Our own productData pipelinesAutomationMarketing and sales

An email verification engine that replaced a per-record vendor fee, with 34 reason codes behind every verdict

Our own product. March to June 2026, 4 months.

addresses checked in 742 seconds on the first production run, with no per-record vendor fee
602
reason codes, so every verdict points at the check that produced it
34
output columns per address
25
verdicts: valid, invalid, risky and unknown
4

Email verification engine at a glance

Challenge
Bulk list-cleaning services return one score at a price and say nothing about why, especially on catch-all domains.
Solution
A Python engine with DNS checks, multi-stage SMTP probing and catch-all scoring that returns one of four verdicts with a reason.
Result
602 addresses checked in 742 seconds on the first production run, with no per-record vendor fee and a reason behind every verdict.

The email verification engine challenge

Bulk list-cleaning services return a single score at a price, and say nothing about why. Running our own outbound meant we needed something cheaper that also explained itself, especially on catch-all domains, which accept mail for any address and so defeat a plain mailbox check.

What went into the email verification engine

Data pipelineOutbound and email

  1. A Python engine that checks addresses in bulk, with DNS checks, catch-all detection and caching

  2. Multi-stage SMTP probing with provider profiles, greylisting and tarpit handling

  3. The 3 March 2026 R&D benchmark: a 99,000-address list returned 27,000 valid addresses, making reason-code output the target for the internal tool

More of what we built5
  1. SPF, DMARC, PTR and TLS signals folded into each result

  2. Every classification points at the check that produced it, with the reason code beside the verdict

  3. Catch-all domains scored rather than passed or rejected outright

  4. Checkpoint and resume, with multiprocessing for large lists

  5. A pytest suite and GitHub Actions workflows for CI, CodeQL, deployment and health

Email verification engine results

It runs on real lead lists ahead of every send, and a risky address comes back with a reason we can act on rather than a number we have to trust. The first production run, on 24 June 2026, put 602 addresses through it in 742 seconds and returned 421 valid, 11 invalid, 157 risky and 13 unknown, each with its reason code.

Done again today

What this would cost today

Done again today, work like this usually costs $1K to $3K (CRM cleanup and enrichment). The free plan says whether it fits before anything is priced.

  • CRM cleanup and enrichment

    Your CRM, list or catalog deduplicated, corrected and filled in, with the rules written down so it stays clean.

    $1K to $3K, one-off

    1 to 2 weeks

    Get a quote for this

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