Email Testing, One Engine

Other Platforms Preview Messages. Ours Tests Mailboxes.

Run the MX lookup, the SMTP handshake, and the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks a real receiving server runs, on the same 9-point engine our paid API uses.

Free to try. No signup, no card.

Trusted by 500,000+ leading GTM teams of all sizes

From paste to verdict

How the email testing engine works

No signup, no card. Paste any address and the same nine-point engine our API uses runs MX, SMTP, and mailbox-exists checks, returning an accept-or-bounce verdict.

001INPUT

Paste the address

Drop any email into the pill — Gmail, Outlook, custom domains, or role aliases like info@ and sales@. Verify one address free right now, or upload a CSV to check a whole list once you sign up.

002ENGINE

Run the 9-check engine

Nine checks fire in parallel: syntax, DNS, and MX records, a live SMTP handshake, catch-all and disposable detection, role and domain-age signals, mailbox state, and email authentication. The full verdict then lands in about two seconds.

003VERIFY

Verdict in 2 seconds

Every address comes back valid, invalid, or risky, with the format, address type, server status, and mailbox status called out on the page. The API returns the same verdict with a 0-100 confidence score and the full per-check breakdown.

The plain-English version

What email testing platforms do, and miss

Two product families share the same name. Verifox owns the one that tests whether a message gets accepted at all.

Email testing platforms split into two families. The first tests the message: previews, spam scoring, seed sends. The second tests the plumbing: authentication records, live mail servers, and addresses that actually exist. Verifox is built around the second kind — nine checks in parallel on every test, including an SMTP handshake and catch-all AI scoring, with 99.99% accuracy on a 1,000-address benchmark — and covers the message side where it decides acceptance: spam-risk scoring and template linting, minus the screenshot farm.

The 9-point engine

Nine checks, one verdict

The same nine-check engine our paid email verification API runs. Every email, every verification, every time.

  1. 01

    Syntax

    Every address runs a full RFC 5321 and RFC 5322 compliance pass before a single network call goes out. The engine catches what visual scanning misses, the double dot in [email protected], the trailing period, the IDN homograph that looks valid but resolves to a different domain.

    Bundled typo suggestions let your form offer “did you mean [email protected]?” instead of rejecting silently.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Syntax tile is ringed in the nine-check result board, beside a card showing the parse of matthamnett @ avencera.ai against RFC 5321 and RFC 5322, verdict “Valid format”.
  2. 02

    Domain & MX

    Once syntax passes, the engine resolves the domain. We confirm the DNS records exist, fetch the MX record priority list in order, and verify at least one mail-exchange server is actively accepting connections right now.

    Misspelled domains like gmial.com, expired domains, and parked-for-sale domains all fail this gate before the engine wastes a single SMTP roundtrip.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the MX Record tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the real MX 0 record avencera-ai.mail.protection.outlook.com on Microsoft 365, verdict “MX record found”.
  3. 03

    SMTP handshake

    The engine opens a TCP connection on port 25, performs the EHLO handshake, then negotiates MAIL FROM and RCPT TO. Every server response code (220, 250, 550, 552) is parsed deterministically against the IANA enhanced-status registry.

    This is the moment a mailbox proves it actually exists. No third-party guesses, no statistical heuristics, just the receiving server's own answer.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the SMTP Connect tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the EHLO → MAIL FROM → RCPT TO exchange and the server’s 250 2.1.5 Recipient OK reply, verdict “Mailbox proven”.
  4. 04

    Catch-all detection

    Some domains accept every email regardless of whether the mailbox exists, a setup known as a catch-all configuration. The engine sends a deterministic probe to a deliberately fake address ([email protected]); if the server returns the same 250 OK it returned for the real address, the domain is catch-all.

    The verdict isn't dropped, it's flagged RISKY so you know the deliverability signal is degraded.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Catch-All tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card comparing the real address (250 OK) with a deliberately fake probe (550 rejected), verdict “Validates recipients”.
  5. 05

    Disposable

    The engine maintains a curated registry of 10,247 disposable email providers, including Mailinator, Guerrilla Mail, 10MinuteMail, Tempmail, and the long tail of regional clones.

    Any address matching the blocklist is flagged INVALID. Deliverability to a mailbox that exists for 10 minutes and is never checked is functionally zero, regardless of whether the SMTP handshake passes.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Disposable tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the 10,247-provider throwaway blocklist and no match for avencera.ai, verdict “Legitimate domain”.
  6. 06

    Role address

    info@, support@, no-reply@, admin@, billing@. These are shared inboxes, not individuals.

    The engine extracts the local-part of every address, matches it against the known role-prefix registry, and tags the result with a reduced engagement score.

    You don't drop them automatically. The verdict flags them as roles so you can decide.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Role Address tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card matching the local-part matthamnett against the info@ / support@ / no-reply@ / admin@ role registry with no match, verdict “Personal address”.
  7. 07

    Domain age

    Fresh-spam domains registered hours ago are the single biggest source of inbound abuse. The engine queries WHOIS and RDAP for every unique domain, extracts the registration date, and flags anything under 30 days old with a “fresh” warning.

    Domains aged 5+ years pick up a corresponding trust signal. The same heuristic spam filters have been using since the early 2000s, ported into the verdict.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Domain Age tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the WHOIS creation date 2025-07-10 against the 30-day fresh-spam threshold, verdict “1y old”.
  8. 08

    Email authentication

    SPF, DKIM, and DMARC together prove the sender is authorised to send from that domain.

    The engine reads each policy via DNS, validates SPF includes recursively, scans six common DKIM selectors, and confirms DMARC alignment with the From: header.

    A failing DMARC policy means the sender can be spoofed, so the verdict warns you before you reply.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the DMARC tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the real SPF include, DKIM selector1/selector2 and DMARC p=reject records, verdict “Aligned & enforcing”.
  9. 09

    Mailbox state

    Beyond “exists vs doesn't exist”, the engine extracts the precise mailbox state from the SMTP server's response. Full inbox (552 / 522 quota), disabled mailbox (550 5.1.1), out-of-office autoresponder, frozen account.

    Each state maps to a specific retry policy. Full inbox retries in 6 hours. Disabled drops permanently. The verdict tells you which bucket the bounce belongs in so your retry logic doesn't waste cycles.

    /dashboard/verify
    The Verifox dashboard verifying matthamnett@avencera.ai: the Inbox Exists tile is ringed in the result board, beside a card showing the live 250 2.1.5 active reply against the full-inbox and disabled states that drive retry policy, verdict “Inbox confirmed”.
What it tells you

What an MX lookup reveals about a domain

An MX lookup is a read-only window into how a domain receives email. In one query you learn who runs the mail, how it routes, and whether it can receive at all.

Verification engine
9

checks on every
address

The same DNS resolution the Verifox verification engine runs first on every address it checks.

Who runs the mail

The MX hosts name the provider — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Proofpoint, or a self-hosted server.

Routing and priority

Records return lowest-number-first, so you read the primary server and its fallbacks straight away.

A deliverability signal

No MX record, or a broken one, means mail bounces before it is ever sent.

The first deliverability step

An MX lookup starts the story; verifying the address confirms the mailbox itself is real.

Verify the mailbox itself

An MX lookup is only the first step. Verifying the address confirms the mailbox is real and deliverable.

Verify an address — free

Provider at a glance

The single most useful thing a mail exchanger lookup tells you — who to talk to about mail.

How we stack up

Verifox vs the
alternatives

Same nine-check pipeline, the highest published accuracy, credits that never expire, and an MCP server no competitor offers. Head-to-head with the two providers our buyers shortlist.

★ The complete platformVerifox
NeverBounce99.0%
ZeroBounce99.6%
NeverBounceYes
ZeroBounceNever
NeverBounce1,000 / monthly
ZeroBounce100 / monthly
NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
NeverBounceFlagged only
ZeroBounceAI scoring
NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
Pricing

Pay once, or not at all

Most tools reset your balance every month. Verifox sells credits that sit in your account until you spend them.

FreeProve it on your own list before you spend anything.$0

forever

1,000credits on signup

No card required

2,500 with a work email

Free includes

  • All 9 checks included
  • Full API and bulk CSV
  • Catch-all confidence scoring
  • No card required
Most popular
Credit packsBuy once, spend whenever. Slide to price your list.$59

one time

10,000credits

$0.0059 eachSAVE 34%

Everything in Free, plus

  • Credits never expire
  • Verify or find from one pool
  • Up to 79% off at volume
  • No contract, no minimum
Verifox ONECredits land monthly and stack on your balance.$79

per month

15,000credits a month

$0.0053 each

Unused credits roll over

Everything in packs, plus

  • Unused credits roll over
  • Our lowest per-email rate
  • 50 requests per second API
  • Cancel anytime

One credit verifies one address; a find costs 10. All prices in USD, checkout via Stripe.

What teams are saying

Built for the teams that ship outbound

Growth leads, marketers, and engineers running real campaigns on real lists, with a verified email on every byline.

Thomas George, GTM Lead at Stripe

90% lower bill, 0.4% bounces

We were paying ZeroBounce a four-figure monthly bill and still landing 3% bounces on cold campaigns. Switched the pipeline to Verifox, dropped to 0.4% bounces, and cut the bill by more than 90%.
Thomas G.GTM Lead, Stripe
Brittany King, GTM Lead at HubSpot

Catch-all finally has a verdict

Other tools flag 30% of our B2B list as 'risky catch-all' and leave the call to us. Verifox returns a real verdict on those addresses, with a confidence score. We send more, we send safer.
Brittany K.GTM Lead, HubSpot
Dale Micallef, GTM Lead at Slack

Reputation rebuilt in 6 weeks

We had a Gmail spam-folder problem after a bad list import. Verifox cleaned the list and the warmup ran on the same engine. Back in primary inbox in six weeks. One vendor, half the cost.
Dale M.GTM Lead, Slack
Erica Kovalkoski, GTM Lead at Discord

0.7% bounce on 50k

Ran a 50,000-address outbound list through Verifox before our quarterly campaign. Bounces landed at 0.7%, sender reputation didn't move, replies were up 22% over last quarter.
Erica K.GTM Lead, Discord
Greg Lindsay, GTM Lead at OpenAI

MCP in 10 minutes

Their MCP server let me wire email verification directly into our internal Claude agent in about ten minutes. Zero glue code. No other vendor in this space has thought about that workflow.
Greg L.GTM Lead, OpenAI
Rini Vasana, Product Manager at Vercel

10k/min held under 400ms

Tested Verifox at 10,000 verifications per minute on a Tuesday morning. Latency held under 400ms median, no soft failures, no rate-limit walls. The vendor we benched throttled at 2,000/min.
Rini V.Product Manager, Vercel
Jonathan Aharon, GTM Lead at MongoDB

Hygiene that doesn't break pipeline

Our SDRs were enriching from three tools and 14% of the emails were invalid before they hit the sequencer. Verifox sits in the pipeline now and the team stopped seeing 'undeliverable' replies the next week.
Jonathan A.GTM Lead, MongoDB
Emma Fox, GTM Lead at Linear

Bulk that actually ships

Bulk upload, sorted CSV back in twenty minutes, plug into our growth stack. The half-day list-hygiene project per cohort turned into something the marketing intern runs on autopilot.
Emma F.GTM Lead, Linear
David Hare, GTM Lead at Snowflake

Scores you can act on

Verifox returns a 0-100 confidence score per address, not just a label. We thresholded at 75 for the cold sequencer, 60 for nurture, and our deliverability team finally has a knob they can tune.
David H.GTM Lead, Snowflake
Trust & compliance

Enterprise-grade security and scale

Every layer of the stack carries a third-party attestation, so you can ship into regulated industries without rebuilding your compliance posture.

  • Claymation Japanese hanko seal in jade-green clay with a twisted shimenawa rope rim, the words SOC 2 TYPE II embossed in cream clay on its face.

    SOC 2 Type II

    Independently audited to the SOC 2 Type II standard.

  • Claymation Japanese hanko seal in cobalt-blue clay with a twisted shimenawa rope rim, the word GDPR embossed in cream clay on its face.

    GDPR

    Built for the EU with full GDPR data-subject rights.

  • Claymation Japanese hanko seal in rose-pink clay with a twisted shimenawa rope rim, the word CCPA embossed in cream clay on its face.

    CCPA

    California opt-out, do-not-sell, plus DSAR handling.

  • Claymation Japanese hanko seal in terracotta clay with a twisted shimenawa rope rim, the text ISO 27001 embossed in cream clay on its face.

    ISO 27001

    Information security held to the ISO 27001 standard.

  • Claymation Japanese hanko seal in lilac-purple clay with a twisted shimenawa rope rim, the text ISO 42001 embossed in cream clay on its face.

    ISO 42001

    AI governance aligned to the new ISO 42001 standard.

Free field manual

The Dead List

An investigation into the money leaking out of your list - and the nine checks that decide whether your email is read, or never arrives at all.

The Dead List field manual, held up by the Verifox fox
Get the free manual

57 pages, free PDF, no signup

Common questions

Email testing, answered

FAQs about email testing platforms: what this checks beyond preview tools, why catch-alls are hard to read, and how to pick the right approach.

What is an email testing platform?

An email testing platform checks a message and the infrastructure behind it before a real send, so problems show up in a dashboard instead of a bounce report. The category covers rendering previews, spam-content scoring, authentication checks (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), SMTP and MX diagnostics, and recipient-address verification.

Verifox covers the infrastructure and recipient side: it proves whether mail will be accepted at all. The checker tools here run the same 9-point verification engine as the paid API, backed by dedicated blacklist, spam-risk, and template-linting tools.

What is the difference between email testing and email verification?

Email testing examines your side of the send: templates, links, authentication records, reputation. Email verification examines the recipient side: whether each address on your list exists and will accept mail.

The two fail independently. A perfectly authenticated domain still bounces off dead mailboxes, and a clean list still lands in spam if DKIM is broken. Verifox puts both layers on one account: the free email checker for addresses, the DKIM tester and its siblings for your sending setup.

Which checks should an email testing platform run?

At minimum, the nine that decide whether a message gets accepted: syntax and format validation (RFC 5321/5322), domain existence and MX records, a live SMTP handshake with a mailbox-exists ping, disposable-domain match, role-address detection, catch-all detection with AI-confidence scoring, domain age, and SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication.

Verifox runs all nine in parallel on every address test. The full breakdown lives on the email verification service page.

Do I need a paid platform to test SPF, DKIM, and DMARC?

No. Authentication records are public DNS data, and reading them should not cost anything. Verifox ships a free DKIM tester and a combined SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checker that read your records and flag the gaps in plain English.

Where paid platforms earn their keep is volume: testing thousands of addresses before a campaign, or wiring checks into a signup form via the API. The record-reading stays free.

Does Verifox preview how my email renders in Gmail or Outlook?

No. Rendering previews need a farm of real mail clients taking screenshots, and that is a different product. Verifox tests the layer previews cannot see: whether the receiving server accepts your mail at all.

We do cover the markup side of the problem: the email template checker lints your HTML for the mistakes that break rendering and trip spam filters, and the acceptance checks catch what a pixel-perfect preview never will, like a dead mailbox or a broken DKIM key.

Can an email testing platform tell me if I will land in spam?

Only partly, and any platform claiming certainty is overselling. Inbox placement depends on your content, your sending history, and each provider’s filters. What a platform can prove is the acceptance layer: valid authentication, a live mailbox, a clean sending domain.

Get those right and placement problems become content problems you can iterate on. Start with the spam check for address risk and the blacklist check for sender reputation.

How much does an email testing platform cost?

Verifox is free to start. You get 4 checks per day on this page without an account, then 1,000 free credits on signup, or 2,500 if you sign up with a work address. No card required.

Past that, credits are pay-as-you-go and never expire, with volume pricing shown for your region on the pricing page. No seat fees, no lock-in.

Can I test a whole email list before a campaign?

Yes, and you should: mailbox providers throttle senders once hard bounces climb, so testing the list is the cheapest insurance a campaign can buy. Bulk runs process roughly 10,000 emails per minute on the standard tier, with CSV upload included from the free tier up.

Paste a handful into the multiple email checker to try it, then upload the full file once you have claimed your free credits.

Can I wire email testing into my own app or AI agent?

Yes. The REST API returns a verdict in around 380 ms median, sub-50 ms cached, so real-time testing inside signup forms and CRMs is practical. HubSpot, Salesforce, and Mailchimp connect out of the box.

For AI agents, Verifox ships a native MCP server: drop the URL into a Claude or Cursor config and the testing tools are wired without glue code. Uptime history is public at status.verifox.ai.

How accurate is Verifox compared with other email testing platforms?

99.99% accuracy on a 1,000-address benchmark list, self-measured, including catch-all domains. Catch-alls are the honest differentiator: 20 to 40% of B2B lists sit behind domains that accept everything during a basic SMTP probe, and most platforms skip them or mark them unknown.

Verifox runs an AI-confidence pass on every catch-all instead of giving up. The free tier runs the identical engine the paid verification API runs, capped only on volume.