Many businesses rely on emails to connect with customer. Application developers also need email to build authentication flows and marketing campaigns. The functioning of these email processes can be critical to a business - so it is important to test emails in a reliable and trustworthy way. Email testing is the main way to test email display and delivery and there are many services to do so.

What is email testing?

Email testing can mean different things but typically has three main areas:

  • does the email display correctly in a certain client?
  • can be application send emails as expected
  • can I receive and respond to emails correctly

Testing emails is essential to ensure that mail reaches the customer and not the junk folder. It is also an important way to verify that email looks just right in any email client. Let's cover each section and explain.

Email display testing

Email clients display emails differently! This means your well designing marketing mail might look different in Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. That's why email testing service like Litmus and emailonacid exist to give you instant access to a wide range of email clients. You can use these clients to test the display of your mail for every customer. This ensure pixel perfect designs and better customer conversion.

Email trapping and fake smtp servers

Another important testing case applies to developers and QA testers. Using a fake email server such as MailSlurp allows developers to trap email when it is sent. This prevents test emails for reaching real customers and enables developers to view and examine emails that are sent to ensure they are correct. MailSlurp provides an extensive email testing API for capturing emails.

Receive emails and test the response

The third use case for email testing is for automated response and transactional email. Many applications and businesses use inbound email messaging to manage customer relations and application sign up. This flow must remain correct as a product evolves. For that reason email testing tools that can create disposable email accounts for receiving and testing emails are an essential part of any email business.

Get started

Get testing today using MailSlurp - it's free for personal use and lets you create unlimited mailboxes that can be controlled in code, tests, or any SMTP mail client!