--- title: "Proofpoint tops the cold email gateway mix today" description: "Emailchaser's DNS panel of 499 companies shows Proofpoint is the top mail gateway, ahead of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace." url: "https://www.emailchaser.com/deliverability-news/2026-09-02" content_type: "text/markdown" --- Deliverability briefing, Wednesday, 2 September 2026 # Proofpoint is the gateway most likely to scan your email No deliverability story cleared two outlets today, so the panel carries the news. Proofpoint remains the gateway in front of the largest share of companies measured, ahead of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, so it's often the software reading your cold email first. ## Inbox Rules Index 499 of 499 companies checked, Wednesday, 2 September 2026 On each measurement we look up the published email settings of the same 499 real companies, the kind you send cold email to. This is what they have set up, not a score on your own sending. 88.4%no change block forged mailthey tell mail servers to junk or bounce anything faking their addressDMARC at quarantine or reject 70.3% at the strictest settingbounce it outright rather than putting it in spamDMARC p=reject 42.9% keep a locked sender listmail sent from anywhere off that list fails the checkSPF -all 6.2% ask for encryptionsome of these refuse mail unless your server has a valid security certificateMTA-STS record published Today's panel measured 499 companies. 88.4% of them block mail that fakes their address, unchanged from yesterday and up 0.6 percentage points from the 10 August baseline. This tells you how seriously the people you email guard their own domain, not how your cold email will be treated. ### What this means for your sending Proofpoint screens more of these companies than anything else, at 33.9%, so it is the filter most of your cold email actually meets. 6.2% ask senders for an encrypted connection, so an expired or mismatched certificate on your sending server can stop mail reaching them at all. 2.4% cannot receive email at all, which is dead weight on any list that includes them. The rest is about how these companies stop others forging their address. It is a good sign of how seriously they run email security, but it is not what decides where your mail lands: that is judged against your own domain's records. ### Whose spam filter your email meets
Proofpoint33.9%
Microsoft 36526.1%
Google Workspace18.8%
Their own servers, or unknown9.6%
Mimecast4%
Cisco Secure Email3.8%
Proofpoint screens about one in every 3 of these companies, more than any other filter. This is the software that reads your email before a person does. It says nothing about how any one of them treats your mail. ### Which industries guard their name hardest (companies checked)
Software (126)97.6%
Finance (54)94.4%
Services (28)92.9%
Healthcare (47)89.4%
Logistics (17)88.2%
Retail (50)88%
Travel (25)88%
Energy (24)87.5%
Media (26)84.6%
Telecoms (30)80%
Industrial (44)79.5%
Schools and universities (28)57.1%
Software guards its name hardest: 97.6% block mail faking their address. Schools and universities least, at 57.1%, a gap of 40.5 points. A high number means that industry runs email security tightly, so expect your own setup to be looked at more closely there. 499 of the 499 companies we check answered on this measurement. The same fixed panel of real companies, measured over public DNS on each run. This is what the people you email have set up, not a score on your own sending. No deliverability news today was confirmed by two separate publications, so there is none here. The numbers below are still today's. ## What these numbers mean ### What gateway is most likely to scan my cold email today? Proofpoint fronts 33.9% of the companies measured today, ahead of Microsoft 365 at 26.1% and Google Workspace at 18.8%. Expect your message to pass through one of these three filters most often. ### Did the number of companies blocking forged mail change overnight? No. The enforcement rate held at 88.4%, unchanged from 2026-09-01, and it's up 0.6 percentage points from the 88% baseline recorded on 2026-08-10. ### What industry has the most companies still not blocking forged mail? Education lags furthest behind: only 57.1% of education companies measured today block forged mail, compared with 97.6% in SaaS and 94.4% in finance. If your prospects sit in education, don't expect this setting to say much about their gateway strength. ## Get each briefing in your inbox the morning it publishes One email per briefing: what changed in mailbox provider rules, and the latest measurement from the Inbox Rules Index. Free, and one click to stop. Your email addressSubscribe We use your address to send this briefing and nothing else. Unsubscribe from any email. ## Check your own sending [Free domain health check](https://www.emailchaser.com/domain-health-check)[DMARC record generator](https://www.emailchaser.com/dmarc-record-generator)[Email finder](https://www.emailchaser.com/email-finder)[Cold email software](https://www.emailchaser.com/cold-email-software)[DMARC adoption rate](https://www.emailchaser.com/dmarc-adoption-rate)[Why emails go to spam](https://www.emailchaser.com/why-are-my-emails-going-to-spam) [← Tuesday, 1 September 2026](https://www.emailchaser.com/deliverability-news/2026-09-01)[All briefings](https://www.emailchaser.com/deliverability-news)[Thursday, 3 September 2026 →](https://www.emailchaser.com/deliverability-news/2026-09-03)