Mailinator vs Mailpit
Mailinator
mailinator.com
Mailpit
mailpit.axllent.orgSide by side
| Figure | Mailinator | Mailpit |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $79/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 13 | 1 |
| Spec score · Email Testing Software | 9.0 (#3) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Automation | The REST API supports inbox and message retrieval, SMS retrieval, message injection, and integration with CI/CD pipelines. | Mailpit provides a REST API for accessing, searching, deleting, sending, tagging, and releasing messages. |
| Founded | 2003 | 2022 |
| Integrations | Inbound webhooks can accept HTTP POST messages from sources such as alert systems, Zapier, or Twilio and apply configured rules. | The project says Mailpit is used by projects including Laravel, DDEV, Quarkus, and Saleor, and in CI/CD pipelines. |
| Purpose | Mailinator provides temporary inboxes and email and SMS workflow testing for developers, QA teams, and businesses. | Mailpit is an open-source utility for testing emails and SMTP delivery, with a local SMTP server, web interface, and integration-testing API. |
| Security | Mailinator says web traffic is served over HTTPS, private system email bodies are encrypted at rest, and public system email is not encrypted. | The web UI supports optional HTTPS and basic authentication, while SMTP can be configured with authentication and TLS. |
| Security controls | Mailinator states that traffic is HTTPS-only, servers are firewalled and Cloudflare-proxied, and production is separated from development and testing environments. | The web UI and API can use HTTPS and basic authentication, while SMTP supports optional STARTTLS or SSL/TLS and authentication. |
| Support | Documentation is available 24/7/365; the support page says public issue emails are usually answered within 24–72 hours and subscribers receive priority support. | The troubleshooting guide invites users to raise an issue after checking existing issues first. |
Plans
Mailinator
- Public - FreeFree
- Public - FreeFree
- Verified ProFree
- Verified ProFree
- Business$79 a month
- Business (annual)$79 a month
- Business$99 a month
- Business Plus$159 a month
- Business Plus (annual)$159 a month
- Business Plus$199 a month
In their own words
Mailinator
Mailinator provides temporary inboxes and tools for testing email and SMS workflows. Developers, QA teams, and businesses can use it to check delivery for OTP, MFA, onboarding, password recovery, and other email processes at scale. Paid subscriptions include private testing domains, where messages can arrive at any address without creating an inbox first. The REST API retrieves inboxes, messages, and SMS, injects messages, and connects with CI/CD pipelines. Inbound webhooks can accept HTTP POST messages from sources such as alert systems, Zapier, or Twilio, then apply configured rules. SMS can be routed to an inbox or API for automated OTP and 2FA testing. The free public inboxes are readable by anyone, and messages typically auto-delete after several hours. Mailinator is receive-only: it cannot send email or fill out forms. The Public - Free plan is free to use without sign-up. Business costs $79 a month billed yearly; a two-week Business trial is listed. Other plans include Verified Pro at free, Business Plus at $159 a month billed yearly, and Enterprise at a price agreed with the maker with custom pricing.
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.