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 2026-09-22, 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 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 | 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 ("£--") in the pack list; the credit calculator's recommendation box shows "Credit pack £25 500 Credits" and "Monthly plan £25 1,000 Credits". Larger packs and plans with volume discounts are quoted. |
| Free tier | 100 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 | $4.49 (Volume pack: 100,000 credits for $449), or $3.49 on the Volume monthly plan (100,000 credits for $349 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 | Open address registers for 23 countries and territories, each named in the answer with the coverage its own publisher claims. Complete, building by building: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Partial, building by building: Brazil, 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. | 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 | 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. | 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 an open 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 | 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 2026-09-22 · 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, because every full UK list derives from the licensed Postcode Address File: for a postcode in Great Britain its postcode endpoint answers the streets Ordnance Survey's Open Names files under the postcode's district, with no house numbers
- Spaw reads a written address against its own country's format and follows the building into that country's open address register where one is installed; Great Britain has no open building register, so an address in Great Britain is checked against the postcode directory and the streets Ordnance Survey lists, and a listed street never means a building exists
- Postcoder's monthly plan credits expire each month; Spaw's pack credits never expire and 100 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 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. 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