DMARC Visualizer primarily leverages the power of Grafana for its interface, offering a highly customizable dashboard approach to DMARC data. It focuses on presenting aggregate and forensic reports in a visually engaging manner.
The architecture relies on feeding DMARC reports into Elasticsearch via parsedmarc and then rendering them through Grafana. This provides flexibility for users familiar with the ELK stack or Grafana, allowing for detailed query building and visualization.
ELK DMARC, as its name suggests, is a full ELK stack implementation tailored for DMARC. It uses Kibana as its primary visualization tool, offering powerful search, filtering, and dashboard capabilities on raw DMARC data.
This solution excels in allowing users to drill down into individual log entries, making it suitable for forensic analysis. It provides comprehensive parsing of DMARC reports and stores them in Elasticsearch, enabling robust data exploration for incident response.
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
How easy is each product to use
User experience
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
Setting up DMARC Visualizer requires a certain level of technical proficiency, particularly with Docker, Elasticsearch, and Grafana. However, once deployed, the included Grafana dashboards provide a strong starting point for DMARC monitoring.
For users already comfortable with Grafana, tailoring the dashboards and creating new visualizations is intuitive. For newcomers, there's a learning curve to fully harness its capabilities beyond the default views, but the visual nature helps.
ELK DMARC also demands a significant technical understanding for deployment, specifically around Docker, the ELK stack, and system administration. Its user interface is Kibana, which is incredibly powerful but can be daunting.
While it offers immense flexibility for data exploration and analysis, the initial experience can feel less 'plug-and-play' compared to some commercial tools. Its strength lies in deep diving into logs, which is a specific use case not every user needs constantly.
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
Which product has the best support
Support
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
As an open-source project, DMARC Visualizer relies on community support through its GitHub repository. Users can open issues, contribute, or seek help from others using the tool.
There is no formal support channel or dedicated team. Problem-solving often involves searching existing issues or engaging directly with the open-source community, which can be slower than commercial support.
Similarly, ELK DMARC is an open-source initiative, meaning support is primarily derived from the GitHub community. This includes filing issues, contributing code, and engaging in discussions with other users and the maintainers.
While the project maintainer is active, there isn't a guaranteed service level agreement (SLA) or direct professional support. Users should be prepared for self-reliance and leveraging shared community knowledge.
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
Who should use each product
Suitability
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
DMARC Visualizer is best suited for individuals or small technical teams who have experience with Docker and Grafana. It's an excellent choice for those wanting to learn about DMARC, implement a free solution, or who enjoy customizing their monitoring dashboards.
For MSPs and enterprise organizations, while the core technology is powerful, the lack of dedicated support and the self-managed nature might pose scalability and maintenance challenges. SMBs with technical resources could leverage it effectively.
ELK DMARC shines for technical users, security analysts, and IT departments who need granular control over their DMARC data and are comfortable with the full ELK stack. Its strength in forensic analysis makes it valuable for incident response teams.
Enterprise environments with robust DevOps teams might find it suitable, but MSPs and SMBs might struggle with the operational overhead of managing the entire ELK stack. It requires significant technical expertise and infrastructure commitment.
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
How does DMARC Visualizer compare with ELK DMARC?
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
DMARC report analysis
Core functionality to process and display DMARC aggregate reports.
Source detection
Identifies sending sources based on DMARC reports.
Forward detection
Ability to identify mail forwarding in reports.
Spoof detection
Highlights potential email spoofing attempts.
Notifications and alerts
Configurable alerts for DMARC policy changes or threats.
Via Grafana alerting engine, requires setup
Via Kibana alerting engine, requires setup
Reporting
Dashboard and reporting capabilities.
Grafana-based dashboards
Kibana-based dashboards
API
Programmable interface for data access.
Elasticsearch and Grafana APIs
Elasticsearch and Kibana APIs
Multi-tenancy
Support for managing multiple domains or clients separately.
Possible with Grafana features, manual setup
Possible with Kibana spaces, manual setup
SPF flattening
A feature that helps manage SPF lookups.
Hosted DMARC
Provides a managed service, not self-hosted.
BIMI
Supports Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI).
MTA-STS/TLS-RPT
Monitors Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security/TLS Reporting.
Blocklists and reputation
Integration with email blocklists (blacklists) or reputation services.
AI copilot
AI-driven assistance for DMARC analysis.
DNS monitoring
Monitors DNS records beyond DMARC.
Self hostable
Can be installed and run on private infrastructure.
Free trial/free tier
Availability of a free version or trial.
Completely free and open-source
Completely free and open-source
Drawbacks and what to watch out for
Both DMARC Visualizer and ELK DMARC share similar drawbacks inherent to open-source, self-hosted solutions. They demand considerable technical expertise for deployment, ongoing maintenance, and troubleshooting. The absence of commercial support means users must rely on community forums or their own skills to resolve issues. This can be a significant barrier for organizations without dedicated IT or DevOps teams, making the operational overhead higher than that of managed DMARC services.
We have pulled the average ratings from G2 for each product, and also included the most recent negative reviews for each product in full. Positive reviews tend to have less detail and have a higher chance of being fraudulent, so negative reviews are a better signal for your decision.
DMARC Visualizer
0 / 5(0)
ELK DMARC
0 / 5(0)
Pricing
Both DMARC Visualizer and ELK DMARC are open-source solutions with no direct licensing costs, requiring users to factor in only the expenses related to hosting infrastructure and their own technical labor.
DMARC Visualizer
ELK DMARC
Small
Up to 10k emails / month
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Medium
Up to 100k emails / month
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Large
Up to 1 million emails / month
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Enterprise
Over 1 million emails / month
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Free (self-hosted infrastructure costs)
Suped hard sell incoming!
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