Is it advisable to avoid using external mailer classes and rely solely on PHP functions for sending emails?

It is advisable to use external mailer classes for sending emails instead of solely relying on PHP functions. Mailer classes provide more robust features like handling attachments, HTML emails, SMTP authentication, and error handling. This can help ensure that your emails are delivered successfully and avoid common issues with PHP mail functions like being marked as spam.

// Example of using PHPMailer class for sending emails
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

require 'vendor/autoload.php'; // Include PHPMailer autoload file

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

try {
    $mail->isSMTP();
    $mail->Host = 'smtp.example.com';
    $mail->SMTPAuth = true;
    $mail->Username = 'your@example.com';
    $mail->Password = 'yourpassword';
    $mail->SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS;
    $mail->Port = 587;

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

    $mail->isHTML(true);
    $mail->Subject = 'Subject Here';
    $mail->Body = 'Email body here';

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