IMAP-Honey vs SMTP Honeypot: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
IMAP-Honey is a free honeypots & deception tool. SMTP Honeypot is a free honeypots & deception tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best honeypots & deception fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Security teams running mail servers in isolated lab environments or threat intelligence operations will get the most from IMAP-Honey, since it's free and requires zero dependencies beyond a basic Linux box to spin up fast credential traps. The 25 GitHub stars and syslog integration suggest it's been field-tested by researchers who need protocol-level deception without licensing friction. Not worth deploying if you need alerting sophistication, cross-protocol coverage beyond mail, or any kind of vendor support; this is a lightweight tactical tool, not a platform replacement.
Security teams running mail infrastructure who want to see what attackers are actually probing for will get fast intelligence from SMTP Honeypot's configurable responses and automatic extraction of reconnaissance attempts. The free pricing and minimal setup overhead mean you can spin it up in an afternoon on a non-production network segment to feed your threat intel program. Skip this if you need centralized management across multiple honeypot types or expect vendor support; this is a single-purpose tool best suited to teams comfortable running open-source infrastructure.
