📨 Why you should only use our dedicated SMTP integrations.

Hi !

We often get asked if Groundhogg supports third-party SMTP plugins like FluentSMTP or WP Mail SMTP.

While Groundhogg "does" work with those plugins (Groundhogg will work with any third party SMTP plugin) it's not recommended.

In fact, using third party SMTP plugin might be damaging your sender reputation.

Their SMTP Plugins vs. Our Integrations.

You can use any Third-Party SMTP plugin with Groundhogg by setting your outgoing email settings to "WordPress Default."

But our dedicated SMTP integrations do something third-party plugins don't.

Bounce and complaint feedback handling!!!!

Most services, like the ones we integrate with (MailHawk, SendGrid, Postmark, AWS, etc.), offer a feedback program for bounces and complaints tracked from inbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo.

Third-party plugins like WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP, don't handle this.

That means you could be sending email to subscribers that don't exist, or spam traps, or people that marked your emails as spam, which could be damaging your sender reputation.

All of our API based SMTP integrations (listed below) automatically handle bounce and complaint feedback and update your list accordingly so you're not sending email to the wrong subscribers.

Amazon Integration (SES & SNS)

Any of the above integrations will automatically update your contacts as Bounced or Complained if they bounce or mark your email as spam in Gmail, Yahoo, and other public/free inbox providers.

Other considerations

All our integrations are also optimized for speed and use new API endpoints. Other plugins still use the SMTP protocol which is slow.

Email threading also only works with our API based integrations, and it's proven to be a nifty feature that improves opens and engagement.

There are not many reasons to be using third-party SMTP plugins. Since Groundhogg comes with email logging built-in, as well as handling for bounces, complaints, and email threading.

We also don't support issues with third-party SMTP plugins! So if you want support for email sending issues you must use our plugins.

If you have questions, never hesitate to reach out.

Adrian Tobey
Founder, Groundhogg Inc.