Choosing a security prospecting report tool as a small MSP

A prospect security report is the cheapest sales asset an MSP can have: one page that turns a stranger's public setup into a reason to talk. Several tools produce them. Here is how to choose, written for MSPs with one to ten people.

Six questions to ask

1. Is it passive? Before a prospect signs anything, the tool should only read public data: DNS, certificate logs, the public homepage. Port scans and vulnerability probes on someone who is not your client are a legal and reputational risk.
2. Would a business owner understand it? Raw DNS output impresses technicians, not office managers. Look for plain-English findings, a "why it matters" line and an effort estimate.
3. Does it carry your brand? Your logo, colours, phone number and booking link should be on the report, not the vendor's.
4. Can it check a list? Prospecting means 20–50 domains at a time, sorted by who has the worst gaps, with an export.
5. Does it tell you when something changes? A certificate about to expire or a new gap is the best follow-up you will ever get. Weekly rescans with alerts turn a one-off report into a pipeline.
6. Does the price fit your size? A tool that pays for itself with one new client a year is fine. One that costs as much as a junior technician is not.

The main options

• Client Posture: white-label passive assessments with proposals and a service library, priced for established MSPs (Starter from $199/month as of October 2026). Detailed comparison.
• MXToolbox: the classic toolbox for checking DNS and email records by hand. Excellent for troubleshooting, not designed for sending to prospects. Detailed comparison.
• DMARC platforms such as EasyDMARC: deep DMARC monitoring with MSP programs and prospecting reports, focused on email authentication. Detailed comparison.
• Hookgap: passive, vendor-neutral reports covering email, website, SSL certificate and domain, with branding, bulk checks, an outreach kit and weekly alerts, from $39/month.

Prices and features change. Check each vendor's site before deciding, and run the same five prospect domains through each trial to compare what you would actually send.

A simple test

Pick one real prospect. Generate a report in each tool and ask yourself: would I send this, unedited, to their office manager today? The tool whose answer is "yes" in under a minute is the one that will get used.