Why Use DMARC Monitoring and the Top 3 Free & Open-Source Tools

Ensuring your emails land safely in the inbox while protecting your brand from phishing and spoofing attacks is a critical challenge for any business. This is precisely where DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) becomes essential. It acts as a public policy that tells receiving mail servers how to handle unauthenticated emails from your domain, effectively allowing you to say, "If you see an email that claims to be from me but fails security checks, here's what you should do with it." Implementing DMARC is the first step towards taking control of your email identity and improving deliverability.

However, a DMARC policy alone is not enough; its true power is unlocked through monitoring. DMARC-enabled receivers send back regular reports (aggregate and forensic) that contain valuable data about your email traffic. The problem is that these raw XML reports are difficult to read and interpret. This is where DMARC monitoring tools come in—they process these complex reports into human-readable dashboards and summaries. While a comprehensive article on Robotalp’s blog recently highlighted the top 6 DMARC monitoring tools in 2025, you don't need a large budget to get started. Several powerful free and open-source tools provide the clarity needed to secure your email channels effectively.

The Top 3 Free & Open-Source DMARC Tools

1. Postmark's DMARC Tool

Postmark's free tool is widely regarded as the perfect entry point into the world of DMARC monitoring due to its sheer simplicity.

  • Who it's for: Beginners, small businesses, and anyone who wants a "set-it-and-forget-it" solution without the complexity of a full dashboard.

  • Key Features: Instead of a web interface, Postmark sends you a beautifully formatted, easy-to-understand summary report via email once a week. It clearly shows which services are sending mail on your behalf and whether those emails are passing authentication checks.

  • Pros: It is completely free and incredibly easy to set up—you just create a specific DMARC record and they handle the rest. The weekly digest format makes it easy to stay informed without needing to proactively log in and check data.

  • Cons: It is not a real-time monitoring dashboard. You have to wait for the weekly email, and there are no alerting features for sudden issues. Data history is limited to what you save from the emails.

2. URIports

URIports offers a full-featured, professional-grade monitoring platform with one of the most generous free tiers available.

  • Who it's for: Small to medium-sized businesses or technically savvy individuals who want the power of a real-time dashboard with charts, alerts, and detailed reporting without an initial financial investment.

  • Key Features: The free tier provides a comprehensive dashboard to analyze DMARC aggregate reports, with features for filtering data, viewing sending sources on a world map, and tracking compliance over time. It also uniquely monitors other important web security standards like CSP (Content Security Policy) and TLS-RPT.

  • Pros: You get a powerful, real-time dashboard for free. The interface is clean and provides deep insights. Monitoring beyond just DMARC adds significant value.

  • Cons: The free tier has usage limits. While generous, high-volume senders or those with many domains might exceed the report processing limits, requiring an upgrade to a paid plan.

3. parsedmarc

For those with technical expertise who want ultimate control and unlimited volume, parsedmarc is the leading open-source solution.

  • Who it's for: Developers, system administrators, and organizations with an existing data analysis stack like Elasticsearch (ELK) or Splunk.

  • Key Features: This is a powerful Python library that you self-host. It automatically fetches and parses DMARC reports from an inbox, enriches the data (e.g., with threat intelligence), and can send the structured output to various destinations, most notably Elasticsearch, Splunk, or Grafana for visualization.

  • Pros: It is completely free, open-source, and can handle unlimited report volume. You have full ownership and control over your data. Its integration capabilities mean you can build incredibly powerful and customized monitoring dashboards.

  • Cons: It requires significant technical expertise to set up, configure, and maintain. You must provide your own server or environment to run it and a separate database/visualization tool (like Grafana) to see the results.

Conclusion: Start Monitoring Today

Securing your email domain with DMARC is no longer optional in today's digital landscape. As you can see, a lack of budget is not a barrier to entry. Whether you prefer the simplicity of a weekly email report from Postmark, the power of a free dashboard from URIports, or the ultimate control of a self-hosted solution like parsedmarc, there is a free tool that fits your needs. The most important step is to start today—gain visibility into your email traffic, protect your brand, and improve your email deliverability.

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Written by

Jonathan Barrett
Jonathan Barrett