Plugin Pulse Beta
← Pulse
S

SMTP

by soso · Email & Marketing

Allows you to configure and use a SMTP server (such as Gmail) for sending emails.

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.

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews

Health

D 41/100

Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews

Active installs

600+

≈700 estimated

Momentum

+39%

downloads vs prior 30d

Biggest opportunity: “email”, “mail” and “mailer” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.

How scoring works →
41 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 63/100
Support 70/100

41 health vs 66 average across 2,120 Email & Marketing plugins

Install conversion

How it's measured →

0.7%

of downloads still active

At least 600 of 83.2K lifetime downloads are still running, in line with its category: the median Email & Marketing plugin keeps 0.9%, across 1,294 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.

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 8+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.3.2, well behind 6.8.

Details

Version
1.1.2
Last updated
8.9y ago
Added
2011-06-28 · 15 yrs old
Requires WP
3.0
Tested up to
3.3.2
Requires PHP
—

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.

36 / 100

Under-optimized

Most to gain: Update recency

Update recency 0/100

Updated 3259 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting

WP compatibility 1/100

Tested up to WordPress 3.3.2; the current branch is 6.8

Rating quality 53/100

2.5★ over 4 reviews, smoothed to 3.98★ and held back under 25 reviews

Listing tuning 100/100

5 of 5 tags set · short description in place

To rank higher: Last updated 3259 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+39% vs prior 30d
1131 Oct 2026

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peak 196 · peaks are release surges

18731 Oct 2026

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

SMTP · #8089youZoho Mail for WordPr · #1392SocketLabs · #7466Simple SMTP by Maile · #7418

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

2.531 Oct 2026

Health trend

Composite health score, snapshotted daily

4131 Oct 2026

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

31231 Oct 2026

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share 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.

v1.1 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “600+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
600–700 ≈700

Crossed into this band 6 days ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 700.

Install history since 16 May 2015

60031 Oct 2026

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. ★★★★★ Anonymous
    10.3y ago

    Just you need to configure the SMTP when necessary

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. ★★★★★ DrD347h
    13.1y ago

    its very good and helpful for me, only problem is that we cant modify sender name in plugin settings page

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. ★★★★★ the1knight
    13.2y ago

    Same as dollar_dad. However the 2 year old plug-in WP-MAIL-SMTP worked just fine, so don’t waste your time with this one.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  4. ★★★★★ Kevin Phillips
    13.8y ago

    This plugin does not send a test email or work from any plugin that calls wp_mail function.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

✓ Low memory footprint
✓ Low page-speed impact
✕ Runs on latest PHP + WP
✕ No PHP errors
✓ No JS errors
✕ Activates cleanly
✓ No resource errors
✓ No external HTTP errors
✓ Optimized database use
✕ Frequently updated

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

4 of 8 pass · checked 25 Oct 2026

Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.

  • ✓ Says what it does "Allows you to configure and use a SMTP server (such as Gmail) for sending emails."
  • ✓ Has a FAQ 4 questions in the FAQ.
  • ✓ FAQ asks real questions 3 of 4 read like questions a user would type.
  • ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
  • ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
  • ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
  • ! Enough to quote 234 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
  • ✓ Tags match the text 3 of 5 tags appear in the text; "mailer", "wp_mail" do not.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2026-10-25 700+ → 600+ down after 240 days in tier
  2. 2026-02-27 800+ → 700+ down after 287 days in tier
  3. 2025-05-16 900+ → 800+ down after 1 days in tier
  4. 2025-05-15 800+ → 900+ up after 2 days in tier
  5. 2025-05-13 900+ → 800+ down after 180 days in tier
  6. 2024-11-14 1K+ → 900+ down after 772 days in tier
  7. 2022-10-04 2K+ → 1K+ down after 413 days in tier
  8. 2021-08-17 3K+ → 2K+ down after 290 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).

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for SMTP into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/smtp" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="SMTP — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

SMTP: 600+ active installs, 2.5★ (4 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/smtp

Spotted a number that looks wrong? Report a data issue and we'll check it against the source.