--- title: "Proxy Mail QA vs Mailpit and MailHog · Proxy Mail QA" description: "Mailpit and MailHog catch email on your machine or in CI over SMTP, free and offline. Proxy Mail QA receives real email from staging and hosted auth services." url: https://proxymail.qa/compare/mailpit --- 1. [Home](https://proxymail.qa/) 2. [Compare](https://proxymail.qa/compare) # Proxy Mail QA vs Mailpit and MailHog Mailpit and MailHog are mail catchers you run yourself: a small SMTP server and web UI on your machine or in CI, where your app sends its email instead of delivering it. They're free, open source and work offline. Proxy Mail QA is a hosted service with real addresses that receive email over the internet, for staging, preview deploys and auth services whose sending you can't point at localhost. Updated October 17, 2026 Details below are from Mailpit’s site and README on 17 October 2026\. Check them for current details. ## At a glance | | Proxy Mail QA | Mailpit | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Where it runs | Hosted: real addresses on the internet | Yourself: a single binary or Docker image, on your machine or in CI | | How mail gets in | Sent to a real address by any app or service | Your app sends to Mailpit’s SMTP server (port 1025 by default) | | Cost | Free plan, whole product under fair use | Free and open source (MIT) | | Reading mail | Web app, REST API, npm package, Python helper, MCP server | Web UI (port 8025 by default) and REST API | | Codes and links | Pulled out and shown on the account’s row, returned on their own by the API | Not pulled out: you read the message | | Email checks | SPF, DKIM, DMARC, links to localhost or plain http, where links go, stated expiry, size, phone layout | HTML and CSS support, link check, SpamAssassin score | | Kept | The address lifetime you pick, up to 30 days on the Free plan | The newest 500 messages by default | | Works offline | No | Yes | MailHog works the same way, on the same default ports, but Mailpit’s README notes it hasn’t seen active development or security updates for a few years. ## Where Mailpit is the better choice - **Local development and CI service containers.** Free, offline, no account, no limits beyond your machine: start it next to your app and every email lands in a local web UI. - **Checking your own templates.** HTML and CSS support checks, a link check and a spam score, on every message your app sends. ## Where Proxy Mail QA is the better choice - **Staging and preview deploys.** Email goes out over the internet there, often through a real provider, so a catcher on localhost never sees it. A real address does. - **Hosted auth services.** Supabase, Clerk, Auth0 and Firebase send from their own servers; a Proxy Mail QA address receives their emails without changing your app. - **What only real delivery shows.** An email provider still in sandbox mode, missing SPF or DKIM, a link that points to localhost on staging. - **Many test accounts, shared.** Personas, saved passwords, notes and every email per address, for the whole team, plus an MCP server for coding agents. ## Try it on your next sign-up test Free plan, no credit card. Create an address and watch the code or link arrive. [Create a free account](https://app.proxymail.qa/?mode=signup) ## Questions ### Should I use Mailpit or MailHog? Mailpit. Its README says it was inspired by MailHog, which hasn't seen active development or security updates for a few years. Both listen for SMTP on port 1025 and serve a web UI on port 8025 by default. ### Does Supabase use Mailpit? The Supabase CLI runs a local mail catcher (Mailpit, Inbucket in older versions) for local development, usually at localhost:54324\. It only sees email from your local Supabase. Hosted Supabase projects send real email, which a Proxy Mail QA address receives. ### Can I use both? Yes. Mailpit on your machine and in CI service containers for fast, offline checks of your own app's email; Proxy Mail QA for staging, preview deploys and hosted auth services, where email goes out over the internet. ## Related guides - [Proxy Mail QA vs MailinatorPrivate inboxes for testers, test suites and agents, against the best-known public inbox and its automation plans.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/mailinator) - [Proxy Mail QA vs MailtrapReal inboxes that receive mail from any app or auth service, against a sandbox that catches what your own app sends.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/mailtrap) - [Proxy Mail QA vs MailosaurA free plan for testers, test suites and agents, against a paid platform built for automated email and SMS tests.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/mailosaur) - [Proxy Mail QA vs MailSlurpTest accounts for people and code alike, against an API for creating inboxes, sending and SMS.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/mailslurp) - [Proxy Mail QA vs testmail.appAddresses that last up to 30 days with codes on the row, against a low-cost API for test pipelines.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/testmail) - [Proxy Mail QA vs Ethereal EmailReal inboxes that any app can email, against a free catch-all SMTP server for checking what your own Node.js code sends.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/ethereal) - [Proxy Mail QA vs Gmail plus-addressingWhy one inbox and a pile of name+test addresses stops working for QA, and what to use instead.](https://proxymail.qa/compare/gmail-plus-addressing) [See every email testing problem we solve](https://proxymail.qa/solve) Mailpit and MailHog are trademarks of their owners. Proxy Mail QA is independent and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by them.