Why use mockmail.io instead of Laravel's log driver?

Laravel's log mail driver writes emails as plain text into laravel.log, making it hard to debug HTML, attachments, and headers. mockmail.io provides a virtual SMTP server with real inboxes where you can see the final rendered HTML, plain text, headers, and attachments without delivering to real users.

Does mockmail.io work with Laravel Mailable classes?

Yes. mockmail.io works seamlessly with all Laravel mail features including Mailable classes, Markdown mail templates, attachments, and queued emails.

Can I use this in team environments?

Absolutely. Each developer can use their own inbox with no collisions or log file conflicts. QA teams can verify emails visually, and webhook forwarding is available for CI-based tests.

What if my email doesn't appear in mockmail.io?

Ensure MAIL_MAILER=smtp is set in your .env file, double-check your mockmail.io SMTP credentials, and make sure Laravel is not using cached config. Run php artisan config:clear to clear the cache.

Laravel Email Debugging - Mock SMTP Testing Guide

Laravel ships with the log mail driver enabled by default.

While this is useful for quick testing, it has major limitations: all emails are written as plain text into storage/logs/laravel.log, making it difficult to debug layout, HTML rendering, attachments, and headers.

mockmail.io provides a much better workflow: a virtual SMTP server with real inboxes, where you can see the final rendered HTML, plain text, headers, and attachments — without delivering emails to real users.

In this guide, you will learn how to connect a Laravel application to mockmail.io and debug emails the right way.

Prerequisites

To follow along, you'll need:

A Laravel application (any version)
PHP + Composer installed
A mockmail.io account
One inbox created inside mockmail.io

Create a Test Inbox on mockmail.io

First you need to create a new mockmail.io account. Then you need to add a new debug inbox, by clicking the "Create new inbox" Button:

Screenshot: Create new inbox button

Each inbox comes with its dedicated SMTP credentials, which can be used inside your laravel .env file.

Screenshot: Inbox SMTP settings

Configure Laravel to Use mockmail.io SMTP

Open your .env file in the laravel projects root folder and replace your Laravel mail settings with:

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mockmail.io
MAIL_PORT=25
MAIL_USERNAME="YOUR_INBOX_USERNAME"
MAIL_PASSWORD="YOUR_INBOX_PASSWORD"
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls

MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="demo@example.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"

Replace the placeholders YOUR_INBOX_USERNAME and YOUR_INBOX_PASSWORD with the exact values from your inbox.

Then clear Laravel's cache:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear

Create a Simple Laravel Email

Step 1: Create a mailable

php artisan make:mail DemoMail

This generates app/Mail/DemoMail.php.

Step 2: Add some HTML content

public function build()
{
    return $this->subject('Demo Email from Laravel')
        ->view('emails.demo');
}

Create the view:

resources/views/emails/demo.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <body>
        <h1 style="color: #4A90E2;">Laravel Email Debugging Demo</h1>
        <p>
            This is a test email sent using
            <strong>mockmail.io</strong>
            .
        </p>
    </body>
</html>

Trigger the Email

Add a quick route to test sending in your routes/web.php:

use App\Mail\WelcomeEmail;

Route::get('/send-test-email', function () {
    $name = 'John Doe';
    $email = 'john.doe@example.com';

    // Send the email
    Mail::to($email)->send(new WelcomeEmail($name, $email));

    return 'Email sent!';
});

Open the URL in the browser:

http://localhost:8000/send-test

You should see "Email sent!".

View the Email in mockmail.io

Go to your mockmail.io inbox, your email should now appear there. After clicking on the email, the email should be displayed fully rendered:

Screenshot: Inbox showing received test email

Besides the rendered HTML, you can also inspect the raw email source code, text preview, attachments or display how your HTML mail might be rendered on different devices or viewports. This provides far more context than the Laravel log driver.

Debugging More Complex Laravel Emails

mockmail.io works seamlessly with:

Markdown Mails

Laravel's Markdown mail templates render perfectly in the HTML preview.

Attachments

If you send reports, PDFs, or images, they appear in the attachments tab.

Queued Emails

Queued or delayed jobs behave exactly as real email sending.

Multiple Inboxes

Each developer can use their own inbox or a shared inbox, used by multiple

Using mockmail.io in Team Environments

Benefits for teams:

No risk of accidentally emailing real people
Each developer works with isolated mailboxes
Helps QA teams verify emails visually
Webhook forwarding for CI-based tests (optional)

If you run a dev, staging, or CI environment, mockmail.io helps you safely test the full email flow.

Troubleshooting

Email not appearing?

Ensure MAIL_MAILER=smtp is set
Double-check mockmail.io SMTP credentials
Make sure Laravel is not still using cached config

Connection refused?

Docker users: expose the mail port to the container:

docker run -p 1025:1025 ...

Summary

Laravel's default log mail driver is fine for quick tests — but not enough when you need:

HTML previews
Header inspection
Attachment debugging
Clean separation of emails

mockmail.io provides a safe, developer-friendly virtual SMTP environment that lets you debug emails exactly as they would look in a real mailbox.

Get Started

Create your free inbox at https://mockmail.io and try it out with your Laravel project today.

How to Debug Emails in Laravel Using mockmail.io