Denys Cherkasov

<p>The default <code>wp_mail()</code> function in WordPress can often be unreliable. Many hosting providers limit or poorly configure email sending, which leads to important notifications (like registrations, password resets, or WooCommerce orders) ending up in spam or not being delivered at all.</p>
<p><strong>Cherkasov SMTP Mailer</strong> solves this problem by re-routing all your site’s outgoing emails through a professional SMTP server (such as Gmail, SendGrid, or any other mail service). This significantly increases the reliability and deliverability of your emails.</p>
<p>The plugin features a modern, intuitive interface, an advanced email log, and the ability to receive instant notifications about sending statuses in your Telegram.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Reliable Delivery:</strong> Send emails through any SMTP server to avoid spam filters.</li>
<li><strong>Easy Configuration:</strong> Quick presets for popular services (Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid) and flexible options for any other SMTP provider.</li>
<li><strong>Email Log:</strong> Keeps a detailed log of all sent emails. View content, status, headers, and error messages.</li>
<li><strong>Log Management:</strong> Search for emails, resend failed messages (one by one or all at once), and delete entries.</li>
<li><strong>Telegram Notifications:</strong> Get instant messages in Telegram about successfully sent or failed emails.</li>
<li><strong>Testing Tool:</strong> A built-in feature to send a test email to verify your settings and see a detailed debug log.</li>
<li><strong>Security:</strong> Passwords and tokens are not displayed in the form after being saved and are transmitted securely.</li>
<li><strong>Modern UI:</strong> A clean, responsive, and user-friendly interface built with modern web technologies.</li>
<li><strong>Retention Policies:</strong> Configure automatic deletion of old log entries to keep your database clean.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Configuration</h3>
<p>After activating the plugin, go to <strong>Settings > Cherkasov SMTP Mailer</strong>.</p>
<h4>1. Main SMTP Settings</h4>
<ol>
<li><strong>Mailer:</strong>
<ul>
<li><strong>SMTP:</strong> Choose this option to send emails via an external server.</li>
<li><strong>Default WP Mailer:</strong> Use your host’s standard mail function (not recommended).</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Providers:</strong> You can select a popular provider (Gmail, Outlook, SendGrid) to auto-fill the host and port fields.</li>
<li><strong>SMTP Host, Port, and Encryption:</strong> Enter the details provided by your email service provider.</li>
<li><strong>Authentication:</strong> In most cases, this toggle should be enabled.</li>
<li><strong>SMTP Credentials:</strong> Enter the username (usually your email address) and password for your email account.
<ul>
<li><strong>For Gmail/Google:</strong> If you have two-factor authentication enabled, you must create an “App Password” in your Google account’s security settings and use it here.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Save Changes.</strong></li>
</ol>
<h4>2. Sender Details</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>From Name:</strong> The name recipients will see.</li>
<li><strong>From Email:</strong> The address emails will be sent from.</li>
<li><strong>Force Sender:</strong> If enabled, all emails from your site (even from other plugins) will be sent using the specified From Name and From Email.</li>
</ul>
<h4>3. Telegram Notifications</h4>
<ol>
<li>Click the “Telegram Notifications” button.</li>
<li>Enable the “Enable Telegram Notifications” option.</li>
<li><strong>Bot Token:</strong> Create a new bot by talking to <a href="https://t.me/botfather" rel="nofollow ugc"><code>@BotFather</code></a> on Telegram. It will provide you with a unique token. Paste it here.</li>
<li><strong>Chat ID:</strong> Talk to the <a href="https://t.me/userinfobot" rel="nofollow ugc"><code>@userinfobot</code></a> and click “Start.” It will send you your unique ID. Paste it here.</li>
<li>Choose which events you want to be notified about (failed and/or successful sends).</li>
<li>Save the settings and click “Send Test” to verify.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Third-Party Services</h3>
<p>This plugin uses the Telegram API to send notifications about the status of sent emails. This functionality is optional and only activated if you enable it in the settings and provide your own Telegram Bot Token and Chat ID.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Service:</strong> Telegram Bot API</li>
<li><strong>Data Sent:</strong> When enabled, the plugin sends the recipient’s email address, email subject, your site’s URL, and the sending status (success or failure) to the Telegram API to be delivered to your specified chat.</li>
<li><strong>Terms of Service:</strong> https://telegram.org/tos</li>
<li><strong>Privacy Policy:</strong> https://telegram.org/privacy</li>
</ul>


Cherkasov SMTP Mailer

A reliable SMTP plugin for WordPress that ensures email delivery with logging and Telegram notifications.

Noor Alam

<p><a href="https://wphowto.net/gmail-smtp-plugin-for-wordpress-1341" rel="nofollow ugc">Gmail SMTP</a> plugin allows you to authenticate with your Gmail account to send email via Gmail SMTP server.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="WordPress Gmail SMTP Plugin Setup" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_MCxcvfoGj4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Most shared hosting servers have restrictions when it comes to email. Usually email will get blocked or missing for no reason. Sometimes it will get blocked when your website reaches the daily limit of outgoing email. This plugin can bypass this issue by routing the email through Gmail’s SMTP server.</p>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Add-ons</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wphowto.net/how-to-add-a-reply-to-address-in-the-gmail-smtp-wordpress-plugin-6756" rel="nofollow ugc">Reply-To</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wphowto.net/gmail-smtp-plugin-cc-configuration-6770" rel="nofollow ugc">Cc</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wphowto.net/gmail-smtp-email-logger-7336" rel="nofollow ugc">Email Logger</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Benefits</h3>
<ul>
<li>Gmail SMTP plugin is not like most SMTP plugins. It uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol to authorize access to the Gmail API – which means a more secure login system and users won’t have to enter any username or password.</li>
<li>Gmail SMTP plugin uses PHPMailer – a very popular library used for sending email through PHP’s mail function. This libary is also used in the core WordPress to send email.</li>
<li>Gmail SMTP plugin utilizes “wp_mail” (A function used by WordPress to send email) instead of completely overriding it. This way you still get all the benefits of the default mail function. </li>
<li>You no longer need to enable <strong>Allow less secure apps</strong> on your gmail account to fix SMTP connection issue. This issue became prominent from December 2014, when Google started imposing XOAUTH2 authentication (based on OAuth2) to access their apps. This issue still affects almost all the SMTP plugins because they authenticate via username and password.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How OAuth 2.0 Authorization Works</h3>
<ul>
<li>You register an application in the Google Developers Console.</li>
<li>The application is launched and it requests that you give it access to data in your Google account.</li>
<li>If you consent, the application receives credentials to access the Gmail API.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Configure your website to send email using Gmail SMTP server</li>
<li>Authenticate using OAuth 2.0 protocol</li>
<li>Authenticate with encryption when sending an email (TLS/SSL)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Basic Setup</h3>
<ul>
<li>Create a new project in Google Developers Console.</li>
<li>Enable Gmail API in it.</li>
<li>Create credentials (OAuth client ID) to access this API.</li>
<li>Configure the consent screen for the web application.</li>
<li>Enter a <strong>Product Name</strong> and a <strong>Privacy policy URL</strong>.</li>
<li>Once the consent screen is configured, create a web application.</li>
<li>Go to the plugin settings (<code>Settings->Gmail SMTP</code>).</li>
<li>Set the <strong>Authorized Redirect URL</strong> of the application as the one shown in the settings.</li>
<li>Finish creating the web app.</li>
<li>Copy the newly created <strong>Client ID</strong> and <strong>Client secret</strong> and paste into the settings area.</li>
<li>Enter your OAuth Email, From Email and From name.</li>
<li>Select an encryption.</li>
<li>Enter a port number.</li>
<li>Save the settings.</li>
<li>Now you can authorize your application to access the Gmail API by clicking on the <strong>Grant Permission</strong> button.</li>
<li>Once the application has been authorized Gmail SMTP plugin will be able to take control of all outgoing email.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Settings</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Authorized Redirect URI</strong>: Authorized redirect URL for your website. You need to copy this URL into your web application.</li>
<li><strong>Client ID</strong>: The client ID of your web application.</li>
<li><strong>Client secret</strong>: The client secret of your web application.</li>
<li><strong>OAuth Email Address</strong>: The email address that you will use for SMTP authentication. This should be the same email used in the Google Developers Console.</li>
<li><strong>From Email Address</strong>: The email address which will be used as the From Address when sending an email.</li>
<li><strong>From Name</strong>: The name which will be used as the From Name when sending an email.</li>
<li><strong>Type of Encryption</strong>: The encryption which will be used when sending an email (TLS/SSL. TLS is recommended).</li>
<li><strong>SMTP Port</strong>: The port which will be used when sending an email. If you choose TLS it should be set to 587. For SSL use port 465 instead.</li>
<li><strong>Disable SSL Certificate Verification</strong>: As of PHP 5.6 a warning/error will be displayed if the SSL certificate on the server is not properly configured. You can check this option to disable that default behaviour.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Gmail SMTP Test Email</h3>
<p>Once you have configured the settings you can send a test email to check the functionality of the plugin.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>To</strong>: Email address of the recipient.</li>
<li><strong>Subject</strong>: Subject of the email.</li>
<li><strong>Message</strong>: Email body.</li>
</ul>
<p>For detailed setup instructions please visit the <a href="https://wphowto.net/gmail-smtp-plugin-for-wordpress-1341" rel="nofollow ugc">Gmail SMTP</a> plugin page.</p>


Gmail SMTP


Only the necessary settings, simple and clean, good description. Thanks!


All is good!


The plugin is great when it works.



The plugin suddenly stopped working. I contacted support, they checked the site, and stopped answering. They did not say yes, no, we can or cannot fix it. They stopped answering.My finding are that the plugin only works on small wordpress website installs, on the root directory.



The plugin is not capable to handle large sites or sites installed on directories other than the root.That means, if you grow, you will start encountering problems with this plugin. Same as I did.



I am now using Fluent SMTP, it works out of the box with no sweat.



Thanks 


Good when it works, only for small sites installed at root

Connect to Gmail SMTP server to automatically send email from your WordPress site. Configure wp_mail() to use SMTP with OAuth 2.0 authentication.

Cherkasov SMTP Mailer vs Gmail SMTP