VBSpam comparative testing is a regular independent comparison of email security solutions.
The aim of these tests is to offer readers the best impartial advice about anti-spam security and the products on offer.
By using a combination of multiple live mail streams of spam and malicious emails, representing mailboxes all over the world, as well as a live stream of legitimate international emails, the VBSpam test aims to reflect the experience of a real end-user as accurately as possible.
VBSpam certification is awarded to products that exceed a predefined threshold based on a combination of criteria relating to the products' spam catch rate and false positive rate.
To display the VBSpam verified logo, an anti-spam solution must be capable of:
The detailed test methodology can be found on the VBSpam Methodology page.
Spam is changing continually, both in quality and quantity, and to protect inboxes and networks an anti-spam solution must be able to keep up with these changes.
An archive of VBSpam test results is available, allowing users to view the performance of a vendor or solution over time. While a single test can only show a snapshot of a product's capabilities at a specific moment in time, this long-term view can be used as a guide to how vendors are likely to perform in future. Listings of results by product can be found in the VBSpam Test Archive.
The VBSpam chart allows at-a-glance comparison of product performances, plotting spam catch (SC) rate against false positive (FP) rate. The better performing products will appear in the top right-hand corner of the chart, with the highest SC rate and lowest FP rate.
The VBSpam tests make use of two live global spam feeds, provided by Project Honey Pot and Abusix.
Any developers of anti-spam solutions interested in submitting their products for review should contact [email protected].