Followup
Post-purchase emails on autopilot
Followup sends automated post-purchase emails to WooCommerce customers a set number of days after an order reaches a chosen status. Thank buyers and ask for reviews, no external service, via wp_mail.
Works with
See it in action
After the sale, contact with the customer usually stops
The store sends an order confirmation and that is it. Nobody says thanks, asks for a review or follows up, so customers leave fewer reviews and come back less often.
- ✗ No thank-you or contact after the order is fulfilled
- ✗ Few reviews, because nobody asks at the right moment
- ✗ One-time customers who never return
- ✗ Manual post-purchase emails do not scale
Followup keeps post-purchase contact going automatically
- ✓ Two ready types: thank-you and review request
- ✓ Triggered by a chosen order status and a delay in days
- ✓ Templates with {customer}, {order} and {site} placeholders
- ✓ A daily background task, idempotent sending via wp_mail
What you get in the free version
Everything you need to keep post-purchase contact going without manual work.
Two email types
Thank-you and review request, ready to enable.
Per-type control
For each type, separately enable sending, the trigger status, the delay in days, and the subject and body.
Template placeholders
Use {customer}, {order} and {site} in the subject and body to personalise every message.
Trigger status
Choose the order status, e.g. Completed, from which the delay is counted.
Daily background task
wp-cron finds due orders and sends the emails with no action from you.
Idempotent sending
The same follow-up is never sent twice for one order, tracked per order.
Global sender
One From name and email for all follow-up messages.
No external services
Sends through your store's wp_mail, no account and no external provider.
Up and running in three steps
Enable an email type and let the first send go out automatically.
Install
Activate Followup alongside WooCommerce.
Enable a type
Under WooCommerce → Follow-ups, enable a type and set the trigger status, delay and template.
Check sending
Place a test order, move it to the trigger status and confirm the email arrives.
Who it is for
When you want more reviews, returning customers and post-purchase contact.
More reviews
Ask for a review a few days after fulfilment, once the customer has had the product.
- ✓ Review-request type
- ✓ Delay in days
- ✓ Trigger status
Post-purchase thank-you
A short note shortly after fulfilment to build the relationship.
- ✓ Thank-you type
- ✓ Delay in days
- ✓ Trigger status
No external services
Sends through the store's wp_mail, with no account or external provider.
- ✓ Idempotent sending
- ✓ Global sender
- ✓ Daily wp-cron
What PRO adds, and why it matters
Branded HTML emails
Wrap Followup messages in an HTML template with a heading, intro text, footer and accent colour.
Custom post-purchase sequences
Build up to eight post-purchase email steps with their own status, delay, subject and body on WooCommerce → Followup Sequence.
Coupon blocks
Create single-use WooCommerce coupons per order. Use the {coupon} placeholder or auto-append the offer to every email.
Send reporting
Track how many follow-ups were sent per sequence step on WooCommerce → Followup Reports.
Send-time scheduling
Send at a chosen store-timezone hour or on chosen weekdays via WooCommerce → Followup Schedule.
Open and click reporting
Track aggregate opens and link clicks per sequence step on WooCommerce → Followup Reports.
What you get: FREE vs PRO
PRO keeps everything in the free plugin and adds the modules below.
Followup vs AutomateWoo vs Metorik
How Followup compares to the popular WooCommerce post-purchase email plugins.
| Followup | AutomateWoo | Metorik | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free version | Yes | No | Trial only |
| Post-purchase trigger emails | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted, no external service | Yes | Yes | No |
| Custom email sequences | Pro | Yes | Yes |
| Open and click reporting | Pro | Yes | Yes |
| Coupon blocks in emails | Pro | Yes | — |
| Open source (GPLv2) | Yes | Core GPL | Proprietary |
| Paid plan price | from €29/yr | Paid only | Paid, usage-based |
Competitor data and pricing as of June 2026; check the vendors' sites for current pricing.
Need more? Followup PRO
FREE covers two post-purchase email types with idempotent daily sending. Followup Pro adds branded HTML templates and custom post-purchase sequences.
- ✓ Branded HTML emails (shipped)
- ✓ Custom post-purchase email sequences (shipped)
- ✓ Coupon blocks (shipped in PRO)
- ✓ Send reporting (shipped in PRO)
- ✓ Send-time scheduling (shipped in PRO)
- ✓ Open and click tracking (shipped in PRO)
Support and resources
Every plugin has its own documentation with setup walkthroughs. Bugs and questions go to the public GitHub repository for that plugin, we answer in the open.
Frequently asked questions
Does it require WooCommerce?
Yes, WooCommerce must be installed and active. Followup reads orders through WooCommerce functions and will not run without it. The plugin declares WooCommerce as a required plugin (Requires Plugins: woocommerce).
When are emails actually sent?
A daily wp-cron event checks for orders that have been in the configured trigger status for at least the configured number of days. It sends each follow-up only to orders that have not received it yet. The event self-heals if it is lost, rescheduling itself on the next admin page load.
Will a customer ever get the same email twice?
No. After sending, each follow-up type is recorded on the order as meta (_followup_sent_{type}), so it is never sent again for that order. The order is claimed before sending, and the flag is rolled back only on a failed send so it can retry the next day. This means even overlapping cron runs will not duplicate a message.
Which placeholders can I use?
Followup supports three placeholders: {customer} (the customer's first name), {order} (the order number) and {site} (your store name). They work in both the subject and the body. When the first name is empty, {customer} falls back to "there".
Which email types are included?
The free version includes two follow-up types: thank-you and review request. Each type has its own enable toggle, trigger status, delay in days, and its own subject and body. By default the thank-you sends 1 day, and the review request 7 days, after the Completed status.
Do I need an external email provider?
No. Followup sends through your store's wp_mail, so it uses the same mail setup as the rest of WordPress. There is no account, no API key and no connection to an external service. If you use an SMTP plugin, follow-ups go through it like any other email.
Can I change the sender?
Yes. You set a global From name and email that apply to all follow-up messages. When left blank, Followup falls back to your store name and the site admin email.
Are overlapping cron runs safe?
Yes. Sending is idempotent: an order is marked as sent before the send itself, and the flag is re-checked to avoid a race between parallel runs. Each run processes at most 200 orders per type, so the load stays bounded.
How does Followup compare to AutomateWoo and Metorik?
Followup sends post-purchase emails entirely from your own site with no external service, and its Pro edition adds branded sequences, coupon blocks, and open and click reporting from €29/yr. AutomateWoo is the official WooCommerce automation extension and Metorik Engage is a hosted, usage-based service. Pricing as of June 2026.
Keep post-purchase contact going
Thank-you and review requests, automatically. The full FREE edition under GPL.
Read the docsFREE is two follow-up types with idempotent sending, PRO adds branded HTML emails and custom sequences today.