Comparison
Mailinator alternative
Mailinator made public disposable inboxes famous: type any name, read the email. fake-email.pro takes the other path – every inbox is private to whoever created it, attachments are received, and a temp mail API comes with a free account. Here is how the two compare, on the numbers each side publishes.
Mailinator vs fake-email.pro
| Mailinator | fake-email.pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Inbox privacy | Public on the free tier: anyone who types the inbox name reads its email. Private domains start with Verified Pro. mailinator.com/pricing, Sep 23, 2026 | Private on every plan: a mailbox is visible only to the browser session or the account that created it. Through the API, only to your account. |
| Message retention | A few hours on the free Public tier. mailinator.com/pricing, Sep 23, 2026 |
|
| Attachments | Not on the free Public tier. mailinator.com/pricing, Sep 23, 2026 | Received with the message, within the mailbox size:
Downloadable on the website and through the API. |
| API on the free tier | Only through Verified Pro, free once Mailinator approves the account. The API comes with every paid plan. mailinator.com/mailinator-api, Sep 23, 2026 |
|
| Custom address | Any inbox name on the public domain, readable by anyone. A private domain of your own from Verified Pro and Business. mailinator.com/pricing, Sep 23, 2026 |
|
| Entry price | Free Public tier. Paid plans start with Business at $99 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly. mailinator.com/monthly-pricing, mailinator.com/pricing, Sep 23, 2026 | Free: Anonymous and Authorized, and PRO free during the open beta. |
When Mailinator is the better choice
- You want public inboxes. On Mailinator anyone opens any address on the public domain in a browser, with no sign-up and no key – handy when a whole team shares test addresses and nobody minds that strangers can read them too.
- You are a large QA team. Mailinator's Business plans come with seats, private domains and webhooks for a whole organisation. fake-email.pro has no team accounts; more API volume than PRO is arranged by email.
Looking at QA tools in general? MailSlurp and Mailtrap are built for email testing too: MailSlurp around an inbox API, Mailtrap around a sandbox that catches your app's outgoing email.
Try it on your own tests
A free account gets an API key. The email testing guide walks through Playwright, Cypress and Selenium.
Frequently asked questions
Is fake-email.pro a free Mailinator alternative?
Yes. Receiving email is free without an account, a Google sign-in keeps your addresses longer and gives you an API key, and PRO is free during the open beta. The pricing page compares the plans.
Can someone else read my inbox?
No. A mailbox belongs to the browser session or the account that created it, and a mailbox created through the API belongs to your account. There are no public inboxes that open for anyone who types a name.
Is there an API on the free plan?
Yes. Any signed-in account can create an API key and a number of mailboxes a month through the API. The numbers per plan are on the pricing page and in the API docs.
Can I use it in Playwright, Cypress or Selenium tests?
Yes. A test creates a mailbox through the API, types its address into the app under test, waits for the email with a single request and reads the OTP code or the confirmation link out of it. The email testing guide in the API docs has an example for each framework.
Does it receive attachments?
Yes. Attachments arrive with the message and count toward the mailbox size of your plan. You download them on the website or through the API, which also serves the raw .eml of every message.
Why do the Mailinator numbers carry a date?
Prices and limits change. The Mailinator column shows what its own pages said on Sep 23, 2026, with a link to each page, so check there before you decide.