How to Use the Cold Email Domain Checker
- Type the domain you send cold email from, without www or https, and press Check domain.
- Read the score. 90 or more means the technical setup is ready for cold email; under 70 means inbox providers have a reason to distrust you.
- Fix every line marked Fail or Fix, in the order shown. Each one comes with the exact change to make.
- Run the check again after your DNS changes go live. Most changes show within an hour.
If you send from several domains, check each one. Inbox providers judge every sending domain on its own.
What the Checker Tests
| Check | Points | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| MX records | 10 | Without them, replies to your cold emails bounce |
| SPF record, ending and lookups | 25 | Tells receivers which servers may send for you; more than 10 lookups breaks it (RFC 7208) |
| DKIM key | 20 | Signs every email so it cannot be changed on the way |
| DMARC record, policy and reports | 25 | Tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fail, and sends you reports (RFC 7489) |
| Domain age | 10 | Very new domains get less trust |
| Website or redirect | 5 | A domain with nothing behind it looks like a throwaway |
| Spamhaus blocklist | 15 | A listed domain is blocked by many mail servers |
Since February 2024, Google asks anyone who sends more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail to authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC and to keep the spam complaint rate under 0.3%, according to its email sender guidelines. A cold email program that skips any of the three starts with a handicap at every volume.
SPF vs DKIM vs DMARC
| SPF | DKIM | DMARC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | Which servers may send for this domain? | Was this email signed by the domain and left unchanged? | What should happen when the first two fail? |
| Where it lives | TXT at the root | TXT at selector._domainkey | TXT at _dmarc |
| Common mistake | Two records, or more than 10 lookups | Signing never turned on | Left on p=none for good |
The full rules for staying out of spam, from list quality to volume, are in our email deliverability checklist.
What a Good Score Does Not Tell You
A score of 100 means your domain is set up correctly. It does not mean your emails will land in the inbox. Placement also depends on how many emails each mailbox sends, how many addresses bounce, how many people mark you as spam and how relevant the message is.
Bad data is the most common cause we see. In our test of 8 contact data providers on the same 600 leads, one provider labeled 63 dead emails as valid and the best labeled 1. Every invalid address you send to is a bounce on your domain.
See the provider by provider results in our test of 8 lead databases.
If you would rather have the setup, warm-up and monitoring done for you, that is what our email deliverability consultants do.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my domain is ready for cold email?
Enter the domain in the checker above. It reads your MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, the age of the domain, whether it has a website and whether Spamhaus lists it, then gives a score out of 100 and the fix for each problem.
Do I need SPF, DKIM and DMARC for cold email?
Yes. Google requires all three for anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail, according to its email sender guidelines, and inbox providers trust authenticated domains more at any volume. Set up all three before the first campaign.
Why does the checker not find my DKIM key?
DKIM keys live under a selector name chosen by your email provider. The checker tests the common ones, such as google, selector1 and selector2. If your provider uses a custom selector, open Custom DKIM selector, enter it and check again.
What is the SPF 10 lookup limit?
An SPF check may trigger at most 10 DNS lookups (RFC 7208). Every include, a, mx and redirect counts, including the ones inside the records you include. Above 10, receivers treat SPF as a permanent error, as if you had no SPF at all.
Is this domain checker free?
Yes. It is free, needs no account and checks public DNS only. We do not store the domains you check.