A lightweight, high-performance SMTP server implementation in C# with ESMTP extension support.
SmtpServer is a lightweight SMTP server implementation written entirely in C# for the .NET platform. It provides a complete SMTP protocol solution with ESMTP extensions, enabling developers to create custom email servers for testing, processing, or internal mail delivery. The server leverages asynchronous programming patterns for high performance and offers extensible hooks for message handling, filtering, and authentication.
.NET developers needing to integrate SMTP server functionality into applications, QA engineers requiring local email servers for testing, or system administrators building internal mail processing systems.
Developers choose SmtpServer for its pure C# implementation, eliminating external dependencies, its high performance through TPL, and its extensible hook system that allows complete control over email processing workflows within .NET ecosystems.
A SMTP Server component written in C#
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Built entirely in C# with no external dependencies, allowing seamless embedding into .NET applications without foreign code, as highlighted in the README's emphasis on being written for .NET.
Provides IMessageStore, IMailboxFilter, and IUserAuthenticator interfaces for complete control over message handling, filtering, and authentication, enabling custom email workflows.
Supports ESMTP extensions like STARTTLS, AUTH, and SMTPUTF8, ensuring compatibility with contemporary email standards, as listed in the README's feature set.
Leverages the Task Parallel Library for asynchronous operations, enabling scalable and efficient email processing, which is a core claim in the project description.
Requires custom implementation of IMessageStore for email persistence, adding development overhead since the README shows you must handle message saving manually.
Setting up secure communication involves manual certificate creation with external tools like MAKECERT.EXE, as admitted in the README example, which can be cumbersome for beginners.
Focuses solely on SMTP; lacks IMAP or POP3 for a full mail server, necessitating additional components if mail retrieval is needed beyond receiving emails.