Imitate Email
Makes building and testing email functionality awesome!
SubscriptionEmails22,607 impressions#9 of its week
Imitate Email provides a sandbox SMTP/IMAP server with an embeddable email viewer for testing email flows.
- for
- Developers and QA teams building email-based features.
- pricing
- freemium
Key features
- Embedded Email Viewer — Show received emails inside your app via a one-line JS snippet or browser extension.
- Sandbox SMTP Server — Send emails to a safe server using standard SMTP from any language.
- Programmatic IMAP/POP3 & WebSockets — Access emails programmatically for integration tests.
- Login-less Authentication — Pre-authenticate users so they can view emails without an account.
- Responsive Email Tools — Toggle images, view raw text and check deliverability within the viewer.
- Multi-Project Mailboxes — Create separate mailboxes per project, environment or user with permission controls.
- Browser Extensions — Firefox and Chrome extensions add the viewer without code changes.
- Custom Branding (paid plans) — Unbranded widget can be re-branded to match your product.
Use cases
- Test user registration email flows in CI without spamming real users.
- QA teams view transactional emails directly inside the web app under test.
- Automated integration tests verify email content via IMAP/POP3 calls.
- Developers prototype email templates with live preview in-app.
- Teams manage separate mailboxes for staging, UAT and production testing.
Imitate Email pricing
- Free$015 emails per day forever · Login-less access · Embedded viewer
- Developer$7/mo/month11 users · 2,000 monthly emails · WebSockets · Unbranded widget
- Starter$15/mo/month33 users · 5,000 monthly emails · WebSockets · Extra users $3/mo
- Team$39/mo/month15 users · 2,000,000 monthly emails · 15 MB message size · Extra users $2/mo
- Business$149/mo/month100 users · 200,000,000 monthly emails · 25 MB message size · Custom domain support
Imitate Email vs alternatives
 Imitate Email |  GetTestMail |  SMTP Debug Tool |  Zyntra |  Maildroppa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Embedded email sandbox with viewer | Temporary email API | SMTP debugging | Email receipt API | Email marketing automation |
| Pricing | Freemium | Subscription | Free | Subscription | Free |
| DevHunt upvotes | 14 | 23 | 4 | 7 | 27 |
| Launched | Jan 2023 | Jan 2023 | May 2024 | Apr 2025 | Oct 2024 |
- Imitate Email vs GetTestMail: Provides temporary email addresses via a simple API, no sandbox SMTP server.
- Imitate Email vs SMTP Debug Tool: Focuses on testing and debugging SMTP connections only, without an embedded viewer.
- Imitate Email vs Zyntra: Offers email receipt via API for tests but lacks a full sandbox server and viewer.
- Imitate Email vs Maildroppa: Email marketing and automation platform, not a testing sandbox.
Imitate Email FAQ
What are the extras?+
Extras let you add individual users, emails or mailboxes without upgrading to a higher tier.
What is a widget user?+
A widget user only accesses the embedded email viewer inside your app, not the full dashboard.
What are monthly emails?+
The number of emails you can send through the sandbox each month, based on your plan.
What is a mailbox?+
A mailbox groups emails; each user gets a personal mailbox and teams can have shared mailboxes.
How many emails can I send per mailbox?+
There is no limit on emails per mailbox, and a mailbox can have unlimited email addresses.
Can I cancel anytime?+
Yes, you can cancel at any time from within the app.
Summarized by DevHunt from imitate.email · Sep 27, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
