Why use multiple inboxes?
When your staging app and local dev server both send emails to the same inbox, debugging becomes a nightmare. You waste time sifting through hundreds of test emails to find the one you just triggered.
With MailHog, each inbox is a separate SMTP endpoint with its own username and password. Point your local dev at one inbox, staging at another, and CI at a third. Emails stay organized and easy to find.
Common inbox configurations
Local Dev
For your localhost dev server. Quick iteration on email templates.
Staging
Shared staging environment. All team members see captured emails.
QA
Dedicated QA inbox for automated test suites and manual testing.
CI/CD
Ephemeral inbox for CI pipeline assertions. Cleaned after each run.
Credential management
- Each inbox has a unique SMTP username and password
- Credentials can be rotated at any time without affecting other inboxes
- Passwords are hashed with argon2id — we never store plaintext
- Share credentials via your team's secret manager or CI env vars
Team collaboration
On Hobby and Team plans, multiple team members can access the same inboxes. Everyone sees the same captured emails, making it easy to debug email issues collaboratively. Team members can be assigned roles with different permission levels.
Create your first inbox
Free plan includes 2 inboxes. Hobby gets 5, Team and Business get unlimited.