Welcome to DMARCwise! To start, you’ll need to add a domain.

Adding a domain

In the dashboard:

  • Click the Add domain button in the top right corner.
  • Type your domain name in the dialog.
  • Confirm by clicking the Add domain button.

Remember to remove the www. subdomain prefix when adding domain names, e.g. dmarcwise.io and not www.dmarcwise.io.

For more recommendations around domain names and subdomains, read Subdomains.

Setting up DMARC

To allow DMARCwise to receive and process the DMARC reports, you’ll need to create (or update) a DNS record for your domain.

For this quick start guide we recommend that you use the Hosted DMARC feature: this mode lets you delegate the DNS record management to us with a CNAME record. You’ll then be able to manage the DMARC configuration from the dashboard, without going through your DNS provider for every change.

⚠️ The Hosted DMARC feature is not available on the free plan.

For more detailed information about manual vs hosted configuration, read Setting up DMARC.

In the dashboard, after adding a domain:

  • Navigate to the DMARC.
  • Select the Hosted tab in the setup box.
  • Click Switch to hosted mode to load the existing DMARC configuration (if any) and start the onboarding process.

You’ll be asked to create a DNS record with these settings:

  • Record type: CNAME
  • Name: _dmarc (or _dmarc.{your domain})
  • TTL: 3600

The value of the record is different for every domain so it will be provided in the dashboard.

How do I add the DNS record?

The exact steps depend on the DNS provider that you’re using, which is often provided by the company where you buy and renew the domain (the “registrar”).

Here are some tips:

  • Find out whether you’re using the DNS server provided by your domain registrar or an external service (like Cloudflare, Vercel, etc.).
  • Look for the page where you manage DNS records, it may be called “DNS records”, “DNS management” or “DNS zone”.
  • If you already have a DMARC record, you may not be able to change the type of the existing record, so you’ll need to remove the record and create a new one.

If you’re unsure about something or you get stuck, feel free to contact us.

Validating the domain

In the dashboard, click the Validate button to verify that the DMARC record is correctly set up.

If you see a message that tells you to try again later, it means that our system isn’t seeing the record (yet). DNS records are cached, so you sometimes need to wait a few minutes or hours for DMARCwise to be able to see the updated record.

You can also leave the dashboard and we’ll try to validate the domain automatically in the background. You’ll receive an email from us as soon as we detect the DNS record.

While you wait for the first DMARC reports, you can proceed with Running a diagnosis. You can also set up SMTP TLS reporting to monitor inbound email delivery.