A native WordPress plugin for inbox placement testing

WordPress email problems are the most common deliverability question we get: my order emails are in Spam, my password resets never arrive, my contact form notifications go missing. Until now, the answer has been "use our external tester, copy seed addresses, trigger each flow by hand". That works, but it is tedious, and it does not give you ongoing monitoring.

The native WordPress plugin closes that gap. It lives in wp-admin, runs tests with one click, and alerts you by email or webhook if placement drops.

What the plugin does

The plugin installs like any other: upload the zip, activate, paste an API key. A new menu item appears under Tools → Inbox Placement. From there:

• One-click tests for any WordPress email flow — pick "Order confirmation", "Password reset", "New user registration", "WooCommerce new order", etc., and the plugin triggers a real send to a seed list and streams results back.
• Scheduled monitoring via WP-Cron. Run a daily placement test at 03:00, check that Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Inbox rates stay above thresholds you define.
• Dashboard widget showing the last 7 days of Inbox % per provider, with colour coding for drops.
• Alerts by email to site admins, Slack webhook, or generic webhook — fires when any provider drops below your threshold.
• SPF/DKIM/DMARC health card that detects the active sending domain (including SMTP plugin overrides) and flags broken records.

Why a native plugin, not just the web tester

The web tester works for anyone running WordPress. It will keep working, free, forever. But three things make a native plugin meaningfully better for site owners:

Trigger real flows, not synthetic sends

The external tester requires you to manually trigger each flow — copy 20 seed addresses, submit the lost-password form 20 times, submit the Contact Form 7 form 20 times. The plugin reaches into WordPress and Woo hooks directly, so you click "Test password reset" and it fires retrieve_password() 20 times for you. Two seconds per flow.

Scheduled monitoring is only useful inside WordPress

The tests have to originate from your server to reflect real placement. A cron job on our infrastructure cannot trigger wp_mail() on yours. WP-Cron inside the plugin can, and the results hit the same API as manual tests.

Alerts with context

A generic monitoring dashboard tells you "Gmail inbox rate dropped from 95% to 40%". The plugin knows the change in your active SMTP plugin ("FluentSMTP disabled 2 hours ago") or a DNS record delta ("SPF record changed yesterday") and includes that in the alert. That turns a 20-minute investigation into a 2-minute one.

Plugin vs current free web tool

• Free web tool: unlimited tests, 20+ providers, no signup, works on any WordPress. Perfect for ad-hoc investigations.
• Plugin (beta): everything above, plus scheduled monitoring, automatic flow triggering, dashboard widget, alerts, SMTP-plugin-aware diagnostics. Paid after GA, free during beta.

The free tool is not going away. The plugin exists for people who want placement to be a continuous measurement, not a manual check.

What we need from beta testers

We are keeping the beta small and working closely with a few dozen sites that cover a range of WordPress realities:

1. Site size: from single-author blog to multi-site with 10+ network sites.
2. SMTP plugin: we want testers running WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, Post SMTP and the default PHP sendmail.
3. Mail providers behind the SMTP plugin: Gmail API, Mailgun, SendGrid, SES, Brevo, Microsoft 365.
4. Plugins that send mail: WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Elementor Forms, BuddyPress, LearnDash.
5. Hosting: shared (SiteGround, Bluehost, Hostinger), VPS, managed (WP Engine, Kinsta), self-hosted.

In exchange for feedback and occasional bug reports, beta testers get:

• Free use during beta and for 12 months after GA.
• Direct Slack channel with the engineering team for priority support.
• Influence over the roadmap — we are still deciding which plugins to auto-detect, which alert channels to ship first, etc.

Roadmap beyond initial beta

The first beta build ships with the features above. Planned follow-ups (beta testers will vote on order):

• On-send validation: before an outgoing email leaves, check SPF/DKIM/DMARC alignment and warn if it will likely hit Spam. Off by default, opt-in per flow.
• Per-plugin dashboards: WooCommerce-specific placement metrics, Contact Form 7-specific, etc.
• Auto-remediation hints: when a DKIM record breaks, the plugin shows the exact record to publish, copy-paste ready.
• Multi-site mode: a network-level admin view across all sites in a multi-site install.

# Sample alert webhook payload
{
  "site": "https://shop.example.com",
  "test_id": "t_01J9X7M3...",
  "trigger": "scheduled_daily",
  "placement": {
    "gmail":   { "inbox": 40, "spam": 60, "change": -55 },
    "outlook": { "inbox": 90, "spam": 10, "change": 0   },
    "yahoo":   { "inbox": 85, "spam": 15, "change": -5  }
  },
  "context": {
    "active_smtp_plugin": "fluent-smtp",
    "dns_changed_last_24h": false,
    "recent_plugin_updates": ["woocommerce 9.4.1"]
  }
}

How to join the beta

Fill the beta waitlist form and tell us your SMTP plugin and what WordPress plugins send mail from your site. We onboard in cohorts of 20 — expect 1–2 weeks from signup to install instructions.

→ Join the beta waitlist

Frequently asked questions