How to buy AntiSpam? Part 1

Catch Rate

What is a catch rate?

It is a very simple factor. Catch rate (or a percentage of spam blocked) is a number that describes the sheer efficiency of an antispam at identifying and blocking spam. In other words, a percentage of spam that has been stopped, with respect to the total number of spam messages that were sent to a given mailbox or mail server.

How to evaluate this factor and how much of spam blocked is enough?

Basically, the higher the catch rate the better the antispam is. If you are not interested in a freeware antispam you may as well filter out all the solutions that offer less than 90% catch rate.

If you already have an antispam solution and are looking for a better one, you should first find out your current anti-spam engine catch rate. Simply divide the number of spam blocked by the number of total spam (blocked and missed) and multiply by 100%. Are you still looking for a new antispam? :) 

How to estimate value of catch rate?

In other words, is one percentage point greater catch rate worth additional $100 or $200 a month? Perhaps it is worth much more? There is no easy answer to this. You could measure the cost of time wasted on processing spam (cumulative of all employees / mail users) then try to estimate how much time each pp of catch rate more would save. Compare the cost of better antispam with potential gain….

You can see why it is not truly measurable. But perhaps it’s worth to try, it’s your call.

Come back for more of my antispam buyer’s guide.