From time to time, we get an email asking why we don’t provide a URL categorization database for free, either in full or as a subset of our database, and it’s something we thought about for a while. In the end, we decided to go with paid options only.
There’s a saying, “you get what you pay for,” and some people who use Free URL categorization database are happy with it. Still, there are specific reasons why you should consider a professional paid URL categorization database.
Provides full coverage of top sites
For static URL database coverage is important, the reason is if a domain is missing, there’s no classification for it. That might not be a problem if the domain is a brand-new site with no content, but if it’s a site with high traffic, it can pose a problem.
In our database, we make sure to classify the top sites, to allow for full coverage. On top of that, we can augment with our URL Servers to classify any domain which is not covered.
Gives access to 20-40 times more data
In our domain’s database, there are more than 60 million domains, and in our URL database, there are more than 5 billion URLs, this allows for almost full coverage.
Is actively maintained
Database quality maintenance is important, there can be misclassifications, bad sites are classified as good and vice versa. Since we have many clients, we get constant feedback regarding the quality, and can continually improve our algorithms for more accurate classification.
Supports more categories
Our database supports over 160 categories; this allows for more exceptional control and more accurate reporting.
Comes with extra features like URL Classification, Keyword classification
We have a static URL database with more than 5 billion URLs, and we’re not aware of any free database that provides URL level classification. Furthermore, we can augment with our URL server to classify new URLs that are not in our database and keywords.
If you would like to know more about our solution, contact us at sales@url-classification.io
Free URL databases have their usage and can be used for specific use cases:
Power users
For a power user that needs 70% accuracy or less, mostly for ad-blocking or technology research, a free URL database will do the job.
No money
Another use case is to develop a proof of concept that requires classification capabilities.
Using an open-source URL categorization database can save money until their product is ready (if this is the case, we can help you with a free trial while building your app).
Commercial databases too expensive
Purchasing a true commercial offline database can be expensive (you can read more about what is true offline database), but sometimes is needed for privacy/SLA reasons. A free database fills the gap while gaining more revenue to purchase a commercial database.