Setting up BIMI at Hostinger — Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

Last updated: July 2026

In short: BIMI displays your verified corporate logo next to your emails in recipient inboxes. You configure it inside Hostinger hPanel under Domains in the DNS Zone by publishing the public URL of your vector logo as a TXT record on the default._bimi subdomain.

Prerequisites

A domain managed inside Hostinger hPanel
Access to your Hostinger dashboard (https://hpanel.hostinger.com)
An active, strict DMARC policy (p=quarantine or p=reject) configured on your domain (DMARC at Hostinger)
A brand logo exported in the exact SVG Tiny PS format, publicly accessible over HTTPS

What is BIMI?

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) attaches your verified visual brand identity to strong email authentication practices. Major email providers (including Gmail, Apple Mail, and Yahoo) check whether incoming mail originates from a domain publishing a valid BIMI record — rendering your logo right next to the subject line when verified.

Beyond branding, BIMI acts as a visual seal of trust against phishing. Mail clients only render the logo if two non-negotiable security requirements are satisfied:

Your domain passes strict SPF alignment and carries a valid DKIM signature.
Your domain enforces a strict DMARC policy (p=quarantine or p=reject). If DMARC remains in observation mode (p=none), the logo stays hidden.

The starting point at Hostinger

You configure BIMI records directly inside Hostinger’s DNS management dashboard (Go to Domains in hPanel. Select your domain and open DNS Zone.).

The policy is published as a TXT record attached to the technical subdomain default._bimi. The canonical structure of a BIMI entry is:

v=BIMI1; l=https://example.com/logo.svg

Step-by-step guide

1. Verify your DMARC enforcement level

Before publishing your BIMI record, check via your terminal or MXAudit that your DMARC policy is set to p=quarantine or p=reject. If your DMARC record still reads p=none, email clients will reject the logo display request right away.

2. Host your logo in SVG Tiny PS format

Your logo file must adhere strictly to the SVG Tiny PS specification (square aspect ratio, pure vector paths, no external links, scripts, or bitmap references). Upload this file to your Hostinger web hosting space so that it is publicly reachable via a secure HTTPS URL (for instance, https://example.com/logo.svg).

3. Open your DNS Zone in hPanel

Log in to your Hostinger account (Go to Domains in hPanel. Select your domain and open DNS Zone.). Select your domain name from the list and open the DNS Zone section.

4. Add the TXT record for default._bimi

Inside your DNS management table, add a new entry with the following configuration:

Type: TXT
Name / Host: default._bimi
Value / Content:
```
v=BIMI1; l=https://example.com/logo.svg
```

(Make sure to replace https://example.com/logo.svg with the actual public HTTPS link where your vector file is stored).

Save your new DNS record.

The components of the BIMI record

Component	Meaning
`default._bimi`	The default selector (`default`) inside the BIMI technical namespace in your domain’s DNS
`v=BIMI1`	Protocol version tag (must strictly appear at the very start of the TXT value string)
`l=https://...`	Absolute HTTPS URL pointing to the publicly hosted SVG Tiny PS logo file

Verification

Once you have saved your record inside Hostinger hPanel, immediately test your setup using the free MXAudit scanner — check your BIMI syntax and verify that your logo file satisfies SVG validation requirements.

You can also use your terminal to confirm that nameservers are serving the updated record:

dig TXT default._bimi.example.com +short

The output should match "v=BIMI1; l=https://example.com/logo.svg".

Common mistakes

Leaving DMARC in p=none: This is the leading reason why logos fail to appear in Gmail or Apple Mail. BIMI strictly requires DMARC enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject).
Uploading an incompatible image format: Standard PNG, JPG, or non-compliant SVG files are rejected silently by receiving mail clients. Your graphic must be exported specifically using the SVG Tiny PS profile.
Placing the record on the root domain (@): If you create the TXT record on your root domain instead of the default._bimi subdomain, external mail servers will not discover your visual branding (Go to Domains in hPanel. Select your domain and open DNS Zone.).