Mailyard – WP SMTP Plugin with Email Failover, Email Log, Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend & Brevo
WP SMTP plugin with automatic email failover, email log & deliverability fixes. Send via Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, Brevo or any SMTP.
Use with caution
Mailyard works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 55/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Mailyard stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| deliverability | >100 |
| >100 | |
| email log | >100 |
| smtp | >100 |
| transactional email | >100 |
About Mailyard
From the official readme · v1.0.1Description
Mailyard is a WordPress SMTP plugin with a backup plan. Connect Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, Brevo, or any SMTP server, and every email your site sends — password resets, WooCommerce receipts, form notifications — goes through a real email service instead of your host’s mail server. And if that service fails, Mailyard switches to your backup on the same send, so the email still goes out.
Out of the box, WordPress hands wp_mail() to your web host, and most hosts are bad at email: messages get blocked, land in spam, or vanish without a trace. Mailyard fixes “WordPress not sending emails” — and keeps it fixed when your provider has a bad day.
Everything you see is free. No locked buttons, no crippled features, no upgrade nags. Plugin site: plugpress.co/mailyard.
What you get
- Automatic email failover — a backup SMTP provider takes over the moment the first one fails, on the same send, not in a retry queue
- Six ways to send — Amazon SES, Postmark, Resend, Brevo, custom SMTP, or PHP mail
- Smart sender routing — store receipts through Postmark, newsletters through Brevo: the right provider per from address or purpose, automatically
- Full email log — every send and every failure with the exact provider error; logs clean themselves up after 30 days
- Deliverability checker — grades your SPF, DKIM, DMARC & MX records A–F and hands you the exact DNS record to add
- Bounce & complaint tracking — all four provider webhooks normalized into one
mailyard_bouncehook - AI agent tools (MCP) — let Claude, Cursor, or Codex diagnose your email problems
- 60-second setup — pick a provider, paste a key, send a test; Mailyard warns if another SMTP plugin is fighting you
Why failover matters
Most SMTP plugins log the failure and give up. Mailyard retries the same email on your backup provider immediately — a flaky API key on a Saturday night stops being your problem. SMTP failover is the reason Mailyard exists.
Deliverability, not just delivery
Email that technically sends but lands in spam is still lost. The deliverability checker reads your sending domain’s SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records and tells you exactly which DNS record to fix — usually the difference between the inbox and the spam folder.
AI agents (MCP)
Built on the Abilities API that shipped in WordPress 7.0: any MCP client — Claude, Codex, Cursor — can check your provider and fallback chain, score your DNS records, read the failure log, and send a test once it’s fixed. Settings → Connect AI has a master switch and a per-tool permission for each of the five tools; nothing is exposed until you install an MCP bridge (the free WordPress MCP Adapter plugin), and Mailyard never sends your data anywhere on its own.
Providers you can use
- Resend — easiest to start with
- Brevo (was Sendinblue) — all-in-one email platform
- Postmark — best inbox placement, made for stores
- Amazon SES — cheapest at high volume
- Custom SMTP — any SMTP server or relay, Gmail app passwords included
- Default PHP mail — your host’s server; no setup, but don’t count on it
Mailyard Pro — broadcast email to your customers
Mailyard delivers your site’s email. Mailyard Pro builds email marketing on top of it:
- Broadcast campaigns — write, schedule, and send email to your customers, rate-limited to match your provider
- Notion-style email editor — slash commands, buttons, images, dividers, desktop & mobile preview, bulletproof email HTML
- AI writing assistant — draft and rewrite emails with Claude, using your own Anthropic API key
- Contacts, groups & segments — one deduped contact list, saved dynamic segments, CSV import & export
- Open tracking & campaign analytics — see how every campaign performed, with tracking you can switch off
- Compliance built in — one-click unsubscribe (RFC 8058), automatic footer with your business address, GDPR export & erase
Nothing in free Mailyard is held back for Pro, and Mailyard never nags you about it. Get Mailyard Pro →
Who’s behind this
One person — Fahim, in Dhaka, building WordPress plugins since 2011. DiviPeople and DiviTorque come from the same desk and run on 170,000+ sites. When you post in the support forum, the developer answers; there’s no tier-1 script to get past.
Source code
The admin screens are React, built with @wordpress/scripts. The unminified source lives at https://github.com/plugpressco/mailyard under src/ — npm install, then npm run build.
Privacy
Mailyard only talks to the email service you set up. It doesn’t phone home and it doesn’t track you. The deliverability checker reads your domain’s DNS records via your server’s resolver, falling back to Cloudflare’s public DNS only if that fails (it sees the domain name and nothing more). If email logging is on (it is by default), each email’s recipient, subject, and body are saved to your database — turn it off in Settings whenever you want.
External services
Mailyard sends your WordPress email through a third-party email service that you choose and set up with your own account and API key. Nothing is sent anywhere until you pick a provider and enter its credentials, and then it only goes to that one provider (plus its fallback, if you added one).
What gets sent is the email your site is already trying to send: the recipient address(es), the sender, the subject, the body, and any attachments. It’s sent at the moment WordPress sends that email — a password reset, a WooCommerce order, a contact-form reply, and so on.
Resend — email delivery API, used if you pick Resend. Each email goes to https://api.resend.com/emails.
Terms: https://resend.com/legal/terms-of-service — Privacy: https://resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — email delivery API, used if you pick Brevo. Each email goes to https://api.brevo.com/v3/smtp/email.
Terms: https://www.brevo.com/legal/termsofuse/ — Privacy: https://www.brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy/
Postmark — email delivery API, used if you pick Postmark. Each email goes to https://api.postmarkapp.com/email.
Terms: https://postmarkapp.com/terms-of-service — Privacy: https://postmarkapp.com/privacy-policy
Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) — Amazon’s email delivery API, used if you pick Amazon SES. Each email goes to https://email.{your-region}.amazonaws.com/v2/email/outbound-emails. If you turn on bounce/complaint webhooks for SES, Mailyard also confirms the Amazon SNS subscription with a one-time request to the AWS-hosted SubscribeURL (it checks the host is on amazonaws.com first).
Terms: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/ — Privacy: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/
Custom SMTP — if you pick the Custom SMTP option, email goes to the SMTP host and port you enter. That’s whatever SMTP service or server you choose, so check its own terms and privacy policy.
Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS — only used by the deliverability checker, and only as a fallback when your server’s own DNS lookup fails. It sends just your domain name (to read SPF/DKIM/DMARC/MX records) to https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query. No email content is involved.
Terms: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ — Privacy: https://developers.cloudflare.com/1.1.1.1/privacy/public-dns-resolver/
Installation
- Search for “Mailyard” in Plugins → Add New (or upload the zip), then activate.
- Open the Mailyard menu in your admin sidebar.
- Pick a provider, enter your API key, set your sender address.
- Hit Send test on the Dashboard to confirm it works.
Adding a backup provider
In the Connections tab, click Add, set up a second provider, enable it, and drag it below your main one. If the main provider fails, the backup takes over automatically.
Coming from another SMTP plugin
Deactivate your current mail plugin (WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, Post SMTP, whichever) before activating Mailyard. Two of them running at once causes conflicts — Mailyard will warn you if it spots one.
Frequently asked questions
Why is WordPress not sending emails?
By default WordPress hands wp_mail() to your web host’s own mail server, and web hosts aren’t email providers: no proper SPF/DKIM authentication, shared IPs with bad reputations, silent failures. Gmail and Outlook treat that mail as suspicious, so it gets blocked or lands in spam. The fix is routing email through a real provider over SMTP or an API — which is exactly what Mailyard does.
Is Mailyard an alternative to WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, or Post SMTP?
Yes — it does the same core job and adds the things most of them don’t have: automatic failover on the same send, sender routing across multiple providers, bounce and complaint tracking, and a deliverability checker, all free. Deactivate the other SMTP plugin first; two mailers at once conflict.
Does it work with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms?
Yes. Anything that sends mail the normal WordPress way goes through Mailyard automatically — no per-plugin setup.
Which provider should I pick?
Just starting out: Resend — one key and you’re sending in five minutes. Running a store: Postmark — best sending reputation for transactional mail. Want a free tier: Brevo gives you 300 emails a day. High volume: Amazon SES, about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Already have an account somewhere? Just use that.
What if my provider goes down?
If you’ve added a backup in Connections, Mailyard retries on the same send and nothing is lost. With only one provider, the email fails like it normally would — so add a backup.
Can an AI assistant use Mailyard?
Yes — that’s what Settings → Connect AI is for. Mailyard registers five tools on the WordPress 7.0 Abilities API: delivery status, deliverability check, read the email log, open one logged email, and send a test. Install an MCP bridge (the free WordPress MCP Adapter plugin), create an Application Password, and paste the endpoint into Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, or Windsurf — the in-plugin guide gives you the exact command. Every tool has its own on/off switch.
Where are my API keys stored?
In your WordPress database, like any SMTP plugin’s settings. They’re only ever sent to the provider they belong to — never to us, never anywhere else.
Gmail or Microsoft 365?
Personal Gmail works through Custom SMTP with an app password. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have switched off basic SMTP auth, so use Resend or Postmark for those.
How long do you keep email logs?
30 days, then they’re deleted automatically. You can also turn logging off entirely in Settings.
Does uninstalling delete my data?
No. Uninstalling leaves your logs and settings alone, so you can reinstall without losing anything. The only thing that wipes your data is the Delete all data button in Settings, and it never runs on its own.
Is it really free?
Yes. Every feature you can see is yours — failover, routing, bounce tracking, the deliverability checker, the email log. Nothing is locked or metered. The only thing we sell is Mailyard Pro, a separate broadcast-campaigns plugin that builds on top of Mailyard — this plugin is complete without it.
Changelog
1.0.1
- Fix: Reply-To headers in “Name ” form are reduced to the bare address before reaching ESP drivers — replies to form-notification emails no longer bounce.
- Fix: emails without an explicit Content-Type header now follow
wp_mail_content_type(plain text by default), preserving line breaks in plain-text messages.
1.0.0
- Initial release.
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Mailyard alternatives
All deliverability plugins →
FAQ
Mailyard: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 1, 2026
Is Mailyard free?
Yes. Mailyard is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Mailyard safe to use in 2026?
Mailyard works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 55/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Mailyard?
Mailyard is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 224 times since it launched in July 2026. It was downloaded 66 times in the last 30 days.
Does Mailyard work with WordPress 7.1?
Mailyard is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Mailyard need?
Mailyard requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Mailyard last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.1, was released on July 29, 2026 (2 months ago).
Who makes Mailyard?
Mailyard is developed and maintained by Fahim Reza.
What are the best alternatives to Mailyard?
The most popular alternatives to Mailyard are WP Mail Logging (300K+ installs), Meow Mailer (800+ installs) and Deliverability (700+ installs).
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