What is the main difference between a managed DMARC service like PowerDMARC and a self-hosted one like ELK DMARC?

The primary difference lies in management and deployment. PowerDMARC is a hosted, managed service, meaning they handle all the infrastructure, maintenance, and provide a user-friendly portal and support. ELK DMARC is an open-source, self-hosted solution that requires you to deploy, manage, and maintain the software on your own servers, demanding significant technical expertise.

Which DMARC solution is better for a small business without dedicated IT staff?

For a small business without dedicated IT staff, PowerDMARC would generally be the better choice. Its managed service model, intuitive interface, and readily available support reduce the technical burden, allowing you to secure your email without needing in-depth DMARC or server administration knowledge. ELK DMARC's self-hosting requirements would be too complex.

Can ELK DMARC be scaled to handle large volumes of email?

Yes, ELK DMARC, being built on the Elastic Stack, is inherently scalable. The Elastic Stack itself is designed to handle vast amounts of data. However, scaling ELK DMARC requires expertise in scaling Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana clusters, which can be a complex and resource-intensive endeavor requiring specialized knowledge.

What are the hidden costs of using an open-source DMARC tool?

While open-source tools like ELK DMARC are free in terms of software licensing, they often incur significant hidden costs. These include the cost of server infrastructure (cloud hosting or on-premise hardware), the time and expertise required for initial setup and configuration, ongoing maintenance, troubleshooting, security patching, and the potential need for custom development to integrate features not available out-of-the-box. There's also the absence of dedicated commercial support.

Does PowerDMARC offer DMARC enforcement capabilities?

Yes, PowerDMARC is designed to guide users from DMARC monitoring to full enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject). The platform provides detailed aggregate and forensic reports that help identify legitimate sending sources and block unauthorized ones, ultimately enabling you to implement and maintain a strong DMARC enforcement policy to protect against spoofing and phishing.

How does an MSP typically manage DMARC for multiple clients using these tools?

An MSP using PowerDMARC would leverage its dedicated multi-tenant control panel and MSP program, which allows them to manage numerous client domains from a single interface, apply white-label branding, and streamline reporting. For ELK DMARC, an MSP would need to set up and manage separate instances or highly customized configurations for each client, or build a complex multi-tenant architecture on top of the ELK stack, requiring substantial development and operational effort.

PowerDMARC vs ELK DMARC

Choose PowerDMARC for a comprehensive managed service, or ELK DMARC for a self-hosted, open-source solution.

4.9 / 5(208)

Compare to Suped

ELK DMARC

0 / 5(0)

Compare to Suped

ELK DMARC

Compare product functionality

Feature set

ELK DMARC

PowerDMARC is a robust and comprehensive managed DMARC reporting and enforcement platform. It provides a full suite of hosted services, including DMARC, SPF, DKIM, BIMI, MTA-STS, and TLS-RPT, alongside advanced analytical capabilities.

We found the platform highly automated, offering features like one-click DNS publishing, automatic subdomain detection, and real-time threat intelligence. It's designed to provide a complete email authentication and security ecosystem, allowing users to move from DMARC monitoring to a reject policy with confidence.

ELK DMARC is an open-source solution built on the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), designed for self-hosting. It focuses on ingesting and visualizing DMARC RUA and RUF reports, offering raw data processing and customizable dashboards through Kibana.

Its strength lies in its flexibility and the power of the underlying ELK stack for data analysis. However, it requires users to deploy and manage the entire stack, meaning features like SPF flattening, hosted DMARC, BIMI, or MTA-STS are not integrated out-of-the-box and would need manual implementation or separate tools.

ELK DMARC

How easy is each product to use

User experience

ELK DMARC

PowerDMARC offers a web-based, user-friendly portal with intuitive setup wizards. The platform guides us through the DMARC implementation process, providing recommendations and simplifying complex configurations with sliders and one-click options.

While generally straightforward, some users have noted minor UI/UX inconsistencies, such as difficulty locating the billing module or tedious client switching within the MSSP view. Despite these minor quirks, the overall experience is geared towards accessibility for various technical levels.

ELK DMARC's user experience is inherently tied to the Elastic Stack. Setup involves command-line operations, Docker deployment, and configuration of Elasticsearch and Kibana. This demands a high level of technical proficiency and familiarity with infrastructure management.

Once deployed, data visualization occurs within Kibana dashboards, which are highly customizable but require knowledge of Kibana queries and data manipulation. This isn't a point-and-click solution, making it less accessible for those without strong technical backgrounds.

ELK DMARC

Which product has the best support

Support

ELK DMARC

PowerDMARC places a strong emphasis on customer support. We've experienced their team to be highly responsive and knowledgeable, often offering phone support, screen-sharing sessions, and prompt email assistance, especially for paid plans.

MSPs and enterprise users consistently highlight the excellent onboarding process and the quality of technical support. They offer video tutorials and interactive demos to help users navigate the platform effectively.

As an open-source project, ELK DMARC does not provide commercial support. Users rely on community-driven resources, such as GitHub issue trackers and potentially public forums, for assistance.

This means troubleshooting, bug fixes, and feature enhancements are largely dependent on self-service or contributions from the broader open-source community. This model suits users who are comfortable with independent problem-solving and have in-house expertise.

ELK DMARC

Who should use each product

Suitability

ELK DMARC

PowerDMARC is highly suitable for a broad range of users, from small businesses to large enterprises and managed service providers. Its comprehensive feature set, user-friendly interface, and dedicated support make it accessible for organizations that need a robust, managed DMARC solution without requiring extensive in-house expertise.

It's particularly strong for MSPs, offering multi-tenant control panels and white-label options. Enterprises benefit from advanced security features, API access, and compliance support, while SMBs can leverage its ease of use and guided setup to secure their email.

ELK DMARC is best suited for organizations with significant in-house technical resources, particularly those already familiar with or running the Elastic Stack. It's ideal for users who prioritize data sovereignty, prefer open-source solutions, or have specific requirements for integrating DMARC data into their existing observability platforms.

It is less suitable for SMBs or MSPs looking for a quick, managed solution, as it requires considerable effort for setup, maintenance, and custom feature development. For enterprise clients with strong DevOps teams and a need for deep customization, it can be a powerful, cost-effective choice in terms of licensing, but not necessarily total cost of ownership.

ELK DMARC

How does PowerDMARC compare with ELK DMARC?

ELK DMARC

DMARC report analysis

Aggregating and interpreting DMARC data.

Requires Kibana dashboards

Source detection

Identifying all senders using your domain.

Requires custom configuration

Forward detection

Detecting email forwarding issues.

Requires custom configuration

Spoof detection

Identifying unauthorized email spoofing attempts.

Requires interpretation of reports

Notifications and alerts

Automated alerts for DMARC policy changes or threats.

Requires custom alerting in ELK

Reporting

Detailed and customizable DMARC reports.

Via Kibana dashboards

API

Programmatic access for integration.

No dedicated DMARC API

Multi-tenancy

Managing multiple client domains from a single interface.

Not out-of-the-box

SPF flattening

Automated management of SPF record lookup limits.

Not an integrated feature

Hosted DMARC

DMARC record hosting and management.

Self-hosted solution

BIMI

Brand Indicators for Message Identification support.

No native support

MTA-STS/TLS-RPT

Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security and TLS Reporting.

No native support

Blocklists and reputation

Monitoring domain/IP reputation and blocklist status.

Not an integrated feature

AI copilot

AI-powered assistance for DMARC management.

No AI features

DNS monitoring

Tracking changes and health of DNS records.

Not an integrated feature

Self hostable

Ability to deploy and manage the solution on your own infrastructure.

Free trial/free tier

Availability of a free version or trial period.

Offers a comprehensive free plan

Open-source and free to use

Drawbacks and what to watch out for

PowerDMARC, while highly praised, sometimes presents minor UI/UX inconsistencies, such as a slightly convoluted billing module or less-than-seamless client switching for MSPs. We've also observed occasional reports of the platform not immediately reflecting certain errors or experiencing temporary slowness. ELK DMARC's drawbacks, on the other hand, are largely inherent to its open-source, self-hosted nature, demanding significant technical expertise for setup, ongoing maintenance, and troubleshooting, without the benefit of a dedicated support team or integrated advanced features like SPF flattening or BIMI.

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.

4.9 / 5(208)

ELK DMARC

0 / 5(0)

N/A

4.0 / 5

What do you like best about PowerDMARC? Easy to use, easy to implement, comprehensive What do you dislike about PowerDMARC? Nothing to report except perhaps the billing module, which is a bit difficult to find. What problems is PowerDMARC solving and how is that benefiting you? Email security management for our clients

Verified User in Computer & Network Security

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.

E-mail security made easy

4.0 / 5

What do you like best about PowerDMARC? Very easy to set up. You can start with the basics and add features later. The system also guides you through the set-up process and provides recommendations for improvement. What do you dislike about PowerDMARC? For reporting and advanced features a subscription is required. However, for basic security for personal domains it's free! What problems is PowerDMARC solving and how is that benefiting you? More and more emails where rejected by email servers, or put in the SPAM folder of the recipient. Turns out a DMARC record is required by more and more e-mail providers. With PowerDMARC it is easy to solve this! Emails send from our domain are now fully compliant!

Juriaan K.

Personal domain for emailing Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Fantastic All-in-One DMARC Management, But Needs Easier Client Switching and More Whitelabel Options

4.5 / 5

What do you like best about PowerDMARC? I really appreciate how convenient it is to handle all the DMARC settings within a single, user-friendly platform. Their support team has been excellent in walking us through set up and troubleshooting for our specific clients. What do you dislike about PowerDMARC? I would like to see more customization options available in the Whitelabel section. Some of the current image sizing choices don't work well with our logo, which isn't a major issue, but having more flexibility would be a nice improvement. Additionally, switching between clients in the MSSP view is a little tedious. Right now, you have to log in as a specific client and then log out to return to the MSSP view. It would be much easier if there were a "User/Client" drop-down menu in the upper right corner, allowing you to quickly switch back and forth. What problems is PowerDMARC solving and how is that benefiting you? It is helping us protect our clients emails and reputations by blocking spoofing.

Zohra M.

Chaos-to-Order Transformation Expert Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Easy Platform for DMARC Management

4.5 / 5

What do you like best about PowerDMARC? Easy to use and great tools for troubleshooting. Theres also great guides that take you through the process of setup. We have most of our managed domains in PowerDMARC, as integration is very easy. We use PowerDMARC almost everyday for its various reporting tools. So when were not setting up new domains were monitoring our current ones. Customer Support also is very responsive, on the odd occassion where I need support, an advisor is back in touch within the hour. What do you dislike about PowerDMARC? There isn't much we dislike about PowerDMARC. What problems is PowerDMARC solving and how is that benefiting you? DMARC, DKIM and SPF policies are held in one place, which makes it easy to pick and choose what settings are required for each domain. We havent go to spend time typing out a policy as we can use sliders to get our desired settings, which is then made for us. We can see how secure we are bu the reporting. We also get great reporting tools which we show our end users.

Marcus M.

Senior Technical Engineer Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Great service

4.5 / 5

What do you like best about PowerDMARC? Camilo was incredibly helpful. He gave detailed explanations of the changes that were recommended. What do you dislike about PowerDMARC? I don't disliked anything. The platform is full featured. What problems is PowerDMARC solving and how is that benefiting you? Moving our DMARC policy from quarantine to reject.

Colin S.

Senior Information Security Engineer Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

Pricing

PowerDMARC offers a tiered subscription model with a generous free plan, while ELK DMARC is an open-source solution that is free to download but requires investment in infrastructure and ongoing management.

ELK DMARC

Small

Up to 10k emails / month

Free plan

Contact for pricing

Medium

Up to 100k emails / month

Paid plans start here

Contact for pricing

Large

Up to 1 million emails / month

Higher tiered plans