What are the advantages of using a dedicated mailer class like PHPMailer for sending emails in PHP instead of the built-in mail() function?

Using a dedicated mailer class like PHPMailer for sending emails in PHP offers several advantages over the built-in mail() function. PHPMailer provides better error handling, support for attachments, HTML emails, SMTP authentication, and more. It also simplifies the process of sending emails and offers a more reliable and secure way to send emails.

// Include the PHPMailer autoloader
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

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

// Set up the email parameters
$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;

$mail->setFrom('from@example.com', 'Your Name');
$mail->addAddress('recipient@example.com', 'Recipient Name');
$mail->Subject = 'Subject of the Email';
$mail->Body = 'This is the body of the email';

// Send the email
if($mail->send()) {
    echo 'Email sent successfully';
} else {
    echo 'Error sending email: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}