Spaw vs Postcoder
Postcoder is a UK-first address lookup API sold as credits that any of its services can spend: address lookup, bank validation, email validation, mobile validation and OTP verification, each costing a published number of credits per request.
The table uses Postcoder's public pricing and documentation pages as checked on 2026-09-10, 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 Postcoder publishes.
| spaw | postcoder | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go credit packs, or optional monthly plans that deposit the same credits every month for less; both through Stripe Checkout, credits from either never expire | Credit packs (500 to 200,000 credits, "valid for 12 months from purchase") or monthly plans (1,000 to 100,000 credits, with unused credits not carried over). "Your credits can be used for any Postcoder request." The pack prices themselves render as placeholders ("£--") on the page. |
| Free tier | 10 free credits every month, no card required | A free trial is offered; its duration and allowance are not stated on the pricing page |
| 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) | £100 per 1,000 UK address lookups pay-as-you-go (10.00p a request, 2.0 credits) or £45 per 1,000 on a monthly plan (4.50p). This is the address comparison, so only the address rate is quoted: the same account buys email and mobile validation at their own per-request rates, which are read off the same page. |
| Price per 1,000 at about 100k | $4.99 (Volume pack: 100,000 credits for $499), or $3.99 on the Volume monthly plan (100,000 credits for $399 a month) | The same published per-request rates; the page shows no volume tier below them, and the pack prices that would set the effective rate are not rendered. |
| 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 | Six national address registers, each named in the answer with the coverage its own publisher claims: the United States National Address Database and the French Base Adresse Nationale, both partial, and the Swiss, Austrian, Czech (RÚIAN) and Norwegian (Matrikkelen) registers, all complete. Absence from a partial register is never read as evidence that an address does not exist. | Not published as a register list. The pricing page separates UK, Ireland and "Rest of world" address lookups and mentions a "PAF Public Sector Licence" for public sector discounts. |
| Country coverage | 206 countries and territories for the line layout, required fields and postcode pattern; 52 postal operators' rules for naming a delivery point that is not a street; 6 address registers; the ONS Postcode Directory for Great Britain, with Northern Ireland excluded because reusing BT postcodes needs a separate licence. | UK, Ireland and "Rest of world" are priced separately; the page publishes no country count. |
| 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 a national address register, never a statement that post arrives. | not on the pages read |
| 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 | not on the pages read |
| 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 | Nothing: no history row and no log line carrying the address, only a hashed 7-day marker that makes a repeat free. Bulk input lists and result files are deleted with the job after 30 days. | not on the pages read |
checked 2026-09-10 · sources: Postcoder pricing
When Postcoder fits better
UK checkouts that want a postcode-to-address picker from a licensed UK dataset, with email and mobile validation on the same balance.
- One credit balance across address, bank, email and mobile validation and OTP
- Credit packs last 12 months; monthly plan credits do not carry over
- A public sector discount tied to a PAF Public Sector Licence
- Monthly plans cost well under half the pay-as-you-go rate per request
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.
- Postcoder can list the addresses at a UK postcode; Spaw cannot and refuses with a typed 501 rather than guessing, because every full UK list derives from the licensed Postcode Address File
- Spaw reads a written address against its own country's format in 206 countries and follows the building into a national register in six of them
- Postcoder's monthly plan credits expire each month; Spaw's credits never expire and 10 arrive free every month
- Spaw charges nothing for an address that cannot stand as written, and nothing for a repeat within seven days
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 covers only part of it, exists answers null — not evaluated — rather than a verdict, and the not_in_register weight cannot fire. Postcoder does not publish how it bills them.
Can I move an address list from Postcoder 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 the 45 answer columns, 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 10 free credits at the start of each month with no card on file, and unused credits accumulate. Postcoder offers: A free trial is offered; its duration and allowance are not stated on the pricing page.
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 Postcoder alternatives.
Postcoder is a trademark of its owner. Spaw is not affiliated with it. Markdown version: /compare/postcoder.md