Will Stripe's email sending impact my domain's sender reputation?

No, because Stripe typically sends payment-related emails from its own domain ( stripe.com ), your domain's email deliverability is generally unaffected. They manage their own sender reputation and authentication.

Do I need to add Stripe to my domain's SPF or DKIM records?

Stripe manages its own email authentication, including SPF and DKIM, for the emails it sends. These records are associated with stripe.com , so you generally don't need to add Stripe to your own domain's SPF or DKIM records unless you're attempting a custom setup.

Can I send emails from my own domain using Stripe's native email features?

Stripe's standard email features do not typically allow for custom From addresses from your domain. Emails will typically appear as coming from a @stripe.com address.

How can I check the deliverability of emails sent by Stripe?

You should use a dedicated email deliverability testing tool to assess the performance of emails sent from your own domain. For Stripe's emails, you generally rely on their established reputation. Focus on monitoring DMARC reports to ensure all email sources are properly authenticated.

Will using Stripe for sending emails affect email deliverability? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

Many businesses rely on payment processing platforms like Stripe to manage transactions and automate customer communications, including sending receipts and other essential notifications. A common question that arises is whether using Stripe for these emails can impact your overall email deliverability.

It's a valid concern, as email deliverability is crucial for ensuring your messages reach the inbox and not the spam folder. The path an email takes from sender to recipient is complex, involving many factors that influence whether it gets delivered.

The good news is that for the most part, Stripe's email sending practices are designed to ensure high deliverability for the transactional emails it sends on its own behalf. Understanding how Stripe handles these emails versus how you send emails from your own domain is key to grasping the deliverability implications.

Understanding Stripe's email sending approach

Stripe is primarily a payment processor, but it does offer functionality to send transactional emails related to payments. These typically include receipts, invoices, and card expiry reminders. When Stripe sends these emails, they do so from their own domain, meaning the From address will be a Stripe address, such as receipts@stripe.com.

Stripe uses robust email service providers (ESPs) in the backend, such as

Amazon SES, and implements strong email authentication protocols like DKIM and DMARC. For instance, a typical Stripe receipt will show double DKIM signing, one for stripe.com and another for amazonses.com. They also publish a DMARC policy set to p=reject, indicating a high level of security for their sending domains. You can read more about how Stripe sends customer emails directly on their site.

This setup means that Stripe takes full responsibility for the deliverability of these specific emails. Their reputation, not yours, is what determines whether these payment-related communications land in the inbox.

Deliverability implications when Stripe sends

When Stripe sends emails from its own domain, it generally does not impact your domain's email deliverability. This is because the emails are authenticated against stripe.com's authentication records, not your domain's. This separation can actually be beneficial, as it offloads the deliverability burden for transactional payment emails onto a highly specialized and reputable sender.

Stripe sending from their domain

Reduced burden: Your domain's reputation isn't tied to these emails.
High deliverability: Stripe invests heavily in its sender reputation.
Managed authentication: Stripe handles SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for its sending.

However, if you're exploring options to send emails *as* your domain through Stripe, this scenario changes. While most users report that Stripe does not offer custom From addresses for their native email features, it's crucial to understand the implications if such a feature were to exist or if you were using a third-party integration that attempts to send on your behalf via Stripe. In such cases, your domain's authentication records, like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, would become directly relevant.

If your DMARC policy is set to p=reject or p=quarantine, any emails sent from Stripe (or any other service) purporting to be from your domain, without proper authentication aligned with your DMARC record, would likely fail and be rejected or sent to spam. This is why DMARC monitoring is so important.

Maintaining overall email deliverability

While Stripe manages its own email sending for payment notifications, your business likely sends other types of emails, such as marketing campaigns, customer service responses, or product updates. These emails, sent from your domain, are where your own email deliverability practices come into play. Your sender reputation, which dictates whether your emails reach the inbox, is built on a variety of factors.

Maintaining a healthy sender reputation requires consistent effort. It involves ensuring your email list is clean and engaged, that your content is relevant and not spammy, and that you have robust email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) in place. A strong sender reputation increases deliverability, leading to higher open and click-through rates. Conversely, a poor reputation can lead to emails landing in the spam folder or being rejected entirely.

The choice of your primary email tool (ESP) for marketing and other transactional emails also plays a significant role. If you are using a separate ESP for these, its infrastructure and practices will directly impact your inbox placement. It's about ensuring all your sending methods contribute positively to your overall email health.

Best practices for multi-sender environments

When using multiple sending services, it is critical to ensure that your email authentication records, particularly SPF and DKIM, are correctly configured for all legitimate sending sources. This includes your primary ESP and any other services you use to send emails from your domain. A misconfiguration can lead to DMARC alignment failures, resulting in messages being marked as spam or rejected, even if the content is perfectly legitimate.

It is also beneficial to avoid changing your From address frequently. Recipients often add trusted sender addresses to their allow-lists, and changing these can lead to minor inconveniences for customer support as some emails might get filtered initially. Consistency helps in maintaining recipient trust and deliverability over time.

Regular monitoring of your email deliverability is a non-negotiable best practice. Tools that provide insight into your sender reputation, DMARC reports, and blocklist (or blacklist) status are essential. This proactive approach helps identify and address any issues before they significantly impact your ability to reach your audience.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Ensure that your DMARC records are correctly configured and monitored, especially if you are using multiple sending services for your domain.

Verify that all third-party services sending emails on behalf of your domain are properly authorized via SPF and DKIM.

Maintain consistent 'From' addresses to avoid recipient confusion and potential filtering by email providers.

Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive or invalid addresses, which can negatively impact sender reputation.

Common pitfalls

Assuming that all transactional emails from a third-party service like Stripe will automatically use your domain for sending.

Neglecting to monitor DMARC reports when introducing new sending services, leading to unaddressed authentication failures.

Frequently changing your email 'From' addresses, which can cause recipients to flag emails as spam or miss important communications.

Failing to implement proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for all domains and subdomains used for sending email.

Expert tips

Leverage Stripe's default email sending for payment notifications, as they manage the deliverability reputation for those emails.

Focus your deliverability efforts on emails sent directly from your own domain via your primary ESP.

Use a DMARC monitoring solution to gain visibility into all email sending activity for your domain.

Educate your team on the importance of email authentication and its role in successful email delivery.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says that having some messages come from stripe.com instead of your domain should not broadly cause deliverability issues. They also mentioned that Stripe may not allow custom From addresses.

February 1, 2022 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that all Stripe-related email points to Stripe, noting that they send through Amazon SES with double DKIM signing for both stripe.com and amazonses.com. They also highlighted that Stripe publishes a DMARC p=reject policy and has a BIMI header. The expert concluded there is no reason to expect delivery problems with Stripe handling the mail, and any issues would be their responsibility.

February 1, 2022 - Email Geeks

Final thoughts on Stripe and deliverability

In summary, using Stripe for sending payment-related emails generally does not negatively affect your email deliverability. This is primarily because Stripe sends these emails from its own highly reputable domains, managing all the technical authentication aspects itself. Your domain's reputation is largely insulated from these specific email streams, as long as Stripe continues to send them under its own domain.

However, it's vital to remain vigilant about your overall email sending strategy. For all emails sent directly from your domain, whether marketing or other transactional messages, maintaining robust email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and following best practices for list hygiene and engagement is crucial. This proactive approach ensures strong inbox placement for all your communications.

By understanding Stripe's role in your email ecosystem and diligently managing your own domain's sender reputation, you can ensure that all your important messages reach their intended recipients effectively, whether they are payment notifications or marketing updates.