TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Lob

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/ALob in San Francisco provides the building blocks for developers to automate offline correspondences. Enterprise companies use Lob’s suite of APIs to mail fully dynamic and personalized customer communications with print media. Lob also provides insight into deliverability with piece-by-piece tracing and a proprietary Print Delivery Network to streamline production across fully redundant nodes all over the country.

    $0

    per month (Up to 500 Mailings)

    Smarty

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ASmarty is a provider of location data intelligence. Smarty is able to process colossal amounts of location data and APIs verify, validate, enrich, standardize, geocode, and auto-complete addresses.

    $20

    per month 5000 lookups

    Pricing
    LobSmarty
    Editions & Modules
    Startup Plan
    $260
    per month 3 users & Up to 3,000 monthly mailings
    Growth Plan
    $550
    per month 5 users & Up to 6,000 monthly mailings
    Developer Plan
    Free
    1 user & Up to 500 monthly mailings
    Enterprise Plan
    Contact Sales
    Professional - US Address Autocomplete
    $20
    per month 5k monthly lookups
    Professional - International Address Autocomplete
    $40
    per month 500 monthly lookups
    Professional - US Address Validation
    $54
    per month 5k Lookups per month
    US Reverse Geocoding
    $54
    per month 25k monthly lookups
    Professional - International Address Verification
    $65
    per month 1k monthly lookups
    US Rooftop Geocoding
    $106
    per month 5k monthly lookups
    Unlimited - US Address Verification
    $1,250
    per month Lookups / month Up to 300 / second
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    LobSmarty
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    LobSmarty
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    PFL Direct Mail Platform
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    PFL Direct Mail Platform
    Score9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    LobSmarty
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (21 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    6.6
    (18 ratings)
    8.7
    (13 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.1
    (13 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    LobSmarty
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Lob
    It is great for low-cost, high-volume mail campaigns for our agents. The price is very reasonable, and they can send out a lot. Once the design is approved and they send a list, we handle it, then Lob. When we have agents who want to handwrite the addresses, we choose someone else (a local print shop) to print and send them to our agents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    The only situation in which Smarty is not the way to go is if you are validating less than 300 addresses a day. The big disclaimer is that I work with data, so I have a pretty good pace for this kind of work. That being said, any more than that and you're looking at parking someone for hours every day for work that largely doesn't warrant the effort - just go with Smarty.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Lob
    • Address Verification and NCOA Cleaning
    • Autocomplete for our forms that allow a user to SKIP typing
    • Printing and mailing documents automatically over API
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    • Accurate ownership data.
    • Multiple data points.
    • Fast response.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Lob
    • An automatically scheduled data export would be nice.
    • Functions such as adding or editing bank accounts, updating check details, and querying data require knowledge of the specific code and API infrastructure. It would be nice to do these things without being an engineer trained in their specific interface language.
    • They reduced their retention period on their interface to like 3 months, which is not ideal.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    • The cost/hit for type-ahead lookups. We have people "try" a lot of addresses, which drives up the cost of obviously wrong data input.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Lob
    will continue to use for specific mailing requirements
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Lob
    Overall, Lob performs well for standard mailing needs and has helped streamline day-to-day processes. However, there are unique situations in the insurance industry that may require additional flexibility or capacity beyond their current model. Automation of certain state-required letters or follow-ups is something we wish we could perform.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    The tool is very easy to use. Just typing in the first three characters of the first line of the address of the user will return an accurate list of address result options to choose from. Simply select the appropriate address and all the address fields will prepopulate without the need for additional manual address entry.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Lob
    i never witnessed a problem with lob
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Lob
    perfect except from a minor tracking options missed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Lob
    good support, not many examples I can think of
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Lob
    didn't participate but as for my information it was smooth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Lob
    Root keeps Lob because it is already deeply integrated into our systems, and replacing it would require significant engineering effort with limited expected cost savings. As well as the unknowns that come with other options, switching vendors would likely require a significant multi-quarter effort without clear cost savings or efficiency gains.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    I didn't try other specific products. I went straight to the source, USPS API tools, but their limitations, hard to follow instructions, and consistent downtime made me reconsider. I knew I needed a reliable service that would be implemented and work every day without my attention, and it provided exactly that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Lob
    it can be better because the volume pricing method doesn't benefit the clients much but lob itself
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Lob
    it will scale very well if its for saas companies
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Lob
    decent overall
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Lob
    • The hard part is that the agents mostly see the returns over us, so I don't know the specific numbers.
    • Some agents have great responses; others not as much. Or they get 75% of their mailers returned, and we don't know why.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Smarty
    • Vastly improved our address database deliverability. We now have over 95% of addresses in our customer database verified, thanks to Smarty.
    • Our bi-annual catalog cost went down. Already-verified address = lower cost for pre-mailing address correction and verification.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Lob Screenshots

    Screenshot of Lob's available integrations, that include CRM, CDP or marketing automation tools.Screenshot of Lob Analytics. These demonstrate the value of every send and find winning strategies with advanced analytics.Screenshot of Lob Template Gallery. This includes professionally designed templates optimized by a team of experts.Screenshot of Lob analytics dashboard shows trackable events from direct mail campaigns.

    Smarty Screenshots

    Screenshot of Smarty