Mailkeep

Description

Mailkeep is a lightweight logging tool for one of the most invisible parts of a WordPress site: outgoing email. Every time WordPress, a plugin or a theme calls wp_mail() — a password reset, a new-order notification, a contact form submission, an admin alert — Mailkeep records it to a dedicated database table, independent of whatever SMTP or mail-sending service actually delivers it.

This makes it easy to answer questions that are otherwise hard to check: Did that notification actually get sent? What did the email say? Who received it, and when? You don’t need to reproduce the problem or dig through server mail logs — the answer is in your dashboard.

Because it hooks into wp_mail() itself rather than any particular plugin, Mailkeep works the same way regardless of what generates the email — core, WooCommerce, a contact form, a membership plugin, or custom code.

How it works

• Every outgoing email is written to its own table (wp_mailkeep_logs), recording the recipient, subject, message body, headers, attachments list and content type.
• The Mails admin screen lists every logged email with search, pagination and a modal preview of the full content.
• A background daily task removes logs older than your configured retention period, so the table doesn’t grow forever.
• Logging can be paused at any time from Settings without deactivating the plugin.

Built-in privacy protections

Mail bodies routinely contain sensitive one-click links — password resets, order-pay links, login tokens. Storing those in plain text would turn the log table into a security liability. Mailkeep redacts known sensitive query parameters (key, token, password, otp, order_key, and more, filterable via mailkeep_sensitive_keys) before anything is written to the database, and this is on by default.

If you’d rather not store message content at all, you can disable body logging entirely and keep only the recipient, subject and timestamp. Mailkeep also registers with WordPress’s built-in personal data export and erasure tools, so logged mail is included when you process a privacy request.

Features

• Full email capture — recipient, subject, headers, message body, attachments and content type.
• Sensitive link redaction — enabled by default; configurable via a settings toggle and a filter.
• Search — find logged mail by recipient or subject.
• Content preview — view the full rendered email in a modal, without leaving the log list.
• Auto-cleanup — a daily scheduled task removes logs past your chosen retention window.
• Global on/off switch — pause logging without deactivating the plugin.
• Privacy-request ready — integrates with wp_privacy_personal_data_exporters / erasers.
• Multisite aware — network activation provisions the log table on every site, and sites created later get it automatically.
• Clean removal — deleting the plugin removes its table and settings; deactivating it does not.

Technical details