Imitate Email is a freemium sandbox email testing platform for developers to safely build, test, and preview email functionality without risking real inboxes.

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🚀 Overview

Imitate Email addresses the pain of email testing in development: avoiding spam to real users, previewing across clients and devices, and enabling seamless collaboration with teams or clients. Instead of local fake SMTP servers or file dumps, it provides a hosted sandbox with easy integration.

It's designed for developers, indie makers, and software teams integrating emails into apps—think notifications, auth flows, or marketing. Founders Mark Jerzykowski and James Holwell (Oxford alumni, ex-consultants) built it to effortlessly show test emails to clients during user acceptance testing via an embedded viewer, making it feel native to the app.

Launched in summer 2022, it's grown to 300+ users, joined Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, and contributes 1% revenue to carbon removal.

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✨ Key Features

• Sandbox SMTP Server (what it does: authenticated sending with STARTTLS; why: secure capture without real delivery, user filtering)
• Email Viewer (multi-format preview—HTML/text/raw; simulate clients/devices; responsive mobile scaling)
• Web Widget (1-line async JS embed <1.5KB; SSO; unbranded on paid plans)
• Programmatic Testing (POP3/IMAP/WebSocket; inbound mailboxes; API adapters like Mandrill; spam scoring)
• Optional: Team tools (permissions, multiple projects/mailboxes), forwarding, WordPress/Chrome/Firefox plugins

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🛠 Tech Stack

• Frontend: JavaScript (Web Widget), Custom Web App
• Backend: SMTP (STARTTLS), POP3/IMAP, WebSocket
• Database: Not specified
• Auth: Multi-provider (Email/Password, Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Twitter/X)
• Hosting: Cloud-based (Microsoft for Startups)

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👥 Who Is This For?

This project is useful for:

• Developers who want to test email flows inline in their apps
• Teams looking for collaborative testing with permissions and SSO
• Indie makers building SaaS with email features

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📸 Screenshots / Demo

• Live demo: https://imitate.email/demo
• Website: https://imitate.email
• Chrome Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/imitate-email/mmlbomgdjokkmlmdaijhdefichmfkeae
• Firefox Extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/imitate-email-plus/

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🔥 Project Status

• 🟢 Actively building

Last updated: 2026-03-24

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❓ FAQ

Is this project free?

Freemium (Free plan: 15 emails/day forever; limits on widget branding, scale. Paid: $7+/mo for unbranded, teams, more emails/mailboxes/users).

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Is the source code available?

No — explain why: Proprietary SaaS by Imitation Software Ltd.

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Can I contribute?

Share feedback, issues, or feature requests via hello@imitate.email or /contact. No PRs as closed-source; affiliate program available.

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📬 Contact & Links

• Website: https://imitate.email
• GitHub: N/A
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/markjerz (founder)
• Email: hello@imitate.email

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