FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP vs WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and Email Log Plugin (2026): PluginCheck
Quick Verdict
Pick FluentSMTP if you want a lightweight, free plugin with excellent support responsiveness and minimal bloat. Pick WP Mail SMTP by WPForms if you want the most popular, battle-tested option with deep integrations, email logging, and a proven track record across millions of sites.
Both FluentSMTP and WP Mail SMTP by WPForms solve the same core WordPress problem: getting site emails to actually land in inboxes instead of disappearing into spam folders. The choice between them comes down to whether you want a lean, free, fast-updating tool or a polished, well-supported plugin from a large commercial team. Both support the major transactional email providers including SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, and Postmark, so the functional overlap is substantial.
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP
Free WP Mail SMTP plugin. Fix WordPress email deliverability with Gmail, Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, Brevo or any SMTP.
- Active installs 600k+
- Rating 4.8/5 (404)
- Last updated Sep 8, 2026
- Support resolved 95%
- Tested to WP 7.1
- Requires PHP 7.4
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and Email Log Plugin
Make email delivery easy for WordPress. Connect with SMTP, Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid, Mailgun, SES, Zoho, + more. Rated #1 WordPress SMTP Email plugin.
- Active installs 4M+
- Rating 4.8/5 (5,185)
- Last updated Jun 25, 2026
- Support resolved 87%
- Tested to WP 7.0.4
- Requires PHP 7.4
Where FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP Wins
Support Responsiveness
FluentSMTP resolves 95.5% of support threads, beating WP Mail SMTP's 87.0% by over 8 percentage points despite serving 6x fewer users. For users who prioritize getting help quickly, this gap matters.
Freshness
FluentSMTP was updated on 2026-09-08, roughly 10 weeks after WP Mail SMTP's last update on 2026-06-25. For users who care about the most current provider compatibility, that recent activity is a plus.
Lean and Free
FluentSMTP ships with no upsells, pro tier, or cross-promotion of a larger product suite. It does one job well and stays out of your admin dashboard.
Where WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and Email Log Plugin Wins
Scale and Adoption
WP Mail SMTP sits on 4,000,000 active installs versus FluentSMTP's 600,000, a 6.7x difference. That breadth of use means more community-tested compatibility with hosting environments, themes, and edge cases.
Rating Volume
WP Mail SMTP has 5,185 ratings versus FluentSMTP's 404, giving its 96/100 score far more statistical weight. If you care about a rating that reflects thousands of real user experiences, WP Mail SMTP wins on sample size.
Feature Depth
WP Mail SMTP bundles email logging and integrates with Outlook, Zoho, and the broader WPForms ecosystem out of the box. For users who want a one-stop SMTP plus email log solution from a known vendor, it delivers more in a single package.
Score-by-Score Comparison
WP Mail SMTP scores 99/30 on popularity versus FluentSMTP's 86/30, reflecting its 4,000,000 active installs and 5,185 ratings. WP Mail SMTP is the clear winner on raw adoption.
Both plugins tie at 100/25 on maintenance, indicating both teams keep their code current and respond to WordPress core changes. There is no maintenance gap between them.
Both plugins score 96/15 on ratings, so the user satisfaction signal is identical on paper. The difference is that WP Mail SMTP's score rests on 5,185 reviews while FluentSMTP's rests on 404.
FluentSMTP scores 95/15 on support versus WP Mail SMTP's 87/15, driven by a 95.5% resolution rate compared to 87.0%. FluentSMTP has the edge here, though WP Mail SMTP's support team handles a much larger volume.
Both plugins score 100/15 on compatibility, tied at the top mark. Both work across current WordPress versions and major page builders and form plugins.
The Bottom Line
On the PluginCheck quality score, WP Mail SMTP edges ahead at 97.01 versus 94.59, driven mostly by its dominant install base. For the most common use case, a site owner who wants a proven SMTP plugin with email logging, broad provider support, and a massive user community to fall back on, WP Mail SMTP by WPForms is the safer pick. FluentSMTP is the better choice for users who specifically value faster, higher-resolution support, a cleaner admin experience, and a plugin free of cross-promotion. If your site is small to mid-sized and you want a no-frills mailer, FluentSMTP is excellent; for everything else, WP Mail SMTP's depth and scale win.