Best SPF Flattening Tools

SPF records verify domain authenticity by validating sending IPs through DNS. These records fail when they exceed the strict 10 DNS lookup limit, a common issue for businesses using multiple third-party email platforms. SPF flattening tools solve this by consolidating records and eliminating unnecessary lookups, improving reliability, and simplifying email authentication. Automating the process reduces human error, ensures compliance, and protects email deliverability at scale.

Key Takeaways:

Keep SPF records valid by staying under the 10 DNS lookup limit.
Use SPF flattening tools to resolve nested lookups into one optimized record.
Automate SPF management to avoid errors and soft fails.
Choose flattening tools based on integration ease, cost, scalability, and macro support.
Avoid manual flattening to reduce risk and maintain email delivery performance.

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Key Features to Look for in SPF Flattening Tools

When selecting an SPF flattening service, here are the essential criteria to consider:

The pricing and value offered.
The provider’s DNS uptime guarantee and Service Level Agreement (SLA).
The speed of DNS query responses.
How simple and intuitive the tool is to manage.
The ability to handle SPF errors and record updates automatically.
The capacity to grow with your organization’s needs.

Top 5 SPF Flattening Tools

Here are the top 5 SPF flattening tools you can use to consolidate your SPF records.

1. PowerDMARC

PowerDMARC provides a complete suite of email authentication solutions, including SPF, DMARC, DKIM, MTA-STS, and BIMI. Its hosted SPF service, PowerSPF, instantly flattens SPF records by consolidating them into a single include statement. This one-click SPF optimization process keeps your record dynamically synchronized with IP address changes from your third-party vendors, making it a top choice among users.

Beyond flattening, PowerDMARC also offers advanced optimization using SPF Macros, providing a more scalable solution for businesses with complex infrastructures.

Key PowerSPF Benefits:

Automatic SPF error handling.
Simplified management of third-party vendor IPs.
Improved email deliverability and spam reduction.
Clear visibility into email sending services and sources.
Concise SPF records that stay under the DNS lookup and character limits.
Comes as part of a suite with other managed services like DMARC, DKIM, and MTA-STS.
Offers Macros optimization for more modern and complex setups.
Doesn’t expose your authorized IPs.
Support in over 11 languages.

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2. MxToolbox

Nearly 20 years in the market, MxToolbox offers an SPF Flattening tool that you can use to manage and consolidate complex SPF records. This enables domain owners to stay within the SPF limit, bring DNS lookup errors to a minimum, and avoid email bounces.

Key MxToolbox Benefits:

Optimized SPF setup.
Boosted email deliverability.
Automatic reconstruction of SPF records.

3. AutoSPF

AutoSPF helps automatically flatten and compress all domains within the SPF, which eliminates the need for additional DNS lookups. As a result, there will be less manual intervention or cleanups required from your side.

Key AutoSPF Benefits:

Fewer manual cleanups.
Reduced spam.
Compliance and compatibility with major email platforms like Gmail, Office 365, Salesforce, and others.
Automated checks for vendor changes or updates every 5 minutes
Quick and hassle-free monitoring.

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4. DMARCLY

DMARCLY’s SPF flattening feature is known as Safe SPF, and it does exactly what the name suggests. This beginner-friendly option comes with an easy-to-navigate UI and safe, hassle-free SPF optimization.

Key DMARCLY Safe SPF Benefits:

User-friendly, easily navigable UI.
Smooth, time-efficient configuration.
A large collection of learning resources and guidance for beginners.
Accurate SPF validation.
No manual intervention or updates needed.

5. Fraudmarc

Fraudmarc specializes in DMARC-based fraud prevention, with services that include SPF compression, universal SPF, and Outbox protection. Fraudmarc’s SPF Compression tool helps optimize your record for a potentially error-free authentication experience.

Key Fraudmarc Benefits:

Easy removal of vendors when/if necessary.
Doesn’t expose your authorized IPs for enhanced privacy.
A control panel for managing your SPF record.
Beginner-friendly setup.
Transparent pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What may cause SPF PermErrors?

Having too many DNS lookups, multiple SPF records, syntax errors, unresolvable, and circular includes may all result in SPF Permerrors.

Why is there an SPF 10 lookup limit?

When an SPF record includes mechanisms like exists, redirect, include, mx, a, or ptr, the DNS resolver must perform one or more DNS lookups in order to verify the sender. The IETF caps the number of DNS lookups at 10 to help stop malicious actors from overwhelming DNS servers with denial-of-service attacks.

What happens if SPF exceeds 10 lookups?

Exceeding the SPF hard limit causes SPF to break. You can experience SPF failures and unexpected deliverability issues for even legitimate emails.

Can I have several SPF records?

Never use more than one SPF record per domain. According to the official standard (RFC 7208), this results in a Permerror that breaks email authentication.

Can I still use traditional SPF flattening?

While you can still use traditional SPF flattening, there are more advanced solutions now available in the market. The problem with traditional SPF flattening is that it might cause challenges for those enterprises that have complex SPF mechanisms, needing constant manual updates. Automatic SPF flattening solutions or Macros work well in reducing effort and helping domain owners effectively optimize and be in control of their SPF.

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Final Words

Today, most domain owners prefer automatic SPF flattening over manual SPF flattening. The reason why this is the case isn’t just the likelihood of manual errors. The issue is that email service providers continuously add or change their IP addresses, and users are often not notified of these changes. This can result in SPF failures and email deliverability problems. Therefore, solutions like automatic SPF flattening and SPF Macros are a preferred option among business owners worldwide. Numerous providers in the market offer different traditional and advanced SPF flattening solutions, so that you can find what best suits your needs.