Great plugin, worked well – be aware of additional plugins installed during setu

  • Edit; I have changed my review from one star to 3 Stars based on the updated information below. The plug-in being reviewed works well and the setup wizard was very helpful, but there is an opt-out only option at the end of the setup wizard which is not easily noticed if you are not aware that it exists, which will install an SEO and a contact forms plugin. You have to disable the selections to not install the plugins. In 2023 that to me is not acceptable in an environment like WordPress where plug-in interdependency is so crucial. Based on the performance of this plug-in I would probably have been more inclined to try these two plugins if they had not been slipstreamed into my site with the barest amount of notice possible. See below for the developers response. Opt out options come at step four of the setup wizard.

    • This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by eaec.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by eaec. Reason: Updated information from developer
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Support Dake

    (@dakeg)

    Hi?@eaec

    Thank you for sharing your honest feedback and we apologize for the confusion.

    While we are happy to hear that you were able to get WP Mail SMTP setup successfully, please note that the options to install WPForms and AIOSEO as additional plugins are only available in our Setup Wizard and only if those specific options are selected during the setup process.

    We apologize that this came off as a “shadow install”. We have several companion plugins that serve specific purposes, hence why the “Form” checkbox installs WPForms and the “SEO” checkbox installs AIOSEO.

    Once a specific option is selected and that plugin is not currently installed, we have corresponding text that relates to that particular plugin. For example, if “WordPress SEO Toolkit – Improve your website’s SEO ranking with our toolkit” is selected,?this?text will appear “The following plugin will be installed for free: AIOSEO”

    WPForms and WP Mail SMTP go hand in, our intention was just to provide great starter tools for popular/related needs while keeping the option to uncheck or uninstall if anyone was already using an alternative.

    Thread Starter eaec

    (@eaec)

    Thank you for the explanation. I can see now that in step 4 of the setup wizard, the installation of these additional plugins is enabled by default. I don’t doubt that these are also great plugins, and I understand why you would want to promote them along side another of your products, but allowing them to be installed in this fashion as part of a setup wizard is anachronistic at best and borderline irresponsible in an environment like WordPress where third-party plugins and the interrelationships between them have such a dynamic impact. In 2023 I don’t expect to have to be unticking boxes to prevent a reputable developer from installing additional software into what already amounts to a house of cards ecosystem like wordpress, especially as an enabled by default, easily overlooked option at the end of a somewhat complicated set up process.

    I will change my review from one star to three stars to reflect the fact that the plug-in works well, but my one star review of the other two plugins will stand because this practice isn’t acceptable.

    Plugin Support Dake

    (@dakeg)

    Hi @eaec

    Thank you for getting back to us and for understanding. We have shared your feedback about our setup wizard with our teams for WPForms and AIOSEO.

    We would like to apologise again for the negative experience and hope you continue to authenticate emails successfully using WP Mail SMTP.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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