Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin

Updated Dec 28, 2024

Quick Summary
  • SG Widget is a Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin for collecting emails.
  • Add to any page with a shortcode

SG Widget is a Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin that allows you to place an opt-in form on your website to capture email addresses from users.

Here is a live widget for you to test out for yourself:


It’s super easy to install and provides a variety of useful features that make collecting emails on your Wordpress site a breeze.


Contents

Installing


1   Create an account for SG Widget

Go to our registration page and enter your details.



2   Enter your Sendgrid API Key

Next, connect SG Widget to your Sendgrid account by entering a Sendgrid API key. Details on how to do that are in our docs


3   Create a Widget

Create a Widget and choose which Sendgrid list it should connect to. API key is the key you entered in Step 2.

Once created, copy the widget ID from the URL, in this case 215:


4   Download the Plugin code

Download the Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin code from our github repository here



5   Install the plugin
In your wordpress admin panel, go to /wp-admin/plugin-install.php and click Upload Plugin.


Upload the SG Widget.zip package that you downloaded in step 4.


6   Activate the plugin
Activate the plugin and then open the plugin settings page. Paste your SG Widget API token. Note it is the SG Widget token that is needed and not the Sendgrid token.



6   Place a shortcode on a page
The final step is pasting a shortcode onto a wordpress page where you want the widget to display like this:

[sg_widget id="215"]


The key detail is the id, which is the one you copied from step 3.


That's it. You now have a Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin that is collecting email addresses and storing them in your Sendgrid contact lists.

SG Widget Background

We build a lot of sites for ourselves and clients with Sendgrid often being the ESP of choice.

Sendgrid previously offered a widget in their Legacy Newsletter tool and for a long time, our developers had the luxury of dropping this into the source code of a Wordpress site. This saved us time and our client's money as weren't having to build opt-in functionality every time.

Unfortunately the Legacy Newsletter Widget was retired and no replacement was offered. We waited for an official solution from Sendgrid but with none on the horizon we took things into our hands and built our own.

The first draft was a direct replacement for the for Sendgrid version with the same functionality. Since then, we’ve added more features and made it easier to use with the result that SG Widget is now the best Sendgrid Subscription Widget on the market.

What can SG Widget do?

The purpose of SG Widget is to collect email addresses on a Wordpress site. Call it what you like, opt-in form, lead capture form, newsletter subscription tool. It generates a snippet of HTML that is dropped into your Wordpress via a shortcode and then displayed anywhere you call the shortcode. When a page loads, users will see a form to enter their email address and click submit.

It also provides the following features:

Along with fully customizable text and CSS, it has detailed documentation to explain everything from creating an account to generating a widget and installing it on a Wordpress site. Installation doesn’t require any core Wordpress changes so it’s simple and safe to add.

These are just the current features. We are continually adding new functionality and improvements based on our requirements and user feedback.

User Review

The owner of startupsesame.com had this to say about it:

Finally got the perfect solution to integrate SendGrid on our Wordpress. Fast and seamless integration, and the best customer support you can think of.

What about the Sendgrid Subscription Widget Wordpress Plugin?

Before we go any further, you may have noticed the Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin and are wondering what is different between that and SG Widget.

We previously used the Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin on some websites so have deep insight into the pro’s and con’s it offers. Here is a side by side comparison of both:

Wordpress Plugin
  • Doesn’t work below PHP 5.6 or above 7.1
  • Requires swift mailer plugin
  • Won't work if another plugin declares wp_mail() function
  • Stores API key in plain text
  • Only works on Wordpress
  • Widget can only be placed in certain areas
  • All processing done on your server
  • Requires fresh install on every WP site
Good for: Bloggers, hobbyists
SG Widget
  • Works on all versions of Wordpress and PHP
  • Stores encrypted API key
  • Double Opt In
  • Welcome email
  • Widget can be placed anywhere on site
  • Consent checkbox feature
  • Processing done on SG Widget servers
Good For: Agencies, multi-site owners

As you can see both perform the core task of collecting emails and storing them in Sendgrid but SG Widget is easier to install, doesn’t require updates, is more secure and offers more features.

Which Wordpress Versions Are Supported

All versions. All processing is done by us on our servers so we only use basic functions of PHP in Wordpress.

Are Wordpress Core Changes Needed?

No. There are no changes needed to the Wordpress core as the snippet is simple lightweight plugin. You will simply add the shortcode to whatever posts and pages you want it to display on.

Conclusion

SG Widget is an excellent choice for anyone that wants to add a Sendgrid Wordpress Plugin to Wordpress. It is easy to install, secure, customizable, updates automatically. It is also ideal for agencies that want a central place to control all of the opt-in widgets across each of their sites.


Email continues to be one of the most effective marketing channels because it is direct to the user's inbox. If you are using Sendgrid and Wordpress, you can’t afford not to have an opt-in form. Give SG Widget a try today and let us know how it goes.

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