Boost Email Deliverability: Top 9 DMARC Monitoring Tools

Are your emails constantly landing in spam or getting rejected? Is your sender reputation taking an unexpected hit? These are common challenges for any business relying on email communication, and they often point to a critical need for stronger email authentication and deliverability.

This comprehensive guide dives deep into one of the most effective solutions: DMARC monitoring tools. We’ll explore, compare, and assess the top DMARC monitoring services available, detailing their key features, unique strengths, and pricing to help you make an informed decision.

9 Best DMARC Monitoring Services: Quick Overview

Here’s a summary of pricing and free plan availability for our top DMARC monitoring services:

What is a DMARC Monitoring Service?

DMARC is one of the main protocols used to authenticate if emails are genuine. Senders use it to combat email spoofing. This is when spammers and phishers try to use your email domain fraudulently to send fake emails. Falling victim to spoofing can be devastating for your sender reputation. So authentication is important for maintaining good deliverability.

DMARC gives mailboxes instructions based on analysis of two other authentication protocols, SPF and DKIM. Every email address has a domain, the part after the @ sign. It’s easy to start using an email domain you don’t own fraudulently. But SPF and DKIM records authenticate genuine addresses that belong to a domain.

If SPF and DKIM records don’t check out, that suggests an email address is fake. DMARC then steps in to tell the mailbox what to do: either block the email or quarantine it for further inspection. These instructions are called a DMARC policy.

DMARC policies can also include instructions to report on blocked or quarantined emails. This is important because failed authentication doesn’t always mean a fake address. It could be that you haven’t kept up with your DKIM and SPF records. A DMARC report lets you check this.

The only problem is, DMARC reports are XML data feeds. They’re called DMARC aggregate reports. And they’re meant for machines. So this is where a DMARC monitoring service comes in. It turns the raw data of a DMARC report into something intelligible and usable. This is how you get details about blocked and quarantined emails. And armed with that insight, you can do something about it.

9 Best DMARC Monitoring Services Reviewed

Bouncer

Bouncer also has an inbox placement testing tool called the Deliverability Kit. Inbox placement testing measures how many emails are landing in inboxes. But tests also incorporate blocklist monitoring and authentication checks. So for every non-delivered email in a test, you can look up the causes.

This integrated approach is Bouncer’s strength as a deliverability service. Inbox placement testing, blocklist checks and DMARC monitoring sometimes come separately. The fact that they all feed into one deliverability test is very user-friendly. Plus, Bouncer’s email validation system supports better DMARC results. Bouncer’s verification tools include automatic list cleaning, removing fake and failed addresses. Cleaned lists mean fewer authentication failures.

Bouncer pricing starts at $25 a month for 250 test emails. This covers 10 IP addresses and domains for monitoring. Email verification starts at $8 for 1000 emails. Or you can get $2 off by going for a monthly plan. You get 100 verification credits for free.

EasyDMARC

EasyDMARC is a specialist email authentication service aimed at high-volume senders. It focuses on DMARC monitoring and reporting. It tracks DMARC records over time, displaying results in an easy-to-read visual dashboard. This helps senders identify patterns in authentication issues. And it also includes detailed reports on every failure.

Many of EasyDMARC’s authentication tools are available for free for quick checks. They include DMARC, SPF and DKIM record checkers and generators. A DNS record checker, domain scanner and reputation monitor. There is also a useful free plan. At the opposite end of the scale, EasyDMARC also offers managed authentication services.

EasyDMARC has a sister product called EasySender. This includes an email validation tool and inbox placement testing. Both are priced separately. And inbox placement testing in particular is pricey.

EasyDMARC pricing starts at $35.99 per month for 100,000 emails and two domains. There is a free plan that monitors 1,000 emails a month from a single domain.

ZeroBounce

ZeroBounce is an email deliverability platform. It starts with email validation. But it also has inbox placement and server testing. Blacklist monitoring. IP warm-up. And DMARC monitoring. There are also email finder tools thrown in, too.

For DMARC monitoring, ZeroBounce lets you register multiple domains. Configuration is simple via a user-friendly wizard. Once set up, ZeroBounce doesn’t impose any email limits. It monitors DMARC reports for every email you send from each connected domain. You get domain-by-domain performance reports. And you can set up email alerts to get notified every time an email fails authentication.

ZeroBounce also has some unique twists on other email validation tools. Along with standard email validation, it has an email scorer. This uses AI to analyze deliverability from a whole list perspective. Including tips on how to improve your overall score. It also has an email server tester. This diagnoses issues with sending servers.

ZeroBounce pricing starts at $49 a month. This includes 1 domain for DMARC monitoring and 25K email validation credits. There’s a free plan that includes 100 email verification checks a month, but doesn’t have DMARC monitoring.

Postmark

Postmark is a transactional email service owned by email marketing automation specialist ActiveCampaign. It offers a dedicated sending infrastructure via email API and SMTP.

Postmark also runs a DMARC monitoring tool as an add-on. This is one of the most user-friendly DMARC tools around. You provide a domain to monitor. And Postmark sends you weekly emails with easily digestible DMARC reports. Postmark runs checks against all sending sources and IP addresses associated with your domain. And then gives a simple breakdown of how many emails passed SPF and DKIM for each source.

Postmark’s DMARC monitoring tool is available for free and as a paid-for premium version. The free tool reports on the top 10 mail sources and top 5 IP addresses for each domain only. The paid version reports on all sources. The premium version also has a web dashboard for results.

The Postmark DMARC monitor is free to use. But the free version monitors only select email sources and IPs. To get unlimited monitoring for all your domains, the paid version costs $14 a month.

Valimail

Valimail specializes in DMARC authentication. It has two standout USPs. One, it offers a DMARC monitoring service for free. And two, you can move from monitoring to stopping spoofing and phishing attacks. Making sure your whole sending set-up is compliant with popular mailbox providers.

Valimail’s DMARC monitoring tool tracks all sending services associated with your domain. It identifies all servers and IP addresses by name. So you get full visibility about the third-party sending services used in your chain. This lets you pinpoint where authentication failures are happening. It also identifies where unauthorized emails are being sent from. This is a big plus for larger organizations at high risk of spoofing attacks.

Those organizations can then use Valimail’s Enforce tool to stop the spoofing. This automates the whole authentication process. From configuring SPF and DKIM records to authorizing the sending services. Again, this is mainly aimed at bigger businesses with complex global sending requirements.

Another option to improve authentication and deliverability is the Align tool. This configures your sending services for Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo! Authentication. Again, it’s all automated. And provides a simpler approach to improving authentication that might appeal to marketers.

Valimail’s Align tool starts at $19 a month. This configures authentication for 500,000 emails. Valimail provides custom pricing on application for its Enforce tool. But costs start at around $2,000 a year.

PowerDMARC

PowerDMARC combines DMARC analysis with hosted authentication services. Its analytics platform transforms raw DMARC reporting data into an impressive visual dashboard. This breaks DMARC performance down into eight different views. Including percentages of your emails that align with and pass DMARC, DKIM, and SPF. A full list of performance by sending services and IP addresses. A geographical breakdown of authentication failures. And AI analysis of the IP addresses posing the biggest spoofing risks. If you think your IP is causing deliverability issues, be sure to investigate further.

PowerDMARC’s hosted service provides a simple interface for authentication management. You can choose to configure and monitor DMARC, SPF, and DKIM separately. You can update records and change policies. PowerDMARC handles the technical side for you. So you are less likely to make mistakes that lead to deliverability issues.

Other features include IP, domain, and email blocklist tracking. And PowerDMARC has a range of free-to-use tools. Such as a DMARC generator and checker for a single email at a time.

PowerDMARC pricing starts at $8 a month. This lets you run analysis on 50,000 emails a month. There’s a cap of 2 million emails overall. Higher tiers are priced by application. You can analyze 10,000 emails for free.

DMARC Advisor

DMARC Advisor is a DMARC analyzer. It makes raw DMARC XML data accessible via a visual dashboard. It also provides real-time reporting for authentication incidents. And lets you manage DNS configuration in the same place as your monitoring.

DMARC Advisor’s dashboard is impressive for its combination of detail and accessibility. There’s an overview of every connected domain. Summarizing DMARC, DKIM, and SPF status by sender service and IP address. There’s a detailed breakdown of authentication by sending source used in the past 7 days. And you can dig down into the details of trends over time. Including looking at patterns in where and when threats are detected.

The reporting tool also identifies and flags up suspicious subdomains. And sends alerts for spoofs, non-compliant users, and authentication failures. This oversight feeds directly into authentication management. You can always see the live status of nodes in your sending infrastructure. And act to address configuration issues quickly.

DMARC Advisor pricing starts at $19 a month for 2 domains and 100,000 emails. There’s a free plan with 2 domains and 10,000 emails.

Dmarcian

Dmarcian was an early trend-setter in DMARC-based authentication protection. It was co-founded by one of the original authors of the DMARC protocol. It set the template for DMARC analysis that other firms have followed, such as turning DMARC aggregate report data into a user-friendly visual dashboard.

Dmarcian’s dashboard provides breakdowns of DMARC, SPF, and DKIM status across connected domains. You can break down compliance and authentication issues by source. And track trends in threats and non-compliance by time and region.

Dmarcian also provides real-time alerts for all authentication failures. A really handy feature is that the Overview dashboard has tabs for tasks and issues. This gives you at-a-glance access to anything of concern. And actions to firm up your domain security.

Dmarcian also provides deployment services. This gives you professional support for implementing DMARC in your sending infrastructure. It also offers free tools such as individual and combined DMARC, SPF, and DKIM checkers. And a wizard for building a valid DMARC record.

Dmarcian pricing starts at $19.99 a month for 2 domains and 100,000 emails a month. There is a free plan for 2 domains and 1,250 emails a month.

Cloudflare Free DMARC Management Tool

Cloudflare is one of the world’s biggest web services providers. It specializes in website performance and security, with global content delivery networks (CDNs) to speed up page load times and reliability, and multiple applications and zero-trust security products. This includes enterprise-grade email security.

DMARC management extends Cloudflare’s zero-trust email security approach to all customers. It’s available as a bolt-on to Cloudflare’s standard DNS tools. And it comes at no extra cost, available to free plan users, too. It’s easily enabled via your account and domain settings.

The tool captures all DMARC reports from emails you send. It converts raw XML data into visual reports. Cloudflare’s DMARC analytics dashboard is accessible but fairly basic both in design and in the data you see. You see DMARC passes and SPF and DKIM alignment figures for all emails sent from your domain. One strength is that it names each sending source.

Domain owners can approve any unapproved sources with a single click. Cloudflare takes care of authentication for you. And you can manage your DMARC policy in the platform.

Cloudflare plans start at $25 a month. There’s a free plan for personal websites.

Conclusion

A DMARC monitoring service is a smart move if you want to improve your email deliverability, especially if your sender reputation seems to be taking a dive. It addresses issues caused by spoofing or gaps in your email authentication, such as unmanaged DKIM and SPF records.

Opting for an all-round deliverability service that includes DMARC monitoring often provides more value. Combined tools and protections typically have a greater impact on overall deliverability. That said, standalone DMARC tools can be highly useful, particularly for large-scale senders with extensive, complex sending infrastructures.

To round things off, our DMARC monitoring service recommendations are as follows:

• Best all-round deliverability platform: Bouncer
• Best for standalone DMARC monitoring: PowerDMARC
• Best for stopping spoofing: Valimail
• Best free DMARC tool: Postmark

FAQs about DMARC Monitoring