Mailtrap vs Smtp.dev (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Mailtrap and Smtp.dev share a 2.6 GPA, both have a free plan, and Smtp.dev starts cheaper, at $7 a month against $15 a month.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Mailtrap grades higher on features. Smtp.dev grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Mailtrap
Email API and SMTP for sending, with a sandbox for testing emails
Smtp.dev
Email testing sandbox with SMTP, IMAP and a REST API
Which one is for you
Pick Mailtrap if
- Fits if you want to test emails in staging and send them for real from one provider
- Works for teams moving from SendGrid, Mailgun or Amazon SES who send about 50,000 emails a month
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you need a dedicated IP, SSO or live chat, which start with Business at $85 a month
- Tight if you send far past your plan, as overages are capped and you're told to upgrade
- Not for you if you want newsletters included, since Email Marketing is priced separately from $15 a month
- Watch out: the Email Sandbox is a separate plan too, free only for 50 test emails a month
- Tight if you're on Free, at 150 emails a day, 1 domain, 3 days of logs and no overage
Pick Smtp.dev if
- Fits if you test an app or test suite that sends email and want to read it back
- Works for CI pipelines that need a real inbox to check, with no real mail leaving
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to deliver real email: outbound only reaches accounts inside the sandbox
- Tight if you stay on Lite: 1 domain, 50 accounts and messages deleted after 7 days
- Tight if you need catch-all addresses, which start on Pro
- Watch out: messages are deleted at the end of the 7, 30 or 90 day window
- Watch out: the pricing page shows monthly prices only
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAMailtrapGood | 2.6GPASmtp.devGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BGraded on 50,000 emails a month: Basic is $20 at that volume, in the lowest-priced quarter of this category, with 3 users and 5 domains. There's no yearly discount on sending, and dedicated IPs, SSO and live chat need Business at $85. | BPro is $7 a month, inside the cheapest quarter of email sending tools, which start at $9. Max is $20. |
| Free plan and trial | CFree for good: 4,000 emails a month, but only 150 a day, with 1 user, 1 domain and 3 days of logs, and no extra emails allowed. That covers a side project, not a live app. | BLite is free: 1 domain, 50 accounts and 7 days of messages, with SMTP, IMAP, POP3, API and email audit. One project could live on that. |
| Features | BAPI and SMTP with SDKs, templates, webhooks, a separate bulk stream, inbound email, analytics by mailbox provider and a sandbox for test emails. It covers the job, though the sandbox is a separate plan and no address validation is on record. | CSMTP, IMAP, POP3 and REST API access, message inspection, own-domain receiving and a deliverability audit. It does the testing job fully, but it never sends real email. |
| Ease of use | CJudged on how fast a developer sends a first email: SDKs for five languages and SMTP, once a domain is verified, and the sandbox lets you test without emailing anyone. No rating on record. | CNo store rating on record. You point your app or test suite at it and set DNS records for your own domain. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an API, SMTP and SDKs, plus Supabase, Vercel, Claude, Cursor, Windsurf and Antigravity. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. | BWeb with an API, plus CI use with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Playwright, Cypress and Nodemailer. |
| Best for | testing and sending email from one provider | testing app email without sending to real inboxes |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Mailtrap and Smtp.dev. How we grade
Price against what you get
Mailtrap starts at $15 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Smtp.dev starts at $7 a month and scores 2.3.
Mailtrap scores higher, and starts $8 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other email sending services on the chart, none scores higher than Mailtrap for less, and 3 score higher than Smtp.dev for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Mailtrap also covers email campaigns and transactional email.
- Smtp.dev also covers dMARC.
At a glance
| Mailtrap | Smtp.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $15 per month for 10,000 emails | $7 per month for Pro |
| Free plan | 4,000 emails a month, limited to 150 a day, 1 user, 1 sending domain and 3 days of email logs, through the API or SMTP. | Lite plan: 1 domain, 50 accounts, messages kept 7 days, with SMTP, IMAP, POP3, API and email audit. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Railsware | SMTP Labs, Inc. |
| Price read from | mailtrap.io | smtp.dev |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Mailtrap
- Basic has no dedicated IP and keeps 5 days of logs; dedicated IPs, SSO and live chat support start with Business at $85 a month.
- The free plan caps sending at 150 emails a day and allows no overage.
- Email Sandbox for testing and Email Marketing for campaigns are priced separately; marketing starts at $15 a month for 10,000 contacts.
- Overages are capped, so senders far above their plan's volume are told to upgrade.
Smtp.dev
- It is a testing sandbox: on every plan, outbound mail is delivered only to accounts inside the sandbox, not to real inboxes.
- Lite keeps messages for 7 days and allows 1 domain and 50 accounts; catch-all accounts need Pro or Max.
- Messages are deleted automatically at the end of the plan's retention window of 7, 30 or 90 days.
- The pricing page shows monthly prices only and does not mention annual billing.
Key features
Mailtrap
- Email API and SMTP
- Send through a REST API with SDKs for Python, PHP, Ruby, Node.js and Java, or through SMTP, with hosted templates and webhooks for opens, clicks and bounces.
- Bulk stream
- Bulk and marketing email goes out on a separate stream, by API or SMTP, so it does not affect the reputation of transactional sending.
- Email Sandbox
- A fake SMTP server catches emails from dev, QA and staging, with HTML and spam checks, sold as separate plans from free for 50 test emails a month.
- Inbound email
- Dedicated inbound addresses, real-time webhooks and API access let your app or AI agents receive email.
- Deliverability analytics
- Stats for each mailbox provider, bounce categories and feedback-loop complaint data, with reputation alerts and dedicated IPs from Business.
- Security and accounts
- Two-factor sign-in and API key permissions on every plan, IP allowlisting from Basic, and SSO and subaccounts from Business.
Smtp.dev
- SMTP, IMAP and POP3 access
- Standard mail clients and libraries connect with ordinary settings, with no SDK to install.
- REST API
- Accounts, messages, domains and tokens can be managed over the API, which is limited to 4096 requests a minute per user.
- Message inspection
- Shows headers, the MIME tree and the raw RFC 5322 source of each message, plus an HTML preview.
- Own-domain receiving
- Pointing a domain's or subdomain's MX record at the sandbox lets it receive mail from any service.
- Deliverability audit
- Checks sender configuration, HTML structure, links and content patterns that spam filters flag, grouped by severity.
- CI use
- Works with any CI system that can send over SMTP, with guides for GitHub Actions, Jenkins and GitLab CI.
Plans
Mailtrap
Free$0
4,000 emails a month and 150 a day, 1 user, 1 domain, 3 days of logs, no extra emails.
Basic$15
per month for 10,000 emails
3 users, 5 domains, 5 days of logs, email support on weekdays. Extra emails $1 per 1,000. $20 a month at 50,000 emails and $30 at 100,000.
Business$85
per month for 100,000 emails
100 users, 100 domains, 15 days of logs, dedicated IP with warm-up, SSO, subaccounts, 24/7 chat. Extra emails $0.88 per 1,000.
Enterprise$750
per month for 1,500,000 emails
Unlimited users and domains, 30 days of logs, priority support. Extra emails $0.55 per 1,000; $1,250 at 2.5 million, custom above.
Smtp.dev
Lite$0
1 domain, 50 accounts and 7 days of message retention; plus-sign aliasing but no catch-all.
Pro$7
per month
5 domains, 25,000 accounts, 30 days of retention, and catch-all and aliasing.
Max$20
per month
Unlimited domains and accounts, 90 days of retention, and catch-all and aliasing.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Mailtrap or Smtp.dev?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Smtp.dev is cheaper to start with: $7 a month, against $15 a month for Mailtrap. Mailtrap starts at $15 per month for 10,000 emails, and Smtp.dev starts at $7 per month for Pro.
Which has a free plan, Mailtrap or Smtp.dev?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Mailtrap and Smtp.dev have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.