Do we need to verify user's email?

#1

Quite often services ask us to verify our email.
Sometimes it’s a strict rule, which means that without verification you cannot use the service.
Sometimes they allow to use it for some period of time, but they you still have to verify it.
Sometimes they allow to use limited number of features.

However my competitors mostly don’t ask to validate the email. Which leads to me creating dozens of fake accounts in order to investigate the service since it’s a competitor.

Of course it’s possible to create a fake email or use some services for such purpose, like you get some random email only to go through the verification process.

But anyway, do we need this?

If user uses google auth for example, everything’s fine, no worries.
But if he signs up manually?

Props: I’m kind of sure that this is his authentic email. Cannot be sure 100% though
Cons: UX issues, conversion drop.

Any thoughts?

1 Like
#2

Hey Victor. Good question! I thought a lot about it in the past.

I do not force my users to verify emails. They are free to use Unicorn Platform without any limitations. But I think in the future I will be under risk because a cruel hacker will be able to automate sign-ups and use my service to generate hundreds of websites.

An email verification step is something that can potentially save a lot of time for cleaning bots and creating a smarter wall against them. So I will just make the email verification step mandatory.

This simple step will decrease the conversion but I will save time on killing bots and therefore provide me more time for shipping cool product features :cowboy_hat_face:

Short: I prefer to choose the simplest possible solutions when it is possible, even it damages the conversion. Product is everything, marketing is secondary. An epic product will sell itself (see Notion, Figma, Telegram).

#3

Guess what!

I have a competitor which exists for a few years and it is quite solid. In order to research its features I used to constantly create new fake accounts.

Looks like they get a bit upset and have recently enabled email verification. I’m almost sure this is because of me created like 100 fake accounts… :slight_smile:

#4

You are a dangerous man! Did you know that? :sweat_smile: