Compare email testing tools
A Mailtrap alternative for real-delivery email tests
Mailtrap's Email Sandbox catches the email your own app sends over SMTP, before it reaches anyone. Free Domain Mail works the other way round: it receives real email delivered over the internet to a domain you own, so you can test email sent by any service, not only your app.
Mailtrap details checked on 8 October 2026 · First domain free · Receive-only
How real-delivery testing works
- Point a test domain here. Add a domain or subdomain you own and set its MX record to mx.freedomainmail.com.
- Sign up with any address. Your app, or any third-party service, sends to an address at that domain exactly as it would in production.
- Email travels the real path. The message goes through the sender's real email provider and arrives over the internet.
- Read the code in your test. The API waits for the email and returns the code or links it contains.
Free Domain Mail vs Mailtrap Email Sandbox
| Free Domain Mail | Mailtrap Email Sandbox | |
|---|---|---|
| How email arrives | Real delivery to your domain's MX record | Your app sends to Mailtrap's SMTP credentials |
| Email sent by other services | Yes, anything delivered to your domain | Only from services you can point at the sandbox SMTP server |
| Free plan | One custom domain, no monthly quota | 50 test emails a month, 1 sandbox |
| Cheapest paid plan | First domain free; extra domains are billed per domain | Basic: $17 a month, or $14 a month billed yearly (500 emails) |
| Needs a domain | Yes, a domain or subdomain whose MX you can change | No |
| API | Yes, 60 requests a minute | Yes, including the free plan |
| How long mail is kept | 30 days | Up to the sandbox size (10 emails on the free plan) |
| Delivers to real inboxes | No, receive-only | No; manual forwarding to allowed addresses |
When Mailtrap is the better choice
Pick Mailtrap for staging environments where your app's outgoing email must never leave the building, or when you do not have a spare domain or subdomain to point elsewhere.
Pick Free Domain Mail when you want to test the whole path: an email sent by a real provider, an identity service, a payment platform or a live site, arriving at a real address. Many teams use both, Mailtrap in staging and a real-delivery domain for end-to-end checks.
How we compared
Mailtrap details come from its own Email Sandbox and pricing pages (mailtrap.io/email-sandbox and mailtrap.io/pricing), read on 8 October 2026. Plans and prices change, so check their site before you decide. Free Domain Mail is not affiliated with Mailtrap; Mailtrap is a trademark of its owner.
Common questions
Do I need my own domain?
Yes, or a subdomain. Its MX record decides where its email goes, so use one that does not receive email you need elsewhere.
Can my app send straight to it?
Yes. Any email delivered to an address at your domain arrives, whoever sends it.
Can it catch email before it leaves my staging server?
No. That is what an SMTP sandbox such as Mailtrap does; Free Domain Mail receives email after real delivery.
Is it free?
The first custom domain is free, with no monthly email quota. Additional domains are billed per domain.