Email Essentials
by Acato · Email & Marketing
Also makes 7 other plugins · 11.9K+ installs across the portfolio →
A plugin to make WordPress outgoing emails better and less likely to be marked as spam.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
Not scored
no reviews to score from
Active installs
40+
≈50 estimated
Momentum
+101%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: Swap “deliverability” for “spf”. “deliverability” isn't earning its slot: you're not in the first 24 results for its own search. “spf” sits at #23 untagged, close enough for a declared tag to move it up. All five slots are taken, so one has to go.
Not scored yet. Nobody has reviewed this plugin, so a grade would come from directory averages rather than from anything measured here.
Install conversion
How it's measured →3.0%
of downloads still active
At least 40 of 1.3K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Email & Marketing plugin keeps 0.9%, across 1,295 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Email & Marketing plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
This plugin shipped 11 releases in the last 12 months, and every existing install that updated counted as another download. wp.org publishes no split between first installs and updates, so we show the raw rate rather than guess at one.
Details
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Excellent listing optimization
Most to gain: Rating quality
Updated 5 days ago
Tested up to WordPress 7.0.8, the current branch or newer
No reviews yet, so wp.org scores it as a middling unrated listing
5 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: No reviews yet. wp.org scores an unrated plugin as middling on rating, so the first good reviews lift it.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
36
Momentum
Losing ground
-0.1
Velocity
places per keyword, 20d
13%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 20d
-0.1
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| smime your tag | #1 | #2 | 0 |
| dkim your tag | #22 | #19 | down 2 |
| spf | #23 | #20 | 0 |
| deliverability your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| email your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| smtp your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
8 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 3 listed. 5 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 3 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- Swap “deliverability” for “spf”. “deliverability” isn't earning its slot: you're not in the first 24 results for its own search. “spf” sits at #23 untagged, close enough for a declared tag to move it up. All five slots are taken, so one has to go.
Daily downloads
Since 31 Jan 2026 · 275 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 430 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #21,400 to #22,800, alongside the other plugins at 40+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 1 Nov 2026.
Update activity
Downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites.
Not enough installs to measure. This needs at least 100 active sites; below that, a handful of downloads reads as tens of thousands.
Release cadence
Actively maintainedHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
11
releases in the last 12 months
5d ago
latest release · v6.0.10 · 27 Oct 2026
11
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “40+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band today and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 50.
Install history since 30 Jan 2026
Security history
via Wordfence IntelligenceThe 1 disclosed vulnerability is patched in the current version (6.0.10). Sites still on an older version should update.
- 2026-08-28 CVE-2026-81764 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 6.0.6 Patched in 6.0.7
Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.
CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.
Languages
via translate.wordpress.orgTranslated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
8 of 8 pass · checked 28 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "A plugin to make WordPress outgoing emails better and less likely to be marked as spam."
- ✓ Has a FAQ 6 questions in the FAQ.
- ✓ FAQ asks real questions 6 of 6 read like questions a user would type.
- ✓ Names who it is for Names its audience or use cases ("if you need", "use this").
- ✓ Names what it works with Mentions Cloudflare.
- ✓ Headings and lists 9 headings and 5 lists.
- ✓ Enough to quote 12,773 characters of description.
- ✓ Tags match the text 4 of 5 tags appear in the text; "smime" does not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-11-01 50+ → 40+ down after 33 days in tier
- 2026-09-29 60+ → 50+ down after 53 days in tier
- 2026-08-07 50+ → 60+ up after 27 days in tier
- 2026-07-11 60+ → 50+ down after 36 days in tier
- 2026-06-05 50+ → 60+ up after 20 days in tier
- 2026-05-16 40+ → 50+ up after 3 days in tier
- 2026-05-13 60+ → 40+ down after 13 days in tier
- 2026-04-30 50+ → 60+ up after 11 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
WP Mail Logging 300K+ installs · 4.7★ · 3 shared tags A -
Deliverability – pass DKIM, SPF, DMARC & more 700+ installs · 4.1★ · 3 shared tags C -
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ installs · 4.8★ · 2 shared tags A -
Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags A -
Email Deliverability – SMTP Replacement, Email API Deliverability & Email Log 200K+ installs · 3.1★ · 2 shared tags B -
SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ installs · 4.4★ · 2 shared tags B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Email Essentials into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/email-essentials" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Email Essentials — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Email Essentials: 40+ active installs, no reviews yet. Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/email-essentials
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