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Mailpit vs HELO: catalog facts
Mailpit	HELO
Free Free to download and run.	Paid Sold as a paid desktop application.
Web, Self-hosted, Command line	macOS
Single binary or Docker image with no dependencies HTML compatibility, link and spam checks built in	Local SMTP server that catches mail before it reaches real users Automatic broken link check
For testing only, not a real mail client Spam scoring relies on a SpamAssassin setup	Paid only Laravel Herd Pro now includes its own email testing tool, which overlaps for PHP users
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Downloadable app
Open source	Closed source
License not stated	License not stated
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.