In what situations is it recommended to switch to a mailer class like PHPMailer for sending emails with images in PHP?

When sending emails with images in PHP, it is recommended to switch to a mailer class like PHPMailer when the built-in `mail()` function is not sufficient for handling attachments or embedding images in the email body. PHPMailer provides more advanced features for sending emails, including support for attachments, embedded images, and SMTP authentication.

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

// Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

try {
    //Server settings
    $mail->isSMTP();
    $mail->Host = 'smtp.example.com';
    $mail->SMTPAuth = true;
    $mail->Username = 'your@example.com';
    $mail->Password = 'your_password';
    $mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
    $mail->Port = 587;

    //Recipients
    $mail->setFrom('from@example.com', 'Your Name');
    $mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');

    //Content
    $mail->isHTML(true);
    $mail->Subject = 'Subject';
    $mail->Body = '<h1>Email with Image</h1><img src="cid:image1">';

    // Attach image
    $mail->AddEmbeddedImage('path/to/image.jpg', 'image1');

    $mail->send();
    echo 'Email sent successfully';
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Message could not be sent. Mailer Error: {$mail->ErrorInfo}";
}