EmailQA is an Email on Acid alternative that costs $20 per month flat. Email on Acid customers are being moved to Mailgun Inspect from June 2026, where previews start at $99 per month and the accessibility and spam checks need the $199 Premium plan, with overage charges on both. It focuses on real-device rendering previews and pin-based reviewer feedback without requiring reviewer accounts, but does not do spam testing or accessibility checks.
Email testing, rendering and pre-deployment platform
Best for: Enterprise email teams needing pre-deployment QA across 90+ clients with accessibility and spam testing
Email preview & feedback tool
Best for: Teams focused on stakeholder feedback, approvals, and real-device rendering at a fraction of the cost
| Feature | Email on Acid | EmailQA |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99/month (Mailgun Inspect Basic) | Free (14-day Pro trial) |
| Free plan | No (one-month Inspect trial) | Yes (3 projects/month) |
| Free trial length | One month (Mailgun Inspect) | 14 days, no card |
| Email preview | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-device preview | Yes | Yes |
| Real device rendering | Yes | Yes |
| Light + Dark Mode | Yes | Yes |
| Visual feedback | Not yet in Mailgun Inspect (2026 roadmap) | Pin & box comments |
| Guest reviewer access | Account needed (unlimited users) | Unlimited, no account |
| ESP integrations | Chrome extension runs previews inside ESP editors on every plan; QA checks need Premium or a contract | 9 ESPs on Pro |
| Email client rendering | 90+ clients | Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail & more |
| Accessibility check | Yes | No |
| Spam testing | Yes | No |
| Approval workflow | Add-on / Premium | Included in trial, then $20/mo |
| Slack integration | Premium only | Yes |
| Version comparison | Limited | Visual slider |
| Rendering API | Included (Basic) | Included ($99/mo Business) |
We would rather you pick the right tool than the cheap one. Stay with Email on Acid if:
Email on Acid is a pre-deployment QA platform focused on rendering tests, accessibility checks, and spam scoring across 90+ clients. EmailQA covers real device rendering on the email clients that matter most (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail and more) in both Light Mode and Dark Mode, and adds the things Email on Acid charges extra for or lacks entirely: pin-based visual comments, guest-reviewer links with no account required, version comparison, and built-in approval workflows. See our full device list at emailqa.live/features/real-device-rendering.
Yes, significantly. EmailQA gives you all Pro features free for 14 days, then $20/month flat. Email on Acid customers are moving to Mailgun Inspect, which costs $99/month for previews only (Basic) or $199/month with the QA checks (Premium), plus $0.15 for each preview over the cap. Switching to EmailQA saves a small team roughly $950/year against the $99 plan, and Pro has no per-render overage charges at all.
Yes. EmailQA renders on real devices across the email clients that cover 95%+ of real subscriber inboxes: Gmail (Web, Android, iOS), Outlook (classic and new on Windows, Mac, Web, iOS, Android), and Apple Mail (Mac and iOS), with Light Mode and Dark Mode side-by-side. Email on Acid offers more niche clients (AOL, Outlook 2013, Lotus Notes) but most teams don't need them. If rendering plus feedback are your core needs, EmailQA covers both for a fraction of the cost.
For most teams, yes. EmailQA replaces Email on Acid's rendering, preview, multi-device testing, ESP imports, and approval workflow, and adds visual comments and guest review on top. The two things EmailQA does not replace are automated accessibility checking and spam-score testing; if those are critical for your compliance or deliverability process, some teams keep Email on Acid for those audits and use EmailQA for everything else.
No. Email on Acid is no longer sold on its own, and its customers are moving to Mailgun Inspect in 2026. Inspect has no free plan either: it offers a one-month free trial, then Basic at $99/month for 1,000 previews or Premium at $199/month for 2,000 previews plus the QA checks. EmailQA, by contrast, has a 14-day Pro trial with no credit card required, plus a permanently free plan with 3 projects per month after the trial ends.
Litmus has broader client coverage (100+ vs 90+) and stronger analytics; Email on Acid has tighter accessibility and pre-deployment QA. Litmus now starts at around $500/month (Core) after dropping its cheaper plans in 2025, while Email on Acid customers are moving to Mailgun Inspect at $99 to $199 a month plus usage, and neither offers pin-based collaborative review. For teams whose primary need is collaborative feedback and approval, not enterprise QA, EmailQA at $20/month replaces the rendering layer of either tool at a fraction of the cost.
Yes. The EmailQA Business plan ($99/month) includes a REST API drawing on one shared allowance of 3,000 renders a month — the same entry price as Email on Acid's successor, Mailgun Inspect, with three times the allowance. The difference is what surrounds it: API-triggered renders appear in the same review UI your team uses, so a pipeline can render every build and reviewers approve with pin comments, no extra tool. The API docs are public at emailqa.live/docs/api.
Email on Acid is the better choice if: WCAG accessibility compliance is a hard requirement (regulated industries, government, healthcare); You need spam scoring and deliverability testing as a built-in step before every send; Your audience meaningfully includes Lotus Notes, AOL, or other legacy clients; Your QA process is built on automated prechecks and checklists rather than human review. For teams that mainly need rendering previews and stakeholder review, EmailQA covers that for $20/month flat.
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