VMC vs CMC: Which BIMI Certificate Do You Actually Need?

VMC and CMC produce the same visible outcome: your logo appears in the recipient’s inbox alongside your emails. The difference is not what they do — it is what you need to have before you can get one.

A VMC requires a trademark registration. This means your logo — in the specific form you want to display — must be registered as a trademark in at least the country where you are using it. The trademark requirement exists because a VMC is a verified mark: a certificate authority has confirmed the organisation owns the legal right to that logo.

A CMC requires prior use. Your logo must be demonstrably in use commercially — visible on your website, in your marketing, on your products. No government registration required.

That single difference creates almost every other practical distinction between the two paths.

CMC has gone from 8 records in 2023 to 1870 by July 2, 2026 — a 234-fold increase in under three years. That is the fastest growth rate of any BIMI certificate category. But 90.8% of all certificates in deployment are still VMC.

That split reflects the current market composition, not a permanent preference. BIMI adoption has been driven by enterprise and large-brand deployments where trademark registrations already exist. As CMC awareness increases and MSP/agency channels start offering it as a standard service, the ratio will shift.

Sector differences in VMC vs CMC adoption are smaller than you might expect. Banking (87.6% VMC) and Retail (88.4% VMC) are both heavily VMC — established brand names with registered trademarks have no reason to choose CMC. Healthcare’s CMC rate of 13.1% is slightly higher, likely because mid-size clinics and regional providers are deploying BIMI before obtaining full trademark registrations.

The trademark requirement is the first filter. If your logo is not registered as a trademark, VMC is not currently available to you — CMC is your path. If it is registered, either path is technically available, but the right choice depends on your situation.

One of the most practical points that rarely gets covered: CMC is not a permanent alternative. It is a viable entry point. If your trademark is in progress, or your organisation simply has not yet registered the mark, CMC gets you into the inbox with a verified logo now. When your trademark is granted, upgrading to VMC is a standard certificate reissuance — not a new deployment.

The inbox experience for recipients is identical. The sender experience changes only at renewal — instead of renewing a CMC, you issue a VMC. The BIMI DNS record format and the SVG logo requirements are the same for both types.