Best address validation APIs, services, software, & tools
The best address validation APIs and address verification software are used to verify that addresses are accurate, shippable, and correctly formatted to match the standard address format of the local address authority.
Address validation software can be offered in many forms depending on your needs and available technology. Typical address validation applications and software forms include:
- Copy & paste address validation web forms - Copy and paste one or many mailing addresses one at a time into an online form for validation.
- Spreadsheet validation - Conveniently validate your list of addresses right in the Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet you're working in.
- Geographic Information System (GIS) - Conveniently validate a list of addresses right within a GIS platform to map addresses seamlessly.
- Command Line Interface (CLI) - speedily bulk validate any size list of addresses using the CLI.
- Cloud address validation application - Integrate address validation APIs into your systems to automatically validate address data whenever needed.
- Self-hosted (or locally hosted) address validation application.
- Batch processing - Permits bulk address validation of a text file such as .csv, .xls, .xlsx, .txt, etc. via upload.
- Address autocomplete application with validation - Integrates autocomplete functionality into eCommerce, user registration, or internal registration forms to predict and suggest validated, standardized addresses to end users to reduce entry time, errors, and friction.
This article will cover the best address verification software and services offered, each with unique features and benefits that might make them perfect for you. If you want to try one of Smarty's address validation tools, try them out here or skip down to our evaluation below.
| Bulk address validation | Address validation API | Address autocomplete API |
|---|---|---|
Let's start looking at the 5 best address validation APIs and software. In this article, we'll cover:
- Smarty® address validation API &software
- Melissa Clean Suite
- Lob Address Verification Addon
- PostGrid address verification.
- Analyzing comparative data
It's true; you have several options when it comes to address verification software, solutions, and service providers.
In many ways, that's a good thing, mainly because you can find the provider that's just right for you.
You have address data coming into your systems that isn't accurate for one reason or another—whether that be ‘fat-fingering' or intentional fraud—and you need to make sure they're standardized and accurate so that you can use them within your process.
We visited the software review site G2.com and examined their ratings and measurements to qualify the top 5 address verification solutions available. We won't rank them for you, but we WILL give an in-depth look at the pros and cons of each address verification software.
Let's get into it.
Smarty® address validation API &software
'Cause somebody's gotta go first, it might as well be us.
If you're looking for an extremely fast and accurate address validation tool, then you may be like many other people who have chosen Smarty. G2.com rates Smarty as the #1 address verification tool of the top 5 contenders.
Smarty's applications for USPS, non-USPS, and international addresses are screaming-fast and capable of handling millions of addresses per second.
Pricing
Smarty publishes the most about their pricing options on both G2.com and their website. With a 42-day free trial that offers 1,000 free lookups, it's one of the most accessible for developers looking to test a working model of the software. Those needing more than 1,000 lookups for testing may reach out to Smarty.
Features
Smarty offers solutions for any problem that begins or ends with a street address. The Smarty suite includes cloud-based bulk address validation (database/mailing lists cleanup), address autocomplete (as a real-time postal address validation solution), rooftop-accurate geocoding (put a pin on that roof), and address enrichment (property attributes, geo-census data, and secondary address identification). Each of these includes up to 55 additional address data points and metadata. These tools are most robust in the US and powerful internationally, covering 250 countries and territories.
Additionally, SmartyKey® is a 10-digit code, known as a persistent unique identifier (PUID), assigned to an address that remains constant regardless of how many times addresses or their components change. It's included for all US addresses, both USPS and non-USPS, in Smarty's US address geocoding database and US Address Verification, comprising over 210 million address records.
Smarty's applications deliver 99.999% uptime and incredible speed. Also worth noting is that the address validation doesn't just provide a "valid/not-valid" result but will correct your data or tell you what is wrong. The rooftop-accurate geocoding is high quality as well, providing a pin on the actual roof of the address 97% of the time. When we tested a shipping address in Cedar City, UT, it delivered a pin on the rooftop of the location we were intending to ship to.
Ratings
What do the users think of Smarty? There are 293 reviews on G2 for Smarty (at the time of writing, the most ratings across the board).
- Overall: 4.6 stars
- Ease of use: 9.3
- Quality of support 9.1
- Ease of setup 9.1
Melissa Clean Suite
Melissa has been in the address data game for a long time, 38 years at the time of this writing. They offer loads of address solutions for both US and international addresses, including email address validation and phone validation.
Pricing
Comparable and competitive pricing is offered, and a 42-day free trial account is also available. You can activate 1,000 free "credits" when you sign up for an account, but depending on what you're testing or validating, the cost may be more than one credit. For example, checking a US or Canadian address is one credit, but checking an international address is 10 credits.
Features
As mentioned above, Melissa offers a slew of products and services, including SSN-name verification, property information, business check, phone checks, and more. Of course, for these purposes, we're measuring their Melissa Data Address Check solution.
Since they offer so many solutions, they offer additional information for each address that you check including name at address, birth month-year, phone number, and others.
When we tested this with an address in Cedar City, UT, it delivered an incorrect name, incorrect birth month-year, and an incorrect phone number. It also claims to be "Geocoded to Rooftop Level," but the pin is clearly in the parcel center rather than on the rooftop of a building.
Ratings
Having been around for a very long time, Melissa has many fans, with a total of 174 reviews at the time of writing.
- Overall: 4.5 stars
- Ease of use: 8.5
- Quality of support 8.8
- Ease of setup 8.5
Lob Address Verification Add-on
Focused on direct mail automation, Lob's address verification platform is an add-on to their main service. They're a solution with variable pricing depending on US or international shipping. Their address validation operates as an add-on with their direct mail application.
Pricing
Pricing at Lob is less direct or transparent than other address validation platforms. They post pricing for "Business" and "Growth" plans that include their mailing costs, but we couldn't find the price of address validation alone on G2 or Lob.com. It's also interesting to note that on G2.com, it lists a free developer option, but their website doesn't outline what you get with that account.
Features
Lob offers mailing services as well as an address validation API. However, as far as we've been able to test, they only deliver a "valid / not valid" result or, more accurately, a "deliverable/undeliverable'' result. They also offer an autocomplete product that helps clean your data going in so that you don't have to rely on the deliverable/undeliverable data.
When we tested this with an address in Cedar City, UT, it delivered a valid address, but for "Lob Confidence Score," it delivered "Insufficient Data." Lob does say that they offer reverse geocodes but not rooftop geocodes. Probably for the best since their pin missed the rooftop of the buildings.
Ratings
Many of Lob's reviews revolve around their mailing services, so a direct comparison is a little tough. However, they still have a high score and many reviews, with 192 total reviews, though only 104 are for address validation.
- Overall: 4.4 stars
- Ease of use: 9.0
- Quality of support 8.7
- Ease of setup 8.8
Intermission note
G2.com plots solutions that measure user satisfaction and market presence using a graph. The above three address validation services are ranked in the highest quadrant, meaning they have high customer satisfaction and a solid market presence.
As you can see by the "overall" scores above, so far, Smarty holds the highest position for user satisfaction, and Lob has the largest market presence. However, it may be difficult to accurately measure that since their reviews are for both their address validation and their mailing services.
We'll select the following two solutions from the quadrant with higher user satisfaction but smaller market presence. If you're reading this, you're likely more concerned with being satisfied with your address validation than using a product many people find frustrating.
PostGrid address verification
Focused on CASS (USPS) address validation services, PostGrid is a younger Canadian software company and less-known option that has quickly gained a few fans.
Pricing
PostGrid hasn't posted any pricing for their physical address validation software on G2.com or their own website.
Features
The tools PostGrid offers center around their applications for US and international postal addresses.
Ratings
There are 70 reviews for PostGrid with high marks.
- Overall: 5 stars
- Ease of use: 10
- Quality of support 9.9
- Ease of setup 9.9
WAIT A MINUTE WAIT A MINUTE HOOOOOLD UP HERE!
These results looked waaaaaay too good to be true. We decided to do some investigating of our own, and we found a few problems:
- PostGrid's implementation is complicated at best. Their documentation is full of conflicting information. For example, is it 5 lookups per second or 100 per second for your rate limit, guys? The reality of implementation appears to vary greatly from the demo on their site.
- PostGrid will say an address is valid, but their tools don't return the most updated version of the address. They don't seem to have a PUID (persistent, unique identifier) to track address changes over time, and therefore, they don't have a way of returning the most recent version.
- We encountered plenty of false positives in our testing. If you're not sure what these are, no worries. In a nutshell, it's an address that's returned as valid but is actually not. A false positive occurs during the address validation process when an entered address matches an incorrect or non-existent address without an error message or sufficient indication that the address is incomplete or wrong. That's a huge address data intelligence no-no.
- PostGrid's database is significantly limited in size compared to the others. They only have access to USPS's address database and currently do not provide services for non-USPS (non-postal) addresses.
- In addition to false positives, PostGrid's site holds false promises. While their documentation claims that they return dpv footnotes such as AABB, their API isn't actually returning that data.
- PostGrid also doesn't return LACSLink®-improved addresses because they aren't fully certified with USPS. What does that mean in layman's terms? Let's look at an example:
In Provo, Bulldog Boulevard became Cougar Lane when the Provo High School moved. In our system, if you enter an address on Bulldog Boulevard, we return the match on Cougar, the most updated version of the street name/address. On Postgrid, they return the match on Bulldog, the old version of the address that's been renamed to Cougar. Maybe this isn't the best way to claim high match rates, PostGrid…
- They don't have a phone number to call their support teams. I guess that might be fine if you like email or chat within their hours of operations?
- PostGrid's autocomplete tool returns fake addresses in their autocomplete responses. For example, 1226 S 760 W Provo UT is NOT a real address, yet they return it as one.
I mean, there might be more than what we found by just searching their site, but we'll leave it up to you on whether or not to test that for yourself.
Analyzing comparative data
It's important to look at the numbers, sure, but you should also focus on the features that are most important for you and your company. What levels of accuracy do you need? What happens if those levels are not met? What level of speed are you hoping to attain? What happens if you fall short of that? What price range are you comfortable with, and how much do you have to pay to try out a solution you might not be sold on yet?
At Smarty, we've been around the perfectly validated block for 13 years and counting with almost 300 satisfied reviewers on just this platform. As a top-tier provider, we're here to help you take your address validation to the next level.
So, check out G2 and do some further digging; try one of our live applications or set up a 42-day free trial now. What are you waiting for?