Does a DMARC record need to be associated with the _dmarc subdomain?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Proofpoint explains that you must publish a DMARC record in the DNS as a TXT record with the host name _dmarc.yourdomain.com, to tell receiving mail servers how to handle unauthenticated emails from your domain.
Email marketer from Mailjet emphasises that to implement DMARC correctly, a TXT record needs to be created in the _dmarc subdomain of your sending domain.
Email marketer from SparkPost clarifies that a DMARC record has to be published under the _dmarc subdomain to be valid. This is where receiving mail servers look for the DMARC policy.
Email marketer from Postmark outlines that DMARC records are TXT records added to your domain's DNS settings specifically under the "_dmarc" subdomain.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC notes that the DMARC record must be added in the DNS records under the host name "_dmarc.yourdomain.com" to ensure proper functionality.
Email marketer from StackExchange confirms that a DMARC record must be placed in the _dmarc subdomain. It is a standard requirement and the only place where email servers will look for it.
Email marketer from Dmarcian explains that the _dmarc subdomain is the standardized location where DMARC records are stored, allowing email receivers to discover and apply the sender's DMARC policy.
Email marketer from ReturnPath answers that the DMARC record needs to be configured with DNS record type of TXT and the host set to _dmarc
Email marketer from Reddit answers that DMARC records need to be located under _dmarc because that is where mail servers are designed to find them
Marketer from Email Geeks shares the RFC excerpt stating that Domain Owner DMARC preferences are stored as DNS TXT records in subdomains named "_dmarc".
Marketer from Email Geeks answers that the DMARC record is published at _dmarc.domainName, and this is based on RFC 7489.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource, John Levine, confirms that a DMARC record lives in DNS, specifically as a TXT record under the name _dmarc.yourdomain.example.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that the DMARC record must be added as a TXT record with the name _dmarc.yourdomain.com. Failing to do so would mean it is ignored.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from AuthSMTP states that the DMARC TXT record must be created under the "_dmarc" subdomain of your domain name.
Documentation from Microsoft states that to set up DMARC you need to create a TXT record in DNS and that record needs to be placed under _dmarc.your_domain name.
Documentation from datatracker.ietf.org specifies that DMARC policy records are stored as DNS TXT records in subdomains named "_dmarc". For example, the Domain Owner of "example.com" would post DMARC preferences in a TXT record at "_dmarc.example.com".
Documentation from Cloudflare answers that in order to create the DMARC record you need to create a TXT record with name set to _dmarc.
Documentation from Google details the steps for creating a DMARC record, emphasizing that it must be added to the _dmarc subdomain of your domain in the DNS settings.