Verified Mark Certificates and BIMI
Your logo in the inbox, and what it actually takes to get there
BIMI puts your logo beside your name in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Yahoo. Getting it right means a certificate, a very specific SVG, and email authentication that already passes.
- Our fee
- $1,997one-time setup, certificate billed separately
- Platform cost
- Common Mark Certificate around $649 per year, paid to the authority.
- Typical timeline
- 6 to 10 weeks from scratch, faster if your email already passes DMARC.
Why this is harder than it looks
More than half of the BIMI records published on the internet are misconfigured, which means the logo simply does not appear and the business never finds out. The failure points are unforgiving: the SVG must be a narrow profile most design tools do not export, the certificate must match the logo exactly, and your DMARC has to be at full enforcement before any of it counts.
What we do
- A straight answer on whether you want a VMC or a CMC, and why
- Email authentication taken to the enforcement level BIMI requires
- Logo converted and validated as SVG Tiny P/S under the size limit
- Certificate ordered and driven through validation
- BIMI record published and verified in a real inbox, not just a checker
- Apple Branded Mail and Yahoo display included at no extra cost
What we need from you
We ask for these up front so nothing stalls halfway through. Items marked required have to be in hand before we can start.
- Twelve months of logo historyRequired
- For a Common Mark Certificate the same logo must have been publicly in use on your own domain for a year. We verify this against web archives.
- Your logo in vector formatRequired
- The original artwork, not a screenshot or an export from a slide deck.
- Business registration detailsRequired
- Legal entity name, registration number, and a publicly listed phone number.
- DNS access and your sending toolsRequired
- Same as the email authentication work, because that has to be done first.
The steps only you can take
A few things genuinely cannot be delegated, because the platform requires the business owner personally. We schedule these, prepare you for them, and stay on the call.
- Complete the certificate authority identity check personally, as an officer of the company.
- Approve the final logo proof, since it cannot be changed after validation.
- Sign the subscriber agreement with the certificate authority.
What we will not promise
- If you redesigned your logo in the last twelve months, a Common Mark Certificate is not available yet. That clock cannot be shortened.
- There are only three certificate authorities in the world that can issue these. Any vendor claiming otherwise is reselling or confused.
- A certificate does not improve deliverability by itself. The authentication work underneath it does.
Common questions
How much does a Verified Mark Certificate cost?
List price runs from about $749 to $1,416 per year depending on the authority, and it renews annually because certificates are valid for a maximum of 397 days. You pay the certificate authority directly. We do not mark it up.
What is the difference between a VMC and a CMC?
A Verified Mark Certificate requires a registered trademark and earns the blue checkmark in Gmail. A Common Mark Certificate requires twelve months of documented public use of the logo instead, costs less, and shows your logo without the check. If you do not have a trademark, the CMC is the honest answer.
Do I need BIMI if my email already works fine?
Not necessarily. BIMI is a trust and recognition play, not a deliverability fix. If your mail is landing well and impersonation is not a concern for your business, the money is better spent elsewhere and we will tell you that.
More on the full FAQ page.
Everything we have written about this
We publish what we know, in full, for free. If you would rather do this yourself, start here.
- ArticleWhy Your Logo Is Not Showing in Gmail Even Though You Set Up BIMIBIMI fails silently. No bounce, no warning, no error. A January 2025 scan of the top million domains found 53.6% of BIMI-enabled domains had at least one error. Here is how to find yours.
- ArticleIs There a Free Verified Mark Certificate? And Which VMC Issuer Should You Use?"Verified mark certificate free" is one of the fastest growing searches in this category. The honest answer is that no free VMC exists and no legitimate route to one exists either. But two genuinely free things do exist, and most small senders should take those first. Here is the real issuer landscape, what each one costs, and when we would tell you not to buy at all.
- ArticleGetting a Verified Mark Certificate from SSL.comSSL.com sells a Verified Mark Certificate for $1,500 a year and a Common Mark Certificate for $1,150. The price is the easy part. The requirement that stops most applications is that the person who sits for identity verification has to hold a specific corporate title, and no agency can do it for you.
- ArticleGetting a Verified Mark Certificate from GlobalSignGlobalSign is one of a handful of Certificate Authorities that can issue a Verified Mark Certificate, the file that puts your logo and a blue checkmark next to your name in Gmail. We bought ours through a reseller for our own store. Here is what GlobalSign actually requires, what it actually costs, and the trademark rule that quietly decides how long your certificate lasts.
- ArticleHow to Get a Verified Mark Certificate from DigiCertDigiCert publishes a price for a Verified Mark Certificate, but the price is the smallest part of the job. Here is what the validation actually involves, where applications die, and how to tell whether a VMC is worth buying at all.
- ArticleTrademark Rejected for a VMC? Word Mark vs Design Mark, and What Actually Happens NextA Verified Mark Certificate does not care whether you hold a word mark or a design mark. It cares whether the image you want in the inbox matches the mark you actually registered. That difference is where most VMC applications stall, usually after the certificate has already been paid for.
- ArticleSVG Tiny P/S Conversion and Why VMC Logos Get RejectedA BIMI logo is not a normal SVG. It has to conform to SVG Tiny 1.2 Portable/Secure, a locked-down profile with a short list of allowed elements and a mandatory root declaration. And even a perfect file gets rejected if it does not match your trademark registration. Here is exactly what both halves require.
- ArticleEntrust VMC Replacement: Why Apple Distrusted Entrust and What to Do NowIf your brand logo stopped appearing next to your emails and your certificate came from Entrust, the certificate is not degraded, it is gone. Here is the verified timeline, who can issue a replacement, and the order to do things in.