Research & Benchmarks

ToolTrusted runs original, independent research on the real state of email. We measure live data across large populations of domains — no vendor surveys, no marketing spin — and publish every dataset free to read, cite and build on. This is where our current and future studies, benchmarks and datasets live.

Current studies & benchmarks

Benchmark · 10,000 domains

The State of Email Authentication 2026

A live-DNS measurement of the top 10,000 domains: who publishes SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT and BIMI — and, crucially, who actually enforces DMARC versus leaving it at monitoring only.

84.5%publish SPF
76.6%publish DMARC
54%enforce DMARC
Read the study →
Segmented dataset

DMARC Adoption by TLD

The same population, cut by top-level domain. Which TLDs lead on DMARC enforcement and which lag — from .gov at the top to the widest publish-versus-enforce gaps — with the full per-TLD table.

79%.gov enforced
11%.cn enforced
40.7ptwidest gap
Read the study →

How we measure

Every figure comes from live DNS lookups across a real population sample (the Majestic Million top domains), not self-reported surveys. The collector is reproducible and re-run on a cadence, so these become a time series — the part no competitor can backfill. Full method and scoring are documented on How We Test.

Free to cite & reuse

All ToolTrusted research is published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) licence. Journalists, researchers and vendors are welcome to cite the figures and charts — a link back to the study is all we ask. Each study carries a ready-to-use citation and machine-readable Dataset schema.

See how your domain compares

Run the free Email Health Check and score your domain against the population above.

Run the free Email Health Check →

Frequently asked questions

How often is the research updated?

The authentication benchmark is designed to be re-collected on a recurring cadence, building a multi-quarter trend. As new snapshots land, this page gains period-over-period updates and new segmented cuts — so it grows into a living record rather than a single annual report.

Can I get the underlying data?

Each study publishes its aggregate figures, charts and a structured Dataset description inline, free to cite under CC-BY. For collaboration or a specific cut of the data, reach us via the contact page.

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