1 (103) | Free | Free for low-volume Google users |
| Post SMTP | 4.6 | 4.7 (525) | Freemium | Strong logging and failure alerting |
| WP Mail SMTP | 4.8 | 4.8 (5,191) | Freemium | Most provider integrations, clear setup wizard |
Guides that cover FluentSMTP
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