Spaw vs Lob
Lob is a print-and-mail platform whose Address Verification API validates, standardises and enriches US and international addresses, CASS certified, with USPS delivery-point data and a deliverability likelihood drawn from Lob's own mail delivery records.
The table uses Lob's public pricing and documentation pages as checked on 2026-09-16, and Spaw's own pricing page. A row those pages carry no value for is marked "not on the pages read" rather than guessed at, and that is a statement about the reading and not about what Lob publishes.
| spaw | lob | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go credit packs whose credits never expire, or optional plans, billed monthly or yearly, that deposit the same credits every month for less and roll unused plan credits over up to three months' allowance; both through Stripe Checkout | Verifications are priced per call on top of a print-and-mail plan: on the Developer plan ($0 a month) "US Address Verifications $0.05/additional" and international $0.07; on Startup ($260 a month) $0.025 with "1,000 included for $25/mo" and international $0.06 with 500 included for $30 a month; on Growth ($550 a month) $0.009 with "50,000 included for $450/mo" and international $0.055 with 10,000 included for $550 a month; Enterprise is "Contact us for details". |
| Free tier | 100 free credits every month, no card required | The Developer plan is "Starting at $0 / month" with verifications billed per call; the site offers "Get started for free". |
| Price per 1,000 at about 10k | $7.80 (Growth pack: 5,000 credits for $39), or $5.80 on the Growth monthly plan (5,000 credits for $29 a month) | $50 per 1,000 US verifications on the Developer plan ($0.05 each) or $25 per 1,000 on Startup ($0.025 each beyond the 1,000 included for $25 a month); international $70 or $60. |
| Price per 1,000 at about 100k | $4.49 (Volume pack: 100,000 credits for $449), or $3.49 on the Volume monthly plan (100,000 credits for $349 a month) | $9 per 1,000 US verifications on the Growth plan ($0.009 each beyond the 50,000 included for $450 a month); international $55 per 1,000. |
| Addresses no register covered billed | An address that stands as written costs 1 credit whether or not a register carried the building; where no register covers the country, exists answers null rather than a verdict | not on the pages read |
| Addresses that cannot stand billed | No: an address that cannot stand as written is free whatever the reason, and so are repeats within 7 days and rows repeating an address already in the same job | not on the pages read |
| Registers held | Open address registers for 23 countries and territories, each named in the answer with its declared coverage, complete or partial. Complete, building by building: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Partial, building by building: Brazil, Denmark, France (with French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, St. Barthélemy, St. Martin and St. Pierre & Miquelon), Germany and United States. Partial, streets only: Great Britain. House-number ranges as well: United States. Absence from a partial register is never read as evidence that an address does not exist. | Postal: "USPS CASS certification", plus a deliverability likelihood "based on Lob's mail delivery data to over half of US households". |
| Country coverage | Postal formats for 207 countries and territories: the line layout for 199 of them, and the required fields and postcode pattern wherever the table records them; 52 postal operators' rules for naming a delivery point that is not a street; open address registers for 23 countries and territories; postcode directories for Great Britain from the ONS Postcode Directory, with Northern Ireland excluded because reusing BT postcodes needs a separate licence, and for 108 more countries and territories from GeoNames' postal codes. | "Access delivery data for more than 240 global territories" |
| Claims post is delivered | No, and every answer says so: is_deliverable, is_cmra, is_vacant and is_residential answer null because that check is licensed and not enabled here. exists is a match in an open address register, never a statement that post arrives. | Yes. The live demo on the address-verification page lists DPV Confirmation, DPV CMRA, DPV Vacant, DPV Active and DPV Footnotes, and a "USPS Deliverability" likelihood from Lob's own delivery data. |
| Bulk limit | 100,000 addresses per bulk job, with an HMAC-signed completion webhook | not on the pages read |
| Batch API | 100 addresses per synchronous request | Offered: the page says "validate individual or bulk addresses with our award-winning APIs" and answers a FAQ on validating a list; no limit is stated. |
| Rate limit | 50 requests per second per key on the address endpoints | not on the pages read |
| Official SDKs | Python, Node.js, PHP | not on the pages read |
| Data retention | No history row and no log line carrying the address. What a lookup leaves is the 7-day marker that makes a repeat free and the count behind seen_by_you, both kept under a digest, never the address. The address itself is kept only on the account's own suppression list and in its monitors. Bulk input lists and result files are deleted with the job after 30 days. | not on the pages read |
checked 2026-09-16 · sources: Lob pricing, Lob address verification
When Lob fits better
Teams that already print and mail through Lob and want the same account to clean the addresses first, with the postal service's delivery-point answers for the United States.
- USPS delivery-point data: DPV confirmation, CMRA, vacancy and the footnotes
- A deliverability likelihood from Lob's own mail delivery records rather than from USPS alone
- Real-time autocomplete and standardisation on forms
- Verifications billed per call beside a print-and-mail plan, with volume included on the paid plans
When Spaw fits better
Developers who want a written address parsed against its own country's rules and checked against open registers, where a field nobody could evaluate answers null instead of a guess.
- Lob answers whether post is delivered and whether the point is an agency or vacant; Spaw's is_deliverable, is_cmra, is_vacant and is_residential answer null because that check is licensed and not enabled
- Lob's verifications are priced per call on top of a mail plan; a Spaw credit buys one answered lookup with no plan beneath it, and an address that cannot stand as written costs nothing
- Spaw's mail-drop answer names the operator's branch list, the registered-agent list or the company cluster that decided it, from open registers rather than delivery records
- Every Spaw answer names the datasets and versions behind it in sources, so a result can be traced to the register that gave it
Questions
Does Spaw charge for addresses no register covers?
An address that stands as written costs 1 credit, whether or not a register carried the building. An address that cannot stand costs nothing, whatever the reason, and a repeat within seven days is free. Where no register covers the country, or where the register that answered is one whose coverage is partial and does not carry the address, exists answers null — not evaluated — rather than a verdict, and the not_in_register weight cannot fire. Lob does not publish how it bills them.
Can I move an address list from Lob to Spaw?
Yes. Upload the CSV in the dashboard or POST it to the bulk endpoint, up to 100,000 addresses a job; Spaw keeps your columns and adds 64 result columns after them (the address as submitted, the answer, the datasets behind it, what the row cost and whether your suppression list answered it), and a country column gives each row its own country. Rows repeating an address already in the list are answered once, cost nothing, and are counted as duplicates.
Is there a free tier?
Every Spaw account receives 100 free credits at the start of each month with no card on file, and unused free credits accumulate. Lob offers: The Developer plan is "Starting at $0 / month" with verifications billed per call; the site offers "Get started for free".
Try Spaw on your own list
Free credits every month, no card. Upload a list, keep your columns, and download only the rows you want. See the pricing page for every rule, or the Lob alternatives.
Lob is a trademark of its owner. Spaw is not affiliated with it. Markdown version: /compare/lob.md