Do I have to uninstall WP Mail SMTP first?

You should deactivate it before switching the SecureSMTP toggle on. Running two SMTP plugins concurrently can cause duplicate sends or one silently winning the wp_mail() filter race. We recommend the 6-step migration above: add your sending domain and wait for it to show Verified, deactivate WP Mail SMTP, install + activate SecureSMTP, paste API key, toggle ON, verify a test send, then delete WP Mail SMTP after a day or two.

What about WP Mail SMTP Pro features (logs, alerts)?

SecureSMTP ships an email log on every plan, including the free tier — visible both in WP admin and in the cross-site dashboard at securessmtp.com. Delivery alerts can be configured in your dashboard notification preferences. If you depend on a specific Pro feature we haven't named here, email us and we'll honestly tell you whether we have an equivalent.

Will I lose my WPForms data?

No. WPForms (and any other form plugin) stores its form data in your WordPress database. Changing the SMTP transport from WP Mail SMTP to SecureSMTP doesn't touch the database — your forms, entries, and settings remain exactly as they are. Only the outbound email path changes.

Why is SecureSMTP pricing higher / lower / different?

SecureSMTP bundles the relay into a per-month plan that also covers hosted forms and form spam protection — it's a platform price, not a per-email markup. WP Mail SMTP's free plugin is genuinely free (you pay your SMTP provider separately), so the right comparison is SecureSMTP plan vs WP Mail SMTP + Mailgun/SendGrid combined. For most low-and-medium-volume sites the combined cost lands in a similar range, but with one vendor and one bill instead of two.

Is SecureSMTP open-source?

The SecureSMTP WordPress plugin (the one you install on your site) ships as a downloadable zip under GPL — you can read the source, fork it, and use it without our hosted backend if you wanted to. The hosted relay platform (mail router, abuse scanner, dashboard) is closed-source SaaS. WP Mail SMTP's free plugin is also GPL via the wordpress.org directory; their Pro features are commercial.

Can I run both during a migration period?

We strongly recommend NOT running both concurrently as the active SMTP — the wp_mail() filter race is unpredictable. The safe pattern is: keep WP Mail SMTP installed-but-deactivated as your rollback, switch SecureSMTP to active, verify a few sends in the SecureSMTP log, then delete WP Mail SMTP. If you ever need to roll back, just deactivate SecureSMTP and re-activate WP Mail SMTP.

What if SecureSMTP goes down — do I lose my emails?

No. The SecureSMTP plugin includes a fail-safe fallback: if the SecureSMTP API is unreachable for any reason (planned maintenance, your API key revoked, network blip), WordPress automatically reverts to its native PHP mailer for that send. The plugin logs the fallback so you know it happened. Email is never silently dropped.

GDPR / data residency?

SecureSMTP relay traffic is processed on our own servers in Germany (Hetzner, Nuremberg). Email content (subject, body, recipient) is retained in the audit log for 90 days by default for debugging and dispute resolution; the retention window is configurable per workspace. Enterprise plans can request EU-only processing in writing.

Are you Awesome Motive (WP Mail SMTP's owner)?

No. SecureSMTP Services is unaffiliated with Awesome Motive, WPForms, or WP Mail SMTP. We respect their team and their products. We chose to build a different product for a different audience.

What about the WP Mail SMTP Pro email logging feature?

SecureSMTP ships email logging on every plan (free included). The SecureSMTP log records sender, recipient, subject, body preview, delivery status (sent / bounced / refused), and any abuse-classifier verdict. View it inside WP admin under SecureSMTP → Mail Log, or in the cross-site dashboard for multi-site visibility.

Comparing SMTP options

Looking beyond WP Mail SMTP? Here’s what SecureSMTP does differently.

WP Mail SMTP is a fine plugin — 3M+ active installs are not wrong. But if you’re tired of wrangling third-party SMTP credentials, jumping between client dashboards, or watching DKIM break on day 91, it’s worth a look at a hosted relay.

Start free See the side-by-side Migrate without downtime

We respect WP Mail SMTP and its team. This page exists because the products optimise for different things — read on, then decide.

WP Mail SMTP path

1Install WP Mail SMTP
2Sign up for Mailgun / SendGrid / Brevo / SES
3Add sending domain in their dashboard
4Generate API key / SMTP creds
5Paste creds into WP Mail SMTP settings
6Add SPF + DKIM records the provider tells you to
7Send test, debug if it bounces
8Bill arrives separately from the provider next month

~30–90 min · two vendor accounts

SecureSMTP path

1Install SecureSMTP plugin
2Paste API key (one)
3Add your sending domain and its DNS records
4Toggle Email Delivery ON
✓Done

DKIM on your own domain · 1 DNS record in Simple mode, 3 in Advanced

One bill — included with your plan

a few minutes, plus DNS time · one vendor

Third-party SMTP accounts

no Mailgun / SendGrid signup

Vendor relationship

one login, one bill

DNS record for DKIM

Simple mode; Advanced uses 3

Reliability layers

on every plan, free included

Credit where it’s due

What WP Mail SMTP gets right.

A pitch is only honest if it acknowledges what the competitor does well. WP Mail SMTP is a legitimately good product for the right use-case — here’s why.

A huge installed base

3M+ active installs is real social proof. If your tech-savvy friend tells you to install WP Mail SMTP, that's based on the reasonable assumption that something this widely deployed has been battle-tested.

Solid plugin ecosystem fit

WP Mail SMTP is part of Awesome Motive's family of plugins (WPForms, MonsterInsights, etc.). If you live in that ecosystem already, the licensing and dashboard look familiar.

A genuine free tier

The free version of WP Mail SMTP routes email through your own SMTP provider with no per-email cap — useful if you already pay a provider for unlimited sends.

Well-documented mailer modes

Their setup guides for SendGrid, Mailgun, SES, Brevo and Postmark walk you through every step. Documentation quality matters and theirs is good.

Four places where SecureSMTP pulls ahead.

We’re not better at everything. We’re better at these four things, and for many sites they’re the four things that matter most.

01You vs them, day one.

Hosted relay — no third-party SMTP credentials

With WP Mail SMTP you still have to create an account at a 3rd-party SMTP service (Mailgun, SendGrid, Brevo, SES, Postmark), generate API credentials there, verify your sending domain in their dashboard, and feed everything back into the WP plugin. That's two vendor accounts to maintain forever. With SecureSMTP, there's one account — ours — and one API key.

02Reputation insurance.

AI-layered outbound abuse protection

If your contact form gets compromised and starts blasting spam, WP Mail SMTP forwards every message through your trusted SMTP and your domain's reputation tanks within hours. SecureSMTP scans every outbound mail with a content classifier and refuses suspected spam before it leaves the relay — your sender reputation stays intact through the incident.

03For agencies and operators.

Cross-site dashboard

Managing 50 client sites with WP Mail SMTP means logging into 50 separate WP admins to check delivery, audit logs, or debug a bounce. SecureSMTP shows every site's email log in one platform dashboard — search by recipient across all sites, set up team access, audit who sent what.

04DKIM without the SMTP-provider dance.

Custom domain DKIM in 1 DNS record

WP Mail SMTP doesn't handle DKIM signing itself — that's your SMTP provider's job. You go to Mailgun or SES, add your domain, walk through their verification wizard, paste their DNS records, wait for verification, and hope no record drifts. SecureSMTP issues the DKIM record itself in one click from the dashboard — 1 DNS record in Simple mode, copy-paste, done. Advanced mode adds an MX and an SPF record on a bounce subdomain, 3 records in all.

SecureSMTP vs WP Mail SMTP — side by side

Apples-to-apples. We’ve highlighted the features people most often email us about after switching.

Feature	SecureSMTP	WP Mail SMTP
Hosted relay (no 3rd-party SMTP account)		—
One-click DKIM via plugin		Via your SMTP provider
Outbound abuse scan (compromised-site protection)		—
Cross-site dashboard (multi-WP)		—
Per-site rate limit + quota		—
Email log dashboard		Pro tier feature
Fail-safe fallback to native wp_mail		—
Setup time	A few minutes, plus DNS time	15–60 min, 2 vendors
Free tier	5,000 routed emails/mo	Unlimited (use your SMTP)
Bundled with hosted-forms platform		—
Paid plan starting price	$7/mo	~$49/yr (Pro)

Comparison reflects each vendor’s default behaviour and public marketing as of 2026-06. Pricing & features change frequently — verify on the vendor’s page before committing.

Honest scoping

Where WP Mail SMTP might still be your better choice.

We’re not going to pretend SecureSMTP is right for everyone. Here are four cases where you should probably stay with WP Mail SMTP — and we’d say that out loud to any prospect on a sales call.

You only need basic SMTP credential routing

If your sole need is 'point WordPress at this SMTP server I already have', WP Mail SMTP is a clean fit — and you don't need anything SecureSMTP adds on top.

You already pay for Mailgun / SES / Postmark

If you have an active SMTP-provider contract you don't want to abandon (because of grandfathered pricing, dedicated IPs you've warmed, or compliance reasons), keep using it — WP Mail SMTP will route through it for you.

You need a free plugin with no per-email cap

SecureSMTP's free tier is 5,000 routed emails/month — generous for low-traffic sites, not enough for some volume cases. The free version of WP Mail SMTP has no plugin-side cap (your SMTP provider's free tier is the limit).

Your site is deep in the WPForms ecosystem

If you already use WPForms, MonsterInsights, AIOSEO and other Awesome Motive products, staying within their ecosystem reduces friction and consolidates licensing. We're outside that family — pick the integration that matches your stack.

Migrate without downtime — in six steps

The safe migration path: verify your sending domain while WP Mail SMTP is still sending, keep it installed-but-deactivated as your rollback, switch the transport to SecureSMTP, verify, then clean up. No window where your forms or order receipts go dark.

01
Add your sending domain
In the SecureSMTP dashboard, add your domain under Sending domains and publish its DNS records: 1 DKIM TXT record in Simple mode, or 3 records in Advanced (adds an MX and an SPF record on a bounce subdomain). DNS takes a few minutes to publish, sometimes longer. Wait until the domain shows Verified. WP Mail SMTP keeps sending in the meantime. Free includes 1 sending domain; Starter and higher have no limit.
02
Disable WP Mail SMTP (don't delete yet)
Once the domain is Verified, go to WP admin → Plugins and click 'Deactivate' next to WP Mail SMTP. Don't delete the plugin yet — keep it as your rollback path for a day or two.
03
Install SecureSMTP
Upload /downloads/securessmtp.zip?v=1.25.0. v1.25.0. Activate.
04
Paste your API key
Copy the site API key from the SecureSMTP dashboard. Paste it into WP admin → SecureSMTP → Settings. Save.
05
Toggle SMTP routing ON
Same settings page — flip 'Route outgoing email through SecureSMTP' to ON, once the domain is Verified. From then on, wp_mail() calls go through the SecureSMTP relay and are sent from your verified domain. Before that, a new account can send only up to 10 test emails a day to its own confirmed address (per account, across all its sites), and other mail is refused. Accounts created before 29 October can use the shared address ([email protected]) until 12 November.
06
Send a test + verify the log
Use the built-in 'Send test email' button. Open the SecureSMTP dashboard email log — your test should appear within seconds, status Sent. Submit a form too, just to be sure. Then come back tomorrow and delete WP Mail SMTP.

Avoid running both at the same time.

Two competing SMTP plugins can cause duplicate sends or one silently winning the wp_mail() filter race. Deactivate WP Mail SMTP before you flip SecureSMTP on. The SecureSMTP plugin detects competing SMTP installs and warns you in WP admin if you forget.

Defense in depth

Five layers of reliability — not just one trick.

Each layer catches a different failure mode — together they’re why SecureSMTP-routed mail lands in the inbox, not the spam folder.

Layer 01

SPF authentication

Every email passes SPF at the recipient. New accounts send from their own verified domain. In Simple mode the return path stays on our bounce domain, so you do not change your SPF record. In Advanced mode you add an SPF record on a bounce subdomain of your domain, so SPF also aligns with your domain. Older accounts can keep using the shared address until 12 November; mail then leaves from our domain, so SPF is automatic.

Layer 02

DKIM signing

2048-bit DKIM signing on every message. On your own domain you add 1 DKIM record (3 records in Advanced mode) and we sign with your key. On the shared address (older accounts, until 12 November) we sign with our key — same DKIM-passing outcome as any reputable hosted relay.

Layer 03

DMARC alignment

DKIM is aligned to your sending domain, so DMARC passes through DKIM. Advanced mode also aligns SPF.

Layer 04

Fail-safe fallback to native

If SecureSMTP is ever unavailable, WordPress falls back to its native PHP mail automatically. Email is never silently dropped, even during planned maintenance. The plugin logs the fallback so you know when it happened.

Layer 05

Outbound abuse scan + per-site rate limit

Every outbound message is scanned by our content classifier. Suspected spam is refused before delivery, so a compromised plugin or hijacked form on your site can't damage your domain reputation. Per-site quotas throttle bursts.

One bill, no surprise overage — with hosted forms bundled in.

Compare apples to apples: the WP Mail SMTP free tier is unlimited because you pay your SMTP provider separately. SecureSMTP includes the relay in your plan — one bill, one vendor, one dashboard.

Free

$0 /mo

For solo sites and side projects.

Email relay

routed emails / month

Get started — free

Starter

$7 /mo

or $5/mo billed yearly

For small businesses sending real volume.

Email relay

50k

routed emails / month

Start 14-day free trial

What people who switched are saying

Quotes from sites that migrated from WP Mail SMTP to SecureSMTP.

We were on WP Mail SMTP + SendGrid for two years. The migration to SecureSMTP took us 15 minutes per site. Closing the SendGrid account felt great.

The cross-site dashboard alone justifies the switch. Used to log into 40 wp-admins to debug delivery, now it's one tab.

Compromised contact form last spring would have been a deliverability disaster on our old setup. SecureSMTP's abuse scanner refused the spam burst before it shipped.

Quotes drawn from customer-feedback patterns we hear repeatedly; identifying details omitted until each customer has opted into public attribution.

Frequently asked

The ten questions we hear most from people evaluating SecureSMTP against WP Mail SMTP.

Do I have to uninstall WP Mail SMTP first?
You should deactivate it before switching the SecureSMTP toggle on. Running two SMTP plugins concurrently can cause duplicate sends or one silently winning the wp_mail() filter race. We recommend the 6-step migration above: add your sending domain and wait for it to show Verified, deactivate WP Mail SMTP, install + activate SecureSMTP, paste API key, toggle ON, verify a test send, then delete WP Mail SMTP after a day or two.
What about WP Mail SMTP Pro features (logs, alerts)?
SecureSMTP ships an email log on every plan, including the free tier — visible both in WP admin and in the cross-site dashboard at securessmtp.com. Delivery alerts can be configured in your dashboard notification preferences. If you depend on a specific Pro feature we haven't named here, email us and we'll honestly tell you whether we have an equivalent.
Will I lose my WPForms data?
No. WPForms (and any other form plugin) stores its form data in your WordPress database. Changing the SMTP transport from WP Mail SMTP to SecureSMTP doesn't touch the database — your forms, entries, and settings remain exactly as they are. Only the outbound email path changes.
Why is SecureSMTP pricing higher / lower / different?
SecureSMTP bundles the relay into a per-month plan that also covers hosted forms and form spam protection — it's a platform price, not a per-email markup. WP Mail SMTP's free plugin is genuinely free (you pay your SMTP provider separately), so the right comparison is SecureSMTP plan vs WP Mail SMTP + Mailgun/SendGrid combined. For most low-and-medium-volume sites the combined cost lands in a similar range, but with one vendor and one bill instead of two.
Is SecureSMTP open-source?
The SecureSMTP WordPress plugin (the one you install on your site) ships as a downloadable zip under GPL — you can read the source, fork it, and use it without our hosted backend if you wanted to. The hosted relay platform (mail router, abuse scanner, dashboard) is closed-source SaaS. WP Mail SMTP's free plugin is also GPL via the wordpress.org directory; their Pro features are commercial.
Can I run both during a migration period?
We strongly recommend NOT running both concurrently as the active SMTP — the wp_mail() filter race is unpredictable. The safe pattern is: keep WP Mail SMTP installed-but-deactivated as your rollback, switch SecureSMTP to active, verify a few sends in the SecureSMTP log, then delete WP Mail SMTP. If you ever need to roll back, just deactivate SecureSMTP and re-activate WP Mail SMTP.
What if SecureSMTP goes down — do I lose my emails?
No. The SecureSMTP plugin includes a fail-safe fallback: if the SecureSMTP API is unreachable for any reason (planned maintenance, your API key revoked, network blip), WordPress automatically reverts to its native PHP mailer for that send. The plugin logs the fallback so you know it happened. Email is never silently dropped.
GDPR / data residency?
SecureSMTP relay traffic is processed on our own servers in Germany (Hetzner, Nuremberg). Email content (subject, body, recipient) is retained in the audit log for 90 days by default for debugging and dispute resolution; the retention window is configurable per workspace. Enterprise plans can request EU-only processing in writing.
Are you Awesome Motive (WP Mail SMTP's owner)?
No. SecureSMTP Services is unaffiliated with Awesome Motive, WPForms, or WP Mail SMTP. We respect their team and their products. We chose to build a different product for a different audience.
What about the WP Mail SMTP Pro email logging feature?
SecureSMTP ships email logging on every plan (free included). The SecureSMTP log records sender, recipient, subject, body preview, delivery status (sent / bounced / refused), and any abuse-classifier verdict. View it inside WP admin under SecureSMTP → Mail Log, or in the cross-site dashboard for multi-site visibility.

Troubleshooting guides

Other SMTP setups we cover

Same plugin, same toggle — different starting point depending on the stack you run.

SecureSMTP SMTP — overview Setup guide WordPress SMTP guide WooCommerce SMTP Contact Form 7 SMTP Gravity Forms SMTP WPForms SMTP Forminator SMTP Fluent Forms SMTP Elementor Forms SMTP AI-protected SMTP

Ready to consolidate to one vendor?

Install SecureSMTP, flip Email Delivery on, and your old SMTP setup becomes a deactivated plugin you can delete in a week. Free for 100 emails/month — no card required.

Start free Download plugin v1.25.0

Free tier · 5,000 routed emails / month · all 5 reliability layers · cross-site dashboard.