Get Pro 0
Comparison
vs

NimblyMail vs Easy WP SMTP

Easy WP SMTP is simple to set up, and its free version is thinner than its marketing suggests: Gmail, Microsoft 365, Amazon SES and email logging are all behind a licence.

Try NimblyMail Free See pricing

Claims on this page were checked against Easy WP SMTP 2.15.x, August 2026.

The short answer

Which one should you use?

Choose Easy WP SMTP if…

  • You want the shortest possible setup and will send through a plain SMTP host.
  • You do not need logging, and a working send is the entire requirement.
  • You prefer a smaller settings surface over more capability.

Choose NimblyMail if…

  • You want to send through Gmail, Microsoft 365 or Amazon SES without buying a licence.
  • You want email logging in the free version.
  • Checkout speed, staging safety or multisite matter to you.
Where they differ

The differences that matter

The free version does not include Gmail

In the free plugin the Gmail and Amazon SES mailers are present in the interface but declared disabled — visible, and unusable without Pro. Microsoft 365 is the same. So a site wanting to send through a Google Workspace account, one of the most common requirements there is, needs a licence. NimblyMail includes nine mailers free, Gmail, Microsoft 365 and SES among them.

Email logging is Pro too

The free version does not log the mail it sends, and neither alerts, backup connections, routing, rate limiting, reports nor multisite are included. The practical effect is that when mail goes missing, the free version cannot tell you whether the message was generated, whether it was sent, or what the provider said — which is the information you need at exactly the moment you are looking for it.

Their performance feature ships with a warning

Easy WP SMTP does have background sending in Pro, and their own documentation is unusually candid about it: the setting "will substantially increase email delivery time" and is "not intended to fix email delivery issues". They also publish a recovery procedure for when the queue's Action Scheduler table is missing, which causes a critical error that locks administrators out of wp-admin. NimblyMail uses Action Scheduler too, so the same infrastructure caveat applies — the difference is which side of a paywall it sits on.

Tiers gate site count, not capability

Their four tiers differ only in how many sites a licence covers; the feature list is identical across all four, with the top tier adding priority support. So if the feature you need is Pro, the entry price is the price. Introductory pricing renews substantially higher, which is worth checking before the second year.

Feature by feature

Capability comparison

Capability Easy WP SMTP NimblyMail
Standard SMTP Free Free
Gmail / Google Workspace Pro Free
Microsoft 365 / Outlook Pro Free
Amazon SES Pro Free
Email logging Pro Free
Failure alerts Pro Free
Background sending queue Pro Free
Multisite network admin Pro Free
Stop all sending on staging Included Included
Sandbox redirect mode + allowlist Not available Included
Recurring deliverability audit Not available Included
Smart routing Pro Pro
Backup connection Pro Pro
Email rate limiting Pro Pro

Easy WP SMTP pricing: Four tiers gating site count only, from one site to fifty; the feature list is identical across all four.

Switching

Moving from Easy WP SMTP

NimblyMail detects an active Easy WP SMTP installation and imports its settings: sender identity, SMTP host, port, encryption and username, Amazon SES credentials, Gmail client ID and secret, and the SendLayer API key. Two honest limitations. The SMTP password does not transfer, because Easy WP SMTP encrypts it with a key the importer cannot access, so you re-enter it once. And OAuth connections must be re-authorised, because tokens are issued against a specific application's redirect URI and cannot move between plugins. Anything that cannot be mapped is reported rather than dropped silently, so you get a list of what needs attention. Both plugins can stay active during the switch.

Where Easy WP SMTP is the better choice

It is not a bad plugin and this should not read as though it is.

If your requirement is genuinely a plain SMTP host and nothing more — a brochure site with a contact form, sending through your web host’s mail server — its simplicity is a real advantage. There is less to configure and less to misconfigure, and the settings screen does not present options you will never use.

Its documentation is also strong, and unusually candid about its own limitations; the caveats quoted on this page come from their own docs, not from us.

The comparison changes only when you need a mailer, logging, or capability beyond a straight SMTP connection — which is where the free tiers diverge sharply.

FAQ

NimblyMail vs Easy WP SMTP, answered

No. In the free plugin the Gmail mailer is present in the interface but declared disabled, so it cannot be used without a Pro licence. Microsoft 365, Outlook and Amazon SES are gated the same way. This is worth knowing in advance, because Gmail one-click setup features prominently in their marketing.

Other comparisons

View all comparisons
WP Mail SMTP compared with NimblyMail The market leader, with a free tier that connects a mailer and little else. Logging, alerts, routing, reports and multisite are all… 15 capabilities compared Read the comparison FluentSMTP compared with NimblyMail FluentSMTP has no paid tier and gives away routing and failover. NimblyMail adds a background queue, recurring deliverability audits and multisite. Neither… 13 capabilities compared Read the comparison