dmarcian vs Valimail
A self-serve DMARC purist against an enterprise automation platform. dmarcian publishes every price and expects you to run your own DNS; Valimail — a DigiCert company since September 2025 — automates enforcement end-to-end and sells it by quote.
The short answer
dmarcian's tiers are fully published — $24/mo Basic to $600/mo Enterprise, 17% less on Plus annual billing, metering legitimate mail only — and it stays reporting-first: you keep manual control of DNS. Valimail publishes no Enforce price (Starter, Premium and Enterprise are all quote-only); in exchange you get automated enforcement, patented hosted Instant SPF, automated DKIM rotation, and FedRAMP authorization no competitor matches. Practitioners who want control and predictable spend pick dmarcian; regulated enterprises that want hands-off automation pick Valimail.
At a Glance
| Feature | dmarcian | Valimail |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $24/mo ($19.99/mo annual) | Quote-only |
| Free tier | 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only | 5 user seats; DMARC, SPF, DKIM and BIMI status visibility |
| G2 rating | 3.5/5 | 4.6/5 |
| Protocols with documented support | 5/9 | 7/9 |
Protocol Coverage
Documented support across the 9 core email authentication protocols. "Not documented" means our research briefs found no public evidence either way.
| Feature | dmarcian | Valimail |
|---|---|---|
| DMARC | ||
| SPF | ||
| DKIM | ||
| BIMI | Full automation via the sales-gated Amplify add-on; Monitor shows status and BIMI Simulator preview only | |
| MTA-STS | Hosted on Enforce via CNAME delegation (NS delegation is planned) | |
| TLS-RPT | ||
| ARC (chain analysis) | ||
| DANE/TLSA | ||
| ARF (failure reports) | Forensic (RUF) processing and Forensic Viewer from the Basic tier | Privacy-safe RUF+ failure reporting listed on the Enforce comparison grid |
Published Pricing
List prices as published on each vendor's pricing page.
dmarcian
Free tier: 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only
- Basic $24/mo · $19.99/mo annual
- Plus $240/mo · $199/mo annual
- Enterprise $600/mo · $499/mo annual
- Custom Quote-only
Valimail
Free tier: 5 user seats; DMARC, SPF, DKIM and BIMI status visibility
- Enforce Starter Quote-only
- Enforce Premium Quote-only
- Enforce Enterprise Quote-only
- Amplify (BIMI add-on) Quote-only
Strengths and Trade-offs
dmarcian
Where it shines
- Founded by Tim Draegen, co-author of the DMARC specification; reviewers cite the mission-driven credibility
- Meters only DMARC-capable legitimate traffic, so forwarded and fraudulent volume never counts against your plan
- TLS-RPT ingestion included on every tier, including the free Personal plan
- 30-day free trial on all paid tiers with no credit card, and published prices unchanged for at least 18 months
- Reporting depth and sender-source grouping praised as more detailed than other solutions
Trade-offs
- 10x price jump from Basic ($24/mo) to Plus ($240/mo) with no tier between 2 and 8 active domains
- REST API, SAML SSO, and Domain Discovery are Enterprise-only at $600/mo ($499/mo billed annually)
- No hosted BIMI, hosted MTA-STS, ARC, or DANE productization at any tier (a BIMI Inspector and Builder tool is on every tier); SPF flattening explicitly declined
- Reporting-only platform: no hosted records or auto-deploy, so DNS changes stay manual
- Message volumes are default allowances; the pricing page says custom pricing is available for overages
Best for: Practitioners who want deep DMARC aggregate-report visibility from the spec co-author's team and prefer to keep full manual control of their own DNS records.
Valimail
Where it shines
- Co-authored the ARC standard (RFC 8617) and maintains deep email-authentication standards leadership
- Patented Instant SPF delivers hosted, dynamic SPF that bypasses the 10-DNS-lookup limit
- The only FedRAMP-authorized DMARC provider, with SOC 2, PCI, and GDPR coverage
- Free Monitor tier with 5 user seats; the pricing page cites 80,000+ customers
- Hands-on onboarding and customer support praised consistently across G2 review cycles
Trade-offs
- Every Enforce tier (Starter, Premium, Enterprise) is quote-only: the pricing page reads "Contact us for custom pricing"
- The pricing page now lists Monitor, Enforce and Amplify; the Align entry tier no longer appears
- Add-on fees appear only on the AWS Marketplace listing: $1,500 per additional domain, $1,000 per additional 100K emails/month, $500 per additional sending service
- ARC is not productized at any tier despite the RFC 8617 co-authorship, and DANE has no documented support
- Hosted MTA-STS works via CNAME delegation only, for Enforce users; NS delegation is planned for a future release
Best for: Enterprises and regulated organizations (FedRAMP, Microsoft 365 shops) that want fully automated, hands-off DMARC enforcement and are ready to negotiate a custom quote.
Where DMARCguard Fits
DMARCguard is our product — treat this section as our pitch, and check every number above against both vendors' own pricing pages.
Between dmarcian's manual-control model and Valimail's quote-only enterprise sales sits a lot of unserved middle. DMARCguard publishes one price ($14.50/mo including 2 domains for founding members, then $15/domain (3–10) and $10/domain (11+)), automates guidance without taking over your DNS, and covers all 9 protocols on Pro — including ARC chain analysis and DANE, which neither vendor productizes. Start free with 2 domains and 30 days of history.
| Feature | dmarcian | Valimail | DMARCguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $24/mo ($19.99/mo annual) | Quote-only | $29/mo incl. 2 domains, excl. VAT & sales tax |
| Free tier | 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only | 5 user seats; DMARC, SPF, DKIM and BIMI status visibility | 2 domains, 30 days history |
| Protocols covered | 5/9 | 7/9 | 9/9 |
| G2 rating | 3.5/5 | 4.6/5 | 4.9/5 (11 reviews) |
Frequently Asked Questions
How do dmarcian and Valimail pricing compare?
dmarcian's entry tier is $24/mo — $19.99/mo billed annually, $239.88/yr — for 2 active domains. Valimail publishes no Enforce price: Starter, Premium and Enterprise are all 'Contact us for custom pricing'. AWS Marketplace lists Enforce Enterprise at a vendor-disclaimed $60,000 per 12-month estimate, with add-ons of $1,500 per additional domain, $1,000 per additional 100K emails/month and $500 per additional sending service, sold as 12-, 24- or 36-month contracts. The products differ accordingly: Valimail automates what dmarcian reports.
What does Valimail automate that dmarcian doesn't?
Enforcement itself. Valimail Enforce hosts and continuously adjusts your DMARC policy, runs patented Instant SPF (no 10-DNS-lookup limit), and automates DKIM key publication and rotation. dmarcian's SPF Surveyor and inspectors validate and visualize, but every DNS change is yours to make — and it has explicitly declined to offer SPF flattening.
Do dmarcian and Valimail have free tiers?
Yes, both. dmarcian Personal: 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable messages/month, 1-month history, non-business use only. Valimail Monitor: free with 5 user seats — visibility only, no enforcement automation.
Which should a mid-size company choose?
It depends on the constraint. If you need a published number before talking to sales, Valimail is harder to evaluate: Enforce is quote-only, and the only figure in public is AWS Marketplace's vendor-disclaimed $60,000 per 12 months estimate for Enterprise. If DNS-savvy staff time is the scarce resource, dmarcian's manual model is the cost. A published per-domain price with hosted guidance — how DMARCguard prices it — is the third model.
Sources (18)
- dmarcian: Basic tier: $24/mo monthly or $19.99/mo billed annually, 2 active domains, 100K DMARC-capable msgs/mo — source
- dmarcian: Plus tier: $240/mo monthly or $199/mo billed annually, 8 active domains, 1M msgs/mo — source
- dmarcian: Enterprise tier: $600/mo monthly or $499/mo billed annually, 15 active domains, 5M msgs/mo, unlimited retention — source
- dmarcian: Personal free tier: 2 domains, 1,250 msgs/mo, 1-month retention, non-business use only — source
- dmarcian: Pricing meters legitimate DMARC-capable traffic only, not forwarded or fraudulent volume — source
- dmarcian: Pricing page: message volumes are default allowances and custom pricing is available for overages; Terms of Service section 4.1 ties fees to the Order's usage metrics and makes them non-refundable — source
- dmarcian: G2 rating 3.5 from 5 reviews — source
- dmarcian: TLS-RPT and a BIMI Inspector and Builder tool ship on all tiers; hosted MTA-STS, ARC, and DANE do not appear in the tier comparison table — source
- dmarcian: Founder Tim Draegen co-authored the DMARC specification — source
- Valimail: Enforce Starter, Premium and Enterprise all read "Contact us for custom pricing"; no price is published — source
- Valimail: Free Monitor tier includes 5 user seats — source
- Valimail: AWS Marketplace add-ons: $1,500 per additional domain, $1,000 per additional 100K emails/month, $500 per additional sending service — source
- Valimail: AWS Marketplace lists an estimate of $60,000 per 12 months for Valimail Enforce Enterprise (12-, 24- or 36-month contracts) — source
- Valimail: DigiCert acquired Valimail on September 16, 2025 — source
- Valimail: Hosted MTA-STS and TLS-RPT support CNAME delegation only, for Enforce users; NS delegation is planned — source
- Valimail: Valimail co-authored RFC 8617 (ARC) but no tier page advertises ARC as a product feature — source
- Valimail: G2 rating 4.6 — source
- Valimail: The pricing page lists Monitor, Enforce (Starter, Premium, Enterprise) and Amplify; Align no longer appears — source
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