Can you pass SPF without adding your ESP?
Still have a question, spotted an error, or have a better explanation or a source we should cite?
Short answer: no. If your Mailchimp account is sending emails from your domain but Mailchimp's servers aren't listed in your SPF record, those emails will fail SPF. It doesn't matter that you built the campaign yourself or that it's your domain name in the From field.
SPF works by listing the IP addresses and servers that are allowed to send email on your behalf. When a receiving mailbox checks an incoming message, it looks up your SPF record and asks one question: is the server that sent this email on the approved list? If your ESP isn't on that list, the answer is no, and SPF fails.
The part that trips people up is this: it's not just your own mail server that sends email from your domain. Think about how many tools might be doing that. Your ESP for newsletters. A transactional service like Postmark or Twilio SendGrid for receipts and password resets. A CRM like HubSpot for sales outreach. Maybe even a support platform. Each of those tools sends email using your domain, and each one needs to be included in your SPF record or its mail will fail SPF checks.
The good news is that most ESPs give you a simple include: value to add to your record (something like include:servers.mcsv.net for Mailchimp). You're not manually listing IP addresses. You're just telling SPF to trust the list your ESP maintains on its end.
One thing worth knowing: SPF has a lookup limit of 10. If you've added a lot of services over time, you can hit that limit and cause SPF to break for everything. It's worth auditing your record occasionally, especially after onboarding new tools.
You can check what your current SPF record looks like right now with our free SPF Checker. It'll show you what's included and flag anything that looks off.
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