A side-by-side comparison of the most-used disposable email services in 2026 — what each one is good for, where the trade-offs lie, and where tenmin.app fits. Written by the people who run tenmin.app, so consider the source; we've tried to be honest where the others are genuinely better.
Quick comparison
| Service | Lifespan | Signup required | Custom address | Attachments | HTTPS | Ad density | Has API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tenmin.app | 10 minutes (extendable) | None | No | Yes (size capped) | Yes | 1 discreet slot | Yes (read-only) |
| Mailinator | Few hours, publicly readable | None (free tier) | Free tier: address-based only; paid tier: custom domain | Free: no, Paid: yes | Yes | On free tier | Yes (paid) |
| 10MinuteMail | 10 minutes (extendable) | None | No | Limited | Yes | Multiple ad slots | No |
| Temp-Mail.org | Until you change/refresh | None | Paid plans only | Yes | Yes | Multiple ad slots | Paid |
| Guerrilla Mail | 1 hour (rolling) | None | Choose from preset domains | Yes | Yes | Light | Yes |
| EmailOnDeck | Variable | None | Paid plans only | Yes | Yes | Light | Paid |
The longer version
tenmin.app
Open architecture, no logs, sandboxed HTML rendering. Built on Cloudflare's free tier.
Mailinator
The classic. Massive scale, but free-tier inboxes are publicly readable by anyone — strong for software QA, weak for privacy.
10MinuteMail
Long-running and widely known. UI is dated; ad density on the free site is high.
Temp-Mail.org
Multiple domains, paid premium with longer retention. Heaviest ad load of the well-known services.
Guerrilla Mail
Old-school but reliable. Also supports outbound sending, which is unusual in this category and worth knowing.
EmailOnDeck
Privacy-focused branding, paid premium tier with longer retention and custom prefixes.
Which one should you use?
Match the service to the use case:
- One-shot signup, you want it gone fast: tenmin.app or 10MinuteMail. Ten minutes is enough for any verification code or PDF link.
- Bulk testing of a transactional email system in software QA: Mailinator's paid tier is the industry default. Their API and team features are mature.
- You need to also send (not just receive): Guerrilla Mail is one of the few that supports outbound, though most use cases for outbound disposable mail are spam-related and frowned upon by their terms.
- You want a longer-lived address but still disposable: Temp-Mail.org and EmailOnDeck offer paid plans with longer retention; or — better trade-off — use an aliasing service like SimpleLogin. See our disposable vs. alias guide for when each fits.
- You're concerned about ad density or tracking on the temp-mail site itself:tenmin.app runs one discreet ad slot below the article (when AdSense is enabled at all), and zero analytics cookies are set by us beyond what AdSense itself sets. Mailinator and Temp-Mail run more.
Where tenmin.app is honestly weaker
Three places. First, Mailinator at scale — they handle millions of messages a day with team accounts, automation features, and a polished QA-oriented API. If you're standing up a CI pipeline that sends ten thousand test emails a day, their paid plan is purpose-built for that. We're free-tier-bound and would prefer you didn't.
Second, Guerrilla Mail's outbound feature. We're deliberately receive-only; if your edge case is "test what a recipient sees when they get my reply," Guerrilla Mail is the closer match.
Third, brand recognition. If you're handing a temp address to a non-technical friend, "10minutemail.com" is more obviously what it is than "tenmin.app" is. We picked the shorter name on purpose, but it costs us a half-second of explanation sometimes.
Where tenmin.app is honestly stronger
Three places. First, ad density. Most major disposable-inbox sites are plastered with ad slots; we run one. The economics still work because Cloudflare's free tier covers our infrastructure.
Second, open architecture. We document the entire system openly — see our behind-the-scenes guide. You can verify our claims about retention and storage by reading the code shape. Most competitors in this category are closed-source and you're trusting their privacy policy on faith.
Third, sandboxed HTML rendering with two layers of defence. Inbound HTML is run through a sanitiser and then rendered inside a sandboxed iframe. We've seen competitor services render raw HTML directly; it's a real XSS risk in the inbox category because senders are by definition untrusted.
The aliasing alternative
If everything above feels like it's solving the wrong problem, you might want an aliasing service rather than a disposable one. SimpleLogin, Addy.io, and Apple's Hide My Email give you stable addresses that forward to your real inbox — you turn them off independently when they start receiving spam. They're the right tool for any address you might want to keep for longer than ten minutes. We have a deeper comparison of the disposable-vs-alias decision if you want to think it through.