I am being tasked to find a address validation engine for our company's database. The preferred method is through API feeds, and we are trying to avoid Google as it was deemed highly inaccurate for non-US address. We are looking for providers for international addresses, especially those which can give highly accurate street address with just a postal code.
Hope to hear responses soon! Thank you in advance!
Google was probably deemed "highly inaccurate" for international addresses because Google doesn't verify addresses. Google Maps will place a pin on an address where it would exist if it did exist, but doesn't mean that it does exist. (Trust me, I work at SmartyStreets.)
Only 5% of countries in the world actually support complete address verification. The accuracy level of verification varies from country to country. See: https://smartystreets.com/docs/international#countries
All the other countries just don't carry delivery-point-level data.
But you can try some services like SmartyStreets, Cdyne, Melissa Data, QAS, or Postcode Anywhere, for international "validation". Be careful, though, I've seen QAS and Postcode Anywhere give back a "valid" result when actually the address isn't valid. Some companies only use "range" or street-level data even if delivery point data is available, meaning that they assume/guess it's right, even if it's not.
I guess it depends what your needs are.
