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I'm looking for a comparison of SaaS websites that force email activation versus ones that do not. Similar to how some websites review a checkout process across multiple domains.

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I don't know of any comparison sites but I have found that many sites are now accepting any email and show a top warning bar if the email has not been validated. The sites that are implementing this strategy are quite large (I believe Facebook, Twitter and Github do this). – Brian D. Oct 23 '12 at 20:58
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Which is actually the recommended approach as you're lowering the barrier to new users and then you'll validate their emails later on so that you don't have a lot of spam/junk emails (you can always set 10 days limit for example). – Mario Awad Oct 24 '12 at 18:27

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Any requirement to validate email will almost certainly see a huge-drop off in conversion from visitor to user.

Ask yourself why do I need to validate? If it's purely to send further marketing to account holders, then just bear in mind that only around 25% of emails for SaaS products are opened. Even fewer engaged with. So you may be cannibalising your sign-ups to gain little.

Further more I believe that users are far more likely to provide fake email addresses where they have issues of trust with your site. So perhaps instead of thinking about email validation, think instead of conveying how trust worthy you are, and making it clear that you won't bombard people with spam!

Hope this helps and good luck!

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Post a link to these statistics "25% of emails for SaaS products are opened".... Email validation for me means someone can't use a fake email or someone else's email address. – Anagio Nov 30 '12 at 22:50
Own personal experience and seeing industry open rates across SaaS - MailChimp may have various reports available on open rates, click-rates and the like. I understand the reasoning for validation, but what difference does it make to you if the wrong address is used? As long as the user can pay, and either select their own email address at that point (or validate then) I don't understand reasons for needing to validate earlier. – TrafficCake Nov 30 '12 at 22:54
One of the legacy reasons is spam fighting. – mojsilo Dec 16 '12 at 9:05
+1 For the first sentence alone. – Anonymous Jan 15 at 9:36
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First ask who the user is? What lines of business are they in? If they're an enterprise user then email verification is accepted. If it's consumer they reduction of a barrier to entry is always wanted.

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