ShieldMarc vs Valimail
For UK MSPs who want published prices and self-serve onboarding to protect client domains.
ShieldMarc is a self-serve alternative to Valimail for DMARC, with published flat pricing at £0, £50 and £100 per month (annual) where Valimail quotes every paid tier. Valimail targets large enterprises with a sales-led motion and a credible top-end platform. Where ShieldMarc wins is published transparent pricing, self-serve onboarding, no procurement cycle, and a flat MSP plan that covers 100 domain slots. The pricing model below is from Valimail's pricing page, checked 19 October 2026: Monitor is free, and its Enforce tiers and the Amplify add-on say “Contact us” for pricing.
Check current prices on Valimail's pricing page before you decide. ShieldMarc's plans and prices, in pounds and excluding VAT, are on our pricing page.
Published pricing vs sales-led quote
Valimail publishes no prices: Monitor is free, and Enforce Starter, Premium and Enterprise, plus the Amplify add-on, are all custom pricing through its sales team (checked 19 October 2026). ShieldMarc prices are on the website: £0 / £50 / £100 per month (annual). Same product category, no quote cycle.
Self-serve onboarding in minutes
One DNS record change and a ShieldMarc account, live in under 5 minutes. Valimail deployments typically go through a sales cycle and can bundle professional services.
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 adds deep analysis on demand. Valimail uses its own automation-first stack.
How each prices (checked 19 October 2026)
| Feature | Valimail | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Sales-led quote for all paid tiers; no prices or billing terms published | Published flat pricing, monthly or annual |
| Free tier | Monitor: free, sender intelligence and dashboards | Starter: 1 domain, 10,000 messages, 20 free tools, AI explanations on free tools included |
| First paid tier | Enforce Starter: “Contact us for custom pricing” | Professional: £50/mo annual (£600/year), 25 domains, 1M messages/mo |
| Top published tier | None: every Enforce tier is custom pricing (contact sales) | MSP: £100/mo annual (£1,200/year), 100 domain slots, 5M messages/mo |
| Published message volume limits | Not shown on public pricing | Starter 10k · Professional 1M · MSP 5M · Enterprise custom |
| Implementation time | Weeks, often with professional services | Under 5 minutes, self-serve |
| Expansion pricing | Sales-led | +50 domain slots for £40/mo (published) |
| Enterprise tier purpose What actually triggers a custom quote | Every paid deal: no Enforce tier shows a price. | Triggered only by formalised SLA, regional hardware hosting or regulated-sector compliance frameworks. Standard scale stays on published MSP + buckets. |
| Can you estimate your cost upfront? | No. Every paid tier needs a custom quote, often with a procurement cycle. | Yes, for every standard case. Enterprise is only for compliance / hosting specifics. |
Features and depth
| Feature | Valimail | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis engine Threat model on every plan; AI on paid plans and the free trial, on demand only. We combine both. | In-house automation only | Proprietary threat model + AI |
| Automated sender discovery | Strong | Strong via our threat model, with AI classification on demand |
| One-click sender authorisation | Yes (flagship feature) | Manual per-sender authorisation with clear task list |
| Subdomain policy (sp=) detection | Policy detected | sp= scored independently, weaker-than-p flagged as a distinct control failure |
| SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, CAA, lookalike, uptime | DMARC and sender authentication are the focus; SSL, DNSSEC, CAA, lookalike and uptime monitoring are not part of the published bundle | All in one dashboard on paid tiers |
| Brand TLD grouping (MSP) | Not advertised | TLD variants count as one slot |
Data, hosting and privacy
| Feature | Valimail | ShieldMarc |
|---|---|---|
| Company base | US-based | UK owned and run |
| Default hosting | US / global | EU hosted, UK hosted on request on an enterprise plan |
| PII stored | Standard enterprise SaaS profile | Minimal by design: account emails, audit log, rare RUF headers |
| Subject to US CLOUD Act | Valimail Inc. is a Delaware corporation, per its subscription terms, 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). | 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, ISO 27001, FedRAMP available | 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
- Published pricing on every tier. The price you see is the price you pay, no sales cycle.
- Self-serve in under 5 minutes with one DNS record change. No professional services.
- £50/mo (annual) buys 25 domains of DMARC, SSL, DNS, DNSSEC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, CAA, lookalike and uptime monitoring, at a price published before you talk to anyone. Valimail quotes Enforce Starter and every tier above it.
- Paid-plan AI analysis combines our proprietary threat model with an AI model, on demand only.
- Subdomain policy (sp=) scored independently, weaker-than-p flagged as a distinct control failure.
- UK-owned, EU-hosted by default. UK-hosted environments available on request on an enterprise plan.
- Minimal personal data by design, suitable for DPIA-heavy public sector buyers.
Where Valimail stacks up
- One-click sender authorisation is a genuine flagship feature and is more mature than our manual per-sender workflow.
- Enterprise compliance portfolio: SOC 2, ISO 27001, and a FedRAMP deployment option. If your procurement requires these as hard gates, that may be decisive.
- Hosted BIMI is available as part of their platform, and their hosted SPF has a longer track record. ShieldMarc hosts SPF too (Dynamic SPF, on Professional and MSP) but does not ship hosted BIMI.
- Mature sender discovery and automation, refined over years of enterprise deployments.
Frequently asked questions
How does ShieldMarc's pricing compare with Valimail's?
Valimail Monitor is free, and every Enforce tier is priced by quote (checked 19 October 2026), so the comparison depends on the quote you get. ShieldMarc is self-serve and publishes flat pricing: free on Starter for 1 domain, £50 per month annual (£600 per year) for 25 domains on Professional, and £100 per month annual (£1,200 per year) for 100 domain slots on MSP, excluding VAT. Other options with published prices include dmarcian, EasyDMARC and PowerDMARC.
Is Valimail expensive for DMARC?
We cannot say from its website, because Valimail publishes no prices. It is positioned at the enterprise end: Monitor is free, and Enforce Starter, Premium and Enterprise, plus the Amplify add-on, all say “Contact us” for pricing (checked 19 October 2026), so most deals go through a sales conversation rather than self-serve checkout. ShieldMarc's cost is published before you talk to anyone: 25 domains for £600 per year or 100 domain slots for £1,200 per year, excluding VAT, with onboarding live in under five minutes.
What is the best alternative to Valimail?
The best alternative depends on what you need. For UK MSPs and multi-domain IT teams that want published pricing and fast self-serve onboarding, ShieldMarc is a strong fit: £50 per month for 25 domains, £100 per month for 100 domain slots, billed annually, UK owned with EU hosting by default and UK hosting available on request on an enterprise plan. dmarcian, EasyDMARC and PowerDMARC are also credible alternatives. Note that Valimail still leads on one-click sender authorisation and holds SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a FedRAMP option.
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