Explainable delivery
Show customers which gateway and mailbox provider handled their email, and what those systems did.
Email intelligence for ESPs
Help your customers send better campaigns — and understand what drives their results.
Go beyond opens, clicks and delivery rates. Give customers deeper insight into recipient infrastructure, email security gateways and mailbox providers. Help them understand delivery performance, interpret engagement and improve future campaigns.
- See beyond the MX record. Identify the security gateways and mailbox providers that actually handle your customers' email.
- Integrate it into your own platform, under your own brand. Your customers' lists never leave your environment.
For engineers: how the data joins and what leaves your systems →
Cleaner lists
Find recipient domains that look live but can't take mail: parked, or with no working mail setup.
Safer campaigns
Screen campaign link domains against age, hosting and risk signals before they go out.
The problem
Your customers see the numbers. They can't see why.
Customers see opens, clicks, bounces and deferrals. They don't see the gateway that scanned their links. They don't see the provider that slowed their batch.
When results drop, they blame the platform. Support tickets rise, and good customers start to look elsewhere.
Engagement that isn't human
Apple Mail Privacy Protection already blurred opens. Now security gateways open and click links before people do. Click rates look strong, or suddenly suspicious.
Failures without a reason
A bounce code or a deferral says little to a marketer. They need to know which system responded, and why.
The platform takes the blame
Without context, every drop looks like your problem. Your team spends hours explaining one campaign at a time.
Your deliverability team can diagnose this. Datazag helps you explain it to every customer, at scale.
How it works
Three sources of evidence. One clear explanation.
No single dataset explains a campaign. Your platform combines what it already records with what Datazag sees across the internet.
From Datazag
Datazag infrastructure intelligence
Domain status, security gateway, mailbox provider and its category, hosting provider, country, SPF and DMARC, DNS history.
Source · Datazag, updated daily
Already yours
ESP campaign events
SMTP responses, bounces, deferrals, opens, clicks.
Source · Your platform, already collected
Already yours
Machine-interaction evidence
Automated URL requests, classified with timing and confidence.
Source · Your click logs, classified by your platform using Datazag gateway data and our published methodology
Infrastructure-aware campaign reporting
Which systems were involved, what was observed, and what the customer should investigate.
Combined by your platform, shown in your dashboard
You already hold two of the three. Datazag adds the context that connects them.
Infrastructure is a clue, not proof.
A documented inspection capability does not show what happened to a particular message. Your platform combines it with its own timing data to classify engagement.
Before, during, after
Intelligence at every stage of the campaign.
The core is explaining results. The same data also helps before the send.
After the send
Explain the results
Group results by the gateway and mailbox provider that received them. Classify engagement on stronger evidence than timing alone. Tell customers what to investigate.
Before the send
Find what validators miss
Syntax checks and MX lookups pass parked domains and broken mail setups. Flag them, and recent infrastructure changes, before the send.
During the build
Screen the links
Check campaign link domains against age, hosting and risk signals. Your platform flags any links that don't use an identifiable domain.
Also available
Signup checks. Screen new customers' domains for mail setup, parking status and infrastructure history at signup and tier upgrades. You set the rules; Datazag supplies the evidence.
One dataset, three moments where your customers notice the difference.
Beyond the MX record
The MX record tells you where email arrives. Not who handles it.
Many businesses route mail through a security gateway first. The MX record points to the gateway, not the mailbox provider behind it.
Datazag maps inbound mail infrastructure for 118.3 million corporate domains. For each one, we record the mailbox platform and the security gateway, where one is visible.
Where the evidence allows, SPF and other TXT records reveal the mailbox provider behind a gateway. DNS history shows when either changed.
Corporate domains as of 2026-11-12. Source →
How we identify them
- Gateway
- The MX hostnames, matched to the vendor that operates them.
- Mailbox provider
- SPF include: mechanisms and other TXT records that name the platform behind the gateway. Not every domain publishes them.
- Changes
- DNS history: when the MX, SPF or provider records last changed.
Test it on your own traffic. The hidden-link method in our implementation guide gives you ground truth. Read the guide →
What a basic lookup shows
What Datazag shows
MX: a gateway hostname
Security gateway: identified vendor
—
Underlying mailbox provider: identified provider
—
Recent infrastructure changes from DNS history
Why it matters
- Gateways scan links and can trigger clicks. Knowing the gateway helps explain the click pattern.
- Mailbox providers apply their own filtering. Knowing the provider helps interpret deferrals and placement. It does not show why a single message landed where it did.
- An infrastructure change can explain a sudden drop. History shows when the change happened.
See how mail infrastructure is distributed across the internet →
The join
From log line to explanation.
Your SMTP log knows what happened. Datazag knows who received it, and what kind of domain it is. Join them on the recipient domain, inside your own warehouse.
Already yours
Your SMTP log
| Recipient domain | Time | Event | Response | Click |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| acme-freight.example | 09:00:04 | Clicked | 250 OK | 3 s after delivery |
| brightpath.example | 09:00:05 | Clicked | 250 OK | 42 min after delivery |
| harbor-bank.example | 09:00:05 | Deferred | 421 4.7.0 Try again later | — |
| lumen-legal.example | 09:00:06 | Clicked | 250 OK | 5 s after delivery |
| oldmill-bakery.example | 09:00:06 | Bounced | No mail server found | — |
| tempinbox.example | 09:00:07 | Delivered | 250 OK | — |
From Datazag
Datazag, keyed by domain
| Domain | Status | Gateway | Mailbox provider | Provider category | Hosting | Country | SPF | DMARC | Recent change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| acme-freight.example | OK | Proofpoint | Microsoft 365 | Business suite | AWS | US | -all | reject | — |
| brightpath.example | OK | None | Google Workspace | Business suite | Squarespace | GB | ~all | none | — |
| harbor-bank.example | OK | None | Microsoft 365 | Business suite | Microsoft Azure | US | -all | quarantine | — |
| lumen-legal.example | OK | Mimecast | Microsoft 365 | Business suite | Cloudflare | DE | -all | reject | MX moved to Mimecast 6 days ago |
| oldmill-bakery.example | Parked | — | None | — | Parking service | GB | None | None | Parked since March |
| tempinbox.example | Disposable | None | Disposable mail service | Disposable | OVHcloud | FR | ~all | None | — |
SELECT log.recipient_domain, log.event, log.smtp_response, log.click_delay,
dz.domain_status, dz.gateway, dz.mailbox_provider, dz.provider_category,
dz.hosting_provider, dz.country, dz.spf, dz.dmarc, dz.recent_change
FROM smtp_log AS log
LEFT JOIN datazag_mail_infrastructure AS dz
ON dz.domain = log.recipient_domain;The result
Joined result
acme-freight.exampleOK
Clicked · 3 s after deliveryvia Proofpoint → Microsoft 365
A click seconds after delivery, behind a link-scanning gateway. Likely automated.
brightpath.exampleOK
Clicked · 42 min after deliveryvia Google Workspace
No gateway in the path, and a human delay. Likely a person.
harbor-bank.exampleOK
Deferred · 421 4.7.0 Try again latervia Microsoft 365
The mailbox provider slowed the batch. Review the sending rate to Microsoft.
lumen-legal.exampleOK
Clicked · 5 s after deliveryvia Mimecast → Microsoft 365
The recent gateway change and rapid clicks are consistent with automated link inspection. Investigate whether the change accounts for the rise in reported engagement.
oldmill-bakery.exampleParked
Bounced · No mail server found
The domain is parked and no longer takes mail. Suppress it before the next send.
tempinbox.exampleDisposable
Deliveredvia Disposable mail service
A disposable mail domain. It is unlikely to engage. Consider keeping it out of engagement rates, and check how it joined the list.
Beyond Gmail and Yahoo
Compare every mailbox provider, not just the big webmail brands.
Most platforms report Gmail and Yahoo, then put everything else in "Other". That bucket holds most business email. Datazag identifies the mailbox provider behind those domains, where the evidence allows. Group results by Google, Microsoft, gateways and independent hosts such as IONOS.
Spot likely spam-folder placement without seed lists.
Seed tests check a set of sample inboxes. Your campaign reaches real ones. Send one campaign to everyone, then compare likely human clicks by provider. If clicks hold at IONOS and Yahoo but fall at Google, start the investigation at Google.
A gap is a signal, not proof. Audience mix, list age and gateway clicks can move rates too. Remove likely automated clicks first, and compare groups of a fair size.
One campaign, by mailbox provider
IllustrativeIONOS
4,200 delivered · 88 clicks
2.1%
In line with the campaign's baseline.
Yahoo and AOL
8,500 delivered · 170 clicks
2.0%
In line with the baseline.
Google (Gmail and Workspace)
18,200 delivered · 145 clicks
0.8%
About 60% below the baseline. Consistent with spam-folder or tab placement. Check Google Postmaster Tools and authentication first.
Microsoft 365, behind Proofpoint
5,100 delivered · 480 clicks · 410 likely automated
1.4%raw 9.4%
Most clicks came within seconds of delivery: likely link scanning. Judge this group on likely human clicks, which sit below the baseline.
Likely human click rateRaw click rate
Example campaign report
What your customers could see after every campaign.
Here is a sample report panel for a 21,000-recipient newsletter. It sits alongside the metrics your dashboard already shows.
Campaign report · Newsletter · 21,000 recipients
- Reported clicks
- 2,600
- Likely automated
- 1,255
- Likely human
- 1,345
Recipient infrastructure
Recipients
Bounced
Deferred
Clicks
Likely automated
What to investigate
Proofpoint gateway → Microsoft 365
Recipients4,820
Bounced12
Deferred30
Clicks1,140
Automated910
Most clicks match gateway link inspection, within seconds of delivery. Report likely human clicks separately.
Mimecast gateway → Microsoft 365
Recipients2,310
Bounced6
Deferred15
Clicks410
Automated260
Same scanning pattern. Future sends will likely show similar click inflation.
Google Workspace, no gateway
Recipients6,450
Bounced9
Deferred10
Clicks520
Automated40
Healthy. Engagement looks mostly human.
Microsoft 365, no gateway
Recipients5,120
Bounced22
Deferred250
Clicks380
Automated35
Deferrals clustered in one window. Review sending rate to this provider.
Registrar-hosted mail
Recipients1,990
Bounced40
Deferred60
Clicks150
Automated10
Mixed filtering across small providers. Watch the deferral trend.
No working mail setup
Recipients310
Bounced298
Deferred0
Clicks0
Automated0
Domains are parked or no longer resolve. Suppress before the next send.
See this on your own data
Claim a founding pilot placeResearch evidence
Built on a view of the whole internet, not a sample.
Datazag resolves DNS for 367.5M domains every day and publishes what it finds. One result matters to every ESP: a domain with an MX record is not always a mailbox.
- Domains that publish a mail (MX) record
- 175.5M
- Domains that can actually receive mail
- 173.2M
- Domains that can receive mail and are not parked
- 162.7M
Figures as of 2026-11-12. Method and caveats →
Datazag Insights
Who Really Runs Business Email?
The State of Email Infrastructure 2026.
Integration
Your data stays where it is. Ours comes to you.
You don't send us customer lists or campaign data. We deliver intelligence into your environment, and you join it to your own tables.
Cloud data shares
Iceberg or Delta datasets through Snowflake, Databricks or Azure. They refresh daily with no pipeline to maintain.
Local joins
Match recipient domains, link domains and click logs against our data inside your own warehouse. Your lists never leave your systems.
Microsoft Sentinel feed
Infrastructure changes and alerts over TAXII 2.1, for abuse, compliance and deliverability teams.
Reports and exports
White-label hygiene reports and account-review material for your customers.
No new vendor in your sending path. No personal data shared with a third party.
Technical answers
- How it's delivered
- Tables keyed by domain, shared as Iceberg or Delta through Snowflake, Databricks or Azure. They refresh daily.
- At send time
- No call to Datazag. Lookups run in your own warehouse or cache, at your own throughput.
- What leaves your systems
- Nothing. You join our data to your lists and click logs locally.
- What you build
- The click classifier. Our guide gives the four signals, the fields to log and a test for accuracy.
For your technical team
Who owns what
Area
ESP
Datazag
Customer relationship
ESP: Owns the customer experience
Datazag: Supports behind the scenes
Policy and classification
ESP: Sets thresholds, rules and click classification
Datazag: Supplies evidence, reasons and context
External intelligence
ESP: Avoids building internet-scale collection
Datazag: Observes domains, DNS, certificates and infrastructure
Customer products
ESP: Brands the dashboard, reports and add-ons
Datazag: Powers findings, alerts and evidence
Analytics
ESP: Owns data model, warehouse and decisions
Datazag: Supplies data shares, reports and feeds
Partner economics
Lower your costs. Add services your customers will pay for.
Improve your platform
- Fewer bounces and complaints on shared infrastructure
- Fewer "why did my results drop?" support tickets
- Faster answers from support and success teams
- Stronger retention when results dip
Sell premium services, under your brand
- Infrastructure-aware campaign reports as a premium tier
- Pre-send list hygiene as a paid add-on
- Campaign link screening for brand-sensitive senders
- Deliverability insight packages for agencies and enterprise accounts
One subscription supports both. See pricing →
Margin principle
Your price minus the Datazag platform cost is the service margin you control.
Partners receive a discount on list prices and set their own client prices.
Usage rights
Included
Power your own platform controls, customer reports, alerts, enrichment and portal features.
Not standalone resale
Raw data, data shares and bulk exports are not for resale, sublicensing or redistribution.
Downstream partners
Services sold through your resellers need written approval and separate terms.
Founding offer · For email platforms
Start with one campaign.
Start with a one-off analysis. Choose one campaign or workflow, with one day to one month of historical data. You run the join in your own environment. You share event-level rows with no email addresses: recipient domain, event type, SMTP response code and time since delivery. We analyze them and show what the combined evidence explains.
- 1Choose the scope. One campaign or workflow, from one day to one month of history.
- 2Join in your environment. Match your campaign events to Datazag data. Share only the fields agreed in the privacy review. No email addresses.
- 3Review the findings together. We analyze the result and show what it explains, and what it is worth to your customers.
What you receive: a pilot report with three parts.
- Delivery analysis. Results grouped by the gateways and mailbox providers that received your email, with what to investigate.
- Provisional click split. Likely automated and likely human clicks, worked out from your timing data with our published method. It shows what your own classifier could do.
- High-risk domains. Recipient and link domains in your data that carry risk signals, flagged for review.
How you judge the pilot
- 1Coverage. The share of your recipient domains with an identified gateway and mailbox provider.
- 2New insight. Diagnoses your current reporting does not already give you.
- 3Flagged domains. Problem recipient and link domains we found, with your own view of how useful they were and which were false positives.
Pilot format: a one-off analysis of historical data. We agree the shared fields in a privacy review before you send anything, and you can aggregate further. Email addresses never leave your environment. The join is one SQL query on recipient domain, so no integration work is needed.
Founding offer · For email platforms
Campaign Intelligence Pilot
$2,500One-off fee.
- A one-off analysis of one campaign or workflow, with one day to one month of historical data.
- You run the join in your own environment and share only fields agreed in a privacy review. No email addresses.
- A pilot report: delivery analysis by gateway and mailbox provider, a provisional click split, and high-risk domains flagged for review.
- Delivered within 5 working days.
- We keep nothing after delivery.
- Fee credited in full against an annual data share signed by March 31, 2027.
3 of 3 places left
Offer ends December 31, 2026.
Questions
- Do you see our customer data?
- Only the fields agreed in a privacy review: recipient domain, event type, SMTP response code and time since delivery. No email addresses or message content. We keep nothing after delivery.
- Does Datazag decide which clicks are machine clicks?
- Not in production. Your platform classifies them, using our data and published method. In the pilot, we give you a provisional split so you can see the result first.