Overview
MailDev is a developer tool that runs a local SMTP server and a web interface to catch and inspect emails your application sends during development. It lets you preview HTML, view headers, and test transactional templates without sending real mail. It is a self-hosted alternative to the testing/sandbox features of services like SendGrid and Mailtrap. It runs trivially via a single Docker container or npm.
Where it falls short of SendGrid
- A development/testing catcher only — not for sending real production email
- No deliverability, analytics, or campaign features
- Not intended as a long-running production mail service
- Limited storage/persistence for captured messages
We list the gaps honestly so you can decide if the trade-off is worth owning your data.
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[](https://openreplace.com/maildev)Similar open-source projects
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