How to Test Nodemailer Email Flows in Playwright

Nodemailer is the most widely used email library in Node.js. If your Express, Next.js, or NestJS app sends emails, there's a good chance it's using Nodemailer under the hood.

But testing those emails end-to-end in CI has always been the hard part. This guide shows how to test the complete email flow with Playwright and ZeroDrop — no Docker, no fake SMTP server, no mocking.

The typical Nodemailer setup

// lib/email.ts
import nodemailer from 'nodemailer';

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  host: process.env.SMTP_HOST,
  port: Number(process.env.SMTP_PORT),
  auth: {
    user: process.env.SMTP_USER,
    pass: process.env.SMTP_PASS,
  },
});

export async function sendVerificationEmail(to: string, token: string) {
  const verifyUrl = `${process.env.APP_URL}/verify?token=${token}`;

  await transporter.sendMail({
    from: 'noreply@yourapp.com',
    to,
    subject: 'Verify your email',
    html: `<p>Click <a href="${verifyUrl}">here</a> to verify your email.</p>`,
  });
}

export async function sendPasswordResetEmail(to: string, token: string) {
  const resetUrl = `${process.env.APP_URL}/reset-password?token=${token}`;

  await transporter.sendMail({
    from: 'noreply@yourapp.com',
    to,
    subject: 'Reset your password',
    html: `<p>Click <a href="${resetUrl}">here</a> to reset your password.</p>`,
  });
}

export async function sendOTPEmail(to: string, otp: string) {
  await transporter.sendMail({
    from: 'noreply@yourapp.com',
    to,
    subject: 'Your verification code',
    html: `<p>Your code is: <strong>${otp}</strong></p>`,
  });
}

Stage 1 — Local development: Nodemailer test account

Nodemailer has a built-in test account generator using Ethereal Email:

// For local development only
const testAccount = await nodemailer.createTestAccount();

const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  host: 'smtp.ethereal.email',
  port: 587,
  auth: {
    user: testAccount.user,
    pass: testAccount.pass,
  },
});

// After sending, preview the email
const info = await transporter.sendMail({ ... });
console.log('Preview URL:', nodemailer.getTestMessageUrl(info));

This is useful for inspecting emails locally — the preview URL opens in a browser. But you can't automate reading from Ethereal in a Playwright test, and it doesn't work in CI.

What it solves: Visual inspection during local development.

What it doesn't solve: Automated testing. No programmatic API to read the email in a test.

Stage 2 — CI: Nodemailer + real SMTP + ZeroDrop

For automated testing in GitHub Actions, point Nodemailer at a real SMTP provider (Resend, SendGrid, Postmark) and use ZeroDrop to catch the emails:

npm install zerodrop-client

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';
import { ZeroDrop } from 'zerodrop-client';

const mail = new ZeroDrop();

test('email verification flow', async ({ page }) => {
  // 1. Generate a disposable inbox
  const inbox = process.env.TEST_INBOX ?? mail.generateInbox();

  // 2. Sign up — Nodemailer sends the verification email
  await page.goto('/signup');
  await page.fill('[name="email"]', inbox);
  await page.fill('[name="password"]', 'TestPass123!');
  await page.click('[type="submit"]');

  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/check-email');

  // 3. ZeroDrop catches the email — magic link auto-extracted
  const email = await mail.waitForLatest(inbox, { timeout: 30000 });

  expect(email.subject).toContain('Verify your email');
  expect(email.magicLink).not.toBeNull();

  // 4. Click the verification link
  await page.goto(email.magicLink!);
  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

OTP flow

test('OTP login', async ({ page }) => {
  const inbox = process.env.TEST_INBOX ?? mail.generateInbox();

  await page.goto('/login');
  await page.fill('[name="email"]', inbox);
  await page.click('[type="submit"]');

  // OTP auto-extracted at the edge — no regex needed
  const email = await mail.waitForLatest(inbox, { timeout: 30000 });
  expect(email.otp).not.toBeNull();

  await page.fill('[name="otp"]', email.otp!);
  await page.click('[type="submit"]');

  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

Password reset flow

test('password reset', async ({ page }) => {
  const inbox = process.env.TEST_INBOX ?? mail.generateInbox();

  await page.goto('/forgot-password');
  await page.fill('[name="email"]', inbox);
  await page.click('[type="submit"]');

  const email = await mail.waitForLatest(inbox, { timeout: 30000 });
  expect(email.magicLink).not.toBeNull();

  await page.goto(email.magicLink!);
  await page.fill('[name="password"]', 'NewPass123!');
  await page.click('[type="submit"]');

  await expect(page.getByText('Password updated')).toBeVisible();
});

Configuring Nodemailer for CI

The key is using a real SMTP provider in CI while keeping Ethereal for local development:

// lib/email.ts
const isCI = process.env.CI === 'true';

const transporter = isCI
  ? nodemailer.createTransport({
      // Real SMTP in CI — emails actually delivered
      host: process.env.SMTP_HOST,      // e.g. smtp.resend.com
      port: 587,
      auth: {
        user: process.env.SMTP_USER,    // e.g. resend
        pass: process.env.SMTP_PASS,    // e.g. your Resend API key
      },
    })
  : nodemailer.createTransport({
      // Ethereal locally — visual inspection only
      host: 'smtp.ethereal.email',
      port: 587,
      auth: {
        user: process.env.ETHEREAL_USER,
        pass: process.env.ETHEREAL_PASS,
      },
    });

Using Resend as the SMTP backend:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.resend.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=resend
SMTP_PASS=re_your_api_key

Using SendGrid:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=apikey
SMTP_PASS=SG.your_api_key

GitHub Actions workflow

name: E2E Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - run: npm ci

      - run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

      - name: Generate test inbox
        id: inbox
        uses: zerodrop-dev/create-inbox@8706a59 # v1.0.0

      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npx playwright test
        env:
          CI: true
          TEST_INBOX: ${{ steps.inbox.outputs.inbox }}
          SMTP_HOST: smtp.resend.com
          SMTP_PORT: 587
          SMTP_USER: resend
          SMTP_PASS: ${{ secrets.RESEND_API_KEY }}
          APP_URL: ${{ secrets.STAGING_URL }}

The full picture

	Ethereal (local)	Real SMTP (staging)	Real SMTP + ZeroDrop (CI)
Visual inspection	✅ preview URL	✅ real inbox	✅ automated
No real emails sent	✅	❌	❌
Automated in CI	❌	❌	✅
Parallel test runs	❌	❌	✅
OTP auto-extraction	❌	❌	✅
Tests real delivery	❌	✅	✅

Use Ethereal locally for template inspection. Use a real SMTP provider + ZeroDrop in CI for full end-to-end coverage.

Why not use MailHog?

MailHog is the traditional alternative — a fake SMTP server that catches emails locally. The problems:

Requires a running Docker container in CI
Adds 15-30 seconds cold start time per CI run
Parallel tests share one inbox — race conditions when multiple tests send emails simultaneously
Unmaintained since 2020

ZeroDrop solves all three: no Docker, no cold start, and every test gets its own isolated inbox.

ZeroDrop — disposable email inboxes for CI pipelines. Free, no signup, no Docker.
→ zerodrop.dev · docs · npm