Description
Unspam allows users to forward an email or paste its content directly into the platform and instantly receive a comprehensive technical analysis. The analysis includes SPF and DKIM validation, DNS and Reverse IP checks, blacklist status, and other key indicators that affect email deliverability and sender reputation.
The platform operates on a subscription-based model and is used by marketers, SaaS teams, and email specialists who need to diagnose delivery issues and verify email configuration quality. In addition to technical checks, the service provides visual insights such as heatmaps and email rendering previews across different devices.
Challenge
Building a reliable email analysis platform required solving several interconnected technical challenges under unpredictable workload conditions.
The first major challenge was stable email ingestion. Multiple approaches were tested over time, including IMAP, POP3, and webhook-based solutions. All of them proved unreliable, leading to email loss or incorrect metadata processing, which directly impacted the accuracy of the analysis.
The second challenge was the reliability of validation checks. Early implementations of DNS, Reverse IP, SPF, and DKIM checks were naive and assumed ideal data availability. In reality, email infrastructures vary significantly across providers, requiring custom logic to correctly resolve mail servers, IPs, and DNS records in non-standard scenarios.
The third challenge was performance and stability. Email analysis initially relied on sequential checks, meaning that if a single validation failed, the entire process could break. Combined with unpredictable workload, this resulted in slow processing times and reduced overall system reliability.
Solution
To stabilize email ingestion, the system was migrated to Gmail API (polling) as an official and reliable method for receiving emails, eliminating data loss and metadata inconsistencies.
The validation logic for DNS, Reverse IP, SPF, and DKIM checks was fully reimplemented to support multiple providers and real-world edge cases encountered in production.
To address performance and stability issues, a parallel processing architecture was introduced. Each validation check runs as an independent background job using queue-based processing. This ensures that failures in individual checks do not break the entire analysis flow and significantly improve fault tolerance.
Additional optimizations were applied to improve processing speed and system resilience under fluctuating workloads.
Technology Stack
- PHP (Laravel)
- Gmail API
- Queue Jobs / Background Processing
- DNS & Email Protocols (SPF, DKIM, Reverse IP)
Key Features
- Subscription-based access
- User management