What are some alternative inbox placement monitoring tools to Validity?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 25 Jun 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
7 min read
Ensuring your emails reach the inbox is fundamental to any successful email program. When messages land in the spam folder or, worse, are blocked entirely, it directly impacts your engagement, conversions, and overall return on investment. Many email marketers and businesses have traditionally relied on services like Validity (and its acquired properties like Return Path and Everest) for comprehensive inbox placement monitoring and deliverability insights. While these platforms offer robust features, their cost and complexity can sometimes lead organizations to seek alternatives.
Finding a tool that provides comparable insights, especially concerning performance across various internet service providers (ISPs), is a common challenge. Whether you're moving from a previous role where you used Validity or are simply exploring options, the market offers a diverse range of solutions. My aim is to shed light on some alternative inbox placement monitoring tools that can help you maintain strong deliverability without necessarily breaking the bank.
The key is to understand what truly drives email deliverability and how different tools provide the data you need to make informed decisions. It's not just about getting emails delivered, but ensuring they land in the primary inbox, rather than promotional tabs or spam folders. This requires a proactive approach to monitoring and optimization.
Understanding inbox placement
Inbox placement monitoring is the practice of testing where your emails land across various mailbox providers, such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and others. It gives you a clear picture of whether your messages are reaching the inbox, the spam folder, or are being blocked entirely. This differs from simple email validation, which only checks if an email address is active, not its potential inbox destination. Understanding your email deliverability rate, or your inbox placement rate, is paramount for campaign success.
Many factors influence where your emails land, including your sender reputation, email content, adherence to authentication protocols (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), and even recipient engagement. Mailbox providers constantly update their filtering algorithms, making continuous monitoring essential. Without it, you might be sending emails into a void, completely unaware that they're not reaching their intended audience.
While Validity has been a long-standing leader, its comprehensive suite comes with a premium price tag. For businesses that need robust insights but have budget constraints, exploring alternative inbox placement monitoring tools becomes a necessity. The good news is that several excellent platforms offer comparable features tailored to different needs and price points. These tools often provide detailed reports on specific ISP performance, allowing you to pinpoint issues with why your emails are going to spam.
The importance of inbox placement
Inbox placement monitoring is crucial because it provides actionable data about your email campaigns. It helps you:
Identify issues: Pinpoint specific mailbox providers where your emails are underperforming, indicating potential sender reputation or content problems.
Optimize content: Test different subject lines and email body content to see what resonates best with spam filters.
Protect sender reputation: Early detection of delivery issues can prevent your IP address or domain from being added to a blacklist (or blocklist).
Improve ROI: More emails reaching the inbox means higher open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately, better campaign performance.
What to look for in an inbox placement tool
When evaluating inbox placement monitoring tools, consider your specific needs. Not all tools offer the same level of detail or the same features. Beyond just knowing if your email landed in the inbox or spam, what other data points are critical for your email program? This assessment will guide you toward the right alternative.
Here are some key features I recommend looking for in an effective tool:
ISP coverage: Does the tool provide placement data across all major mailbox providers relevant to your audience, including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and regional providers?
Spam trap detection: Can it identify if you're hitting spam traps, which can severely damage your sender reputation?
Blacklist monitoring: Does it check your IP and domain against major email blocklists (blacklists) to alert you to potential issues?
Content analysis: Can it scan your email content for spam triggers and suggest improvements?
Authentication monitoring: Does it help ensure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured and aligned?
Reporting and alerts: Does it offer clear, actionable reports and real-time alerts for significant drops in placement?
Integration: Can it integrate with your existing email service provider (ESP) like Klaviyo?
Top alternative inbox placement tools
While Validity, with its Return Path and Everest offerings, is well-known, several other tools provide strong inbox placement monitoring. These alternatives often cater to different budget ranges and offer unique feature sets. Some focus heavily on testing, while others offer a broader suite of deliverability services. Many are listed as top email deliverability tools.
Here’s a comparison of some notable alternatives, offering various functionalities to help you monitor your email performance and improve your inbox rates.
Part of a larger email API platform, offering comprehensive insights.
When making your choice, think about the depth of reporting you need. Some tools provide general percentages, while others offer granular data down to individual mailbox provider placement rates, which can be invaluable for identifying specific issues. This is especially true for companies using platforms like Klaviyo, where detailed deliverability metrics are crucial for maximizing campaign effectiveness.
Leveraging advanced monitoring for strategic insights
Beyond basic inbox placement monitoring, many tools offer advanced features that provide deeper insights into your email program's health. These often include more granular data on blocklist (blacklist) appearances, sender reputation scores, and even content-level analysis to help predict spam folder placement before you send. The aim is to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive optimization.
For instance, some tools integrate AI-powered analytics to analyze engagement patterns and suggest improvements, while others provide email preview tools to ensure your design renders correctly across various clients and devices. This level of detail helps you refine your email strategy and ensure your messages are not only delivered but are also impactful. Understanding inbox placement trends across different providers helps you adapt your sending practices.
For users of email service providers like Klaviyo, it's essential to check if the alternative monitoring tool offers direct integrations or can work seamlessly by sending test emails through your Klaviyo setup. Most tools provide specific seed lists that you can use to send test campaigns, allowing them to track placement without deep API integration. However, some advanced solutions might offer more streamlined connections for automated monitoring.
Reactive monitoring
Historically, many businesses reacted to deliverability issues after they occurred. This often meant low open rates, reduced engagement, and a scramble to identify the root cause, which could be anything from a blocklist listing to a sudden shift in ISP filtering. This approach is costly and inefficient, as reputation damage is hard to reverse quickly.
Proactive monitoring
Modern inbox placement tools enable proactive monitoring. By continuously sending and analyzing test emails, these platforms alert you to potential issues before they impact your main campaigns. This allows for timely adjustments to content, sending volume, or authentication settings, protecting your sender reputation and ensuring consistent inbox delivery.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Always include an unsubscribe link in a clear and prominent location in your emails to comply with anti-spam laws like CASL.
Segment your email lists and personalize content to improve engagement and reduce spam complaints, which helps inbox placement.
Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and known spam traps to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Monitor your engagement rates, including opens, clicks, and replies, as positive engagement signals improve your sender score with ISPs.
Implement email authentication protocols, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, to verify your sender identity and build trust with mailbox providers.
Common pitfalls
Sending emails to purchased or old lists without re-engagement campaigns, leading to high spam complaint rates and blocklist hits.
Neglecting to monitor feedback loops from ISPs, missing critical signals about your email program's performance and spam complaints.
Over-relying on email validation tools without also monitoring inbox placement, as validation doesn't guarantee delivery to the inbox.
Ignoring subtle drops in inbox placement for specific ISPs, which can indicate growing issues before they become widespread problems.
Failing to adapt email content and sending practices to evolving anti-spam rules and filter updates by major mailbox providers.
Expert tips
Many email deliverability tools offer free trials; use them to test performance with your actual sending setup and compare results.
Don't just look at overall inbox placement; analyze performance across individual ISPs to identify specific areas for improvement.
Combine automated monitoring tools with manual checks, like sending test emails to accounts on various popular email services.
Pay attention to the reporting frequency and granularity of data offered by tools to ensure it meets your analytical needs.
Consider setting up Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS for free, direct insights into your reputation with these major providers.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says many alternative tools are available for different budgets, including Email Consul, GlockApps, Inboxable, Inbox Monster, Kickbox, Mail Monitor, and Postmastery.
2022-09-27 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says they have used Kickbox for list cleaning and are open to trying its deliverability monitoring features.
2022-09-27 - Email Geeks
Navigating your options
Choosing the right inbox placement monitoring tool is a critical decision that impacts the success of your email marketing and outreach efforts. While Validity remains a significant player, a robust ecosystem of alternative inbox placement monitoring tools exists, offering diverse features, pricing models, and specialized functionalities.
By carefully assessing your needs, budget, and the specific insights you require (such as ISP-specific performance or detailed content analysis), you can find an alternative that not only helps you maintain excellent deliverability but also supports your broader email strategy. Continuous monitoring and adaptation are key to navigating the ever-changing landscape of email security and ensuring your messages consistently reach the inbox.
GlockApps
Kickbox
Inbox Monster
Allegrow
ZeroBounce
Mailgun Optimize
