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Spamhaus Review

Depends

Should I use Spamhaus?

Resources - spamhaus.org

· 5 days ago

If you run a mail server, ISP, or network, Spamhaus's free blocklists are the industry standard. Use them. If you just send email for a normal business, there is nothing to buy; your goal is staying off the list, and getting off it is reportedly painful.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 50+ public sources; review text largely truncated, so user sentiment scored medium confidence.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free DNSBL

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
Commercial dataPaid (not published)

Best for

  • Mail server admins running SMTP
  • ISPs and hosting providers
  • Network security teams
  • Email deliverability professionals

Not for

  • Small businesses that merely send email
  • Cold-email marketers, you'll get listed, not helped
  • Non-technical users wanting hand-holding
  • Teams needing fast, friendly delisting support

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Delisting disputes reportedly slow and impersonal, with some refusals and no recourse

medium

Public DNSBLs are free only for light use; heavy or commercial querying requires paid feeds

medium

Phishing emails impersonate Spamhaus listings, verify only via official lookups

medium

One bad neighbor on shared hosting IPs can get you listed automatically

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Industry-standard blocklists, free to query for most users
  • Delisting never costs anything
  • Trusted by hosts like, cyber_Folks, and Rackspace
  • Free domain reputation datasets and tools
  • Huge coverage. PBL alone spans one billion IPs

Cons

  • False positives reported; delisting staff described as rude
  • Automated listings can knock providers' customers offline
  • Lookup results reportedly mismatch between queries

Sources & method

- 12 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x4review x4security x2news x2

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 12

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Core blocklists free; delisting never charged
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Simple DNS lookups but reported inconsistent results
  • Feature depth: 4/5. SBL, XBL, PBL, DBL, DROP, APIs, feeds
  • Support quality: 2/5. Delisting complaints: slow, blunt, refused cases
  • Security posture: 4/5. Established authority; survived major 2013 DDoS
  • 132+ Trustpilot reviews Polarized sentiment
  • Yes Free tier Free DNSBL queries + free delisting
  • $10M Est. Annual revenue Owler estimate
  • 1B+ IPs PBL coverage Policy Blocklist, per Spamhaus

Pricing

Free DNSBL

$0

  • SBL, XBL, PBL, DBL queries
  • Free delisting, always
  • Light/personal use

Commercial data

Paid (not published)

  • Data feeds and APIs
  • Heavy-volume licensing
  • Commercial support

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Opinions are sharply split: security professionals treat Spamhaus as essential infrastructure, while operators who got listed complain about false positives and curt support.

“The Spamhaus people are bad guys. I gradually realized...”
Hacker News
“Refusing to delist false positives, pompous / rude attitudes”
LowEndTalk forum

Alternatives

Compare Spamhaus with each alternative.

Companies that use it

  • 11
  • cyber_Folks
  • Rackspace
Full analysis

Based on 50+ public sources; review text largely truncated, so user sentiment scored medium confidence.

Industry-standard spam blocklists. Free for mail admins; small senders just need to stay off it, not buy it.

Methodology

Based on 50+ public sources; review text largely truncated, so user sentiment scored medium confidence.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. The Spamhaus Project — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news
  2. Spamhaus FAQs: DNSBL usagespamhaus.org
    official
  3. Spamhaus Blocklist (SBL)spamhaus.org
    official
  4. Commercial blocklist dataspamhaus.org
    official
  5. The Spamhaus Project Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  6. Spamhaus delisting complaints — LowEndTalklowendtalk.com
    review
  7. Comcast Kicked Customer due to Spamhaus SBL — Redditreddit.com
    review
  8. Mismatched blacklisting results — Reddit r/sysadminreddit.com
    review
  9. Spamhaus phishing scam — BleepingComputerbleepingcomputer.com
    security
  10. The DDoS That Knocked Spamhaus Offline — Cloudflareblog.cloudflare.com
    security
  11. one.com case study — Spamhausspamhaus.com
    official
  12. Spamhaus revenue and size — Owlerowler.com
    news

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