
The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a crucial email authentication protocol that helps protect your domain from spoofing and phishing attacks. However, SPF has a significant limitation known as the “lookup limit,” which can impact your email deliverability and business operations if not managed properly.
What is the SPF Lookup Limit?
SPF works by checking your domain’s DNS records to verify if a server is authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. Each time an email is sent, the receiving server performs a series of DNS lookups to validate the SPF record. The SPF specification limits these lookups to a maximum of 10 per email. Exceeding this limit can cause the SPF check to fail, leading to emails being marked as spam or rejected entirely.
How Does Exceeding the SPF Lookup Limit Affect Your Business?
Businesses often use multiple third-party services to send emails. These can include:
- Marketing platforms (e.g., Mailchimp, HubSpot)
- Transactional email providers (e.g., SendGrid, Mailgun)
- CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce)
- Customer support tools (e.g., Zendesk)
Each of these services typically requires you to add an include mechanism to your SPF record. An include mechanism points to the service’s own SPF record, which may have its own set of includes. This can quickly cause a chain of lookups, and before you know it, you’ve exceeded the limit.
The consequences of hitting the SPF lookup limit can be severe and far-reaching for your business. The most immediate impact is on your email deliverability. When an email fails the SPF check with a PermError, receiving mail servers may:
- Mark the email as spam.
- Quarantine the message.
- Reject the email outright.
This means your legitimate emails, marketing campaigns, and customer notifications might not reach their intended recipients. This can negatively affect your sender reputation, customer trust, and overall business communication.
RELATED ARTICLE: How DMARC affects email sender reputation
How do you know if your SPF Lookup Count is over the limit?
The easiest way to see your SPF lookup count is to use our free SPF Checker Tool. This tool will show you everything related to your SPF, including email sender count, SPF status, and even DMARC and BIMI statuses.
To sum it up…
When your SPF record exceeds the 10-lookup limit, it can have several negative consequences for your business:
- Email Deliverability Issues: Emails may not reach their intended recipients, affecting communication with clients and partners.
- Brand Reputation Damage: Emails marked as spam can harm your brand’s reputation and reduce trust among customers.
- Increased Security Risks: Without proper SPF validation, your domain is more vulnerable to spoofing attacks, potentially leading to data breaches and financial losses.
For more insights on interpreting SPF reports and improving email deliverability, you can refer to our User-Friendly Guide on SPF Checker Tool Reports.
Our solution: OnDMARC
OnDMARC offers a dynamic SPF management feature that helps streamline the management of SPF records and overcome the 10-lookup limit. This feature allows you to:
- Simplify DNS Management: Manage SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records from a single interface, reducing errors and complexity.
- Enhance Email Deliverability: Ensure that legitimate emails are authenticated and reach inboxes, improving sender reputation.
- Automate Threat Detection: Quickly identify unauthorized sending sources before they become major incidents.
For businesses looking to enhance their email security and overcome SPF limitations, OnDMARC provides a comprehensive solution that integrates seamlessly with existing email systems.
Need Help With Your SPF Setup?
Learn more about 101domain’s Managed DMARC Services and let us do the heavy lifting for you. We handle policy setup, monitoring, and reporting so you can rest easy knowing your emails are secure.
