methodology / Email & Communications / #81

Transactional email provider detected (from SPF includes)

live factor #81 · Email & Communications · scoring impl: implemented · weight 0.3%

What we measure

Many sites send transactional email (password resets, order confirmations) through a separate provider. We detect SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, AWS SES, Brevo, etc. from your SPF record. None detected usually means you're sending from your primary mailbox — which is fine for low volume but doesn't scale.

How to improve your score

For any site sending more than a few hundred transactional emails/month, set up Postmark, Resend, or AWS SES. Add their SPF include to your record.

Data source

Data source for this factor is not yet documented.

Implementation notes

Parse `spf_raw` for known sender includes.

Scoring

Scoring formulas are versioned with the methodology. The current method (v1.1.0) maps raw measurements to pass, warn, fail. Factor weights determine how much each contributes to the composite — see the methodology index for the full table.

Version history

← back to methodology