Email Ecosystem Dashboard
Fox Loop Software — Analysis 2026Q3
This dashboard shows the results of a DNS-focused measurement study of the email ecosystem.
Background
The study used DNS zone files, as provided by ICANN, to identify active domain names. The zdns scanner was used to perform DNS scanning, focusing on email-related records. Additionally, domain name rankings were provided by Tranco, specifically list V367N generated on 4 September 2026.
Here are some things to keep in mind when reviewing this dashboard.
Adoption metrics are measured on a per-domain-name basis. This means that popular services like gmail.com count as one domain, even though over a billion users have email addresses there.
Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs) do not make their zone files available through ICANN. Measurements related to ccTLDs are based on domain names discovered through the Tranco list. As such, the coverage of different TLDs varies. To account for this, measurements disclose which cohort was measured.
Findings
Email is widely popular
We observe that 41-72% of domain names have DNS records configured to allow the receipt of email.
Table 1: Domains supporting email
Tranco Rank | Percent |
|---|---|
Top 1K | 69.3% |
Top 10K | 71.8% |
Top 100K | 71.6% |
Top 1M | 66.7% |
Ranked | 59.1% |
Unranked | 41.5% |
Google and Microsoft have large market share
Google and Microsoft stand out as popular email hosting providers. When we check MX records, the domain names for these companies often appear.
Table 2: Email provider market share across domain name cohorts
Top 10K | Top 100K | Top 1M | All |
|---|---|---|---|
google.com | google.com | google.com | google.com |
outlook.com | outlook.com | outlook.com | secureserver.net |
pphosted.com | pphosted.com | pphosted.com | outlook.com |
mimecast.com | mimecast.com | cloudflare.net | registrar-servers.com |
cloudflare.net | cloudflare.net | mimecast.com | hostinger.com |
amazonaws.com | amazonaws.com | yandex.net | cloudflare.net |
yandex.net | yandex.net | registrar-servers.com | ionos.com |
iphmx.com | qq.com | hostinger.com | ovh.net |
qq.com | registrar-servers.com | zoho.com | hostedemail.com |
zoho.com | zoho.com | qq.com | ionos.de |
OTHER | OTHER | OTHER | OTHER |
Note that “OTHER” nearly reaches 50% among the Top 1M domain names. This indicates that almost half of these domains use a provider that doesn’t rank among the top-ten. Email remains a decentralized system, in practice, even though popular email service providers exist.
DNSSEC is uncommon
DNSSEC, which provides security to DNS records via cryptographic signing, still faces slow adoption. Signed MX records, as measured below, ensure that email cannot be intercepted via spoofed DNS responses or DNS cache poisoning. Without protection, email could be directed to an attacker controlled email server, resulting in a loss of confidentiality.
Table 3: Domain names signing MX records
Tranco Rank | Percent |
|---|---|
Top 1K | 12.3% |
Top 10K | 11.9% |
Top 100K | 9.7% |
Top 1M | 7.5% |
Ranked | 6.6% |
Unranked | 6.5% |
DANE is rare
To strictly ensure that messages are sent to the correct email server, DNSSEC and DANE can be used together. First, the domain owner must enable DNSSEC to protect their MX record. Then, the email server’s domain name must publish a TLSA record that signals support for strict transport security. This TLSA record must also be DNSSEC protected. This “full DANE” configuration is measured below.
When DANE is fully enabled, the sending email server can strictly validate the cryptographic signature of the DNS records and the TLS certificate used by the receiving email server, ensuring message confidentiality in transit.
Table 4: Domain names with full DANE support
Tranco Rank | Percent |
|---|---|
Top 1K | 1.0% |
Top 10K | 1.2% |
Top 100K | 1.1% |
Top 1M | 1.0% |
Ranked | 1.1% |
Unranked | 0.9% |
These measurements show that domains rarely protect their email with DNSSEC and DANE.
DNSSEC support varies regionally
The ccTLD for Denmark (.DK) shows the high adoption of DNSSEC and DANE, around 17%.
Table 5: ccTLDs with the highest DANE adoption rate
TLD | DNSSEC adoption | DANE adoption |
|---|---|---|
dk | 46.7% | 17.2% |
nu | 30.7% | 11.6% |
ch | 28.6% | 9.6% |
ee | 16.9% | 9.5% |
se | 31.3% | 9.4% |
no | 35.2% | 8.8% |
nl | 31.8% | 8.3% |
cz | 45.8% | 8.0% |
sk | 36.5% | 7.7% |
rs | 6.1% | 3.9% |
be | 18.6% | 3.1% |
eu | 11.1% | 2.6% |
lu | 10.7% | 2.0% |
is | 6.5% | 1.8% |
lv | 8.1% | 1.3% |
de | 3.2% | 1.0% |
MTA-STS is rare
Seeing the slow adoption of DNSSEC, email hosting providers developed MTA-STS as an alternative. This protocol enabled strict transport security for emails without requiring DNSSEC support. Instead, MTA-STS relies on HTTPS to secure an MTA-STS policy document.
Table 6: Domain names with MTA-STS enforce mode
Tranco Rank | Percent |
|---|---|
Top 1K | 2.6% |
Top 10K | 1.9% |
Top 100K | 1.3% |
Top 1M | 0.7% |
Ranked | 0.5% |
Unranked | 0.1% |
These measurements show that domains rarely protected their email with MTA-STS. Domains using testing mode were excluded from this measurement.
MTA-STS is more popular than DANE among top domain names
While there isn’t a clear winner between MTA-STS and DANE, it is notable that MTA-STS adoption is more than double that of DANE among the Top 1K domains. DANE’s popularity overtakes MTA-STS somewhere after the Top 100K domains, growing to more than double that of MTA-STS among all the Tranco ranked domain names. The long-tail of domain names, those not ranked by Tranco, show the lowest adoption of both MTA-STS and DANE.
Table 7: Comparing DANE vs MTA-STS adoption
Tranco Rank | DANE adoption | MTA-STS adoption |
|---|---|---|
Top 1K | 1.0% | 2.6% |
Top 10K | 1.2% | 1.9% |
Top 100K | 1.1% | 1.3% |
Top 1M | 1.0% | 0.7% |
Ranked | 1.1% | 0.5% |
Unranked | 0.9% | 0.1% |
Remember that the centralization of users on major email hosting websites, like gmail.com, is not measured for here. This is notable as MTA-STS is supported gmail.com while it lacks support for both DNSSEC and DANE.
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