7 Best Tools To Test Email Deliverability

Ensure your emails reach your audience and stay out of the spam folder with these top 7 email deliverability tools.

Before we delve into the details of an email deliverability test, let’s get the definitions between email “deliverability” and “delivery” out of the way, as it confuses some people.

Email deliverability refers to inbox placement or the process of getting emails into your recipients’ inboxes or any other destination folder, like spam, promotions, etc. On the other hand, email delivery refers to emails successfully reaching the recipient’s inbox.

Email deliverability is the ultimate goal for every email marketer and can make or break the success of your marketing plan. You may have the best marketing teams with a flawless email list, but if your email deliverability needs to be fixed, you won’t be able to reach your entire audience.

The key to getting your emails read is to get them into your recipient’s primary inbox (email delivery), not their promotions tabs or other folders. However, it is still better than your emails ending up in their spam folders.

If your email gets delivered but is in a spam folder, it is a deliverability issue. After all, how many of us check our spam folders for emails? Usually, we don’t unless we’ve been told to or an important email has slipped in there.

So, you can see how crucial it is to ensure your emails land in the primary inbox to reach your audience effectively.

But how can you improve your email deliverability?

Various factors influence email deliverability, and here are some of the most significant ones:

Sender reputation
The quality of the content in your email
Email Authentication
List quality and hygiene

Marketers should keep an eye on these metrics to improve email deliverability. This article will explore seven email deliverability test tools your organization can use and discuss tips on how to improve email deliverability.

Send Forensics

SendForensics is renowned for its comprehensive reports on email deliverability powered by AI. This email deliverability tester optimizes and analyzes your email deliverability and comprehensively analyzes your email campaigns. SendForensics empowers brands and agencies to increase inbox placement and maximize email ROI.

This tool provides a detailed analysis of your email deliverability performance and suggests areas for improvement by comparing results with thousands of other companies using Send Forensics. The analysis also covers suggestions for content optimization and previews emails from popular email clients.

Other features include:

Identify potentially spammy words, phrases, and code and find content that may trigger spam filters and users to unsubscribe
Identify non-compliant cookies that can cause compliance or deliverability problems
Perform comprehensive scans to detect any instances of blacklisted activity by examining each link’s domain and IP address, including redirected websites
Ensure optimal email delivery by testing across various inboxes and devices
Access to client preview and inbox placement tests
Send your message to Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, and track its delivery to the Primary, Promotions, or spam folders

One drawback of Send Forensics is its cost, which can be high, starting from $49 per month for two users. So, small businesses could find it challenging to afford the tool.

GlockApps

If you’re looking for a one-stop solution for all your email deliverability needs — GlockApps has you covered.

GlockApps offers a comprehensive email deliverability test feature that focuses on spam tests and delivers real-time reports indicating whether your email successfully reached the subscriber’s inbox, landed in spam, or failed to be delivered.

This email spam checker offers four solutions: Inbox Insight, uptime monitor, DMARC Analytics, and email consulting. These solutions address various aspects of email deliverability, offering valuable insights and tools to enhance your email campaigns.

Other features:

Identify and fix potentially “risky” content in your email templates. Glockapps scans your templates for potential issues that may trigger spam filters or affect deliverability.
Automatic inbox testing monitors your email deliverability, allowing you to promptly rectify any issues and enhance your email placement in recipients’ inboxes.
The tool notifies users via email, Telegram, or Slack if there are any problems with email deliverability.

Glockapps offers a limited free account, allowing users to run three email spam tests. To access its full functionality, you need to opt for paid plans. Subscription plans begin at $59 per month.

Mailtrap

Mailtrap’s email preview feature analyzes your HTML and CSS to identify and list any issues it detects. In addition to the preview and spam testing capabilities, it simulates sending mail on a dummy server, eliminating the risk of accidentally sending test emails to subscribers.

Other key features include:

Creating multiple dummy inboxes to test different scenarios and ensure successful email deliverability.
Mailtrap allows users to analyze email content for spam scores and check if their email server is blacklisted.

MailTrap offers flexible pricing plans. For $9.99 per month, one user can use up to 5 inboxes. MailTrap also provides a free version with a single inbox and up to 500 monthly email tests.

SenderScore

Senderscore.org provides valuable insights to track and improve email deliverability rates. This email deliverability tester helps you identify areas for enhancement and take appropriate measures to boost your email deliverability. In addition, SenderScore provides insights into the popular mailbox providers (MBPs) within your email list to enhance your outreach strategy.

Other features include:

Check the reputation of the sender for free
Obtain a reputation score that reflects the sending reputation of an IP address or domain
Gain insights into how email recipients perceive the sender’s reputation

The best thing about this tool is that it is free but lacks features other email deliverability test tools provide, such as spam testing.

Litmus

Litmus is another email deliverability tester highly sought-after by large organizations and small businesses.

We all understand how marketers hate to see people unsubscribe from their emails. Your emails should appear visually appealing and relevant to prevent people from clicking the unsubscribe button, as excessive unsubscribes can negatively impact deliverability.

Litmus helps companies optimize their email content and ensure a consistent appearance across all email clients. Litmus offers comprehensive email preview capabilities, allowing you to see how your emails will appear across 100+ email clients, including Gmail and Outlook.

With Litmus Spam Testing, you can also assess your emails for potential spam filtering issues and receive timely notifications if your email is blacklisted or your DMARC record is improperly configured.

Other features include:

Automated testing system to detect broken links, formatting issues, loading speed, and other errors
Pre-sending emails for spam testing
Integration with 20+ apps

Litmus offers a seven-day free trial for all users. The Basic plan provides 1,000 email previews per month for one user, and the Plus plan offers 2,000 email previews per month for up to five users. The Enterprise plan is available at a custom price.

NeverBounce

Inaccurate or purchased email lists can have a detrimental effect on your email deliverability. NeverBounce is an email verification tool that helps protect your sender’s reputation and optimizes inbox deliverability. It verifies and cleans your email list, ensuring that all emails are deliverable and accurate.

Other features include:

Effortlessly clean your small or large email lists of invalid, incorrect, and potentially suspicious email addresses.
NeverBounce automatically removes duplicate email addresses from your list
Enables seamless integration with other systems through API integration
Provides real-time email verification
Integration with over 80 apps

NeverBounce offers pay-as-you-go and monthly plans. For example, if you need to validate 2,000 emails, you can pay $49 per month or $10 on a pay-as-you-go basis.

MX Toolbox

Troubleshooting issues with email servers can hinder email deliverability. MX Toolbox is specialized email deliverability software with various diagnostic tools that assist you in resolving email server issues and ensuring the successful delivery of emails. You can address most of your deliverability concerns by implementing effective authentication protocols.

MX ToolBox enhances your email deliverability by implementing DMARC, DKIM, SPF, and real-time monitoring. In addition, MX ToolBox also optimizes your email delivery, ensuring your emails reach their intended recipients.

Through a thorough analysis of your domain, this tool provides in-depth information on sender identification, sender score, and overall DNS performance.

Other features include:

Gain valuable insights into the origins of emails sent from your domain.
Identify and address potential issues promptly to maintain a strong sender identity.
Stay informed about the reputation of your senders’ IPs.
Get a comprehensive overview of the performance of your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.

With the free plan, you get one monitor and weekly blacklist monitoring. The Delivery Center plan is available for $129 per month, offering 64 monitors. Alternatively, at $399 per month, the Delivery Center Plus provides 256 monitors.

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Quick tips for improving your email deliverability

There are several steps you can take to ensure your emails have the best chance of reaching their intended recipients:

Make sure you have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly set up

A business should have the correct email authentication, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These records help the email receiver ensure your emails are genuine and from a trusted source. This is the most critical step to provide a solid foundation for your email deliverability.

If you need to learn what SPF, DKIM, and DMARC mean, here is a brief explanation.

SPF stands for ‘Sender Policy Framework’ and it’s an email authentication protocol that plays a vital role in preventing phishing attacks. It verifies the legitimacy of the sender’s identity by checking if they’re authorized to send emails on behalf of the domain name.
DKIM stands for ‘DomainKeys Identified Mail’ and is an email authentication protocol used to verify the authenticity of the sender’s domain. It achieves this by adding a digital signature to the emails linked to a domain name.
DMARC stands for ‘Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance’, ensuring that emails from your domain are authorized.

If you’ve got a WordPress website, ensure that DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are configured on your domain before sending emails. Email deliverability test tools like MX Toolbox can help ensure these email authentication protocols are correctly set up.

In addition, with MX Toolbox, you’ll receive immediate alerts if any of your DNS records are missing or broken so that you can address any issues that may arise.

Maintain a healthy email list

Keeping an updated and accurate email list of your subscribers and customers is essential. Inactive and unengaged users on your email list can impact your reputation and deliverability rates.

Therefore, make sure there are no inactive contacts or those who have unsubscribed from your emails or newsletters on your list. This will prevent bounced emails, duplicate messages, spam complaints, and other issues that might hurt your deliverability rate.

Regularly scrubbing your email list is crucial for maintaining a healthy and engaged audience. By providing a simple way to unsubscribe, you ensure that your list only includes users actively engaging with your emails. For more tips on email list hygiene, check out this post on email scrubbing.

NeverBounce is an excellent email verification tool that promotes email deliverability by meticulously verifying and cleaning your email list. It removes invalid, incorrect, and potentially suspicious email addresses from your list.

Consider using double opt-in for your lists

To comply with best email practices, including GDPR, you should only send emails to opted-in email lists. Ensure your email addresses are from individuals who have explicitly consented. Sending emails to non-opt-in emails will likely result in low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and spam complaints.

Double opt-ins ensure the consent of your subscribers. It is a process where, after a new subscriber signs up on your website, they receive an email with a confirmation link. They are only added to your email list after the subscriber clicks this confirmation link. However, double opt-in does have its drawbacks, such as it can potentially limit the growth of your email list.

To learn more about on maintaining a clean email list, check out our blog, Double Opt-in GDPR: Is It Compulsory?

Deliver engaging and relevant content

Content is king when it comes to email deliverability. Emails that resonate with your readers will help you maximize open, click-through, and engagement rates. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the quality of your content. Remember your choice of words, images, and overall text when creating emails. Make sure your emails include legitimate links.

Organizations can implement two effective strategies to enhance email deliverability and increase open rates, such as segmenting email lists based on interests and personalizing email content.

Improve the relevancy and deliverability of your emails with Simplelists

Email deliverability test tools are crucial for any email marketing campaign’s success. If you are looking for an effective solution to manage, segment, and deliver your emails—Simplelists is the perfect tool for you.

Simplelists enables users to create highly targeted email lists with automated list-building and segmentation campaigns. Additionally, Simplelists supports email authentication protocols, making it simple to integrate DKIM and SPF for enhanced deliverability.

So why wait?

Get started with Simplelists now and take advantage of all our exceptional features.