PowerDMARC vs dmarcian
PowerDMARC hosts nearly everything — DMARC, BIMI, MTA-STS — and competes on price. dmarcian, from a co-author of the DMARC spec, deliberately hosts nothing and competes on reporting depth. Same protocol, opposite philosophies.
Comparison last verified July 20, 2026. Pricing sourced directly from PowerDMARC and dmarcian.
The short answer
PowerDMARC's Basic plan spans $8–$250/mo by email volume ($15/mo at 100,000 emails, $12 annual) with 5 domains, and hosts DMARC and BIMI even on its free tier; hosted DKIM, SSO, and API access are Enterprise-quote-only. dmarcian's Basic is $24/mo ($19.99 billed annually) for 2 domains, meters only legitimate DMARC-capable mail, includes TLS-RPT on every tier — and leaves every DNS change to you. Pick PowerDMARC to have records hosted cheaply; pick dmarcian for metering fairness, reporting depth, and full manual control.
At a Glance
| Feature | PowerDMARC | dmarcian |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $15/mo ($12/mo annual) | $24/mo ($19.99/mo annual) |
| Free tier | 1 domain, 10,000 emails/mo, 10-day history, personal domains only | 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only |
| G2 rating | 4.9/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Protocols with documented support | 8/9 | 5/9 |
Protocol Coverage
Documented support across the 9 core email authentication protocols. "Not documented" means our research briefs found no public evidence either way.
| Feature | PowerDMARC | dmarcian |
|---|---|---|
| DMARC | ||
| SPF | Hosted PowerSPF flattening is a paid add-on on Basic and included from Enterprise; free toolbox checkers available | |
| DKIM | Hosted DKIM key/selector management is Enterprise-only; validation tools available in the free toolbox | |
| BIMI | ||
| MTA-STS | Hosted MTA-STS policy file and certificate from the Basic tier | |
| TLS-RPT | TLS report ingestion and parsing from the Basic tier | |
| ARC (chain analysis) | ||
| DANE/TLSA | Free public DANE record checker (April 2026); claimed TLSA monitoring lacks a documented product surface, and no DANE/TLSA hosting at any tier | |
| ARF (failure reports) | Forensic (RUF) processing and Forensic Viewer from the Basic tier |
Published Pricing
List prices as published on each vendor's pricing page.
PowerDMARC
Free tier: 1 domain, 10,000 emails/mo, 10-day history, personal domains only
- Basic $15/mo · $12/mo annual
- Enterprise Quote-only
- Partner Program Quote-only
dmarcian
Free tier: 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only
- Basic $24/mo · $19.99/mo annual
- Plus $240/mo · $199/mo annual
- Enterprise $600/mo · $499/mo annual
- Custom Quote-only
Strengths and Trade-offs
PowerDMARC
Where it shines
- Among the lowest published entry prices in the category: Basic starts at $8/mo, with $12/mo (annual billing) at the 100,000-email anchor
- Hosted DMARC and Hosted BIMI on every tier including Free, a rare inclusion at $0
- Customer support is the single most-cited praise theme (60 of 240 G2 reviews)
- White-label multi-tenant partner portal with PSA integrations, well reviewed by MSPs and MSSPs
- Active 2026 ship cadence: AI Assistant beta, MCP integration, native SIEM connectors, and a free DANE checker
Trade-offs
- Hosted DKIM, SAML SSO, audit logs, API access, and threat intelligence all require an Enterprise custom quote
- Hosted SPF (PowerSPF), email support, and phone support are paid add-ons on the Basic tier
- All fees are non-refundable per the published terms, with auto-renewal and a 30-day written cancellation notice
- Free tier is restricted to personal domains only
- MSP reviewers report tenant-switching friction: no single-pane client domain management, and every domain in an account shares one plan
Best for: Budget-conscious SMBs and MSP partners who want broad hosted protocol coverage at a low entry price and do not need SSO, API access, or hosted DKIM outside an Enterprise contract.
dmarcian
Where it shines
- Founded by Tim Draegen, co-author of the DMARC specification; reviewers cite the mission-driven credibility
- Meters only DMARC-capable legitimate traffic, so forwarded and fraudulent volume never counts against your plan
- TLS-RPT ingestion included on every tier, including the free Personal plan
- 30-day free trial on all paid tiers with no credit card, and published prices unchanged for at least 18 months
- Reporting depth and sender-source grouping praised as more detailed than other solutions
Trade-offs
- 10x price jump from Basic ($24/mo) to Plus ($240/mo) with no tier between 2 and 8 active domains
- REST API, SAML SSO, and Domain Discovery are Enterprise-only ($499/mo billed annually)
- No BIMI, hosted MTA-STS, ARC, or DANE productization at any tier; SPF flattening explicitly declined
- Reporting-only platform: no hosted records or auto-deploy, so DNS changes stay manual
- Exceeding plan volume for two consecutive months triggers an automatic upgrade to a higher tier (per the August 2024 Terms of Service)
Best for: Practitioners who want deep DMARC aggregate-report visibility from the spec co-author's team and prefer to keep full manual control of their own DNS records.
Where DMARCguard Fits
DMARCguard is our product — treat this section as our pitch, and check every number above against both vendors' own pricing pages.
PowerDMARC's low price comes with Enterprise gates on DKIM hosting, SSO, and API; dmarcian's depth comes with manual DNS and a 10x jump from $24 to $240/mo when you outgrow 2 domains. DMARCguard covers all 9 protocols on Pro — including ARC chain analysis, which neither offers — with per-domain pricing ($3.9/domain/mo for founding members) that scales domain by domain, not in cliffs. 2 domains free, 30 days of history, no card. Shortlisting enterprise automation too? See how each stacks up against Valimail: PowerDMARC vs Valimail and dmarcian vs Valimail.
| Feature | PowerDMARC | dmarcian | DMARCguard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | $15/mo ($12/mo annual) | $24/mo ($19.99/mo annual) | $6.9/domain/mo |
| Free tier | 1 domain, 10,000 emails/mo, 10-day history, personal domains only | 2 domains, 1,250 DMARC-capable msgs/mo, 1-month history, non-business use only | 2 domains, 30 days history |
| Protocols covered | 8/9 | 5/9 | 9/9 |
| G2 rating | 4.9/5 | 3.5/5 | 4.8/5 (7 reviews) |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is PowerDMARC or dmarcian better for a small business?
On raw price, PowerDMARC: $8/mo at the lowest volume band with 5 domains and hosted records, against dmarcian's $24/mo for 2 domains with manual DNS. On billing fairness, dmarcian: it meters only legitimate DMARC-capable mail, so a spoofing wave never inflates your bill. Small teams without DNS confidence usually get further, faster with hosted records.
How does volume metering differ between them?
PowerDMARC counts compliant email volume in bands from 50,000 to 2,000,000/month; your price moves with the band, from $8 to $250/mo. dmarcian counts only DMARC-capable legitimate traffic — forwarded and fraudulent messages are excluded — but exceeding your plan two months running triggers an automatic tier upgrade under its terms.
Which protocols does each actually host?
PowerDMARC hosts DMARC and BIMI from Free and MTA-STS/TLS-RPT from Basic; hosted SPF (PowerSPF) is a paid add-on and hosted DKIM is Enterprise-only. dmarcian hosts nothing by design — it validates and reports on DMARC, SPF, and DKIM, ingests TLS-RPT on all tiers, and has no BIMI, MTA-STS hosting, ARC, or DANE productization.
What do reviewers say about each?
PowerDMARC holds a 4.9 G2 rating across 240 reviews, with support the most-cited praise (60 mentions) and MSP tenant-switching friction the recurring complaint. dmarcian holds 3.5 from just 5 G2 reviews — a thin sample — with praise centering on reporting depth and the spec-author heritage.
Sources (18)
- PowerDMARC: Basic tier anchored at $15/mo ($12/mo billed annually) for 100K emails and 5 domains; full range $8-$250/mo by volume band — source
- PowerDMARC: Free tier: 1 domain, 10,000 emails/mo, 10-day history, labeled for personal domains only — source
- PowerDMARC: Terms state all services are non-refundable, auto-renew, and require 30 days written notice to cancel — source
- PowerDMARC: Hosted DKIM is gated to Enterprise and above — source
- PowerDMARC: Hosted MTA-STS policy and certificate available from the Basic tier — source
- PowerDMARC: Hosted PowerSPF is an add-on on Basic, included at Enterprise — source
- PowerDMARC: G2 rating 4.9 across 240 reviews — source
- PowerDMARC: No productized ARC support: no product page, no pricing row, no changelog entry — source
- PowerDMARC: Free DANE record checker shipped April 2026; no TLSA hosting at any tier — source
- dmarcian: Basic tier: $24/mo monthly or $19.99/mo billed annually, 2 active domains, 100K DMARC-capable msgs/mo — source
- dmarcian: Plus tier: $240/mo monthly or $199/mo billed annually, 8 active domains, 1M msgs/mo — source
- dmarcian: Enterprise tier: $600/mo monthly or $499/mo billed annually, 15 active domains, 5M msgs/mo, unlimited retention — source
- dmarcian: Personal free tier: 2 domains, 1,250 msgs/mo, 1-month retention, non-business use only — source
- dmarcian: Pricing meters legitimate DMARC-capable traffic only, not forwarded or fraudulent volume — source
- dmarcian: Two consecutive months over the plan's data limit triggers an automatic upgrade to a higher subscription (per the August 15, 2024 Terms of Service; clause not restated verbatim on the current ToS page) — source
- dmarcian: G2 rating 3.5 from 5 reviews — source
- dmarcian: TLS-RPT ships on all tiers; BIMI, hosted MTA-STS, ARC, and DANE absent from the tier comparison table — source
- dmarcian: Founder Tim Draegen co-authored the DMARC specification — source
Go Deeper
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