Free DMARC Weekly Digests by Postmark offers a basic, email-based DMARC monitoring service. It provides visibility into the top 10 mail sources, showing up to 5 IP addresses for each, delivered in a weekly email digest. The service is designed for simplicity, making it easy for users to get a high-level overview of their DMARC compliance without needing to log into a dedicated dashboard.
The primary focus is on providing actionable recommendations directly within the email reports, guiding users on necessary steps to improve their DMARC standing. However, the data retention is limited to 7 days, and it does not offer a web dashboard, advanced filtering, or granular controls, which can be a significant limitation for more complex DMARC deployments.
The Splunk TA-DMARC add-on is designed to ingest and parse DMARC aggregate and forensic reports directly into a Splunk instance. This means that once the data is in Splunk, users can leverage Splunk's powerful search, correlation, and dashboarding capabilities to analyze their DMARC data in depth. It essentially transforms raw DMARC reports into structured data within a familiar Splunk environment.
While the add-on itself provides the parsing mechanism, the actual reporting and analysis capabilities depend entirely on the user's Splunk setup and expertise. It allows for highly customized views and analysis, but it does not offer built-in features like SPF flattening, hosted DMARC, or specialized DMARC-centric alerts out of the box. Users need to build these functionalities using Splunk's query language and dashboard tools.
How easy is each product to use
User experience
Setting up Free DMARC Weekly Digests is straightforward. We simply add a DMARC record to our DNS, pointing the reports to Postmark, and then wait for the weekly email digests to arrive. There is no dashboard to navigate, which simplifies the experience significantly for those who prefer not to interact with a dedicated interface. The information provided in the email is concise and easy to understand, offering basic insights and recommendations.
However, this simplicity comes with limitations. The lack of a web dashboard means we cannot interact with the data, run custom queries, or view historical trends beyond the 7-day window. If we need to dig deeper into specific senders or investigate an issue, the email-only format can feel restrictive. It's a 'set it and forget it' solution, which is great until we need more control.
The user experience for Splunk TA-DMARC is inherently tied to the Splunk platform itself. For existing Splunk users, installing the add-on and configuring data inputs is a familiar process. Once DMARC data is flowing into Splunk, we can leverage our existing Splunk knowledge to build custom dashboards and alerts. This offers immense flexibility and integration with other security data we might already be collecting in Splunk.
For those new to Splunk, the learning curve can be steep. It requires a solid understanding of Splunk's query language (SPL), data models, and dashboard creation. The add-on provides the raw material, but we are responsible for crafting the insights. Furthermore, the
Which product has the best support
Support
With Free DMARC Weekly Digests, support channels are likely part of Postmark's general support ecosystem. From our experience with other Postmark services, their support is generally responsive and helpful for their core offerings. For a free service, we can expect a reasonable level of assistance, particularly with initial setup and understanding the weekly reports.
However, the free tier typically implies a lower priority for support requests compared to paying customers. Complex DMARC issues or deep dives into specific deliverability problems might exceed the scope of what free support can offer. For critical, time-sensitive DMARC challenges, relying solely on a free support model might not be sufficient.
The Splunk TA-DMARC add-on explicitly states that it is "Not Supported" and "archived." This is a critical detail. It means there is no official support from the developer or Splunk for this add-on. If we encounter bugs, configuration challenges, or need help interpreting data, we are largely on our own.
Our primary recourse for assistance would be community forums (like Splunk Answers) or our internal Splunk administrators and security teams. This lack of official support is a significant drawback, especially for organizations without in-house Splunk expertise or a dedicated team to maintain and troubleshoot custom Splunk applications. The 'archived' status further implies no future updates or security patches, which could become problematic over time.
Who should use each product
Suitability
Free DMARC Weekly Digests by Postmark is best suited for small businesses (SMBs) or individuals with a single domain who are just starting their DMARC journey and need a simple, cost-free way to monitor compliance. It's excellent for getting initial visibility without any financial commitment or significant technical overhead. The weekly digests provide enough information to understand basic authentication failures and identify top sending sources.
However, it is not suitable for enterprise-level organizations or Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Enterprises require comprehensive dashboards, multi-domain management, longer data retention, and advanced reporting capabilities that this free service simply does not offer. For MSPs, the lack of user management and multi-tenancy makes it impractical for managing multiple client domains effectively. It's a great stepping stone, but not an end-all solution for complex needs.
The Splunk TA-DMARC add-on is primarily designed for enterprise organizations that are already heavily invested in Splunk for security information and event management (SIEM) or other data analytics. It allows these organizations to centralize DMARC data alongside other log sources, enabling advanced correlation and custom alerting within their existing Splunk infrastructure. Organizations with dedicated Splunk administrators and analysts will find this add-on most valuable.
It is generally not suitable for SMBs due to the high cost and complexity of maintaining a Splunk instance. While MSPs could theoretically use it if they manage client Splunk instances, the "Not Supported" and "archived" status introduces significant risk and maintenance burden, making it a questionable choice for service delivery. Its power is contingent on a pre-existing, robust Splunk environment and internal expertise.
How does Free DMARC Weekly Digests by Postmark compare with Splunk TA-DMARC add-on?
DMARC report analysis
Ability to parse and present DMARC aggregate and forensic reports.
Provides weekly email digests with basic summaries.
Ingests raw DMARC data for analysis within Splunk.
Source detection
Identify sending sources of email for the domain.
Limited to top 10 sources with 5 IPs each.
Full visibility of all sources within Splunk.
Forward detection
Identify email forwarding issues.
Not explicitly offered as a feature.
Can be configured and analyzed within Splunk.
Spoof detection
Ability to identify email spoofing attempts.
Inferred from DMARC authentication failures in reports.
Customizable detection and alerts within Splunk.
Notifications and alerts
Receive automated alerts for DMARC policy violations or changes.
Actionable recommendations are provided via email.
Highly customizable alerts and dashboards within Splunk.
Reporting
Availability of DMARC compliance reports.
Weekly email digests are the primary reporting mechanism.
Customizable dashboards and reports within Splunk.
API
Programmatic access to DMARC data and features.
No API specific to the free DMARC service.
Not an API, but an add-on for Splunk data ingestion.
Multi-tenancy
Support for managing multiple domains or clients from a single account.
No user management or multi-domain features on free tier.
Splunk can manage multiple data sources, but not true multi-tenancy for DMARC specific reporting.
SPF flattening
Tool to simplify SPF records and avoid lookup limits.
Not a feature of this DMARC reporting service.
Not a feature of this add-on.
Hosted DMARC
Offers management of DMARC records.
Users must manually manage their DMARC DNS record.
Users must manually manage their DMARC DNS record.
BIMI
Support for Brand Indicators for Message Identification.
Does not include BIMI support.
Does not include BIMI support.
MTA-STS/TLS-RPT
Support for Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security and TLS Reporting.
No features for MTA-STS or TLS-RPT.
No features for MTA-STS or TLS-RPT.
Blocklists and reputation
Monitoring of blocklist (or blacklist) status and sender reputation.
Focuses purely on DMARC authentication, not external blocklists.
Requires separate Splunk integrations for blocklist monitoring.
AI copilot
Uses AI to assist with DMARC analysis and recommendations.
Does not use AI for reporting.
Does not feature an AI copilot.
DNS monitoring
Monitors DNS records beyond DMARC.
Limited to DMARC report processing.
Does not offer general DNS monitoring.
Self hostable
Can be hosted on your own servers.
A cloud-based service provided by Postmark.
Splunk instances can be self-hosted, enabling local add-on deployment.
Free trial/free tier
Availability of a free option to try or use the service.
The product itself is a free DMARC monitoring service.
The add-on is free, but requires a paid Splunk instance.
Drawbacks and what to watch out for
The Free DMARC Weekly Digests by Postmark offers very limited insights and a short data retention period, making it difficult to perform in-depth analysis or track long-term trends. Its email-only delivery can feel restrictive. Conversely, the Splunk TA-DMARC add-on, while powerful, is severely hampered by being archived and not supported, posing significant risks for reliability, maintenance, and future compatibility.
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.
4.6 / 5(28)
0 / 5(0)
Not the best
2.5 / 5
What do you like best about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
It works. Their API is easy-to-use and we never experienced any downtime.
What do you dislike about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
The price is too high for what we get. Also their administration panel and Analytics graphs are not user friendly.
Recommendations to others considering ActiveCampaign Postmark:
Check Mandrill as alternative.
What problems is ActiveCampaign Postmark solving and how is that benefiting you?
We use Postmark as secondary provider to send emails. We send ~100M emails per week.
Verified User in Online Media
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
No G2 reviews
G2 is the most popular review platform for DMARC products, so this is a strong signal that this product is not popular.
A clean simple api
3.5 / 5
What do you like best about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
Postmark has been simple and reliable in the 2+ years I've used them. Their API has a fast response time and their batch send calls has been helpful in maintaining a quick response time on our service. They've also been generous in giving us free credits from time to time. They provide webhooks for events you are interested in e.g. bounced emails, spam reports. Their documentation is extensive and comprehensive and also includes libraries for several languages (we use them with python and php).
What do you dislike about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
Some of the new features Postmark has added aren't as simple as their first product, especially the email templates. Their admin interface also is weird in that it only lets you look at 30 day periods for statistics (we track our own analytics so it's less of an issue for us).
Recommendations to others considering ActiveCampaign Postmark:
Postmark quickly and effectively help us getting transactional email up for our service. We've evaluated switching to Mailgun (since we get it for free) however right now postmark seems to have the simpler API.
What problems is ActiveCampaign Postmark solving and how is that benefiting you?
Postmark helped us quickly and effectively add an outside transactional email provider instead of sending SMTP emails. It's also helped ensure that our app stays quick when we were originally directly calling it from the application thread. We've had no problem with getting marked as spam or deliverability and their open tracking by email client has been helpful. We've sent 200,000+ emails with postmark so far.
John P.
Software Engineer II Financial Services Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
The Most Seamless & User-friendly Transactional Email delivery system for TruckX
4.0 / 5
What do you like best about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
Email delivery and trust with our customers is our first priority at www.TruckX.com, so Postmark is our go-to for Email APIs because automated emails can be created and managed smoothly.
What do you dislike about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
Their analytics could be even more detailed in examining how the data performs.
What problems is ActiveCampaign Postmark solving and how is that benefiting you?
By ensuring that we deliver all www.TruckX.com ’s customer-facing transactional emails without delay, Postmark helps us ensure that our customers are happy and our operations are running smoothly. It has helped us become one of the best ELD brands for owner-operators and mid-sized fleets
What do you like best about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
I really appreciate the speed with which I receive emails. It's very important to me that customers receive emails on time because otherwise we can miss out on some business.
What do you dislike about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
I don't like the fact that sometimes Mustachio, which is the language used to write emails, is a bit old-fashioned and I have to find other ways to do things that could be done in a more simple way.
What problems is ActiveCampaign Postmark solving and how is that benefiting you?
Postmark helps me send emails to my customers and retrieve data on email opens. This allows me to have complete control and visibility over the email communications sent.
Ange B.
software engineer Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Definitely worth trying for your company - better than other options!
4.0 / 5
What do you like best about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
Postmark is a really great service and gets the job done when delivering emails to our recipients. There are almost never any hiccups (i.e. emails getting blocked like some other delivery services). We're better able to provide website maintenance and hosting PLUS email delivery services, which is a great one-stop shop feature for clients.
Some advice I would give to those on the fence is trying the free trial of Postmark to see if it's a good fit for your company.
What do you dislike about ActiveCampaign Postmark?
The price isn't as competitive as other options, which can sometimes be an issue dealing with clients. The training opportunities are also minimal if you don't know where to start, which can sometimes be an issue.
The biggest dislike from a technical standpoint is there isn't an archiving option. Some clients like this feature when working with us, so that's one thing that can have us looking at other transactional email services.
Recommendations to others considering ActiveCampaign Postmark:
I would recommend the free trial to those considering Postmark. It's just slightly above average pricing, but is also a better option than the competitors, so overall I would recommend!
What problems is ActiveCampaign Postmark solving and how is that benefiting you?
We're able to use just Postmark in-house to manage transactional emails, which is a great benefit because when we need to look up something, we don't have to search through individual emails. If something were to go wrong, we can simply check with Postmark.
As for our clients, we can use Postmark to deliver all the necessary emails almost always without fail, so this gives us credibility to get the job done when we say we can manage their email services.
Carney C.
Senior Web Designer Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
Pricing
Postmark's Free DMARC Weekly Digests provides a straightforward zero-cost option for basic monitoring, while the Splunk TA-DMARC add-on is free itself but relies on a separate, potentially expensive Splunk instance.
Small
Up to 10k emails / month
Free (limited)
Requires Splunk instance (separate cost)
Medium
Up to 100k emails / month
Free (limited)
Requires Splunk instance (separate cost)
Large
Up to 1 million emails / month
Free (limited)
Requires Splunk instance (separate cost)
Enterprise
Over 1 million emails / month
Free (limited)
Requires Splunk instance (separate cost)
Suped hard sell incoming!
Still not satisfied with Free DMARC Weekly Digests by Postmark or Splunk TA-DMARC add-on?