Validating email addresses means verifying the existence of addresses and the ability to send them out without sending test emails to them. This process helps reduce the performance of hard and soft bounces, avoid spam traps, and leads to an increase in the effectiveness of your email campaign as a whole.
Three steps to check email for validity:
1) Checking the format and syntax of the address.
At the first stage, the correspondence of email addresses to generally accepted standards is checked. Errors are also detected in both parts of the address – local (before the @ symbol) and in the domain (after the @ symbol). These can be spaces, extra and non-typical characters, the absence of the @ character, and so on.
2) Verification of the domain and server.
After confirming the syntax and format, the authentication and activity of the DNS records are checked.
3) Mailbox confirmation.
At the last stage, the existence of the mailbox itself is confirmed, and it is also checked whether it is full.
Types of email address validation tools
There are two categories of tools for validating email addresses: applications and SaaS (software-as-a-service, literally – “program as a service”). The application must be downloaded and installed on the computer, while SaaS solutions are available online, so you can work with them through web browsers on any device.
Now that it’s clear how the two types of validators differ, let’s pay attention to their advantages and disadvantages.
Validator Cost
Computer applications are affordable, as usual, the user acquires a license to use the tool in one workplace. Typically, such programs allow you to verify an unlimited number of email addresses. In the case of an email verification tool (for example, https://truemail.io/), the client pays for a monthly subscription and/or for the number of verifications available during the month.
Number of product users
Desktop applications allow you to use the license only on the computer where the program was installed.
The situation is different with SaaS tools: a user can log in to an account on the service provider’s website from any device that has a web browser. However, often one account can be used by several employees. Some online email valid checker allows you to restrict access to your account by opening it only for the necessary IP addresses.
Data security
On the one hand, when you use a computer application on one device, address lists are stored on it under your control. The probability of data leakage is almost zero, although you should not forget about spyware, the firewall can protect against this.
On the other hand, if something happens to this computer, you may lose the entire database. Therefore, you always need to have a fresh backup of the lists on an external drive or another computer. At the same time, if you check your subscriber lists with an online validator, all information is stored on the server of the provider of this service – in your virus-protected account. But again, no service is safe from crashes and leaks of user data, so it won’t hinder the habit of backing up lists.
