Comparison · United Kingdom

A UK Alternative to Red Sift OnDMARC for MSPs

Both products read the same aggregate reports, so the useful question is not which is better. The difference that decides the deal is shape, and the clearest expression of it is the pricing unit.

OnDMARC’s published G-Cloud band is per user. DMARC AI is per domain, from £1 per domain per month. Below: what is publicly verifiable about Red Sift, where OnDMARC is the stronger choice, and where a portfolio-first platform fits better.

Start with the facts

Red Sift is a substantive, long-established UK vendor.

There is a version of this page that implies the incumbent is expensive, foreign-owned and vague about where your data sits. It would not survive ten minutes on Companies House. So, plainly: Red Sift is UK-headquartered, has traded for over a decade, and OnDMARC has certifications declared to government procurement.

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The company

REDSIFT LIMITED, company number 09240956, incorporated 30 September 2014, registered office in Altrincham, Cheshire. Active, and filing consolidated group accounts, most recently made up to 31 December 2024. All of it on the public register: Companies House.

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The G-Cloud 14 listing

OnDMARC sits under Lot 2 (Cloud software), service ID 413568636785516. The listing states “UK-headquartered and UK data residency”, publishes a band of £0.58 to £140 a user with a free trial, and declares data locations of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. Read it here.

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Certifications, as declared

The same listing declares ISO/IEC 27001, accredited by A-Lign, accreditation date 09/04/2024, scope stated as covering all services since first certification in 2017; Cyber Essentials, yes; Cyber Essentials Plus, no; and SOC 2 Type 2.

Those are supplier declarations made inside the framework. We did not check them against a certification body’s register, so we call them declared rather than verified — a limit on our checking, not a doubt.

What Red Sift describes

Cloud-based configuration, automation and management for DMARC, DKIM, SPF, MTA-STS and BIMI; API access; dynamic SPF automation for the SPF 10-lookup limit; hosted MTA-STS; BIMI with VMC support; typical implementation within six weeks; Essentials and Enterprise support tiers with a named customer success manager.

One thing to state precisely: the listing we reviewed did not explicitly detail multi-tenant or MSP-specific capability. That is a note about the listing, not a claim about the product. If it matters to your portfolio, ask Red Sift directly.

The actual difference

Per user or per domain: same service, different meter.

For an organisation buying for itself, the pricing unit is arithmetic. For a provider buying on behalf of a book of clients, it changes which clients are worth taking on.

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Per user

The meter runs on headcount. The published G-Cloud band is £0.58 to £140 a user — a band, not a quote, so what an MSP would actually pay is a conversation with the vendor. Wherever you land in it, the bill moves with how many people your client employs.

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Per domain

The meter runs on domains under management — the unit the protocol works on, since a record is published, evaluated and reported per domain. DMARC AI starts at £1 per domain per month and falls with volume, so cost of goods is known when you quote.

calculate Three clients, and what each costs to operate
Client A — 400 mailboxes, 1 domain One record, one sender inventory, one monthly report.
Client B — 12 mailboxes, 1 domain Identical work to Client A.
Client C — 20 mailboxes, 5 domains One active domain and four legacy brand domains. Smallest headcount, largest estate.

swap_vert The ordering inverts

Per domain, A and B cost the same because they are the same work, and C costs five units because it is five times the work. Per seat, A dominates the bill while C — the client with the largest spoofable surface — looks cheap.

insights Model your own book both ways

Neither model is dishonest; they measure different things. The crossover depends on your client mix, so count domains and mailboxes across the whole list first. Legacy estates are reliably larger than anyone expects.

Side by side

A comparison by category, not by star rating.

No scores and no ticks-versus-crosses: a scored grid on a vendor’s own website only tells you what the vendor wants. Every cell is a sourced fact, a labelled vendor claim, or an admission that we do not know.

Company and UK presence
Red Sift OnDMARC
REDSIFT LIMITED, company 09240956, incorporated 30 September 2014, registered office Altrincham, Cheshire. Active; files consolidated group accounts, most recent to 31 December 2024. (Companies House)
DMARC AI
Confirm on request.
Published pricing unit
Red Sift OnDMARC
Per user. Band of £0.58 to £140 a user. (Declared in its G-Cloud listing)
DMARC AI
Per domain. From £1 per domain per month, volume-based: the per-domain price falls as you add domains.
Free entry route
Red Sift OnDMARC
Free trial available. (Declared in its G-Cloud listing)
DMARC AI
Free trial. No free tier.
Government procurement framework
Red Sift OnDMARC
G-Cloud 14, Lot 2 (Cloud software), service ID 413568636785516.
DMARC AI
Confirm on request.
Data storage and processing locations
Red Sift OnDMARC
United Kingdom and European Economic Area; listing states "UK-headquartered and UK data residency". (Declared in its G-Cloud listing)
DMARC AI
Not published here. Set out on request.
Certifications
Red Sift OnDMARC
ISO/IEC 27001 (A-Lign, accreditation date 09/04/2024, scope covering all services since first certification in 2017); Cyber Essentials, yes; Cyber Essentials Plus, no; SOC 2 Type 2. Supplier-declared in its G-Cloud listing; not checked by us against a certification body register.
DMARC AI
Not published here. Set out on request.
Protocol coverage described
Red Sift OnDMARC
Red Sift describes DMARC, DKIM, SPF, MTA-STS and BIMI configuration, automation and management, plus hosted MTA-STS and BIMI with VMC support.
DMARC AI
Aggregate report ingestion, sender discovery and analysis, with alignment failures explained in terms of the fix. Free checkers alongside, including an MTA-STS check. BIMI and VMC issuance: confirm on request.
SPF 10-lookup limit
Red Sift OnDMARC
Red Sift describes dynamic SPF automation to work around the limit.
DMARC AI
The free SPF analyzer walks the include chain and counts lookups. Record-level flattening: confirm on request.
API access
Red Sift OnDMARC
Red Sift describes API access.
DMARC AI
Confirm on request.
Multi-tenant and portfolio management
Red Sift OnDMARC
Not stated in the G-Cloud listing we reviewed. Ask Red Sift directly.
DMARC AI
The portfolio is the primary object: every client domain in one view, per-tenant separation, white-label reporting.
Implementation timeline described
Red Sift OnDMARC
Red Sift describes typical implementation as within six weeks.
DMARC AI
Reports typically arrive 24 to 48 hours after a record is published. Time to enforcement depends on the sender inventory.
Support model described
Red Sift OnDMARC
Red Sift describes Essentials and Enterprise tiers, with a named customer success manager.
DMARC AI
Confirm on request.

“Confirm on request” means exactly that: we have not published a position and will not invent one to fill a cell. Ask us in writing, ask Red Sift the same question in writing, then compare the answers rather than the websites.

When to choose OnDMARC

Three situations where we would tell you to buy theirs.

These are not softeners. They are the cases where we lose on the merits, and it is cheaper for both of us if you find that out here rather than in week three.

01

You are the organisation, not the provider

Buying for one estate — your own domains, your own senders, your own board report — makes the portfolio machinery that is most of our difference worth nothing to you. Sizing a tool against your own staff count is a normal way to buy.

02

You need the procurement answers today

If your process needs certifications and a data residency position already stated in a procurement listing, Red Sift has declared ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, Cyber Essentials and UK data residency in its G-Cloud 14 listing. We have not published an equivalent position; ours is set out on request. If that gap decides your process, it should decide it.

03

You want MTA-STS, BIMI and VMC in one product

Red Sift describes hosted MTA-STS, BIMI with VMC support and dynamic SPF automation inside OnDMARC. If you need one console covering the whole adjacent protocol set — often the case where a brand team owns the BIMI logo — that is a good reason to choose it.

When to choose DMARC AI

Four situations where the portfolio shape wins.

All four describe the same buyer: a provider whose unit of work is the client domain, and whose brand has to be the one in front of the client.

dashboard

The portfolio is the object you manage

Sixty clients and a couple of hundred domains in one view, with per-tenant separation so a colleague can be handed one client without seeing the rest of the book. The UK MSP platform page has the tenant model.

groups

Small in headcount, plural in domains

A client with 400 mailboxes on one domain costs the same to monitor as one with 12. If your book is full of small professional firms carrying legacy brand domains, per-domain pricing prices the work rather than the payroll.

payments

You have to quote on the first call

Transparent MSP pricing from just £1 per domain per month, with volume-based pricing where the per-domain price falls as you add domains. There is no free tier — a free trial only. Detail on the UK pricing page.

verified

The report has to carry your logo

Branded PDF exports and a white-label client portal, so the artefact in front of a finance director carries your brand. Would rather someone else read the reports? See managed DMARC.

How to evaluate both

Run both on the same real domain, then compare the reports.

Both offer a free trial, so you never have to take either vendor’s word for anything. Our vendor-neutral selection guide covers the wider criteria.

Step 1

Pick a real domain, and a messy one

Not a test domain, and not your cleanest client. Choose one where a marketing platform, a payroll provider and a booking system all send on its behalf. Clean domains make every product look identical.

Step 2

Send the same reports to both

A record can carry more than one address in its rua= tag, so both platforms ingest the same reports over the same window. Reporting to another domain needs an authorisation record on the receiving side.

Step 3

Give it a full reporting cycle

Reports usually start arriving within 24 to 48 hours, but a monthly biller or a quarterly mailing takes two to four weeks to surface. Judging on week one rewards whichever dashboard loads faster.

Step 4

Compare on three questions

Which senders did each find that the other missed? How fast could you tell whether the domain is safe to move from p=none to p=quarantine? Would you forward the client report unedited? The third has money attached.

Step 5

Ask both the same questions in writing

Where data is processed, who the sub-processors are, how long history is retained, what counts as a domain, and how you export it on the way out. Ask us too. Those terms matter more at renewal than any feature grid.

Step 6

Price the whole book, not the pilot

Take the real client list, count domains and mailboxes, and run both models across all of it. One pilot client tells you little: the models only diverge once the whole mix is in view.

One thing not to compare on: enforcement speed. DMARCbis (RFC 9989) removed the pct= tag, so each step from p=none to quarantine to reject is all-or-nothing, and the pace is set by the sender inventory rather than the platform. More in UK DMARC monitoring.

fact_check

Verification note — 25 August 2026

Details about Red Sift and OnDMARC were taken from the UK Companies House register and the G-Cloud 14 listing as at 25 August 2026, plus Red Sift’s own product description, labelled as such throughout.

Certifications recorded in a G-Cloud listing are supplier declarations, not checked by us against a certification body’s register. Prices, certifications and capability all change, and a listing is a snapshot of its publication date. Verify current details with Red Sift directly, and tell us if anything here is out of date.

Common questions

Questions UK MSPs ask us.

Is DMARC AI a like-for-like replacement for Red Sift OnDMARC? add

No, and it would be a poor comparison to frame it that way. Both platforms ingest DMARC aggregate reports and help you reach enforcement, so the core job overlaps. The products are shaped for different buyers.

OnDMARC is priced per user in its published G-Cloud band, and Red Sift describes it as covering DMARC, DKIM, SPF, MTA-STS and BIMI configuration in one console. DMARC AI is priced per domain and treats a client portfolio as the primary object rather than a single organisation's estate.

If you are buying for one organisation, the per-user shape is normal and OnDMARC is a mature option. If you are a provider billing across a book of client domains, the per-domain shape maps to the work you actually do.

How does per-user pricing compare with per-domain pricing across an MSP portfolio? add

They meter different things, so the answer depends entirely on your client mix rather than on which number looks smaller.

OnDMARC's published G-Cloud band is £0.58 to £140 a user, which is a band rather than a quote. DMARC AI starts at £1 per domain per month with volume-based pricing, so the per-domain price falls as you add domains.

The practical consequence for a provider: under per-domain pricing a client with 400 mailboxes on one domain costs the same to monitor as one with 12, because the work is the same — one record, one sender inventory, one report. Under per-seat pricing the headcount drives the bill, which can make a small, high-risk client look cheap and a large, simple one look expensive. Count domains and mailboxes across your whole list and model both before deciding.

Is Red Sift a UK company? add

Yes, and this is independently checkable rather than something you need to take from either vendor. REDSIFT LIMITED is company number 09240956 on the UK Companies House register, incorporated on 30 September 2014, with a registered office in Altrincham, Cheshire. The company is active and files consolidated group accounts, the most recent made up to 31 December 2024.

Its G-Cloud 14 listing for OnDMARC also states "UK-headquartered and UK data residency", and declares data storage and processing locations of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area.

We say this plainly because a comparison page that implies otherwise falls apart the moment a buyer spends ten minutes on the public register.

Does OnDMARC support multi-tenant management for MSPs? add

We do not know, and we are not going to guess. The G-Cloud 14 listing we reviewed did not explicitly detail multi-tenant or MSP-specific capability.

That is a statement about the listing, not about the product. A procurement listing is a structured form with limited space, and the absence of a claim in one record is not evidence that a capability is missing. If multi-tenancy is a decision criterion for you — and for an MSP it usually is — ask Red Sift directly and get the answer in writing.

What certifications does Red Sift declare, and are they verified? add

Its G-Cloud 14 listing declares ISO/IEC 27001, accredited by A-Lign with an accreditation date of 09/04/2024 and a scope stated as covering all services since first certification in 2017; Cyber Essentials, yes; Cyber Essentials Plus, no; and SOC 2 Type 2.

Those entries are supplier declarations made within the procurement framework. We did not confirm them against a certification body's register, so we describe them as declared in the listing rather than independently verified. That caveat describes the limits of our own checking and is not a doubt about Red Sift — if the certifications matter to your process, ask for the current certificates directly, which is what a procurement team would do anyway.

Can we run both platforms on the same domain during a trial? add

Yes, and it is the only comparison worth making. Both listings offer a free trial, and a DMARC record can carry more than one address in its rua= tag, so the same aggregate reports can flow to both platforms over the same window. Where the reporting address sits on a different domain, an authorisation record is needed on the receiving side; both vendors will tell you what to publish.

Pick a real client domain rather than a test one, and pick a messy one — somewhere a marketing platform, a payroll provider and a booking system all send on the domain's behalf. Give it two to four weeks, because a monthly biller or a quarterly mailing will not appear in week one.

Then compare on evidence: which senders did each find that the other missed, how quickly could you answer whether the domain is safe to move from p=none to p=quarantine, and would you forward the client report to the client unedited.

Test both on the same client domain.

Start a free trial, point one real client domain at DMARC AI alongside whatever else you are evaluating, and compare the sender inventories after a full reporting cycle. Transparent MSP pricing from just £1 per domain per month, with volume-based pricing where the per-domain price falls as you add domains.