Spaw vs Smarty
Smarty sells US address verification against postal data: a lookup validates to the secondary level and returns delivery-point metadata that open registers cannot answer, including a DPV match code, the residential indicator and vacancy status.
The table uses Smarty'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 Smarty publishes.
| spaw | smarty | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Annual lookup bundles on the Professional plan from $552 a year, sized 12K, 60K, 120K, 300K, 600K, 1M or 2M lookups; a monthly option and bespoke Custom pricing are offered. Only the $552 entry price is shown on the page. |
| Free tier | 10 free credits every month, no card required | A free trial rather than a standing tier: "42 days" and "1,000 address lookups", "No credit card required" |
| 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) | not on the pages read |
| 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) | not on the pages read |
| 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. | Postal rather than cadastral: the page claims "210M addresses (incl 20M non-USPS)" and "over 20 million non-postal addresses", with "Up to 55 points of metadata" per lookup. It names no national address register. |
| 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. | The United States on the page checked; international address verification is priced on a separate page. |
| 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. | Yes. The metadata named on the page includes a DPV match code, the residential/commercial indicator (RDI), vacancy status, carrier route and ZIP type, and validation runs "down to the secondary level, including apartment and suite numbers". |
| 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: Smarty US address verification pricing
When Smarty fits better
US mailers who need the postal service's own delivery-point answers — is it a real delivery point, is it occupied, is it residential — which open data cannot give.
- Answers the delivery-point questions licensed postal data can answer: DPV, RDI and vacancy
- Validates to the secondary level, so an apartment or suite number is checked rather than ignored
- ZIP9 and rooftop precise geocodes are listed on the plan
- A 42-day, 1,000-lookup trial with no card
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.
- Smarty answers whether post is delivered to an address; Spaw does not and says so: is_deliverable, is_cmra, is_vacant and is_residential answer null because that check is licensed and not enabled
- Spaw's exists is a match in a country's own address register, and it is null wherever the register covers only part of the country — the US National Address Database is one of those
- Smarty's page prices the United States; Spaw reads 206 countries against their own postal formats, with registers installed for six of them
- Smarty sells annual lookup bundles; Spaw sells credits that never expire, and an address that cannot stand as written costs nothing
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. Smarty does not publish how it bills them.
Can I move an address list from Smarty 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. Smarty offers: A free trial rather than a standing tier: "42 days" and "1,000 address lookups", "No credit card required".
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 Smarty alternatives.
Smarty is a trademark of its owner. Spaw is not affiliated with it. Markdown version: /compare/smarty.md