Google’s address validation API is free to use for low volumes of addresses. However, the costs for e-commerce and shipping companies increase dramatically when the number of addresses exceeds this limit. Moreover, Google doesn’t offer suite and apartment coverage, doesn’t parse addresses properly (grouping address components such as house/building/unit number, street name, city, state, zip+4 code, and country), and doesn’t verify these addresses against Royal Mail data.
Furthermore, Google’s API limits speeds to 100 queries per second. This makes high-capacity address validation for data blending, database cleansing, customer analysis, and more a painfully slow process.
The most important issue with Google’s address validation is that it doesn’t support international addresses. This is a major problem for e-commerce and shipping companies with international customers, which can lead to expensive form abandonment due to inconvenient and confusing user experiences.
Robust address validation tools like Byteplant’s Address Validator can validate international addresses in 240+ countries. They also include RDI (Residential Delivery Indicator) data, which specifies whether an address is residential or commercial and impacts shipping costs. Additionally, the API is GDPR compliant, which is critical for any company that processes PII of EU citizens. Choosing a dedicated address validation solution is more cost-effective and secure than using Google’s free service, which poses many risks. To learn more about how a robust, fast, and affordable address validation tool can help your business, contact us now.