Mailpit vs MailDev
Two local SMTP catchers: a single Go binary against an npm install that suits Node projects.
What matters for SaaS product teams
A SaaS product sends on behalf of its customers, so the deciding factors are tenant isolation, whether suppressions can be scoped rather than global, and whether support can answer why one specific account did not receive one specific email. Lifecycle automation and transactional sending usually need to coexist.
| Priority | Mailpit | MailDev |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenant | No | No |
| Event stream | No | No |
| Suppressions API | No | No |
| Operating since | Not published | Not published |
| Scheduling | No | No |
| Best published rate per 1,000 | Tiers not published in comparable form | Tiers not published in comparable form |
| Deliverability | Not applicable; capture-only. | Not applicable. |
| Webhooks | No | Yes |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
For a multi-tenant SaaS product running trial expiry notices, dunning, onboarding sequences, and per-tenant transactional mail, MailDev takes every priority that separates them here (webhook coverage), while Mailpit matches it on the rest. On entry price, Mailpit offers Free against Free from MailDev. That ordering reflects this audience. Weigh the same table differently and the answer changes.
Side by side
| Feature | Mailpit | MailDev |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenant | No | No |
| Deliverability | Not applicable; capture-only. | Not applicable. |
| Webhooks | No | Yes |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Tagline | Modern local SMTP catcher. | Node-based local SMTP catcher. |
| Free tier | Free, MIT-licensed | Free |
| Pricing model | self-hosted | self-hosted |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| SDKs | None | None |
| Templates | none | none |
| React Email | No | No |
| Inbound | No | No |
| Idempotency | No | No |
| Dedicated IP | No | No |
| DX score | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Best for | Replacing MailHog in any local or CI email-capture setup. | Node-centric local development and CI. |
Mailpit
- ›Single Go binary or small Docker image with no runtime dependencies
- ›Reuses MailHog's 1025 and 8025 ports, so most existing configs work unchanged
- ›Views for rendered HTML, plain text, raw source, headers, and attachments
- ›Built-in HTML-compatibility check, link check, and spam-score view
- ›REST API and real-time inbox updates for automated tests
- ›Local development and staging only, not a production sender
- ›No hosted or shared team-inbox mode
MailDev
- ›Installs with a single npm install or docker run
- ›SMTP on 1025 with a web UI and REST API on 1080
- ›Optional webhook on new mail for CI assertions
- ›Relay mode can forward caught mail to a real SMTP host
- ›Vue UI renders modern HTML email less faithfully than Mailpit
- ›Release cadence is slower than Mailpit