[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":103},["ShallowReactive",2],{"vs-mailhog":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"comparison":64,"competitor":93,"description":94,"extension":95,"meta":96,"navigation":97,"path":98,"seo":99,"stem":100,"tagline":101,"__hash__":102},"vs\u002Fvs\u002Fmailhog.md","Mailcatcher vs. MailHog",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":56},"minimark",[9,14,18,22,30,34,43,46,50],[10,11,13],"h2",{"id":12},"what-is-mailhog","What is MailHog?",[15,16,17],"p",{},"MailHog is a self-hosted, open-source SMTP test server written in Go. For years it was the default choice for catching outgoing emails in local development, with a simple web UI and API for viewing captured messages.",[10,19,21],{"id":20},"where-mailhog-shines","Where MailHog shines",[15,23,24,25,29],{},"MailHog is still perfectly capable of catching an email and showing you its HTML, text, and headers, and plenty of existing projects already have it wired into their ",[26,27,28],"code",{},"docker-compose.yml",". If it's already in your stack and doing the job, there's no urgent reason to rip it out.",[10,31,33],{"id":32},"where-mailcatcher-differs","Where Mailcatcher differs",[15,35,36,37,42],{},"The honest caveat with MailHog is its development pace: commits and releases have slowed to a crawl, several long-standing issues remain unresolved, and its own ecosystem has largely moved on — ",[38,39,41],"a",{"href":40},"\u002Fvs\u002Fmailpit","Mailpit"," was built specifically as a maintained, faster replacement. Beyond that, MailHog shares the same limitations as other self-hosted single-inbox tools: no team accounts, no permissions, and no way to share access without exposing the instance yourself.",[15,44,45],{},"Mailcatcher is hosted and actively developed, with projects, users, and permissions built in, so there's no server to maintain or worry about falling out of date.",[10,47,49],{"id":48},"which-should-you-choose","Which should you choose?",[15,51,52,53,55],{},"If MailHog is already running and meeting your needs, there's no rush to switch. For anything new, we'd point you toward ",[38,54,41],{"href":40}," if you want a self-hosted, actively maintained option, or Mailcatcher if you'd rather not run and secure the server yourself.",{"title":57,"searchDepth":58,"depth":58,"links":59},"",2,[60,61,62,63],{"id":12,"depth":58,"text":13},{"id":20,"depth":58,"text":21},{"id":32,"depth":58,"text":33},{"id":48,"depth":58,"text":49},[65,69,73,77,80,84,87,90],{"feature":66,"mailcatcher":67,"competitor":68},"Deployment","Hosted SaaS","Self-hosted (Docker or a single binary)",{"feature":70,"mailcatcher":71,"competitor":72},"Setup","Point your SMTP settings at us","Install, run, and keep the server up",{"feature":74,"mailcatcher":75,"competitor":76},"Team accounts & permissions","Yes","No",{"feature":78,"mailcatcher":75,"competitor":76,"note":79},"Shared access without exposing your network","Remote access means running your own reverse proxy or tunnel",{"feature":81,"mailcatcher":82,"competitor":83},"Multiple isolated projects","Unlimited","One shared inbox per instance",{"feature":85,"mailcatcher":75,"competitor":75,"note":86},"HTML\u002Ftext preview, headers & attachments","Basic but functional",{"feature":88,"mailcatcher":76,"competitor":75,"note":89},"Open source \u002F full control","Free and self-hosted",{"feature":91,"mailcatcher":75,"competitor":76,"note":92},"Active development","Development has largely stalled; Mailpit was created as its maintained successor","MailHog","How Mailcatcher compares to MailHog for catching test emails, and why most teams starting fresh now look at Mailpit or a hosted option instead.","md",{},true,"\u002Fvs\u002Fmailhog",{"title":5,"description":94},"vs\u002Fmailhog","A long-time favorite for local SMTP testing, but the project has been largely unmaintained for years.","KM8UkKMFD9z3njnw5cVnaoL_6I8mRkZO9YPi6wMqr-s",1788004070699]