Mailinator
Disposable email testing inboxes with public and private domains
Open-Source Projects
Discover top open-source software, updated regularly with real-world adoption signals.
Discover top open-source software, updated regularly with real-world adoption signals.
Local SMTP server for testing emails during development
MailDev provides a simple SMTP server and web interface for capturing and viewing emails generated during development, eliminating the need for external mail services.
MailDev is a lightweight development tool built on Node.js that captures outgoing emails from your application and displays them in an intuitive web interface. Designed for developers who need to test email functionality without sending real messages, it runs entirely on your local machine.
The tool provides a complete SMTP server (default port 1025) that intercepts emails, paired with a web GUI (default port 1080) for viewing message content, headers, and attachments. Optional features include email persistence to disk, selective relay to real SMTP servers for integration testing, and auto-relay mode with configurable allow/deny rules.
MailDev integrates seamlessly with popular frameworks including Nodemailer, Django, and Rails through simple port configuration. Deploy via npm package, Docker container (maildev/maildev), or embed directly in Node.js applications using the programmatic API. Authentication options for both SMTP and web interfaces support team environments, while HTTPS support enables secure local testing.
When teams consider MailDev, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.
Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.
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QA teams review emails locally, then selectively relay approved messages to real addresses for end-to-end testing
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Point your application's SMTP settings to localhost port 1025. For example, in Django add EMAIL_PORT = 1025, or configure Nodemailer with port: 1025. Then access the web interface at localhost:1080.
Yes, using the relay feature. Configure outgoing SMTP settings with --outgoing-host and credentials, then click 'Relay' on individual emails or enable --auto-relay mode to forward all messages automatically.
Only if you specify --mail-directory with a file path. By default, emails are stored in memory and lost when MailDev stops.
Yes, the official maildev/maildev image is available on Docker Hub. Run with docker run -p 1080:1080 -p 1025:1025 maildev/maildev to expose both the SMTP and web ports.
Use --web-user and --web-pass to add HTTP basic authentication. For encrypted connections, enable --https with --https-key and --https-cert pointing to your SSL certificate files.
Project at a glance
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