Who are the main players in email delivery?

Main players divide into categories: senders (your organization), sending infrastructure (ESPs, SMTP providers, MTAs), receiving infrastructure (Mailbox Providers like Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo), reputation arbiters (blocklists, anti-abuse networks), and standards bodies (IETF, M3AAWG).

Senders create and trigger emails. ESPs provide sending platforms with analytics and compliance features. SMTP providers offer infrastructure for transmitting messages. Mailbox providers receive, filter, and store emails for recipients. Blocklists track bad actors. Standards organizations establish protocols everyone follows.

These players interact constantly. Your ESP connects to MBPs over SMTP. MBPs consult blocklists during filtering. Anti-abuse networks share threat intelligence. Standards bodies publish protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that everyone implements. Understanding these relationships helps diagnose delivery issues.