- You need to know where mail actually lands, not just its score. Unspam delivers to real seed inboxes at Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho, ProtonMail, AOL and GMX and reports inbox vs spam for each.
- You want previews, an AI eye-tracking heatmap and an AI assistant in the same plan as the spam test, from $5/mo with a 14-day no-questions-asked refund.
- You want recurring checks: Unspam's Autopilot schedules inbox placement and spam-score tests, and alerts you when either slips. Mail-Tester tests are one-off snapshots.
- You want a bigger, private free tier: 5 spam tests, 3 inbox placements, 3 device previews, 5 screenshots and 5 heatmaps a month with no card. Mail-Tester's free results are visible to anyone with the test URL for 7 days.
A Mail-Tester alternative that shows where mail lands at each provider
Mail-Tester is the long-standing free way to get a SpamAssassin spam score: send an email to a generated address, get a mark out of 10. Unspam runs the same kind of pre-send check, then adds seed-list inbox placement, client previews and an AI heatmap. Free tier included, paid from $5/mo.
Compared from public pricing and product pages, September 2026.
Which one fits you?
- You only need an occasional sanity check: Mail-Tester gives 3 free tests per 24 hours with no account, plus a detailed per-rule SpamAssassin breakdown.
- You're embedding white-label spam testing in your own product: Mail-Tester's JSON API and iframe start at $10/mo. Unspam's API is gated behind the Custom plan with no self-serve trial.
- You test at serious volume: Mail-Tester drops to roughly $0.03 per test at 7,500 tests a month.
Why teams move from Mail-Tester to Unspam.
A 10/10 score doesn't mean inbox
Users on Reddit report perfect Mail-Tester scores while 100% of their mail hit Outlook junk, and a 50-test study found 10/10 scores correlated with only ~73% Gmail inbox placement. Unspam runs seed-list placement tests across seven providers so you see where each message actually lands.
A snapshot, not monitoring
Mail-Tester is a point-in-time SpamAssassin check: no scheduled tests, no placement monitoring, and blocklist lookups only run as part of each one-off test. Unspam's Autopilot runs recurring inbox placement and spam-score tests with alerts, and its blocklist checker covers 20+ blocklists on demand.
Adds the design view Mail-Tester skips
Mail-Tester has no client previews or design analysis. Most adjacent tools on its site are outbound links to EasyDMARC. Unspam bundles device previews, an AI eye-tracking heatmap and an AI assistant into every plan, including the free one. Results in about 30 seconds.
Unspam vs Mail-Tester, feature by feature.
Based on public product pages and documentation. Spotted something outdated? Tell us in the chat and we'll fix it.
Feature
Unspam
Mail-Tester
Free plan or trial
Free plan, no card
Free: 3 tests/day
First paid plan
$5/mo minimum, usage-priced
$10/mo
Spam score testing
Yes
Yes
Inbox placement tests
Yes
—No
Client previews & screenshots
Yes50+ clients, light & dark
—No
AI attention heatmap
Yes
—No
Blacklist monitoring
Partialon-demand checker
Partialper test only
SPF / DKIM / DMARC checks
Yes
PartialSPF, DKIM and rDNS; no DMARC
AI fix recommendations
Yes
—No
Scheduled automatic tests
Yesplacement + spam score
—No
Scheduled spam score tests
Yesdaily, weekly, or monthly
—No
Sender accounts
YesUnlimited
—No
API access
YesCustom plan
Yes
MCP server
YesCustom plan
—No
Email verification
Yes
—No
Automated inbox warmup
—No
—No
DMARC report monitoring
YesCustom plan, first domain free
—No
Deliverability consulting
Yesseparate service
—No
Comparison based on publicly available information as of September 2026. Features and pricing change frequently, so please verify current details on each provider's website.
What each one costs.
Mail-Tester prices are from the official pricing page (mail-tester.com/manager). The monthly subscriptions are the same product at different volumes and are listed excl. VAT; a separate One Time Payments tab sells non-recurring test packs, from $5 for 10 tests up to $700 for 15,000.
- Free $0
5 spam tests, 3 inbox placements, 3 device previews, 5 screenshots, 5 heatmaps per month. AI assistant included.
- Custom $5/mo
Pay per test: spam tests $0.18, inbox placements $0.50, device previews $0.75, screenshots $0.20, heatmaps $0.30. Volume discounts to 30%, 15% off annual, $5 monthly minimum. API, MCP and three years of history included. DMARC monitoring is $6 per domain per month, first domain free.
- 50 Tests / Month $10/mo (excl. VAT)
50 tests/month ($0.20 per test), JSON API + iframe integration, white-label/CSS customization, 30-day test history, usage stats, no ads
- 500 Tests / Month $25/mo (excl. VAT)
500 tests/month ($0.05 per test), same account features
- 2,000 Tests / Month $80/mo (excl. VAT)
2,000 tests/month ($0.04 per test), same account features; labeled 'Most Popular'
- 7,500 Tests / Month $250/mo (excl. VAT)
7,500 tests/month ($0.0333 per test), same account features
Mail-Tester pricing and feature information was collected from publicly available sources in September 2026 and may have changed since; it is provided for general comparison only and is not guaranteed to reflect current offers. Confirm current pricing on the vendor's website. Mail-Tester is a trademark of its respective owner. Unspam is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mail-Tester.
Unspam vs Mail-Tester, answered.
Is Unspam a full replacement for Mail-Tester?
For testing, largely yes: Unspam covers spam scoring, SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks and blacklist lookups, and adds inbox placement, client previews and heatmaps that Mail-Tester doesn't offer. One honest exception: Mail-Tester's self-serve white-label API starts at $10/mo, while Unspam's API requires the Custom plan. Neither tool does inbox warmup, and ongoing DMARC aggregate-report monitoring is Unspam only, on that same Custom plan.
How does pricing compare?
Mail-Tester's paid plans are listed at $10/mo for 50 tests (excl. VAT), scaling to $250/mo for 7,500; there is also a one-time pack tab, from $5 for 10 tests. Unspam charges per test from a $5 monthly minimum: $0.18 a spam test, $0.50 an inbox placement, with volume discounts to 30%, a 14-day refund and 15% off annual billing. See pricing.
What's the biggest functional difference?
Inbox placement. Mail-Tester returns a SpamAssassin-based 0 to 10 score for a single message; Unspam also delivers test emails to real seed inboxes at Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho, ProtonMail, AOL and GMX and reports inbox vs spam for each provider. See inbox placement.
How do the free tiers compare?
Mail-Tester allows 3 free tests per 24 hours with no account, and results stay accessible to anyone with the URL for 7 days. Unspam's free plan includes 5 spam tests, 3 inbox placements, 3 device previews, 5 screenshots and 5 heatmaps per month, with the AI assistant included and no credit card required. What each vendor actually gives away is set out plan by plan, and both of these count among the free tiers large enough to answer a real question.