61
Subscribe2 – Form, Email Subscribers & Newsletters
Simple notifications come with a side of heavy spam.
GrowingPoor rating
61/100
The plugin works for basic tasks but lacks security and can overwhelm servers.
Active installs
~15,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+
Rating
3.5★
115 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+25%
Growing fast
38 → 48 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MAJORverified rating is 3.31★
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Growing fast · +25% in the last year
38/day a year ago→48/day today
Reviews
what people actually saySubscribe2 is generally regarded as a straightforward email-notification plugin that works reliably, but users repeatedly encounter massive spam-like email blasts, missing anti-spam safeguards, and unhelpful support.
What people like
- +Reliably sends email notifications to subscribers when new posts are published×2
Common complaints
- −Sends emails in large batches causing server overload, duplicate or massive email blasts×4
- −Lacks anti-spam protection (no captcha), leading to spam abuse×2
- −Support is slow, unresponsive, and sometimes confrontational
- −New subscriber registrations often fail, requiring manual role changes
- −Compatibility problems with newer WordPress versions
- −UI regression: missing Override button in recent updates
- −Plugin has not been updated for many months, raising maintenance concerns
- −No option to suppress notifications for specific posts, causing unwanted emails
Review trustMostly organic
- 3.31★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 3.50★
- 13%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
- past spikeReview timing — up to 50% of all reviews landed in a single month
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2024-05-152025-06-092026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 115 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2025-12-12★★★★★Deleting this plugin solved a BIG problemddbosk1-shot
- 2024-05-03★★★★★Does not update security issuesPeter Wollerup
- 2023-02-21★★★★★Override button has disappearedwebmistressofthedark
- 2021-05-31★★★★★Doesn't work in latest WP versionskymit1-shot
- 2021-04-30★★★★★Good but needs a big fixpubwvj
- 2021-01-07★★★★★Not able to edit setting in the Elementorsumanashree1-shot
- 2020-06-24★★★★★Very goodjimmathew
- 2020-03-16★★★★★Disappointinghealthysolutions4living
- 2019-11-23★★★★★Subscribe to form not protected for abuseUlfsby Webdesign
- 2019-10-15★★★★★Without captcha this is a very bad pluginmazurik
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Subscribe2
Top Email plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
46
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
44
Prior 7-day baseline
40
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
232
Mean release-day peak (30d)
46
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+4.5%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
50%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
3.46
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
50%
5★ share in analyzed sample
13%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
—
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
3.31 → 3.31★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered