Mailgun Email Validator

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Kick spam with a highly advanced email validation in comment forms, user registration and contact forms using Mailgun's Email validation service.

Author:Jesin (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:3.1.0
WordPress version tested:4.9.25
Plugin version:1.2.4.1
Added to WordPress repository:05-10-2013
Last updated:25-11-2017
Warning! This plugin has not been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.
Rating, %:82
Rated by:25
Plugin URI:https://websistent.com/wordpress-plugins/mail...
Total downloads:10 667
Active installs:100+
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Most email validators look for an @ and a .(dot) some go further and blacklist certain domain names. But Mailgun’s Advanced email validation service goes deeper and looks for the existence of the domain name, presence of a MX record and the custom ESP(Email Service Provider) grammar.
The grammar here is the rules defined by each email provider. For example, Yahoo Mail addresses can only contain letters, numbers, underscores, and one period.
So user.name.abc@yahoo.com perfectly passes the is_email() function but can never exist as it contains more than one period. Such addresses can’t escape Mailgun’s Email validation.

Why use Mailgun’s email validation service?

  • Performs the usual email syntax check.
  • Checks the existence of the email domain. So user@some-random-characters.com can’t escape.
  • Checks if the email domain has a MX record. So anything@example.com is caught.
  • Checks if the username complies with the grammar of its ESP (Email Service provider). Eg Gmail doesn’t allow usernames less than 6 characters and hyphens so small@gmail.com and hyphen-user@gmail.com can’t get away.

Why use this plugin?

  • Integrates with the is_email() function of WordPress. So it works seamlessly with Contact Form 7, Jetpack/Grunion contact forms, WordPress registration form and any form which uses the is_email() function.
  • Kicks spam before it is inserted into the database
  • Ensures that the commenting process is uninterrupted even if Mailgun suffers a downtime
  • Works completely transparent, nothing changes in the frontend

This plugin requires a Mailgun Public API Key which can be obtained by signing up at Mailgun.

If you’re trying out this plugin on a local WAMP/LAMP/MAMP installation make sure your system is connected to the Internet for this plugin to contact Mailgun.

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Further Reading

Read about Mailgun’s email validation service.

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