Email deliverability and inbox placement are critical factors determining a campaign’s success. As an email marketer, having low rates on these metrics would result in low engagement on your cold outreach campaigns and might mean that your emails are landing in the spam folder instead of your recipient’s inbox.
One way to solve potential issues in email deliverability is to check your email content using an online tool like Mail-Tester. However, it has limited features for testing other parts of your campaign performance, which is why you should consider a reliable alternative.
This article will explain what Mail-Tester offers and where it might fall short. We’ll also compare Mail-Tester with InboxAlly—a trusted email deliverability tool for businesses and marketers—and how our platform can help enhance key aspects of your campaign, such as sender reputation and inbox placement.
Read on to know more.
What is Mail-Tester?
Mail-Tester is a popular email spam test tool for marketers and companies. It checks your email content for spam and verifies if your email server and sending IP are properly configured. The platform also gives a detailed report on the “spamminess” of your emails—such as its spam score—and other metrics, helping you improve your campaigns.
Here are the two main features of Mail-Tester:
- Email Link and Authentication Checks – Mail-Tester checks if your emails have correctly configured authentication records (e.g., SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records) so spam filters won’t block them. It also checks for broken links, which can categorize your email as spam.
- Email Analysis – Mail-Tester analyzes email content and scans it for known spam words and other factors affecting email deliverability. After sending your email to Mail -Tester, you will be given a spam score of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
Note: Mail-Tester lacks tools for verifying your mailing lists, which can increase bounce rates and affect your sender reputation. For a reliable email verifier and deliverability service, choose InboxAlly. Our email list verification service helps you clean your existing list by removing invalid and duplicate addresses, resulting in lower bounce rates. Contact us to learn more!
Cons of Mail-Tester
While Mail-Tester is considered reliable by many users, it has notable flaws and doesn’t have advanced features, such as email warm-ups and real-time tracking of where your emails land. Here are some of its disadvantages:
- Limited Features – Mail-Tester lacks several key features critical in monitoring and increasing the deliverability of your campaigns. Its reports lack analytics that let you see engagements and inbox placement in real-time.
Note: Stay Ahead with Real-Time Tracking from InboxAlly! With our deliverability tool, you can monitor engagement rates as they happen and see your emails move from spam to inbox. Constantly track your reputation and address any issues before they affect your campaign’s performance. Sign up now for a free 10-day trial! No credit card is required.
- Lacks Tests on Free Version – Mail-Tester only provides 3 tests within 24 hours on its free version. This greatly limits how many emails or newsletter templates you can check on the platform.
InboxAlly vs. Mail-Tester: A Brief Comparison
Being given a perfect 10/10 score in Mail-Tester doesn’t guarantee excellent email deliverability, mainly because it cannot track where your email messages land in various recipient inboxes.
In comparison, InboxAlly allows you to track your email’s reputation and check whether your emails have landed on your recipients’ primary inbox. You can also track how major email providers, like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, etc., handle your email messages. Here’s how InboxAlly compares with Mail-Tester:
| Key Features | InboxAlly | Mail-Tester |
| Free Email Spam Test | Accurate email testing for free; comes with a detailed audit and deliverability report. Try it now. | Only 3 free verifications daily |
| Content and HTML Check | ✅ | ✅ |
| SPF, DMARC, and DKIM Check | ✅ | ✅ |
| Seed Emails | ✅ | ❌ |
| Email Deliverability Repair | ✅ | ❌ |
| Fast Improvement in Email Deliverability | ✅ | ❌ |
| Real-Time Tracking and Detailed Reports | ✅ | ❌ |
| Preset Engagement Profiles | ✅ | ❌ |
| Email Address List Verification | ✅ | ❌ |
| Pricing | Starts at $149 monthly | $0.01 per test |
How to Test Your Emails For Spam With InboxAlly
InboxAlly’s free Email Spam Checker feature lets you check your email’s spam score and ensures that your sending setup and email authentication records are updated. It scans content and IP reputation issues and gives a detailed analysis of which email elements you could improve to avoid the spam folder.
It also works on multiple email clients like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail/Outlook. Here’s how you can use our free tool to test your emails in 5 simple steps:
Step #1: Access InboxAlly’s Free Email Spam Checker
InboxAlly makes testing emails simple. First, you must visit the Free Email Spam Checker tool on the website.
Step #2: Create Your Email Message
Go to your email provider and draft your typical email message or newsletter. Its elements (e.g., subject line, content, etc.) must be identical to what you send to your recipients for the test to be accurate.
Step #3: Begin the Email Audit
Next, copy the custom-generated email from the Email Tester tool on InboxAlly’s website and paste it into the To field in the email client.
Step #4: Return to the Email Spam Checker Tool
Once sent, return to the Email Spam Checker tool and click the “Check Your Deliverability Score” to generate a link to your free email audit and deliverability report. This will mainly contain key metrics and data that show the likelihood of your emails landing in your prospect’s mailboxes.
Step #5: Review Your Email Audit Report
InboxAlly’s free email audit and deliverability report shows data critical to your campaign’s inbox placement. It shows potential issues like spammy phrases, a blacklisted domain, and faulty mail server configurations. You’ll also find relevant recommendations for increasing the quality of your emails.
After applying these recommendations to your email content, you can rerun the test and check if your deliverability scores have improved.
Other Helpful Features of InboxAlly for Email Marketing Campaigns
Besides having tools that enhance your email campaign’s deliverability, InboxAlly offers other tools relevant to monitoring the placement of your emails and gaining more engagements from your prospects. Here are some of them:
Email Warm-Up
InboxAlly’s email warm-up feature enables you to increase your domain reputation significantly faster than traditional warm-up methods by other services. Our platform does this through a structured ramp-up schedule and provides you with a fixed number of seed emails daily that you can engage with, guaranteeing open rates that mailbox providers want to see. This significantly increases your IP reputation and ensures your emails reach your intended recipients.
Seed Emails
InboxAlly uses seed emails to help inbox providers recognize your email campaigns as valuable, relevant, and that many users like engaging with. This boosts your open rates and creates a solid foundation for prolonged email marketing success. It also increases your sender reputation with major mailbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook.
Preset Engagement Profiles
With InboxAlly, you can choose a preset engagement profile from default to reputation protection or even key in your desired configuration to get the most engagement out of your emails. It allows you to streamline the process of optimizing email deliverability and follow the best practices without needing extensive expertise.
Real-Time Tracking and Reports
One of InboxAlly’s highlight features is real-time engagement tracking, allowing you to see which recipients have opened or forwarded your email in near real-time. The tool also provides relevant analytics and reports, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and adjust your email marketing strategy for sustained success.
Email List Verifier
InboxAlly’s email verifier lets you verify your mailing list and check for duplicate addresses and invalid emails, significantly lowering bounce rates. A clean and verified email list maximizes your engagement with legitimate addresses and reduces wasted resources on invalid ones. It also protects your IP from blacklists by eliminating spam traps and honeypots.
Final Thoughts
Email testing is critical to checking and improving different elements of your email, such as the subject line, format, grammar, email authentication setup, and other technical aspects.
Mail-Tester has proven to be one of the most popular email verifier tools for many users today. However, it lacks key features for consistently improving your sender reputation and inbox placement, such as real-time tracking and email list verification.
If you want a Mail-Tester alternative with advanced email deliverability features and provides excellent service, consider InboxAlly. Our platform offers a warm-up feature with reliable seed lists, allowing you to boost your engagement rates and significantly reduce ramp-up times. It also works with any email-sending service and will enable you to set your own sending schedule and reporting time zone for accurate results.
Transform Your Email Campaigns Rapidly! Don’t wait months to see the impact of your email marketing efforts. InboxAlly delivers noticeable results in as little as two weeks, enhancing your open rates and overall engagement. Get started with InboxAlly and take your campaigns to the next level quickly!