# WordPress SMTP & email plugin complaints: what 22 bad reviews say > 22 one- and two-star WordPress.org reviews of 12 WordPress SMTP & email plugins: top complaints, reply rates, worst-hit plugins and quotes. Canonical: https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/email-smtp/ Language: en Last updated: 2026-10-25 22 one- and two-star WordPress.org reviews (19 one-star) of the 12 most-installed plugins in the Email & SMTP category, posted 26 Oct 2025 – 25 Oct 2026. Combined: 10,000,000+ active installs. **22.7%**Bugs & errors **86.4%**got a developer reply (all plugins: 70.2%) **2.2**bad reviews per million installs (all plugins: 3.5) ## What users complain about in WordPress SMTP & email plugins | Complaint | Share | Reviews | All plugins | |---|---|---|---| | Bugs & errors | 22.7% | 5 | 32.5% | | Called it a scam or misleading | 22.7% | 5 | 8% | | Upsell, paywall & pushy Pro version | 22.7% | 5 | 14.9% | | Slow or no support | 18.2% | 4 | 18% | | AI features or AI support | 9.1% | 2 | 6.1% | | Hard to use or set up | 9.1% | 2 | 9.3% | | Slows the site or heavy | 9.1% | 2 | 8.8% | | Charges, renewals & refunds | 4.5% | 1 | 11.1% | | Locked out or blocked | 4.5% | 1 | 0.2% | | Missing features & limits | 4.5% | 1 | 5.9% | | Ads, nags & admin clutter | 4.5% | 1 | 4.5% | | Broke after an update | 4.5% | 1 | 8.5% | A review can match several themes; 27.3% match none. “All plugins” = 578 low-star reviews of 138 plugins in 12 categories. ## What is different about this category Compared with all 138 plugins in the study, SMTP & email plugin reviews mention **called it a scam or misleading** 2.8× as often (22.7% vs 8%); **upsell, paywall & pushy pro version** 1.5× as often (22.7% vs 14.9%). They mention crashed or took down the site (0% vs 5.4%) and charges, renewals & refunds (4.5% vs 11.1%) less often than average. ## WordPress SMTP & email plugins by number of bad reviews | Plugin | 1–2★ | Top complaint (5+ reviews) | Replied | Installs | |---|---|---|---|---| | WP Mail SMTP by WPForms | 6 | Slow or no support 33.3% | 100% | 4,000,000+ | | Post SMTP | 6 | Called it a scam or misleading 33.3% | 83.3% | 300,000+ | | Easy WP SMTP | 3 | – | 100% | 500,000+ | | MailPoet | 3 | – | 100% | 500,000+ | | FluentSMTP | 2 | – | 0% | 700,000+ | | Newsletter | 2 | – | 100% | 200,000+ | | Hostinger Reach | 0 | – | – | 1,000,000+ | | MC4WP | 0 | – | – | 1,000,000+ | | Flamingo | 0 | – | – | 800,000+ | | GoSMTP | 0 | – | – | 500,000+ | | WP Mail Logging | 0 | – | – | 300,000+ | | Activity Log | 0 | – | – | 200,000+ | ## In users’ words > “Overcharging for 365 support. It’s not worth $100 a year for them to have done a little extra coding to make 365 work.” > > WordPress.org review, May 2026 > “… If you send an email to customer support, you get an AI response, not a human response.” > > WordPress.org review, Dec 2025 > “… It’s not reliable and difficult to connect. It randomly just disconnects and you can’t re-enable tokens after they expire etc.” > > WordPress.org review, Feb 2026 ## Do WordPress SMTP & email developers reply to bad reviews? 86.4% of these low-star reviews got a reply from the author or support team, median 1 day after the review (all plugins: 70.2%, median 1 day). ## What to fix first (our reading of the data) 1. **Bugs & errors** (22.7% of reviews): Reply to each bug review with the version that fixes it, and test against the most popular themes and PHP versions. 2. **Upsell, paywall & pushy Pro version** (22.7% of reviews): Keep the free version useful on its own; move Pro prompts out of every admin screen. 3. **Slow or no support** (18.2% of reviews): Answer forum threads within a day or two; plugins in this study that replied fast had fewer repeat complaints. ## This breakdown for your plugin Your plugin’s low-star reviews by theme, with quotes and reply rate. Revunda has no self-serve WordPress.org report yet: send the plugin URL and we reply with what we can do. [Request it for my plugin](mailto:hello@revunda.xyz?subject=WordPress%20plugin%20review%20breakdown) [Free App Store review check](https://revunda.xyz/apps/check/) Other categories: [Page builders & blocks](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/page-builders-blocks/) · [Backup & migration](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/backup-migration/) · [WooCommerce & payments](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/woocommerce-payments/) · [SEO](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/seo/) · [Cookies & privacy](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/cookies-privacy/) · [Images, galleries & sliders](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/images-galleries-sliders/) · [Security & anti-spam](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/security-anti-spam/) · [Caching & speed](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/caching-speed/) · [Forms](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/forms/) · [Translation](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/translation/) · [Analytics](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/analytics/) Data and method: [WordPress review study](https://revunda.xyz/apps/research/wordpress-plugin-review-complaints-2026/) (138 plugins, CC BY 4.0 CSV) · [WordPress plugin 1-star reviews: what to fix first](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-1-star-reviews/) · [All categories](https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/) ## FAQ ### What do users complain about most in WordPress SMTP & email plugins? In 22 one- and two-star WordPress.org reviews of 12 WordPress SMTP & email plugins (Oct 2025 – Oct 2026), the top complaints were bugs & errors (22.7%), called it a scam or misleading (22.7%), upsell, paywall & pushy pro version (22.7%). ### Do WordPress SMTP & email plugin developers reply to bad reviews? 86.4% of these low-star reviews got a reply from the author or support team, median 1 day after the review (all plugins: 70.2%, median 1 day). ### Which WordPress SMTP & email plugin had the most bad reviews? WP Mail SMTP by WPForms, with 6 one- and two-star reviews in the 12 months to Oct 2026. ### How many bad reviews do SMTP & email plugins get per million installs? 2.2 low-star reviews per million active installs over 12 months, against 3.5 across all 138 plugins in the study. --- Source: Revunda (https://revunda.xyz). Markdown copy of https://revunda.xyz/apps/wordpress-plugin-complaints/email-smtp/ for AI assistants; the HTML page is canonical.