If you run a WordPress site, you need your emails to work. 

No excuses, no failures. 

Whether it’s contact form submissions, eCommerce order confirmations, password resets, or simple notifications—email is the backbone of your website’s communication. 

But here’s the reality: WordPress, by default, is bad at sending emails. 

That’s why SMTP plugins exist.

There are two big players in this space: FluentSMTP, and WP Mail SMTP. Each plugin claims to be the best. 

But which one is right for you?

I’ll take you through our journey—what we used in the past, where we hit roadblocks, and why we eventually built SureMail, a free and bulletproof email delivery plugin. 

I’ll also share the thought process and philosophy behind SureMail, because the why behind a product is often more important than the what.

WP Mail SMTP: The Old Guard That Lost Its Way

What It Was

WP Mail SMTP was one of the first major plugins that solved the problem of WordPress emails not being delivered. It was good. Simple, effective, did the job. If you were running a WordPress site 10 years ago, you probably used it.

What Happened?

Then in 2017, it got acquired. And things changed.

Upsells, cross-promotions, paywalls. 

The plugin shifted from being a simple tool to an aggressive marketing machine. Suddenly, basic features that should be free were locked behind a paywall. Every other update came with a nudge to buy something. If you needed serious email functionality, you had to pay up.

The focus wasn’t on building the best SMTP plugin anymore. It was about maximizing profits.

Our Take

We used WP Mail SMTP until it became clear that it wasn’t built for users anymore—its purpose was now sales and cross promotions.

That’s when we started looking elsewhere.

FluentSMTP: A Refreshing Alternative (With Some Gotchas)

Then came FluentSMTP in 2021. 

And it was a breath of fresh air. A clean and free SMTP plugin. It connected with major email providers like Mailgun, SendGrid, and Amazon SES. It had logs, and a nice UI.

For a while, it was our go-to.

The Problems We Faced

But as we scaled, bottlenecks started to appear.

1. Why different email addresses for different SMTP providers?

We didn’t understand why FluentSMTP forced us to use a different “from” email when connecting multiple SMTP providers. What if our primary SMTP went down? We wanted a seamless failover without changing the sender email for our workflows.

2. No retry for failed emails.

If an email failed, we had to manually resend it from the logs. That’s just not practical when you’re handling hundreds of emails.

3. No built-in protection mechanisms.

We ran into a reputation issue with SMTP providers due to spam comments and contact form submissions that were submitted by visitors with questionable content and links which you have no control over. Our SMTP account even got suspended at one point. There are no safeguards in FluentSMTP to protect our sender reputation.

Our Take

FluentSMTP was decent—but we started hitting roadblocks. 

It lacked critical features for reliability and protection. It required setting up different email addresses for different SMTP providers, which didn’t make sense to us and disrupted our workflow.

And that’s why we built SureMail.

SureMail: The SMTP Plugin Built for Reliability

We built SureMail because email sending should never fail. Not just for our sites, but for the thousands of users relying on our other products (Astra, Spectra, SureForms, etc.). We didn’t just want another SMTP plugin. We wanted something that would be:

✅ 100% Free—because every WordPress site needs reliable emails.
✅ Bulletproof—so emails get delivered, no matter what.
✅ Feature-rich—so users never have to worry about email failures again.

What Makes SureMail Different?

Here’s where SureMail stands out:

1. Auto-Retry for Failed Emails

Most SMTP plugins do nothing if an email fails. SureMail automatically retries sending failed emails in the background. No manual intervention needed.

2. Reputation Shield: Protect Your Sending Reputation

If you send emails that get flagged (spam, bounces, etc.), SMTP providers will suspend your account. SureMail’s Reputation Shield feature monitors this and prevents bad emails from being sent in the first place.

3. Multiple SMTP Connections with the Same “From” Email

Unlike other plugins, SureMail lets you set up multiple backup SMTP connections without changing your sender email. If your primary SMTP fails, SureMail seamlessly switches to a secondary provider.

4. Complete Email Logs

Every email you send is logged and tracked. You can see failures, retry emails, and debug issues without any guesswork.

5. Beautiful, Intuitive UI

We built SureMail with design-first principles. Most SMTP plugins feel clunky. SureMail is modern, clean, and easy to use.

6. Works with All Major SMTP Providers

SureMail connects with Mailgun, SendGrid, Amazon SES, Postmark, SMTP2GO, and more.

7. Alerts When Email Sending Fails

If emails aren’t going out, you’ll know immediately via SureTriggers. SureMail notifies you before small issues become big problems.

8. Email Fallback & Smart Routing

SureMail intelligently routes emails based on priority and fallback rules, making sure your emails always go out—even if a provider is having issues.

9. Analytics & Reporting

Understand how your emails are performing. Track success rates, failures, and delivery performance.

So, Which One Should You Use?

Here’s the breakdown where we will compare all three plugins:

This comparison is made in February 2025. If something has changed since then, and if you think we should update, please let us know, and we will be happy to update it.

Final Thoughts

If you just need basic SMTP, FluentSMTP is decent. If you’re okay with aggressive upsells and paying for features that should be free, WP Mail SMTP is an option.

But if you want the most reliable, feature-packed, and free SMTP plugin, SureMail is the clear winner. It’s built for reliability, protects your reputation, and ensures your emails never fail.

We made SureMail because we needed it ourselves. Now, we’re sharing it with the community.

Try it out. It’s free.

PS: 

This comparison was made in February 2025. If something has changed since then, and you think we should update this post, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to update it.