Verified Senders: Sender Domain vs Single Sender Emails

To be allowed to send through your account you must send from a verified sender. We offer two verification options to achieve this which include verifying your Sending domain or a Single sender email address on the 'Sending > Verified Senders' page of your dashboard.

The details below cover the differences between the options:

Sender Domain - highly recommended, generally required

Verifying the sender domain ensures you get optimal delivery rates as your domain will align for SPF and DKIM. Without this, you may encounter emails going to junk/spam folders, bounces or emails being quarantined due to recipient servers checking for SPF and DKIM alignment. As filtering becomes more strict to protect against spoofing/phishing, this is the best option so your emails have the highest chance of landing in the recipient's inbox.

Verifying the domain also provides the advantage of being able to send from any valid email address at the domain.

This option involves adding the domain to the 'Sending > Verified Senders > Sender domains' section where you're provided three CNAME records to add to the domain's DNS settings. The three records are for SPF, DKIM and tracking (opens, clicks & unsubscribes). Further details can be found on the Verified Senders page.

Note: You do not need to update your domain's existing SPF record.

If you are unsure in regard to adding the CNAME records, we have setup guides for common providers or we recommend speaking to your DNS provider's support team and asking them to make the additions for you.

If the CNAME records have been added to your domain's DNS settings but the domain is not showing as verified, please contact our support team who can investigate further to ensure the records have been added correctly. In this case, please include a screenshot of the CNAME records added to your domain's DNS settings. If the CNAME records are swapping between verified (green tick) and unverified (red cross), this can mean the updates are still propagating and you will need to wait a bit more time.

Note: Subdomains are allowed to send if the top-level domain is verified.

Single Sender Email

We only recommend this option if you cannot verify the domain of the email address you need to send from.

Verifying a Single sender email allows for a quick setup but the main disadvantage is that the domain will not align with SPF and DKIM. In some cases, without this alignment, this can result in emails being bounced or quarantined or sent silently to spam folders.

This option involves adding an email address to the 'Sending > Verified Senders > Single sender emails' section and we then send an email to the email address that contains a verification link. Once clicked, the email address will be verified and be allowed to send via the account.

If the domain of the email address has DMARC set up, you will not be able to verify the address as a Single sender email. In this situation, you will need to verify the domain as a sender domain as this will ensure SPF and DKIM alignment which will satisfy DMARC.

Note: The free plan allows a maximum of 5 verified senders (domains and single sender emails combined) vs paid plans which do not have a limit.