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Connect SendGrid for Emails

By WP Zone

Communication & Messaging / Transactional Email

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Connect SendGrid for Emails Review - In-Depth Analysis

Connect SendGrid to your WordPress site to send emails using SendGrid's cloud-based email platform.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.78/10

User Rating

5/5 (based on 2+ reviews)

Active Installations

800+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

Connect SendGrid for Emails is a third-party fork of the official SendGrid plugin. This plugin connects to an external service using the SendGrid API.

The plugin replaces WordPress's default wp_mail() function by using either an SMTP or API integration with SendGrid to send outgoing email. It allows uploading contacts directly to your SendGrid Marketing Campaigns account via a subscription widget.

By using this plugin, you can improve email deliverability and access enhanced features, including tracking and analytics, to boost user engagement.

The WordPress Subscription Widget enables visitors to subscribe to your marketing emails, ensuring they receive a confirmation email for double opt-in compliance.

For Multisite users, the plugin needs to be Network Activated, and settings can be configured for all sites from the network dashboard. Each subsite can manage its SendGrid settings independently.

Comparing to Alternatives

Connect SendGrid for Emails is a straightforward plugin designed to integrate SendGrid email services with WordPress. It stands out for its simplicity and ease of use compared to other SMTP and email integration plugins.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Extremely simple and easy to configure with minimal settings.
Works reliably as expected for SendGrid email integration.
Supports multisite installations, unlike some commercial alternatives.
Lightweight plugin focusing solely on SendGrid integration.
No known security vulnerabilities, ensuring safe usage.

Weaknesses

Limited to SendGrid integration only, lacking broader SMTP support.
No premium version or advanced features available.
Smaller user base compared to some popular SMTP plugins.
Minimal customization options beyond basic setup.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a perfect 5-star rating from all reviewers, user feedback is overwhelmingly positive, highlighting ease of use and reliable performance.

Positive highlights

"Works like charm" - sakshiranganegi
"Best Free Plugin for Sendgrid integration" - Atanas Yonkov
"Settings are simple and easy to use" - sakshiranganegi
"Connected to SendGrid in seconds with just API key and sender's address" - Atanas Yonkov
"Supports multisite in free version unlike other commercial plugins" - Atanas Yonkov

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Limited feature set with no advanced options.
No paid version means no premium support or enhancements.
Focused only on SendGrid, not suitable for other SMTP providers.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users who need a straightforward, no-fuss SendGrid integration for WordPress, especially those managing multisite installations and wanting a lightweight plugin.

Not ideal for

Users seeking a multi-provider SMTP solution, advanced email customization, or premium support features may find this plugin too basic.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all necessary features to connect WordPress to SendGrid via API with simple configuration and multisite support.

Final Verdict

Connect SendGrid for Emails excels as a simple, reliable, and secure plugin for integrating SendGrid with WordPress. Its ease of use and multisite support make it an excellent choice for users who want a hassle-free email solution without unnecessary complexity.

However, its narrow focus and lack of advanced features or premium support mean it may not suit users needing broader SMTP options or more customization. Overall, it offers great value for those specifically seeking SendGrid integration.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Connect SendGrid for Emails plugin.

Email Marketing

Sendgrid

Transactional Email

FAQ

Plugin versions 1.11.x were tested and confirmed to work on PHP 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.0, 7.1. It DOES NOT work on PHP 5.3 and earlier.

Plugin versions 1.10.x were tested and confirmed to work on PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6. It DOES NOT work on PHP 7.0 and later.

If you have WP Better Emails plugin installed and you want to use the template defined here instead of the Connect SendGrid for Emails template you can add the following code in your functions.php file from your theme:

function use_wpbe_template( $message, $content_type ) {     global $wp_better_emails;     if ( 'text/plain' == $content_type ) {       $message = $wp_better_emails->process_email_text( $message );     } else {       $message = $wp_better_emails->process_email_html( $message );     }      return $message; } add_filter( 'sendgrid_override_template', 'use_wpbe_template', 10, 2 );

Using the default templates from WP Better Emails will cause all emails to be sent as HTML (i.e. text/html content-type). In order to send emails as plain text (i.e. text/plain content-type) you should remove the HTML Template from WP Better Emails settings page. This is can be done by removing the ‘%content%’ tag from the HTML template.

Yes. You must add a filter that does that. You need to declare a function that takes the content of the email as argument and then call add_filter() with the name “sendgrid_mail_text” or “sendgrid_mail_html”, depending on what part of the email you want to change.

If you want to change the text content of all the emails before they are sent you can do it like this :

function change_sendgrid_text_email( $message ) {     return $message . ' changed by way of text filter '; }  add_filter( 'sendgrid_mail_text', 'change_sendgrid_text_email' );

If you want to change HTML content of all the emails before they are sent you can do it like this :

function change_sendgrid_html_email( $message ) {     return $message . ' changed by way of html filter '; }  add_filter( 'sendgrid_mail_html', 'change_sendgrid_html_email' );

Note that what is changed depends of the content-type that you have set in the settings page or overwritten by way of filter. For “text/plain” only the text part is overwritten by the filter. For “text/html” both the text and the HTML filters are called.

The code snippets above are usually added in the functions.php file of your theme.

Yes. Our plugin required special integration with BuddyPress and it’s regularly tested to ensure it behaves as expected. If you have noticed issues caused by installing this plugin along with BuddyPress, you can add the following line to your wp-config.php to disable it :

define('SENDGRID_DISABLE_BUDDYPRESS', '1');

If you’re trying to send plaintext emails using BuddyPress, keep in mind that by default the whitespace content of those emails is normalized.

That means that some newlines might be missing if you expect them to be there.

To disable this functionality, you need to add the following line in your wp-config.php file:

define('SENDGRID_DISABLE_BP_NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE', '1');

Yes. You need to create custom page and select it from the settings page. You can place any of these shortcodes in the body of that page. Here’s an example :

Hi [sendgridSubscriptionFirstName] [sendgridSubscriptionLastName], Your email address : [sendgridSubscriptionEmail] has been successfully added. You'll hear from us soon!

You need to enable the use of the First Name and Last Name fields from the settings page in order to use the shortcodes for them.

When calling the wp_mail() function you can send a SendGrid PHP email object in the headers argument.

Here is an example:

$email = new SendGrid\Email(); $email     ->setFrom('[email protected]')     ->setHtml('<strong>Hello World!</strong>')     ->addCategory('customCategory') ;  wp_mail('[email protected]', 'Subject goes here', 'Message goes here', $email);

You can find more examples here: https://github.com/sendgrid/sendgrid-php/blob/v4.0.2/README.md

Yes. You can define a constant in your wp-config.php file like this: