I’m very pleased to announce the release of version 2 of SMTP Pro. It’s been a long time coming, but my most popular extension should once again be your first choice for custom email integrations. Version 2 is a full rewrite that adds support for all of the latest versions of Magento, an improved admin experience, a better self test and modern coding standards. You can find out more and subscribe for updates over on the SMTP Pro product page, magesmtppro.com.
Background
I first released SMTP Pro 5 years ago, when it was purely for connecting to Google Apps accounts to send store email. Since then I have added support for custom SMTP servers, Amazon SES, email logging, self testing and have helped thousands of merchants get their store emails working.
SMTP Pro was my first open source project and has been by far the most successful with over 30,000 downloads and dozens of contributors over the years. With nearly 150 reviews on Magento Connect and an average of 4.4/5 stars, it’s the positive, constructive feedback of the community I really enjoy.
This update has been long overdue, but I’m very happy to say that SMTP Pro is back, and better than ever.
Where to Download
You can download Magento SMTP Pro from any of these places:
Problems
What should you do if the extension is not working? Well 99.9% of the problems with the extension are actually due to hosting or SMTP configuration issues, such as hosting firewalls or header configuration restrictions.
In the past I would try to help or suggest solutions for these issues but it’s time consuming, and largely outside of the control of the merchant or developer. I am trying to capture common issues like this and suggest solutions during self-test. If you find a new type of error that does not already suggest a helpful solution, please let me know (though I cannot promise I’ll help you fix it!).
If you really have found a bug or issue, please raise it over on github and I’ll include a fix in a future release.
Open Source
If you’d like to be involved in the open source aspect of the project, you’re invited to raise issues/bugs on Github or send pull requests for fixes or code improvements. I’m also aiming to make SMTP Pro available in a number of languages so if you’d like to join the growing list of translations contributors, please send a pull request in your native language.
Compatible Services and Sponsorship
One of the reasons SMTP Pro stagnated for so long is that ‘real work‘ starts to take priority over open source projects. I decided to experiment with a sponsorship arrangement for SMTP Pro that will hopefully cover some of the support costs. I now include a table of popular compatible email services within the admin panel and urge users use a dedicated email service for maximum deliverability and stability. Each month a service will be featured, and services pay to be featured. Being added to the table of compatible services is of course free, provided you can demonstrate basic SMTP compatibility.
If you run an email service and would like to be included in the service table, featured or would like to discuss options for custom integrations, please contact me.
Keeping Updated
On the SMTP Pro product page you’ll find a mailing list signup form (thanks MailChimp). Please sign up for this mailing list to stay up to date with any important new releases, or urgent bug fixes that become available for SMTP Pro. This mailing list technique has been working well for my paid extension MageSend, and I hope it will also work for this free extension to ensure an up-to-date user base.
Roadmap
What’s on the cards for SMTP Pro over the next 6 months?
Firstly I’m going to keep it up to date and compatible with the latest Magento releases. Today I announced support for Magento 1.9 and will be aiming for prompt releases or announcements going forward. Who knows we may even see an SMTP Pro for Magento 2!
Secondly, I also see email sending as an area of weakness in ecommerce, and particularly so for Magento. The content and mechanism of delivery are both lacking and I plan on adding compatible services to SMTP Pro that will give merchants better emails, and better deliverability so stay tuned for those. If you have any pain points you would like addressed, let me know.
Thanks again for all of your support over the last 5 years and 30,000 downloads. It’s a really rewarding feeling to know that I have created an enduring, and useful piece of software for the Magento community and I owe that to the contributors and users who have supported me.