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FAQ

Why should I choose Smarty?

Smarty is the smart choice. And we invite you to validate that with a free trial. With thoughtfully architected redundant cloud-based service, you get maximum reliability. Your address data is processed fast—as fast as you want. Millions per second? We can do that. Really. Every validation result includes SmartyKey®, a persistent unique identifier that remains constant despite changes to an address. Alias identification becomes easy, helping you turn your address chaos into pristine location data. We’re easy to work with. We always strive to deal with behind-the-scenes complexities to make things easy for you. Going with us means you'll be up and running in no time. Implementation is easy, with access to outstanding documentation and super-responsive support should you need it. Get the most bang for your buck, like many industry leaders, such as Microsoft, Siemens, FedEx, Aflac, NASA, and thousands more. We're happy to welcome you to this elite group that seeks value, performance, and service.

Where can I learn more about Smarty's address verification APIs?

See Smarty's Cloud API Documentation to learn about the APIs, including authentication, HTTP resources, and recommended best practices.

Can I integrate Smarty within our CRM system?

Yep. As long as you can make an HTTP request and parse a JSON response, our APIs can be implemented in almost any CRM. Learn more about Smarty API capabilities.

Can I try before buying?

For Sure! Get a 30-day free trial of address verification/validation. No credit card is required. With the free trial, you can experience the full version of single address verification, bulk address verification, and API integration with your systems and processes. Free trials come with 1,000 lookups. If you need more lookups for your trial, contact our cool sales peeps.

How much does address verification cost?

If you’re looking for the industry’s best value, you’re in the right place. Smarty pricing scales to fit your needs and there are no setup fees. Smarty pricing is appreciated by smart business owners and managers, regardless of business type.

More FAQ

Select a category to see more information about a certain topic.

Getting started
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How do I get started?

If your questions are answered, get started by selecting and purchasing a price plan online.

If you have additional questions, contact one of our uber-friendly sales specialists for help.

Is it difficult to implement address validation/verification?

Nope. We don't think so. But judge for yourself. For single address verification, you just input or paste the address into Smarty's free address validation tool. For instructions, see the 2-minute video demo on How to Validate a Single Address.

For bulk address validation, you just upload a list. For instructions, see the 3-minute video demo titled "How Do You Validate a List of Addresses in Bulk".

For address correction API integration, we've prepared world-class, clear, easy API and SDK documentation that your developers will love. You'll be up and running in no time and we're here for you by phone, chat, or email with super responsiveness if you have questions or need help.

Do I need an API to validate addresses in bulk?

Nope. Learn how to validate addresses in bulk with no programming or API in the 3-minute video, You Don't Need an API to Bulk Validate.
Address verification/validation general education
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What is address verification?

Address verification (or validation) is the process of checking mailing addresses against an authoritative address database. If the input address matches an address in the official database, the address "validates", meaning it's real. Non-matching addresses are marked "invalid", meaning they don't exist or aren't registered with the official database.

Is address validation the same as address verification?

Technically address validation is different from address verification. But most people use the two terms interchangeably when they're wanting to make sure an address is real and can be delivered to. To help most people understand they're at the right place, we use the terms interchangeably on our website.

How do you perform address validation?

There are three main ways you can perform an address validation/verification: single address lookup, bulk address lookup, and address API. In a single address lookup, you can use Smarty's free tool. You enter the address in question and the tool returns the verified, correct version of the address formatted according to the country's standards. Likewise, you can verify a batch of addresses by uploading them to Smarty's bulk tool. Demo Smarty's Bulk Address Validation Tool. And finally, you can verify and validate addresses within your own systems and processes by integrating Smarty's Address API. Demo Smarty's US Street Address API to get a feel for how it works. To fully try all three ways of performing address validation, get a free, 30-day trial (no credit card required).

What is an address lookup?

An Address Lookup is the process of checking an address against an authoritative database to verify if the address is real and mailable. Performing an address lookup may also provide additional data points, like whether the address is residential or commercial, vacant, or incomplete.
Why verify/validate addresses, plus use cases
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Why is address verification and validation important?

Address verification helps you delight customers, reduce fraud and business risk, minimize shipping returns and charge-backs, cut postage and delivery costs, enhance and deduplicate records, merge databases, improve data governance, and more.

Think of the savings and improved collections by just improving your billing addresses. What could delivery point verification and improved delivery logistics and rate do for customers' delivery experience and your bottom line? In some cases, the time saved or cost-saving delivery rates and postage discounts alone can entirely pay for the address verification service.

"...our shipping costs savings ends up paying for the cost."

User in package delivery, G2 review

"We saw our undeliverable shipping rate fall from 5% to <1%, which represents a ton of savings for us."

Andy P, Founder

Address verification improves operations, cuts costs, increases revenue and improves your bottom line. It may be one of the fastest, easiest, highest ROI things you can do. Oh, snap!

Which businesses should use an address verification API?

You need address verification (or validation) if you send mail, deliver packages, route people to places, or maintain, clean, or merge databases, among other things.

Can address verification improve the E-commerce checkout process?

Abso-friggin-lutely! You can use Address APIs to verify addresses and reduce checkout errors, such as spelling errors, as people complete your web forms. When the user enters their entire address, the API can suggest the correct, normalized, standardized address within milliseconds. See an e-commerce checkout UI case study. To additionally improve the customer experience, consider adding Address Autocomplete, which predicts correct, verified addresses as the user types.

When using International Address Verification, the API applies the address formats according to the respective country standards.

Address validation helps keep your data clean at the point of entry and get your mail, packages, and people to the right place. Use address verification to delight customers while reducing wasted postage, return, and chargeback costs.

What are the applications or use cases for address verification/validation?

Read how the Red Cross cleaned and consolidated its address data. And learn how Speedway Motors improved its e-commerce checkout UI. See all case studies.
Why choose Smarty?
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Why should I choose Smarty?

Smarty is the smart choice. And we invite you to validate that with a free trial. With thoughtfully architected redundant cloud-based service, you get maximum reliability. Your address data is processed fast—as fast as you want. Millions per second? We can do that. Really. Every validation result includes SmartyKey®, a persistent unique identifier that remains constant despite changes to an address. Alias identification becomes easy, helping you turn your address chaos into pristine location data. We’re easy to work with. We always strive to deal with behind-the-scenes complexities to make things easy for you. Going with us means you'll be up and running in no time. Implementation is easy, with access to outstanding documentation and super-responsive support should you need it. Get the most bang for your buck, like many industry leaders, such as Microsoft, Siemens, FedEx, Aflac, NASA, and thousands more. We're happy to welcome you to this elite group that seeks value, performance, and service.

Is Google Address Validation as good as Smarty?

Google does a lot of things well—Gmail, Google Assistant, and selling user data; and other things not so well—Google Glass, Google Latitude, and Google+. Only time will tell how Google's Address Validation will turn out. Address Validation is what Smarty has specialized in for more than a decade. Our very lifeforce is poured into giving our users the very best experience today and in the future.

We invite all who may be on Google address validation to graduate to Smarty's professional-grade, high-volume service.

"BEST service available. Address Verification that just Works - the way its supposed to! We recently reviewed service providers for address verification - checked out Google's offering and USPS but when looking at uptime and speed of returning info - Smarty couldn't be beat. Our e-commerce solutions wouldn't work without the reliable info Smarty provides for us. Reasonable pricing too!"

Rhonda R, VP

Smarty is differentiated as a quality, enterprise-grade provider relied on by thousands of companies including industry leaders like Microsoft, FedEx, and NASA. Here are a few ways Smarty is clearly a smarter address validation choice than Google:

  • Price: Smarty's US Address Verification pricing is significantly better than Google's

  • Accuracy: Accuracy matters a lot. Smarty offers building-level and apartment-level accuracy in milliseconds. Smarty constantly improves its data based on what we learn from processing billions of addresses each day. See the 2-minute video, Graduate from Google: Validate Addresses More Accurately.

    "The accuracy and speed are fantastic!"

    James C, VP

  • Speed: Google maxes out at 100 address lookups per second. By contrast, Smarty's standard plans start at 50 addresses/second and our enterprise plans start at 300/second. Our speeds go up from there.

    In Smarty testing, Smarty is more than twice as fast as Google for international address validation. For US validation, it's like comparing the speed of walking to flying where Smarty is typically 200 times faster than Google.

    When a government agency needed to validate 75,000+ addresses per second in the cloud, they turned to Smarty. And we delivered. That's 750 times faster than Google. Need faster? We can do whatever you need. Really.

    "[Smarty's] response times are lightning fast."

    Tim R, Senior Software Developer

  • Ease: Smarty is super easy to get started with quickly. You can start validating addresses in bulk simply by uploading a spreadsheet of addresses, no programming required. With Google, bulk validation requires programming work.

    A product feature example of Smarty ease is that Google requires a 2-character country code, whereas Smarty can support the country spelled out, as well as the 2 or 3-character country code.

    Also, all of Smarty's APIs are supported by worldclass API and SDK documentation that makes integration and startup a snap. Your developers will love you for choosing Smarty.

    "One of the best features is that our developers quickly and seamlessly integrated the API call. It's one of those products that sits in the background and just delivers over and over again. Very easy to use and very accurate. It's a fantastic alternative to something like Google places. We've been a customer for 10+ years and the team at Smarty is always responsive and easy to work with."

    Mark D, Director, IT Customer Service

  • SmartyKey®: Every address validation result returns a persistent, unique SmartyKey identifier that never changes despite changes to an address. It’s an easy way to identify and merge or purge all those duplicates in your database and turn your address chaos into pristine location data.

  • Autocomplete Validation: Smarty verifies/validates autocompleted addresses. Google does not. And, in our estimation, the performance of Smarty's Address Autocomplete is far superior to Google's.

  • Data Expiration: Smarty's data doesn't expire. Google's data expires after 30 days. That means Google customers could end up paying over and over to validate the same address data. Google's address metadata also expires after 30 days. Smarty's does not.

  • Mapping Flexibility: Google forces you to use its mapping tool. From google's documentation, "It is prohibited to use Address Validation API data on a map that's not a Google map." If you want to plot addresses via maps, you're limited to using Google Maps per their terms. That means you can't use ArcGIS, QGIS, MapInfo, or any of the many other powerful mapping platforms. With Smarty, you can use Google maps and any other mapping platform with any data overlays for superior visualizations, analysis, and decision-making.

  • Bulk Processing: With Smarty, bulk address processing is as easy as uploading a list of addresses. Google's bulk processing requires custom code work.

  • High Volume Testing: Smarty provides a trial period that supports high-volume testing. Google does not.

  • Support: Smarty's support is legendary. Google's isn't.

    "Simply the best! I cannot speak highly enough of [Smarty's] customer service. Everyone there is friendly, professional, knowledgeable, and very quick to respond to questions, concerns, and they are eager to assist with configuring and integrating [Smarty] into your system."

    Tim R, Sr Software Developer

  • Focus: Smarty is 100% focused on the address; we have been for more than a decade and will continue to be. Google, on the other hand, has hundreds of products they've launched and then sent to their failed product graveyard. See killedbygoogle.com for a full list. Will address validation also be scrapped in the future? With ongoing research and development, you can count on Smarty to guide you into the future with the leading address verification/validation service.

    "[Smarty is] always improving their service and their customer service is outstanding."

    Joseph M, Web Developer

  • Terms: Google's terms and conditions are notorious for being confusing and constantly revised. Ours are straightforward and easy to understand.

    "We've been a customer for 10+ years and the team at Smarty is always responsive and easy to work with."

    Mark D, IT Director

  • Privacy: Unlike Smarty, Google is all about building profiles and advertising to people and companies based on those profiles. Do you trust your client data with Google? Is that sort of data privacy a concern for your organization?

  • Value: Combine Smarty pricing, performance, features, and support, and Smarty is your clear value leader versus not only Google but also other address validation providers. Compare for yourself. Offering you industry-leading value is our thing.

APIs
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Where can I learn more about Smarty's address verification API?

See Smarty's Cloud API Documentation to learn more about the APIs, including authentication, HTTP resources, and recommended best practices.

What is an address verification API?

An Address Validation API or verification API is an application programming interface (API) that verifies postal information automatically.

How does an address verification API work?

US address validation APIs normalize addresses to match the standards of the USPS. Smarty also offers International Address Verification. Address validation APIs efficiently integrate with websites, databases, CRMs, and other software to enhance address data quality.

Smarty builds on the data the USPS provides and gives ridiculously fast address validation, address data enrichment, standardization, and autocomplete with our own collection of flexible address APIs. Do an online trial of the US Street Address API Tool.

Features
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Can I integrate Smarty within our CRM system?

Yep. As long as you can make an HTTP request and parse a JSON response, our APIs can be implemented in almost any CRM. Learn more about Smarty API capabilities.

"Smarty's API has been straightforward to integrate into our CRM and our business intelligence tools. …[Smarty] is a fantastic product.

Shawn R, IT and Security Manager

What regions are supported?

In addition to the US, Smarty's International Address Verification supports all 195 countries plus all territories. Keep in mind, address matching capability is subject to data availability, which fluctuates by location, with developed countries typically having the best data.

What are the service guarantees?

US Core Address API: 99.98% of requests containing a single lookup will respond within 500ms (over a five-minute period). See the full SLA.

"It ALWAYS works. We've been using their API for 3.5 years and have never once had an outage."

Blake H

How fast do lookups occur?

By the time you finish reading this sentence, you could have validated and standardized about 400,000 addresses. With our US Address Verification plans, you can process up to 75,000 addresses per second (270 million address lookups per hour). Need faster? No worries - we can meet any speed you need. Really.

How does Smarty deliver such high accuracy?

Smarty delivers accurate addresses by verifying/validating against authoritative databases, like the USPS in the US and the Canada Post in Canada. In addition, we offer enhanced accuracy by supplementing those datasets with our own proprietary sources which include what we learn from processing more than 2 billion addresses every single day. We've been focused on doing this for over a decade.

How does Smarty validate 20 million more addresses than in the USPS database?

The USPS database contains all US addresses that the USPS delivers to. However, a physical address isn't always the same as a mailing address. We've identified over 20 million legitimate "non-postal" addresses where people live and work and receive pizza, Amazon orders, and other deliveries. These addresses would be unrecognized customer locations for the USPS. Smarty has built its non-postal address list through multiple authoritative sources, including new addresses identified every day by validating more than 2 billion addresses per day.

What address metadata can I get when I validate an address?

Smarty offers up to 55 points of data with each address when it validates an address. Those include longitude, latitude, Residential Delivery Indicator (RDI), vacancy, county name, congressional district, and more. See the full list above and/or watch the 2-minute video, What Data Do You Get When You Validate an Address.

Please be aware that based on the availability of data, it would be unusual for an address to contain all 55 points of data. However, most addresses come with most data points. Want to see for yourself? Try address validation free. Also, note that the longitude and latitude coordinates included with address verification are street-centroid. If you need the highest level of accuracy, see our Rooftop Geocoding offering.

Every address validation result also returns a persistent, unique SmartyKey® identifier that never changes despite changes to an address. It’s an easy way to identify and merge or purge all those duplicates in your database and turn your address chaos into pristine location data.

Does Smarty validate addresses against the Canada post database?

Yes. With Smarty, you can check, verify & correct U.S. and Canadian addresses. Smarty supplements the USPS and the Canada Post with proprietary, authoritative address lists. Looking for more countries? Smarty's International Address Verification offers service for all 195 countries plus all territories.

We have a database full of messy address data. Can Smarty help with this?

Check out how easy it is to clean and deduplicate records based on address in the 4-minute video, How to Remove Duplicate Addresses in Excel.

Also, we have a bulk address verification tool that works great for bulk lists. See some tips on Preparing Your Mailing List for Address Validation.

If you're still stuck, feel free to send a sample to sales@smarty.com. We can take a look and let you know if we have any additional suggestions.

How does address autocomplete work with address verification

The Address Verification API is separate from the Address Autocomplete API. However, implementing the APIs together is a breeze.

What support comes with address validation?

You get unlimited, free support from people who promptly answer you. Smarty's Support Team is made up of knowledgeable experts—no novices, no tiers, and no time-wasting scripts. Try us and we think you'll agree our unlimited, no-cost support is better than other companies' paid support.
Demos and trials
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Can I try it before buying?

Yes! Get a 30-day free trial of address verification/validation. No credit card is required. With the free trial, you can experience the full version of single address verification, bulk address verification, and API integration with your systems and processes. Free trials come with 1,000 lookups. If you need more for your trial, contact our cool sales peeps.

Where can I find self-serve, online trials?

To try a customer-facing Live API, go to the US Address Verification Tool above. To demo the tool, just input a shipping address (or any address) to see the validation results, including actual location details on a map and accompanying metadata.

To go behind the scenes with a developer trial, try Smarty's US Address Verification API Tool to see what API responses would look like.

Check out all the Live APIs, including the International Address Validation, the US ZIP Code, the US Address Autocomplete, and the International Address Autocomplete Live APIs.

Pricing, purchase, and usage
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How much does address verification cost?

If you’re looking for the industry’s best value, you’re in the right place. Smarty pricing scales to fit your needs and there are no setup fees. Smarty pricing is appreciated by smart business owners and managers, regardless of business type.

"The pricing puts [Smarty] high in the value-to-use category."

Justin C, IT Manager

See Smart(y) pricing.

How does Smarty pricing work for address verification/validation?

Smarty charges per address lookup performed. Get simple, transparent pricing with no setup fees, commitments, or gimmicks. You can choose from flexible plans, including unlimited processing, for everyone from startups to the largest enterprises. Smarty's industry-leading value improves your bottom line with no hidden fees or unwelcome surprises.

Shop around and you'll see Smarty offers you industry-leading value.

See pricing.

How do paid subscriptions work?

A paid subscription is valid for a set period of time or a number of lookups, whichever comes first. Learn more at "How Paid Subscriptions Work".

What happens if I run out of lookups?

If you go beyond your subscription level (monthly or yearly, depending on your subscription), and you've selected auto-renew in your account, we charge your card or invoice you for a new block of address lookups and renew your subscription starting on the current date. We do this so that the service is always available for you. Learn more at "How Paid Subscriptions Work".

What are the average costs?

We don't have overage costs on depleted plans. Every yearly subscription with Smarty has an expiration date that is 365 days from the purchase date. If you deplete your lookups before the expiration date, your API requests will return a 402 error, "payment required". To avoid a 402 error you can choose autorenewal which will renew a subscription with the same license/API before the depletion date. When renewing with an annual plan, your subscription will reset the expiration date to 365 days from the renewal date.

How do renewals work?

There are a few ways to renew. You can renew with an on-file credit card (self-service) or through your account manager via invoice.

In the self-service, credit card option, you can choose to make renewal automatic so that you never have to worry about service shutting off due to exceeding your plan's allocated number of lookups. We send an email when you have used 90% of your plan's lookups, to alert you that an automated billing charge is coming up. Following the charge, we send you a receipt.

If you select an annual plan with invoicing, your account rep will remind you of the upcoming renewal. And you can also set up autorenewal for peace of mind.

Do you offer non-profit pricing?

Not at this time. However, our pricing puts Smarty squarely in the best-value category among competitors.

How much does it cost to cancel?

There are no cancellation fees. You have no commitments with Smarty month-to-month plans and so there is no cancellation fee or cost. Smarty annual plans are paid in advance for the entire year and offer you volume savings over monthly plans.
Other
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How long has Smarty been in business?

Smarty has been 100% laser-focused on location data intelligence for more than a decade, and that focus commitment is something you can count on in the future.

"I've been using Smarty for 10+ years to verify addresses…I highly recommend [Smarty] if you have a need for address verification."

Andy P, Founder

Can I look up a ZIP code and verify it?

Yes. You can not only verify a ZIP code, but you can also identify the city and state and learn more about the postal code, such as which county and county FIPs it falls in. Try verifying and looking up states and cities by ZIP Code with the US Zip Code API Tool.

Does Smarty offer a list of addresses for the United States?

Yes. Smarty offers the US Master Address List which includes 200+ million verified, mailable addresses throughout the entire country. All addresses come with SmartyKey, a persistent unique identifier for superior coverage, data management, reporting, and analysis.

Can I resell Smarty service?

Yes! Contact sales for more information.

Get more info and help
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How can I get more questions answered?

If you have support-related questions, speak with support. For questions about system performance, business applications, plans, or pricing, contact one of our friendly sales specialists.

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