ShieldMarc vs dmarcian
A straight comparison for UK MSPs deciding between the two.
ShieldMarc is a UK-owned, EU-hosted alternative to dmarcian for DMARC monitoring, with flat pricing at £0, £50 and £100 per month (annual) instead of dmarcian's tiers, each set by domains, users and mail volume. dmarcian is one of the longest-running DMARC platforms and employs several of the protocol's original authors, so it is a credible choice. Where ShieldMarc differs is flat plans that cover more domains, predictable billing, on-demand deep reasoning with AI on top of our own threat model, and a UK-owned / EU hosted default. We describe how dmarcian prices rather than quoting its prices, which change often: the pricing model below is from dmarcian's pricing page, checked 19 October 2026.
Check current prices on dmarcian's pricing page before you decide. ShieldMarc's plans and prices, in pounds and excluding VAT, are on our pricing page.
Flat plans, not domain and volume tiers
dmarcian publishes its prices in US dollars, by tier: Basic, Plus and Enterprise each set the active domains, users, data history and monthly volume of legitimate mail you get, and above a tier's limits it offers a custom proposal (its pricing page, checked 19 October 2026). ShieldMarc Professional covers 25 domains for £50/mo annual and MSP covers 100 domain slots for £100/mo, with bucket expansion at £40/mo each.
Threat model + AI
Every ShieldMarc plan runs each DMARC report row through our proprietary threat model. On paid plans and the free trial, an AI model then reasons on top when you ask. dmarcian relies on its own tooling.
UK owned, EU hosted by default
ShieldMarc is a UK-based operation with EU hosted infrastructure and UK hosting available on request on an enterprise plan. dmarcian, Inc. is based in North Carolina, per its terms and privacy policy, so US authorities can require it to disclose data it holds or controls, wherever the data is stored (US CLOUD Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2713; checked 19 October 2026). Its terms also name dmarcian Limited, under Irish law, as a contracting company, and its EMEA page says the platform is EMEA-hosted for EMEA customers.
How each prices (checked 19 October 2026)
| Feature | dmarcian | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Published prices | Yes, in US dollars, for Basic, Plus and Enterprise; Custom is “tailored pricing” through sales | Yes, in pounds: Professional £50/mo and MSP £100/mo billed annually, excluding VAT |
| What the price depends on | The tier, which sets active domains, users, data history and a monthly allowance of legitimate (DMARC-capable) mail; dmarcian bases its pricing on that volume | The plan alone: 25 domains and 1,000,000 messages/mo on Professional, 100 domain slots and 5,000,000 messages/mo on MSP |
| Free plan | Personal: free, for non-business personal domains only; business use needs a paid tier | Starter: 1 domain, business domains welcome, 10,000 messages, 20 free tools, AI explanations on free tools included |
| Free trial | 30 days on a paid tier, no credit card | 30 days with 10 domains, no card required |
| Billing | Monthly, or annual at a discount | Monthly or annual: Professional £70/mo or £50/mo annual, MSP £130/mo or £100/mo annual |
| How you buy | Self-serve trial and sign-up on Basic, Plus and Enterprise; Custom through sales | Self-serve on every published plan |
| Overage handling | Custom pricing for volume over a tier's allowance | No hard cap, 3-month grace, no surprise billing |
| Expansion pricing | Next published tier, or a custom proposal | +50 domain slots for £40/mo (published) |
| Enterprise tier purpose What actually triggers a custom quote | Custom is for needs the standard tiers do not fit: more active domains or volume than a tier lists means a custom proposal. | Triggered only by formalised SLA, regional hardware hosting, or specific compliance frameworks. Standard scale stays on published MSP + buckets. |
| Can you estimate your cost upfront? | Yes from its pricing page, until you need more active domains or volume than its largest published tier includes. | Yes, for every standard case. Enterprise is only for compliance / hosting specifics. |
Features and depth
| Feature | dmarcian | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis engine Threat model on every plan; AI on paid plans and the free trial, on demand only. We combine both. | In-house tooling only | Proprietary threat model + AI |
| Automated AI background jobs | n/a | None on customer data. AI on your data fires only when a user asks for it |
| Subdomain policy (sp=) detection | Policy detected | sp= scored independently, weaker-than-p flagged as a distinct control failure |
| Lookalike domain scanning | None listed on its pricing or platform pages; Domain Discovery, on Enterprise only, finds your own registered domains and subdomains, not lookalikes (checked 20 October 2026) | Monitoring included on Professional, MSP and the 30-day free trial; a free one-off scanner for anyone |
| SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, CAA monitoring | Not the focus of dmarcian's product (TLS-RPT and MTA-STS reporting where present) | All included on paid tiers |
| Brand TLD grouping (MSP) | Not available | TLD variants count as one slot |
| Original research publication | Protocol documentation and blog | UK MSP Security Grade Audit, published quarterly (192 providers re-scanned each quarter) |
Data, hosting and privacy
| Feature | dmarcian | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Company base | US-headquartered (Brevard, North Carolina), with an EMEA company, dmarcian Limited, in Dublin | UK owned and run |
| Default hosting | Region depends on contract; US default, EU instance available | EU hosted, UK hosted on request on an enterprise plan |
| PII stored | Standard SaaS profile | Minimal by design: account emails, audit log, rare RUF headers |
| Subject to US CLOUD Act | dmarcian, Inc. is based in North Carolina, per its terms and privacy policy, so US authorities can require it to disclose data it holds or controls, wherever the data is stored (US CLOUD Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2713; checked 19 October 2026). Its terms also name dmarcian Limited, under Irish law, as a contracting company. | UK company on EU servers, but reports arrive via Microsoft 365, raw report emails are archived in Cloudflare R2, and AI features call US providers |
| Third-party certifications | SOC 2 | None held yet: Cyber Essentials first, then SOC 2 or ISO 27001, on the roadmap; our controls are documented on our Trust page |
Before you compare dashboards: any DMARC tool can only show the aggregate reports your domain asks receivers to send. On 16 October 2026, 26 of the 192 UK managed service providers (14%) in ShieldMarc's Q3 2026 audit received none, most because they published no reporting address (rua=). The free DMARC checker shows whether yours has one.
Conclusion
Where ShieldMarc has an edge
- Flat, predictable pricing: 25 domains for £50/mo annual, or 100 domain slots for £100/mo. dmarcian prices by tier, so growing past a tier's domains, users or mail means the next tier or a custom proposal.
- More domains per plan: 25 on Professional and 100 domain slots on MSP, more than dmarcian's largest published tier covers (checked 19 October 2026).
- Paid-plan AI analysis combines our proprietary threat model with an AI model, on demand only.
- Full stack in one dashboard on paid tiers: DMARC, SPF, DKIM, SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, CAA, domain expiry, uptime, lookalike.
- Subdomain policy (sp=) scored independently, weaker-than-p flagged as a distinct control failure.
- UK-owned, EU-hosted by default, UK hosted on request on an enterprise plan.
- Original UK MSP DMARC Audit published with methodology and data; rare in this category.
Where dmarcian stacks up
- Several of the original DMARC RFC authors work at dmarcian. Unmatched depth on the DMARC standards side of the product.
- Over a decade of running DMARC at scale. Longer track record than ShieldMarc, which is early days.
- SOC 2 attestation today. If your procurement requires it as a hard gate, that may be decisive.
- Mature enterprise sender management programmes with dedicated services teams. ShieldMarc is deliberately focused on the DMARC, SSL and DNS fundamentals plus hosted SPF (Dynamic SPF, on Professional and MSP); we do not ship hosted BIMI.
Frequently asked questions
What is an alternative to dmarcian for DMARC monitoring?
ShieldMarc is a UK-owned, EU-hosted alternative to dmarcian. It parses the same DMARC aggregate reports but uses flat pricing (£0, £50 or £100 per month on annual billing) instead of dmarcian's per-tier pricing plans, covers up to 100 domains on the MSP plan, and adds a proprietary threat model with AI analysis on demand. Other alternatives include EasyDMARC, Valimail and PowerDMARC; ShieldMarc differs by being UK owned with EU hosting by default and UK hosting available on request on an enterprise plan.
How does ShieldMarc's pricing compare with dmarcian's?
It depends on how many domains you run and how much mail they send, because the two price differently. dmarcian publishes US dollar prices by tier, each with its own active domains, users and monthly allowance of legitimate mail, and offers a custom proposal above them (checked 19 October 2026); its pricing page has today's figures. ShieldMarc publishes flat prices in pounds: Professional covers 25 domains for £50 per month and MSP covers 100 domain slots for £100 per month, billed annually, excluding VAT. Price both for your own domain count.
Which is better for UK MSPs: dmarcian or ShieldMarc?
For UK MSPs managing client domains, the deciding factors are how the price grows with the client base and how predictable the bill is. Each of dmarcian's published tiers stops at a set number of active domains, so a growing MSP moves up a tier, then to a custom proposal (checked 19 October 2026). ShieldMarc Professional covers 25 domains for £50 per month (annual) and MSP covers 100 domain slots for £100 per month, with published expansion buckets beyond that, which keeps the per-client cost flat as the base grows. dmarcian remains a credible choice for a small fixed estate and holds SOC 2 attestation.
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