MailHog vs Mailpit
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mailpit
Email and SMTP testing tool with web UI
| Feature | MailHog | Mailpit |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 26 · At risk | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,167 | ★ 10,426 |
| First released | 2014 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Mailtrap | Mailtrap, MailHog |
What are MailHog and Mailpit?
MailHog
MailHog is an email testing tool that provides a fake SMTP server for developers, capturing messages and presenting them in a web UI. It includes an API and chaos-testing features.
- Fake SMTP for testing
- Web UI and JSON API
- Chaos monkey testing
- Single Go binary
Mailpit
Mailpit is a self-hosted email testing tool that acts as an SMTP server and captures all messages for inspection in a clean web interface. Developers use it to preview and debug application email locally.
- SMTP capture server
- Web message viewer
- REST API
- HTML and link checks
MailHog vs Mailpit: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. MailHog is the more established project (first released 2014), while Mailpit arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose MailHog if…
- Zero-config SMTP capture
- Handy web viewer
- Built-in chaos testing
Watch out for
- Development largely stalled
- Development use only
Choose Mailpit if…
- Very fast and small
- Great developer UX
Watch out for
- For testing not production
- Not a real mail server
Frequently asked questions
Is MailHog or Mailpit better?
Neither is universally better. MailHog has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are MailHog and Mailpit free and open-source?
Yes. MailHog is licensed under MIT and Mailpit under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run MailHog and Mailpit with Docker?
MailHog: yes. Mailpit: yes.