PHPMailer

PHPMailer is a free, open-source PHP library that provides a complete, object-oriented interface for sending emails from PHP applications. It simplifies composing messages, managing recipients, handling attachments, and creating HTML or plain-text bodies. The library supports multiple transport methods, including SMTP, Sendmail, and PHP’s native mail() function, enabling secure and flexible email delivery.

A core strength of PHPMailer is its support for modern email features and protocols. It handles MIME encoding, multi-part messages, embedded images, and character encodings, while offering SMTP authentication, TLS/SSL encryption, and compatibility with OAuth 2.0 providers. The API is designed to be robust and developer-friendly, with error handling and optional debug output to aid troubleshooting.

PHPMailer is widely used across PHP projects and is maintained on a public repository with an active community. It is commonly installed via Composer and integrated into applications ranging from small scripts to larger CMS plugins and frameworks. The project has evolved through multiple major versions, with the current releases focusing on modern PHP compatibility, security improvements, and broad server compatibility.

Typical usage involves installing the library, creating a PHPMailer instance, configuring the mail transport (host, port, encryption, and credentials), setting recipients, subject, and body (HTML or plain text), optionally adding attachments or embedded resources, and invoking the send method. The library provides helpful error information if delivery fails and can be extended with additional features as needed.

PHPMailer remains a prominent tool in the PHP ecosystem for reliable email delivery, offering a flexible alternative to the built-in mail function and enabling developers to implement complex email workflows with relative ease.