ShieldMarc vs Sendmarc
For UK MSPs weighing a partner-first platform against published, predictable pricing.
ShieldMarc is a UK-owned, EU-hosted alternative to Sendmarc for DMARC monitoring, with published flat pricing at £0, £49 and £99 per month (annual). Sendmarc publishes no pricing at all: every paid tier is quote-based, with no currency or figure shown anywhere on its site, so we cannot convert or compare list prices — buyers must go through a sales cycle to learn the cost. Sendmarc is a credible, partner-first platform founded in 2018 with genuinely strong MSP machinery and unlimited domains on paid tiers. Where ShieldMarc wins is price transparency, self-serve onboarding, a permanent free plan rather than a 21-day trial, broader monitoring (SSL, DNS, uptime) and on-demand AI analysis. Plan structure and limits below are from Sendmarc's public pricing page, verified July 2026; verify directly at sendmarc.com/pricing-page/.
Published pricing vs quote-only sales
Every Sendmarc paid tier — Premium, Microsoft/Google & Yahoo Compliance, and Enterprise & Government — is priced “Get a quote”, with no currency or amount published anywhere on the site (verified July 2026). ShieldMarc prices are on the website: £0 / £49 / £99 per month (annual), plus published £39.99/mo expansion buckets. No quote cycle.
A permanent free plan, not a 21-day trial
Sendmarc's free tier is explicitly a trial: 1 domain, 5,000 emails/month, 1 portal user, 21 days of data history. ShieldMarc Starter is free for good: 1 domain, 10,000 messages/month, 1 year of data retention and 20 free tools with AI explanations.
Threat model + Claude AI
Paid ShieldMarc plans run every DMARC report row through our proprietary threat model, then a frontier Anthropic Claude model reasons on top, on demand only. Sendmarc markets no AI-assisted analysis or remediation features on its site as of July 2026.
Pricing and plan limits (verified July 2026)
| Feature | Sendmarc | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Quote-based on every paid tier; no currency or figure published | Published flat pricing: £0 / £49 / £99 per month (annual) |
| Free tier | Free Trial: 1 domain, 5k emails/mo, 1 portal user, 21-day data history | Starter: permanently free, 1 domain, 10,000 messages/mo, 1 year retention, 20 free tools |
| Published paid tiers What the vendor's own pricing page shows | Premium, Microsoft/Google & Yahoo Compliance, and Enterprise & Government — all “Get a quote” | Professional £49/mo annual (25 domains, 1M messages), MSP £99/mo annual (100 domain slots, 5M messages) |
| Plan limits once you pay | Unlimited domains, email volume, portal users and data history on all paid tiers | 25 domains (Professional) or 100 domain slots (MSP), 1M/5M messages/mo, expandable in published buckets |
| Data retention | 21 days on the free trial; unlimited on paid tiers | 1 year on all published plans; unlimited on Enterprise |
| Self-serve purchase path | None: sales is quote- and partner-mediated | Buy online in minutes; 30-day free trial on paid plans, no card |
| Expansion pricing | Quote-based; On-Demand consumption billing available through partners | +50 domain slots and +5 million messages for £39.99/mo (published) |
| Can you estimate your cost upfront? | No. No figure is published for any paid tier, so budgeting requires a sales conversation. | Yes, for every standard case. Enterprise is only for SLA, hosting or compliance specifics. |
Features and depth
| Feature | Sendmarc | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis engine Paid tiers only, on-demand only. We combine both. | In-house tooling; no AI-assisted analysis marketed | Proprietary threat model + Claude AI |
| Email authentication stack | DMARC, SPF, DKIM, BIMI, MTA-STS and TLS-RPT in one console, with delegation-hosted records | DMARC, SPF, DKIM, MTA-STS and TLS-RPT monitoring; no hosted BIMI today |
| SPF management | SPF flattening with automatic re-resolution of includes to stay under the 10-lookup limit | SPF Flattener on paid tiers; auto-maintained Dynamic SPF is on the roadmap |
| SSL, DNS health, DNSSEC, CAA, domain expiry, uptime monitoring | Not offered: product scope is email authentication plus lookalike and breach detection | All included on paid tiers, in the same dashboard and the same bill |
| Lookalike domain monitoring | Lookalike Domain Defense: typosquat detection, watchlist and new-registration alerts (detection and alerting only; no documented takedown service) | Lookalike domain scanning included on all plans, including free Starter |
| Dark web breach monitoring | Breach Detection product monitoring dark-web sources | On the roadmap (coming soon on MSP and Enterprise) |
| MSP tooling and integrations | Multi-tenant console, consumption-based On-Demand billing, native PSA integrations (ConnectWise, Autotask, HaloPSA), partner certification | Multi-client MSP plan with unlimited seats and published pricing; no PSA integrations today |
| Brand TLD grouping (MSP) | Not advertised | TLD variants count as one slot |
| Subdomain policy (sp=) detection | Standard policy detection | sp= scored independently, weaker-than-p flagged as a distinct control failure |
| SSO | Okta, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365/Entra on paid tiers | Available on Enterprise |
Data, hosting and privacy
| Feature | Sendmarc | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Company base | South African-founded group, HQ Johannesburg; offices in the US, Netherlands and Argentina, plus an Australian legal entity | UK owned and run |
| Default hosting | Not published: Microsoft and Cloudflare are named as infrastructure partners, but no regions or customer-selectable data residency are listed | EU hosted, UK hosted on request |
| US legal exposure | Operates a US-incorporated entity (Sendmarc Inc, Delaware), which gives US legal process a domestic hook; the parent group is South African | No US entity: UK based, EU hosted |
| PII stored | Standard SaaS profile; its privacy policy says data may transfer to countries where it does business, under SCCs | Minimal by design: account emails, audit log, rare RUF headers |
| Third-party certifications | Describes itself as “SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliant”; attestation documents sit behind its gated trust centre | Cyber Essentials, then SOC 2/ISO 27001 on the roadmap; certification-grade controls documented on our Trust page |
| Security documentation access | Detailed infrastructure and subprocessor docs gated behind an access-controlled trust centre | Public Trust page, no NDA or access request needed |
Conclusion
Where ShieldMarc has an edge
- Published pricing on every tier, including expansion buckets. Sendmarc publishes no figure for any paid tier — no currency, no amount — so you cannot budget without a sales cycle.
- Self-serve onboarding in minutes with one DNS record change and a 30-day free trial, no card. Sendmarc's sales motion is quote- and partner-mediated.
- A permanently free Starter plan with 1 year of data retention, versus Sendmarc's 21-day trial capped at 5,000 emails/month.
- Paid-plan AI analysis combines our proprietary threat model with a frontier Anthropic Claude model, on demand only. Sendmarc markets no AI-assisted analysis.
- Full external attack surface in one dashboard on paid tiers: DMARC, SPF, DKIM, SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, CAA, domain expiry, uptime and lookalike. Sendmarc's scope stops at email authentication plus lookalike and breach detection.
- UK owned, EU hosted by default, UK hosted on request — and we publish where your data lives. Sendmarc publishes no hosting regions and operates a US Delaware entity (Sendmarc Inc).
- Public Trust page and minimal personal data by design, suitable for DPIA-heavy UK public sector buyers. Sendmarc's detailed security docs are gated behind an access-controlled trust centre.
Where Sendmarc stacks up
- Compliance posture today: Sendmarc describes itself as SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliant. If your procurement requires those as hard gates now, that may be decisive; ShieldMarc's attestation roadmap starts with Cyber Essentials, then SOC 2/ISO 27001, with certification-grade controls documented on our public Trust page in the meantime.
- Unlimited domains, email volume, portal users and data history on every paid tier — no published step-function caps once you are on a paid plan. ShieldMarc's published plans cap at 100 domain slots plus expansion buckets.
- Hosted, delegation-managed DNS records and continuously maintained SPF flattening, plus BIMI management. ShieldMarc's SPF Flattener is manual today (Dynamic SPF is coming soon) and we do not ship hosted BIMI.
- One of the most partner-first DMARC vendors: multi-tenant console, consumption-based On-Demand billing and native PSA integrations with ConnectWise, Autotask and HaloPSA. ShieldMarc has no PSA integrations today.
- Dark-web Breach Detection is shipping today; ShieldMarc's dark web monitoring is still on the roadmap.
- Longer track record (founded 2018) with a global footprint across five countries, SSO via Okta, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365/Entra on paid tiers, and a full API with SIEM integration support.
Frequently asked questions
What is an alternative to Sendmarc for DMARC monitoring?
ShieldMarc is a UK-owned, EU-hosted alternative to Sendmarc. It parses the same DMARC aggregate and forensic reports but publishes flat pricing (£0, £49 or £99 per month on annual billing) where every Sendmarc paid tier is quote-based, and it adds SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, uptime and domain expiry monitoring plus a proprietary threat model with Claude AI analysis on demand. Other alternatives include dmarcian, EasyDMARC and Valimail. Sendmarc remains a strong choice for partner-led MSPs that want unlimited-domain paid tiers and native PSA integrations.
Is ShieldMarc cheaper than Sendmarc?
We cannot compare list prices, because Sendmarc does not publish any: as of July 2026 every paid tier on sendmarc.com is priced “Get a quote”, with no currency or amount shown. What you can compare is certainty. ShieldMarc's cost is knowable before you speak to anyone: £49 per month (annual) covers 25 domains, about £1.96 per domain, and the MSP plan covers 100 domain slots for £99 per month, about £0.99 per domain, with published £39.99 per month expansion buckets beyond that. Sendmarc's free tier is also a 21-day trial, while ShieldMarc's Starter plan is permanently free for one domain.
Which is better for UK MSPs: Sendmarc or ShieldMarc?
It depends on how you buy and bill. Sendmarc has genuinely strong MSP machinery: a multi-tenant console, consumption-based On-Demand billing, PSA integrations with ConnectWise, Autotask and HaloPSA, and unlimited domains on paid tiers — but pricing is quote-based and it publishes no hosting regions. ShieldMarc gives UK MSPs published per-client economics (£99 per month for 100 domain slots, with brand TLD grouping so alternate TLDs count as one slot), UK ownership with EU hosting by default and UK hosting on request, and SSL, DNS and uptime monitoring in the same bill. If predictable published cost and UK data sovereignty decide it, choose ShieldMarc; if PSA-integrated consumption billing decides it, Sendmarc stacks up well.
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