head to head
Mailpit vs MailHog
Active maintenance versus a popular tool that stopped getting updates.
Side by side
| Feature | Mailpit | MailHog |
|---|---|---|
| Tagline | Modern local SMTP catcher. | Classic local SMTP catcher (unmaintained since 2020). |
| Free tier | Free, MIT-licensed | Free, MIT-licensed |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Pricing model | self-hosted | self-hosted |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| SMTP | Yes | Yes |
| SDKs | None | None |
| Templates | none | none |
| React Email | No | No |
| Webhooks | No | No |
| Inbound | No | No |
| Multi-tenant | No | No |
| Idempotency | No | No |
| Dedicated IP | No | No |
| Deliverability | Not applicable; capture-only. | Not applicable; capture-only. |
| DX score | 9/10 | 5/10 |
| Best for | Replacing MailHog in any local dev setup. | Legacy setups; new projects should use Mailpit. |
Mailpit
pros
- ›Single binary or docker image
- ›Same ports and API as MailHog (drop-in)
- ›Active maintenance
cons
- ›Local development only
MailHog
pros
- ›Familiar to many teams
- ›Lightweight
cons
- ›Unmaintained since 2020
- ›HTML rendering lags modern email