Rythzen SMTP

Name: Rythzen SMTP
Author: Rythzen

Infrastructure

Make WordPress email actually arrive.

Free SMTP delivery for WordPress with provider presets, test email, delivery logs, diagnostics, and privacy-minded defaults.

Latest release

1.1.2

20 Aug 2026 · 28 KB

Download 1.1.2

Requires WordPress: 6.0
Requires PHP: 7.4
Tested up to: 7.1
Licence: GPL-2.0-or-later
Downloads: 50

Automatic updates are built in. Install once, enable auto-updates on the WordPress Plugins screen, and new releases arrive on their own.

PHP's mail() function is why your contact form and password resets end up in spam. Rythzen SMTP routes WordPress mail through a real SMTP server instead.

The delivery log tells you what was sent, what failed and exactly why, and the diagnostics tab shows the raw SMTP exchange when you need to prove where a message died.

Screenshots

Captured on WordPress 7.1. Click any image to view it full size.

Host, port, encryption and authentication, with provider presets and a from-address WordPress will actually be allowed to use.

What it does

Proper SMTP delivery in place of PHP mail()
Provider presets with sensible ports and encryption
A test-email tool with the full SMTP conversation captured
A delivery log recording recipient, subject, status and error
Passwords encrypted at rest, or supplied from wp-config.php
Message bodies are never logged

Installing Rythzen SMTP

1. Download the zip from this page.
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and choose the file.
3. Activate, then open Rythzen SMTP and enter your mail host details.
4. Send a test email before you rely on it.

For extra safety, define RYTHZEN_SMTP_PASSWORD in wp-config.php and leave the password field blank.

1.1.2
Current20 Aug 2026
* Declared compatibility with WordPress 7.1, the version this release was verified on.
* Corrected the readme stable tag, which still pointed at 1.0.0.
1.1.1
20 Aug 2026
Fixed: WordPress's own "Check again" on the Updates screen now bypasses the plugin's
six-hour metadata cache, so a freshly published release shows up immediately.
1.1.0
20 Aug 2026
Added: self-hosted automatic updates through the new Rythzen update service.
Added: an Updates tab showing the installed and latest version, release channel and last check.
Security: the SMTP password is now encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM instead of being stored as
plain text in the options table. Existing passwords are read transparently and re-encrypted on
the next save.
Fixed: with debug logging on, every line of the SMTP conversation triggered its own database
write. The transcript is now buffered and stored once per message.
Fixed: the delivery log ran two extra queries on every single email it recorded.
Fixed: the stored database version was never compared, so a future schema change would not have
been applied on update.
1.0.0
20 Aug 2026
* Initial release.

Version	Released	Channel	Size	Requires	Downloads	Package
1.1.2 LATEST	20 Aug 2026	stable	28 KB	WP 6.0 · PHP 7.4	19	Download
1.1.1	20 Aug 2026	stable	28 KB	WP 6.0 · PHP 7.4	12	Download
1.1.0	20 Aug 2026	stable	27 KB	WP 6.0 · PHP 7.4	9	Download
1.0.0	20 Aug 2026	stable	20 KB	WP 6.0 · PHP 7.4	10	Download

Older releases stay available so you can roll back if an update ever causes a problem on your site. Verify any package you download against its SHA-256 checksum below.

SHA-256 checksums

1.1.230707f68493bb07eb99e375a9315b8de17c0584c704c7b0a2cee4f00ea7a55fd
1.1.13562cb11813b388982b190e40a6e44e2eb069d8a1a3d449cc38b7dc21528dc66
1.1.04143d5c98829456c8b530468bcbcf0f67a66b6dfbf39e67fb53b02c2866daad8
1.0.0f1c90b7e79716c0fd9035fef673c225cccd1a6496025f33ec8f719162fdef28c

Where is my SMTP password stored?

Encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, keyed from your WordPress salts. If you would rather it never reached the database, define RYTHZEN_SMTP_PASSWORD in wp-config.php and leave the field blank.

Does the delivery log keep my message contents?

No. It records recipient, subject, status, timestamp and any error the server returned. Message bodies are never written to the log.

My test email sends but still lands in spam. Why?

SMTP fixes delivery, not reputation. Spam placement is usually SPF, DKIM, DMARC or a missing PTR record on the sending host. The diagnostics tab shows the full SMTP conversation so you can tell a rejection apart from an accepted-then-filtered message.

Will it conflict with another SMTP plugin?

Yes — both hook the same phpmailer_init action and the last one to run wins. Run one.

Rythzen SMTP

Screenshots

Installing Rythzen SMTP

1.1.2

1.1.1

1.1.0

1.0.0

SHA-256 checksums