Extended SMTP Support: Not only does MailHog support setting up a fake SMTP server, but you can also use it to set up an ESMTP server (Extended SMTP).That makes it highly portable to run it on almost any operating system or web server. Lightweight and Portable: You don’t need to install MailHog to use it.MailHog comes equipped with many features out-of-the-box. It’s a powerful feature, and how you use the API is up to you. Lastly, MaiilHog also lets you retrieve those emails with an API for automated testing. It even stores the sent and received emails in a nifty web UI, so you can go through them just like you’d with a real email inbox. It sets up a fake SMTP server that you can set your web application to send and receive emails. It can hurt your private email’s credibility. Then you’ll have to make sure that the emails arrive successfully in your recipient’s inbox, which can end up wasting your time (and inbox space).Īnd then there’s the issue of using a real email address for testing. How an SMTP server works (Source: Wikimedia Commons)įirst, you need to set up your operating system, webserver, and web app to enable emails in a local environment. You can read our extensive guide on free SMTP servers to know more about how an SMTP server works.

In a local development environment, it almost always never works due to multiple reasons. Typically, the web application’s default SMTP server takes care of this task. If you want to test a contact form or any other outgoing email from it, it can be a dire task. Say you’re developing a WordPress website in a local development environment. MailHog solves many of email testing’s major problems.

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