Quick Mail Supports SparkPost

I wrote the Quick Mail WordPress plugin in 2014, to send a quick email with an attachment from the WordPress dashboard.

Quick Mail has evolved. Newer features include private replies to comments, and sending email with an attachment from the command line with WP-CLI.

Got Spam?

Does email sent from your WordPress blog get marked as spam? You can use Quick Mail with Mailgun and Sendgrid to send reliable email.

The latest version of Quick Mail also supports the SparkPost email delivery service.

Got a Domain?

SparkPost installation is similar to Mailgun. You also need access to a domain, to add verification keys to DNS records.

Quick Mail Meets SparkPost

I was attracted to SparkPost because it claims to have the highest delivery rate of any email delivery service.

I was impressed that SparkPost delivers mail for Zillow. Zillow sends lots of important email.

Setup SparkPost Account

SparkPost offers a free developer account to get you started. SparkPost installation is similar to Mailgun. You also need access to a domain, to add verification keys to DNS records.

SparkPost has clear instructions to guide you. Copy / paste the info into your DNS records, and wait a few minutes for the servers to update.

My Linode server is updated every 15 minutes. You might have to wait longer.

Setup SparkPost Plugin

Install the SparkPost WordPress Plugin after your domain is verified.

Send a test email after you enter your API key and sending address.

Your sending address must be on the subdomain that was verified by SparkPost.

SparkPost Senders

Quick Mail uses the SparkPost name and email address for administrators. Other users will not have their information replaced. This is the same way Mailgun and SendGrid are handled.

SparkPost Templates

SparkPost lets you store templates to send “designer email.” You can create and test a template from your SparkPost dashboard.

The SparkPost plugin saves one template. Programmers can use the Template API to create templates. The SparkPost plugin includes the wpsp_template_id filter to modify the template. Quick Mail does not check or modify this setting.

Mark emails as transactional

SparkPost cannot send transactional emails with an attachment. If you send an email with an attachment, Quick Mail will change the setting before sending and restore the setting after sending.

What Else Is New in Quick Mail 3.4.0?

I moved the email detection and filtering, to play better with other plugins.

Email Verification

The email address verification feature is not perfect.

I changed the email verification process. Mailgun and SparkPost send mail from a subdomain, and want a sender from the same domain.

Alas, checking a subdomain’s mail server did not work for me.

SparkPost does not offer an address verification feature, so I compared Quick Mail’s verification results with with Mailgun’s Email Validation API. Mailgun also offers an online demo, that works with a Mailgun account and Public Key.

I used the API to test my valid email address on a subdomain. Result:

SMTP server(s) check failed (mail.example.com) – Connection refused

I changed address verification to check the top level domain. Quick Mail does not know if the subdomain is valid, so it returns the result for the top level domain.

Mail Verification On

If you enter an invalid email address and verification is on, Quick Mail will display: “ Cannot verify address” in case of a problem.

I have never received a support message about email validation. But validation is not always accurate.

How To Fix Verification Error

If you get a “Cannot verify address” error, and you know the address is correct:

1. Copy your message.
2. Open Quick Mail settings.
3. Turn off verification and save.
4. Return to Quick Mail, and paste your saved message.

Quick Mail and Gutenberg

WordPress 5.0 will include the Gutenberg editor, as the “new“ content editor.

Gutenberg has received some negative reviews. However, new WP 5 users will be forced to use Gutenberg.

WordPress 5 includes an option to use the “Classic Editor.” Quick Mail uses the same editor with the wp_editor() function.

Quick Mail works fine on WordPress 5. I have tested Quick Mail with nightly releases, on standard and multisite.

Get Quick Mail 3.4.0 from WordPress or Github

Download Quick Mail 3.4.0 from the WordPress Plugin Repository. Fork Quick Mail on GitHub to add new features.

Quick Mail 3.4.0 has been tested with WordPress 4.9.2 and nightly releases, including multisite.

If Quick Mail makes your life easier, please leave a review to help others find it.

Thanks to everyone who has been translating Quick Mail. Please join the translation project so more people can use Quick Mail in their language.

Review my previous articles on Quick Mail for more information. Download Quick Mail to try it now.