MailHog vs Mailpit
MailHog
github.com
Mailpit
mailpit.axllent.orgSide by side
| Figure | MailHog | Mailpit |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Email Testing Software | 8.0 (#12) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Deployment | MailHog can be run from the command line, as a daemon, in Docker, or on AWS Elastic Beanstalk; the deployment guide also documents a SaltStack formula. | Mailpit runs as a single binary or multi-architecture Docker image, and publishes static binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac. |
| Integrations | The project lists Node.js API v2 and PHP API v1/v2 client libraries and provides mhsendmail as a sendmail replacement. | The project says Mailpit is used by projects including Laravel, DDEV, Quarkus, and Saleor, and in CI/CD pipelines. |
| Platform support | The README provides installation instructions for macOS, Debian/Ubuntu, FreeBSD, and Docker, and says MailHog runs without installation on multiple platforms. | The installation guide provides static binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac, plus Docker images for 386, amd64, and arm64. |
| Purpose | MailHog is an email testing tool for developers that accepts application mail over SMTP and lets users view messages in a web UI or retrieve them through a JSON API. | Mailpit is an open-source utility for testing emails and SMTP delivery, with a local SMTP server, web interface, and integration-testing API. |
Plans
In their own words
MailHog
MailHog is a free email testing tool for developers. Applications send mail to it over SMTP, after which users can inspect messages in a web interface or retrieve them through a JSON API. The interface displays plain text, HTML or source, supports encoded headers and updates in real time. The API can list, retrieve and delete messages, and download complete messages or individual MIME parts. Messages may also be released to real SMTP servers. MailHog supports ESMTP RFC5321, SMTP AUTH and PIPELINING, and includes a Chaos Monkey feature for failure testing. Storage defaults to memory, with MongoDB and Maildir also available. It can run from the command line, as a daemon, in Docker or on AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Its default SMTP and HTTP ports are 1025 and 8025. In-memory storage limits Elastic Beanstalk deployments to one instance; load-balanced deployments require MongoDB-backed storage. MailHog is released under the MIT license.
Mailpit
Mailpit is a free, open-source tool for checking email content and SMTP delivery without sending messages to real addresses. It runs a local SMTP server alongside a web interface and REST API, and is available for Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, and self-hosted deployment. The interface displays formatted HTML, source, text, headers, raw messages, and MIME attachments with image thumbnails. Checks include HTML and link testing, message screenshots, and optional SpamAssassin scoring. The API can access, search, send, delete, tag, and release messages; messages can also be relayed, forwarded, or used to trigger configurable SMTP errors. Mailpit can send message-summary webhooks and offers a Cypress package for integration tests. The web UI and API can use HTTPS and basic authentication; SMTP supports optional authentication and TLS. By default, SMTP listens on port 1025 without encryption or authentication. Mailpit keeps the most recent 500 messages by default.