develmail

Dev tools

fake smtp server

SHOW HN2017

149points
87comments
#257of 2,242 in 2017
Top 12%of 2017 by points

How HN took it

RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical

1 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 20 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score -0.49.

Design: 0 for, 10 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 5 againstIdea: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstPricing: 1 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Useful for testing email sending without production risk

    From 2 comments
    • So this is useful for: 1. developing software that sends e-mails, but not having to set up a test environment/pray you don't break production, and 2. testing out new software…
      beefhash on HN
    • I think some are being a smidgen too hard and dismissive about this. That you can do this a bunch of other ways isn't really the point at all. Doesn't even matter if it's easy to…
      oblib on HN
  • Free service appreciated

    From 1 comment
    • Thanks for keeping it for free. I use mailtrap.io and haven't ever hit their limits, but having it as a free service to the community is appreciated.
      deftnerd on HN

Objections

  • Encouraging real email addresses in test environments is a privacy risk

    From 3 comments
    • "No fake recipient email addresses anymore, use real ones!" This is a really bad idea. Keep PII far away from your test environments.
      cotillion on HN
    • The point is that you can use real data with your own isolated test bed. I'm not going to involve some random thing on the Internet in my test setup! For one thing, I'm pretty…
      kazinator on HN
    • Exactly. Wouldn't this be a good way to harvest a ton of valid email addresses?
      tonyztan on HN
  • Free-forever promise is not credible, and dependence on an external service is risky

    From 2 comments
    • ``` As a startup we currently offer one simple subscription program completely for FREE! Meanwhile, we are working hard on our paid plans with plenty of new features, everyone…
      sethammons on HN
    • * I would not use a free service - I want to know that my company is a customer. I want recourse/support if there a problem. That said - be sure to get insurance, for when there…
      pm24601 on HN
  • No TLS/STARTTLS support

    From 2 comments
    • So this is useful for: 1. developing software that sends e-mails, but not having to set up a test environment/pray you don't break production, and 2. testing out new software…
      beefhash on HN
    • Thanks! We understand that encryption is a must, we plan to add this feature as soon as possible.
      pogo77 on HN
  • Site design issues: scroll hijacking, white text unreadable, broken without JavaScript

    From 3 comments
    • Please stop hijacking scrolling. Thankyou.
      dlsym on HN
    • pogo77, congrats on launching. somewhat random comment: your site is completely broken when JS is disabled. This is usually not a problem for general Internet population, but…
      old-gregg on HN
    • Yep. White text is unreadable on dotty backround on mobile. Even zoom in doesn't help.
      imhoguy on HN

Requests

  • Add TLS/STARTTLS support

    From 2 comments
    • So this is useful for: 1. developing software that sends e-mails, but not having to set up a test environment/pray you don't break production, and 2. testing out new software…
      beefhash on HN
    • Thanks! We understand that encryption is a must, we plan to add this feature as soon as possible.
      pogo77 on HN
  • Add spam filter and SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks

    From 1 comment
    • One very useful feature would be to add up to date filtering systems in report only mode (eg SpamAssassin), SPF / DKIM / DMARC checks, etc. Without having your own up to date…
      r1ch on HN
  • Fix site design and scrolling

    From 2 comments
    • Please stop hijacking scrolling. Thankyou.
      dlsym on HN
    • Sorry, we didn't notice that. The design comes with this feature, but we will probably change it very soon.
      pogo77 on HN

Questions

  • Does it offer benefits over mailtrap?

    From 1 comment
    • I've used mailtrap with great success on a Django application that I used to work on. It really is great to just change the SMTP config for the mail sending service without…
      asadjb on HN
  • Can it track bounced mails to verify addresses?

    From 1 comment
    • Is this able to track bounced mails? Then it could be used to verify emails :)
      donmb on HN

Alternatives named

  • MailHog

    From 2 comments
    • You can just use MailHog for free, it works pretty good. https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog
      weirdo1 on HN
    • https://github.com/mailhog/MailHog looks like a really nice alternative, where you can also test HTML mail, etc. Personally, my local SMTP actually sends email, because I DO want…
      hobarrera on HN
  • Mailcatcher

    From 2 comments
    • Mailcatcher is an even simpler solution (assuming you can install rubygems): https://mailcatcher.me/
      xanderstrike on HN
    • At my previous company we used mailcatcher[1]. Worked fine, but with lots of e-mails, the service might crash. [1] https://mailcatcher.me/
      diamondo25 on HN
  • Mailtrap.io

    From 2 comments
    • I completely agree - but I use mailtrap.io quite a lot. It's wonderful to be able to make up any email address and have mail sent to it from your test system, without having to…
      gnud on HN
    • This seems similar to https://mailtrap.io
      lloeki on HN
  • MailDev

    From 1 comment
    • I don't like the idea of external SMTP for this when http://danfarrelly.nyc/MailDev/ can make everything works locally - and it's very easy to add in our Docker based projects.
      Damin0u on HN
  • smtp4dev and Papercut

    From 2 comments

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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