When You Must Have Paper
July 7th, 2008 (8:00am) Mike Gunderloy No Comments
As web workers, we shy away from paper. But as a developer, sometimes I’m faced with a client who absolutely requires paper for some process - say, a dunning letter to a client. That’s where newly-beta PostalMethods comes in. They make available a web API that allows you to send paper mail, using either SOAP or REST style calls.
You can sign up for a free developer account to see how it works, and flip to a pay-as-you-go real account at any time. The service is not cheap - it starts at $1.20 per letter in the US, including paper, envelope, printing, folding, address verification, and postage. There are discounts available for higher volumes, starting at $100 in prepayment, that can bring the cost down to 79 cents per letter. But if you’re dealing with a high-volume application, it might be cost-competitive with printing and sending the letters yourself.
