How to Test Your Email Setup with mail-tester

mail-tester.com gives your email a spam score from 0 to 10 and explains exactly what's wrong. It's the quickest way to check SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reverse DNS and blocklists after setting up email in OpenPanel.

Step 1: Get a Test Address

Open mail-tester.com. It shows a unique address like:

[email protected]

Keep the page open.

mail-tester.com home page showing the unique test address to send your email to and the Then check your score button

Step 2: Send a Real Email

Send an email to that address from the mailbox you want to test - for example from Roundcube webmail, or your email client set up with your OpenPanel mailbox.

Use a real subject and a few sentences of text - an empty "test" message loses points for content, not for your setup.
To test website email (WordPress, contact forms), send the test from the website instead - e.g. with a plugin's "send test email" option.

Step 3: Check Your Score

Go back to mail-tester and click Then check your score. Aim for 9/10 or 10/10.

mail-tester results with a score of 7.7/10 and the sections for the message, SpamAssassin, authentication, content and blocklists

Expand each section to see details:

Section	What it checks	If it fails
You're authenticated (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)	Your DNS authentication records	See below
Reverse DNS	PTR record of the sending IP matches the hostname	Set up reverse DNS
You're not blocklisted	Your server IP and domain on public blocklists	Request delisting; see Why emails go to spam
SpamAssassin	Content and formatting rules	Improve the message content
Broken links / formatting	HTML and links	Fix the message template

Fixing the Most Common Problems

Expand You're not fully authenticated to see which check failed. In this example SPF and DMARC pass, but the message isn't signed with DKIM and the reverse DNS doesn't match the sending domain:

mail-tester authentication results: SPF passed, message not signed with DKIM, DMARC passed, reverse DNS does not match the sending domain, and the domain and hostname checks passed

SPF: "Your server is not allowed to send"

The sending IP isn't in the domain's SPF record. Check the record in OpenPanel → Domains → DNS and make sure it includes your server's IP (and any relay you use). See Add additional hosts to SPF.

DKIM: "Your message is not signed"

Generate the DKIM key and publish the mail._domainkey record - see Set up DKIM. If your DNS is at Cloudflare or your registrar, add the record there.

DMARC: "Your message failed the DMARC test" or no record

Publish a DMARC record - see Set up DMARC.

Reverse DNS doesn't match

Set the PTR record of your server IP to the server's hostname at your provider.

"Your hostname is ... local.host" / HELO mismatch

The mail server doesn't have a proper hostname. Set a domain for the server in OpenAdmin → Settings → General - see Change the server hostname.

TIP

In OpenPanel → Email → Deliverability, you can check SPF, DKIM and DMARC for all your domains at once, and see the exact records OpenPanel expects. See Email Deliverability.

Re-Test After Fixing

DNS changes can take a while to propagate. Wait until the new records are visible (dig +short TXT example.com), then send a new test email to a new mail-tester address. The free plan allows a few tests per day.

Step 1: Get a Test Address​

Step 2: Send a Real Email​

Step 3: Check Your Score​

Fixing the Most Common Problems​

SPF: "Your server is not allowed to send"​

DKIM: "Your message is not signed"​

DMARC: "Your message failed the DMARC test" or no record​

Reverse DNS doesn't match​

"Your hostname is ... local.host" / HELO mismatch​

Re-Test After Fixing​

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