By default, WordPress hands its emails to PHP’s mail() function, and its own documentation warns that a successful send does not mean the message arrived. Since 2024, that detail has become a blocker: Gmail, Yahoo and then Outlook reject or filter bulk mail that cannot prove where it comes from.
Choosing a newsletter plugin for WordPress therefore starts with choosing who sends. Some plugins build and send campaigns from your site, through your server or a relay service. Others simply collect subscribers and hand sending over to a specialized platform. In between, there are a few hybrid solutions.
This comparison covers ten plugins that are active and maintained in October 2026, with their official prices, their sending model and what they do for deliverability. It also tells how a WordPress plugin company left ActiveCampaign to send fifteen thousand emails on its own for less than two dollars.
How we ranked them
The first criterion is the sending model: from WordPress, through an external platform, or both. The second is deliverability tooling: domain authentication, a one-click unsubscribe header, bounce handling. The third covers consent: double opt-in, unsubscribing, data management.
Then come the real price at 500 and then a few thousand subscribers, the maintenance pace and the security record. Prices and install counts were read at the time of writing, in October 2026, in US dollars and excluding tax.
Sending from WordPress or through a platform
What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook require
Since February 1, 2024, Gmail has required every sender, whatever their volume, to use SPF or DKIM authentication, valid reverse DNS, an encrypted connection and a spam complaint rate below 0.3%, with a target under 0.1%. Above roughly 5,000 messages a day to Gmail addresses, a sender becomes a “bulk sender”, permanently.
They must then publish SPF, DKIM and a DMARC policy, even one that only monitors, and offer one-click unsubscribe on marketing emails, processed within two days. Yahoo has applied very similar rules since the same date. Microsoft followed on May 5, 2025 for Outlook.com and Hotmail: above 5,000 messages a day, unauthenticated mail is rejected. Our article on the 0.30% complaint threshold covers that sensitive point.
What WordPress does by default
Out of the box, WordPress sends its emails with PHP’s mail() function, from an address such as wordpress@your-domain. The core source code itself warns that some hosts block mail from that address if it does not exist. WordPress signs nothing with DKIM itself, and a sending failure is neither logged nor displayed by default.
That is why a relay plugin, such as WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP, is the first building block of any sending from WordPress. It replaces mail() with an authenticated service, Amazon SES, an SMTP provider or a platform’s API, and logs failures. The self-hosted plugins in this comparison all need one, unless you use their own SMTP or Amazon SES connectors, which do the same job.
One-click unsubscribe is a signed header
One-click unsubscribe does not go through the link at the bottom of the message but through a technical header defined by RFC 8058, which must point to an HTTPS address and be covered by the message’s DKIM signature. A plugin can add that header, but it only counts if a valid DKIM signature covers these headers, and it is the sending relay that applies it.
That is the fundamental difference between the two models. An external platform handles that machinery for you, provided you authenticate your domain with it. When sending from WordPress, deliverability becomes your job: relay, signature, bounces and reputation.
1. MailPoet: everything in WordPress, with an optional sending service
What it does
MailPoet, owned by Automattic and developed with the WooCommerce team, is installed on more than 500,000 sites. It builds newsletters, new-post notifications, WooCommerce emails and automations directly in the admin. Sending goes either through its own service, or through your server, an SMTP relay, Amazon SES or SendGrid.
Strengths
With MailPoet’s sending service, bounces are handled automatically and domain authentication is guided: two CNAME records and two TXT records. The plugin adds the one-click unsubscribe header, provided the unsubscribe address uses HTTPS. Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook sender addresses are refused or rewritten, which avoids a guaranteed rejection.
Limits
The subscriber count includes unconfirmed and inactive contacts, as well as the WordPress Users and WooCommerce Customers lists: you hit the ceiling sooner than you think, and without an upgrade, access to the sending service and Premium features is cut two days after the third reminder. With MailPoet’s service, double opt-in is enforced, and transactional emails count toward the quota. A CSRF flaw was fixed in July 2026.
Price and audience
The free plan covers 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails a month. The Creator plan, without the sending service, starts at $8 a month; the Business plan, with it, at $10. MailPoet suits WordPress and WooCommerce sites that want to manage everything from the dashboard.
2. FluentCRM: a full CRM, sent through your relay
What it does
FluentCRM, from WPManageNinja, installed on more than 80,000 sites, stores contacts, tags, campaigns and automations in the WordPress database. It sends through WordPress’s email function, and its vendor recommends Amazon SES, paired with its FluentSMTP plugin.
Strengths
The license is priced by number of sites, not number of contacts: the free version has no limit on sends or contacts. Automations are rich, double opt-in and the one-click unsubscribe header are built in, and data never leaves your server.
Limits
All deliverability depends on the relay you configure: DKIM signing, bounce handling, reputation. The CRM also shares your site’s resources, which weighs on a store. Three flaws in the Pro version, including an SQL injection and a privilege escalation, were published in late August 2026; they affect versions up to 3.1.12.
Price and audience
The Pro license for one site costs $129 a year, $103 for the first year. With Amazon SES at the pay-as-you-go rate, sending costs 10 cents per 1,000 emails; since July 21, 2026, new accounts start on the Essentials plan at 16 cents unless they switch to that rate. FluentCRM suits technical teams that want a fixed cost and control over their sending.
The real case: leaving ActiveCampaign for FluentCRM and Amazon SES
Jack Arturo runs Very Good Plugins, the company behind WP Fusion, a plugin that connects WordPress to CRMs. An ActiveCampaign customer since 2015, he explained in November 2023, in a long technical post, why and how he brought everything back into WordPress. FluentCRM published a case study in 2025 with the following year’s figures.
The trigger
Friction had been building for a long time: a duplicate-tag bug that took months to fix, API delays that slowed down his own customers’ checkouts. In March 2023, ActiveCampaign raised the price of all its plans. Very Good Plugins kept a legacy rate of $60 a month as long as the list stayed under 10,000 contacts; beyond that, the next tier would cost $229 a month. The team trimmed its list, removed its signup forms, then could no longer send any campaign at all from August.
The options considered
Brevo was ruled out for fear of another price increase from an online service. Mautic, self-hosted, disappointed with its automation builder. Groundhogg appealed, but its linear funnels did not match the existing automations. FluentCRM won because lists, tags, triggers and goals carried over almost one to one.
The architecture and the migration
FluentCRM was installed on a dedicated subdomain, on a small server separate from the store, and sending went through Amazon SES, which the team already used. Load tests showed that MySQL connections had to be raised and a cache disabled to handle a thousand contacts a minute.
The migration ran into FluentCRM’s importer, which failed for a week or two on 15,000 contacts. Jack Arturo fixed it by switching it from version 1 to version 3 of ActiveCampaign’s API: the import then took four minutes, tags included, and FluentCRM merged his fix. The automations, on the other hand, were copied by hand.
The result
According to FluentCRM’s case study, the list grew from 10,000 to more than 21,000 contacts in a year, once the forms were back online. In September 2024, WP Fusion sent 15,516 emails for a total cost of $1.75. The two sources do not agree on every savings figure, and the 2023 post puts the migration work at about $2,500.
What to take away
Jack Arturo points out the trade-off himself: a CRM inside WordPress shares the site’s resources and security risks, and without a technical background, an online platform still makes sense. Sending on your own means replacing a per-contact bill with a per-send cost and engineering time. It also means managing your own sender reputation, which he presents as an advantage.
3. The Newsletter Plugin: unlimited and paid once
What it does
The Newsletter Plugin, in the directory since 2009 and installed on more than 200,000 sites, builds and sends newsletters from WordPress, through the site’s mail or any SMTP plugin.
Strengths and limits
The free version sets no limit on subscribers or newsletters. The one-click unsubscribe header has been supported for several versions, and consent to open tracking can be collected. On the other hand, deliverability is yours, unless you move up to the Professional license, at $99, which adds the Amazon SES, SendGrid and Mailgun add-ons with bounce and complaint handling (the Brevo add-on is free). Three flaws were fixed in 2026, the last one published on October 1.
Price and audience
The Essential license costs $69 as a one-time payment, with one year of updates; the add-ons keep working afterwards, without guaranteed compatibility. The Newsletter Plugin suits blogs and nonprofits that want unlimited subscribers with no monthly subscription.
4. Groundhogg: CRM and funnels inside WordPress
What it does
Groundhogg, by Adrian Tobey, combines a CRM, automated funnels and campaigns in WordPress. It sends through the email solution configured on the site, with integrations for Amazon SES, Postmark or Resend in the higher plans.
Strengths and limits
Its code correctly adds the one-click unsubscribe headers and a preferences center, and contacts are unlimited on every plan. But its user base is small, about 2,000 installs, and its security record is heavy: more than fifteen flaws published since January 2025, including a malicious file upload. All of them affect versions older than the current one, so updating without delay is essential.
Price and audience
The Basic plan costs $20 a month, billed yearly, for one site. Groundhogg suits consultants and agencies that want sales funnels inside WordPress at a fixed price.
5. Jetpack Newsletter: zero setup, sent by WordPress.com
What it does
Jetpack’s Subscriptions module turns every post into a newsletter. There is no separate plugin: it is part of Jetpack, installed on more than three million sites. Sending is handled by WordPress.com’s infrastructure.
Strengths and limits
There is no relay to configure, and each subscriber confirms by clicking a link. Paid newsletters are possible, with a fee ranging from 10% on the free plan to 2% on the Complete plan, plus Stripe fees. But messages are sent from donotreply@wordpress.com, not from your domain: your brand has no DKIM or DMARC of its own. Imports are capped at 100 subscribers on the free plan, and unlimited subscribers are presented as an introductory offer that may change.
Price and audience
Free, with paid Jetpack plans to lift the import limit. Jetpack Newsletter suits blogs and writers who want to publish without configuring anything.
6. Brevo: newsletters and transactional email with one provider
What it does
The official Brevo plugin, formerly Sendinblue, with more than 100,000 installs, adds forms, syncs contacts and can route WordPress’s transactional emails through Brevo. Campaigns are built in Brevo.
Strengths and limits
Brevo supports the one-click unsubscribe header and guides domain authentication. A Gmail sender address is rewritten onto a Brevo domain. Pricing is based on sending volume, not number of contacts. On the other hand, the plugin was only tested up to WordPress 6.9.9 in October 2026, and a June 2026 release tightened permission checks.
Price and audience
The free plan allows 300 emails a day; the Starter plan starts at $9 a month. Brevo suits sites that want a single provider for campaigns and transactional emails.
7. MC4WP: better forms for Mailchimp
What it does
MC4WP, with more than a million installs, adds signup forms and connects Contact Form 7, WooCommerce, Gravity Forms or WPForms to Mailchimp. Note that it is not Mailchimp’s plugin, but one from an independent vendor, ibericode. Mailchimp itself publishes two plugins: Mailchimp for WooCommerce, with more than 200,000 installs, and Mailchimp List Subscribe Form, a basic signup form installed on more than 60,000 sites.
Strengths and limits
Mailchimp sends, stores the list and handles unsubscribe headers. MC4WP takes care of collection, with Mailchimp’s double opt-in enabled by default. Our comparison of form plugins helps you choose which form to connect. The limit is Mailchimp’s cost, which rises with the number of contacts, and whose free plan has shrunk to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month.
Price and audience
MC4WP Premium costs $59 a year for one site. It suits sites already on Mailchimp that want better forms.
8. Kit: the creators’ platform
What it does
Kit, formerly ConvertKit, offers an official plugin installed on more than 40,000 sites: forms, landing pages, content restricted to subscribers or buyers of Kit products, and importing campaigns as WordPress posts. All sending goes through Kit.
Strengths and limits
Its free plan is the most generous of the hosted platforms in this comparison, up to 10,000 subscribers. Beyond that, the price follows list size, and WordPress becomes a mere storefront: subscribers, automations and statistics live at Kit.
Price and audience
The Creator plan costs $390 a year at 1,000 subscribers. Kit suits creators who sell digital products or paid newsletters.
9. Omnisend: automation for WooCommerce
What it does
Omnisend publishes two main plugins; for a store, Email Marketing for WooCommerce is the one that syncs orders and products in real time, for cart recovery, post-purchase messages and SMS.
Strengths and limits
Sales automations are ready to use, double opt-in is available, and the plugin’s rating is excellent. Omnisend bills for contacts who receive messages, automated ones included. Our selection of WooCommerce plugins to boost sales puts it in a broader context.
Price and audience
The free plan covers 250 contacts and 500 emails a month; the Standard plan costs $16 a month at 500 contacts. Omnisend suits stores whose revenue relies on automations.
10. Sender: the widest free plan for a small store
What it does
Sender offers email and SMS, WooCommerce sync, cart recovery and back-in-stock alerts. Its plugin remains modest, with more than 5,000 installs, but it is up to date.
Strengths and limits
Its free plan covers 2,500 subscribers and 15,000 emails a month, with Sender branding in messages. MailerLite was the other candidate for this slot, but in October 2026 both of its official plugins showed the directory’s warning that they had not been tested with the last three major WordPress releases.
Price and audience
The Standard plan costs $108 a year at 500 subscribers. Sender suits small WooCommerce stores that are just starting out.
How to choose
- A blog that wants to publish without setup: Jetpack Newsletter, or MailPoet to send from your own domain.
- A technical team with a large list: FluentCRM or The Newsletter Plugin, with Amazon SES.
- A WooCommerce store: Omnisend or MailPoet, Sender to start for free.
- A creator selling content: Kit.
- A site already on Mailchimp or Brevo: MC4WP or the Brevo plugin.
The cost at 5,000 subscribers
Take a list of 5,000 subscribers and four sends a month, or 20,000 emails. At MailPoet, the Business plan, sending service included, costs $55 a month at that tier, and the Creator plan, with your own relay, $44. With FluentCRM or The Newsletter Plugin and Amazon SES at the pay-as-you-go rate, sending costs about $2 a month, plus the plugin license, yearly for FluentCRM, paid once for The Newsletter Plugin.
The gap looks huge, but it does not count setup time, monitoring of bounces and complaints, or hosting a CRM that keeps growing. That is exactly the trade-off WP Fusion made, knowingly.
In every case, authenticate your domain, and if possible separate marketing and transactional streams, as our article on sending subdomains explains.
Summary table
| Plugin | Who sends | Free plan | Entry price (Oct. 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailPoet | MailPoet or your relay | 500 subscribers | $8 a month |
| FluentCRM | Your relay | Unlimited | $129 a year |
| The Newsletter Plugin | Your relay | Unlimited | $69 one-time |
| Groundhogg | Your relay | Core version | $20 a month, billed yearly |
| Jetpack Newsletter | WordPress.com | Yes | Free |
| Brevo | Brevo | 300 emails a day | $9 a month |
| MC4WP | Mailchimp | 250 contacts (Mailchimp) | $59 a year (plugin) |
| Kit | Kit | 10,000 subscribers | $390 a year |
| Omnisend | Omnisend | 250 contacts | $16 a month |
| Sender | Sender | 2,500 subscribers | $108 a year |
Newsletter plugins, a favorite target
A newsletter plugin necessarily exposes public endpoints: signup form, unsubscribe link, open and click tracking. Each one is a door open to anonymous visitors, which explains the steady stream of flaws published in this category.
The most serious example remains Icegram Express, another newsletter plugin: in 2024, an SQL injection exploitable without an account, rated 9.8 out of 10, affected every version up to 5.7.14. In 2026, flaws were fixed in MailPoet, FluentCRM Pro, The Newsletter Plugin, MC4WP, Brevo and above all Groundhogg. All of them concern versions older than the current ones.
The rule is therefore simple: update these plugins like security tools, limit the accounts that can administer them, and prefer a plugin whose vendor fixes quickly and publishes its fixes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an SMTP plugin with MailPoet or FluentCRM?
With FluentCRM, in practice, yes: it sends through WordPress’s email function, which an authenticated relay must replace. With MailPoet, only if you do not use its sending service. In both cases, the relay must sign with DKIM for your domain.
Is double opt-in mandatory?
Not in France: for marketing to individuals, the CNIL requires freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous consent, and a simple way to opt out in every message, but it does not require double opt-in. Some tools enforce it anyway, such as MailPoet’s sending service or Jetpack. Our article on double opt-in covers the question.
What happens above 5,000 messages a day?
Gmail permanently classifies you as a bulk sender, and requires SPF, DKIM, DMARC and one-click unsubscribe. Since May 2025, Outlook has rejected unauthenticated mail above that threshold. At Gmail, the count is per primary domain, across all streams.
Can I send a newsletter from a Gmail address?
No. A message showing an @gmail.com address but sent from another server fails DMARC alignment, and Google tells senders not to impersonate its sender addresses. It has announced a quarantine policy for gmail.com, even though the record was still p=none on October 1, 2026, and bulk senders that spoof gmail.com already get temporary failures. Most platforms also rewrite or refuse these addresses. Use an authenticated address on your own domain.
Is Jetpack Newsletter enough for a blog?
To get started, yes. But messages are sent from a WordPress.com address, and unlimited subscribers are presented as an introductory offer that may change. If your list becomes an asset, send from your own domain.
Conclusion
Choosing a newsletter plugin is first a choice of who carries deliverability. An external platform takes it on, for a bill that grows with the list. A self-hosted plugin puts it in your hands, for a relay to configure, a DKIM signature to set up and a reputation to watch.
WP Fusion’s story shows that the second path can cost almost nothing per send, but that it takes skills and time. Either way, the rule has been the same since 2024: authenticate your domain, offer one-click unsubscribe and keep your complaint rate very low.
Sources
- Google. Email sender guidelines
- Google, Gmail Help. Email sender guidelines FAQ
- Google, Neil Kumaran (October 3, 2023). Gmail introduces new requirements to fight spam
- Yahoo. Sender Best Practices
- Microsoft (April 2, 2025, updated April 29, 2025). Outlook’s New Requirements for High-Volume Senders
- IETF (January 2017). RFC 8058, Signaling One-Click Functionality for List Email Headers
- WordPress Developer Resources. wp_mail()
- CNIL (June 10, 2026). La prospection commerciale par courrier électronique, SMS-MMS et automate d’appel
- Jack Arturo, WP Fusion (November 24, 2023). We switched from ActiveCampaign to FluentCRM
- FluentCRM (September 25, 2025). WP Fusion case study
- WordPress.org. MailPoet
- MailPoet (October 2026). Plans and pricing
- MailPoet. SPF, DKIM, DMARC
- MailPoet. Plans and limits explained
- FluentCRM (October 2026). Pricing
- Amazon Web Services. Amazon SES pricing
- The Newsletter Plugin (October 2026). Premium
- Groundhogg (October 2026). Pricing
- Jetpack (October 2026). Newsletter
- Jetpack Support. Import subscribers
- WordPress.org. Brevo
- Brevo (October 2026). Pricing
- MC4WP (October 2026). Pricing
- Mailchimp (October 2026). Marketing pricing
- Kit (October 2026). Pricing
- Omnisend (October 2026). Pricing
- Sender (October 2026). Pricing
- WordPress.org. MailerLite, Signup forms
- NVD (May 2, 2024). CVE-2024-2876, Icegram Express
- WordPress.org. FluentSMTP
- WordPress.org. Mailchimp List Subscribe Form
- NVD (August 2026). CVE-2026-78277, FluentCRM Pro
- Amazon Web Services. Amazon SES pricing
- IETF (January 2017). RFC 8058, Signaling One-Click Functionality for List Email Headers
- MailPoet. Your FROM address cannot be @yahoo.com, @gmail.com, @outlook.com
- MailPoet. Sign-up Confirmation (Double Opt-in) Feature
- Jetpack. Customize the Newsletter experience
- Brevo. Comply with Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s requirements for email senders
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