Hunter.io
Finds and verifies the work email address behind a name or a company domain, then lets you run outreach campaigns from the same list.
What you'd use it for
Finding and verifying the actual work email address behind a name so a cold outreach list doesn't bounce.
- Search a company domain and get its email pattern plus a list of names that match it
- Verify whether a specific address is real before you send to it, not just correctly formatted
- Look up one person's email address from their name and employer
- Find an address while browsing a LinkedIn profile or company site, via the Chrome extension
- Run cold email sequences straight from the same list, without exporting it elsewhere
The verdict
Hunter does one job well — it turns a name and a domain into a verified, sendable email address, and the free tier gets you there without a credit card. The credit system is the catch — a search and a verification are billed separately, so a real campaign burns through an allowance roughly twice as fast as the headline number suggests. It suits solo operators and small teams whose actual bottleneck is finding the right inbox; if you also need the CRM and sequencing layer built around that address, Apollo carries more of that in, at a higher entry cost.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trying the tool at very low volume. | 50 credits a month across search and verification. |
| Starter | $34/month billed annually ($408/year), $49/month billed monthly | An individual doing outreach regularly. | 2,000 credits a month. |
| Growth | $104/month billed annually ($1,248/year), $149/month billed monthly | Someone running outreach at real volume, solo or in a small team. | 10,000 credits a month. |
| Scale | $209/month billed annually ($2,508/year), $299/month billed monthly | A team scaling lead generation across multiple people. | 25,000 credits a month. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Organisations needing volume beyond the Scale tier. | Custom credit allowances and terms, quoted directly. |
Read from Hunter.io's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- An email address to create an account (the free tier asks for nothing else)
- A target company domain or a specific person's name to search against
- Google Chrome, if you want the extension that finds addresses on LinkedIn or a company site
Under five minutes from signup to a verified email address, assuming you already know the target domain.
Your first run Signing up needs no credit card, and a first domain search returning a company's email pattern with a matching name typically takes under five minutes; verifying that address adds another minute or two.
Where it breaks
Browser-based, with a Chrome extension for finding emails directly on a company's website or LinkedIn.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Anyone sending cold outreach into the EU or under a similar regime still carries the legal responsibility for that send — Hunter sources addresses from public web pages and lets the person behind one have it removed, but that doesn't shift the compliance burden onto Hunter, and it's a narrower position than some competitors in this category take. Skip it if you need a CRM and sequencing platform built around the list, not just the addresses.
Hunter.io answers a specific, recurring question in outbound sales: you know the company and roughly who you want to reach, but not their email address. Give it a domain and a name, and it finds the most likely address using the company’s known email pattern, then verifies whether that address is real before you send to it — which matters, because a bounce-heavy list damages your domain’s sender reputation with every provider watching.
The credit system is the thing to understand before picking a tier: a search and a verification each cost credits, and they’re not the same action. Finding a list of 500 prospects, then verifying all 500, burns through an allowance roughly twice as fast as either step alone.
What actually separates the tiers
Free’s 50 credits a month covers testing whether the tool finds your target companies’ patterns correctly — it’s not enough for a real campaign. Starter and Growth are where most solo operators and small teams actually land; the jump to Scale is about outreach volume more than any new feature.
Where it fits next to the alternatives
Against Apollo, Hunter is narrower and cheaper at the entry tier — it finds and verifies emails well but doesn’t carry Apollo’s broader CRM and sequencing layer, so pick Hunter when email discovery is the actual bottleneck and you already have somewhere to send the campaign from.
Alternatives
Customers & salesAppsLusha
A browser extension that reveals contact details on LinkedIn profiles and company pages with one click.
Customers & salesAppsSeamless.AI
A browser extension that finds verified phone numbers and email addresses in real time as you browse LinkedIn and company pages.
Customers & salesAppsWiza
Turns a list of prospects -- built inside Wiza's own database, uploaded as a CSV, or imported from your CRM -- into verified email addresses and phone numbers.
Get Hunter.io
Buying the tool is not the hard part.
The ebook is about what to hand over, in what order, and how you find out when it goes wrong. One payment, no subscription.