Hunter alternative
Hunter.io Pricing, and How to Find 48% More Emails for Less
Hunter (hunter.io) is a popular email finder and verifier, at $7.30 to $24.50 per 1,000 found emails on credits that expire. On the same 288 contacts, every result re-verified live, OrbiSearch found 79.2% to Hunter's 53.5%, at $1.45 to $18.94 per 1,000 found on credits that never expire, and verifies lists for 73% to 89% less.
Reviewed by Alex Loughlin, founder of OrbiSearch, on
Hunter pricing and features checked against Hunter's own website and docs.
How much does Hunter.io cost?
Hunter's outreach plans are Starter at $49 a month for 2,000 credits, Growth at $149 for 10,000 and Scale at $299 for 25,000, with 30% off on annual billing. A found email costs 1 credit and a verification 0.5. Monthly credits do not roll over, and the Free plan has 50 credits a month. Prices taken from hunter.io/pricing and Hunter's help center, checked October 28, 2026.
Free$0
50 credits a month: up to 50 found emails or 100 verifications. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over.
Starter$49/month, or $408/year
2,000 credits a month ($0.0245 per credit), or 24,000 a year upfront on annual billing ($0.017). Includes Sequences with 3 connected email accounts.
Growth$149/month, or $1,248/year
10,000 credits a month ($0.0149 per credit), or 120,000 a year ($0.0104). 10 connected email accounts.
Scale$299/month, or $2,508/year
25,000 credits a month ($0.01196 per credit), or 300,000 a year ($0.00836). 20 connected email accounts and an account manager.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credit volume, through sales.
Credit costsPer result
1 credit per email found with the Email Finder or Domain Search (up to 10 emails per credit in Bulk Domain Search); nothing if no email is found. 0.5 credits per verification, charged for valid, invalid and accept-all results; unknown and disposable results are free. The same search or verification repeated in a billing period is counted once.
Credit packsFrom 100 credits
Top-ups on Starter, Growth and Scale only. 1,000 credits cost $70 on Starter, $52.50 on Growth and $35 on Scale, and expire 3 months after purchase.
Data Platform (API only)Pay per credit
Separate Search and Verification credits, valid 12 months, without Sequences or the Discover app. Search credits $0.05 each under 10,000, falling to $0.0069 at 1 million; Verification credits $0.011 falling to $0.0028. Above 1 million credits, pricing is through sales.
Credit validityMonthly reset
Monthly plan credits reset each billing cycle and do not carry over. Annual plan and Data Platform credits last 12 months.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 credits a month: up to 50 found emails or 100 verifications. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over. |
| Starter | $49/month, or $408/year | 2,000 credits a month ($0.0245 per credit), or 24,000 a year upfront on annual billing ($0.017). Includes Sequences with 3 connected email accounts. |
| Growth | $149/month, or $1,248/year | 10,000 credits a month ($0.0149 per credit), or 120,000 a year ($0.0104). 10 connected email accounts. |
| Scale | $299/month, or $2,508/year | 25,000 credits a month ($0.01196 per credit), or 300,000 a year ($0.00836). 20 connected email accounts and an account manager. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom credit volume, through sales. |
| Credit costs | Per result | 1 credit per email found with the Email Finder or Domain Search (up to 10 emails per credit in Bulk Domain Search); nothing if no email is found. 0.5 credits per verification, charged for valid, invalid and accept-all results; unknown and disposable results are free. The same search or verification repeated in a billing period is counted once. |
| Credit packs | From 100 credits | Top-ups on Starter, Growth and Scale only. 1,000 credits cost $70 on Starter, $52.50 on Growth and $35 on Scale, and expire 3 months after purchase. |
| Data Platform (API only) | Pay per credit | Separate Search and Verification credits, valid 12 months, without Sequences or the Discover app. Search credits $0.05 each under 10,000, falling to $0.0069 at 1 million; Verification credits $0.011 falling to $0.0028. Above 1 million credits, pricing is through sales. |
| Credit validity | Monthly reset | Monthly plan credits reset each billing cycle and do not carry over. Annual plan and Data Platform credits last 12 months. |
For comparison, OrbiSearch sells one-time credit packs from $30 (2,000 finder searches or 10,000 validations) to $2,023 (2 million searches or 10 million validations), credits never expire, plus unlimited email finder plans from $249 per month.
Why do teams move their email step from Hunter to OrbiSearch?
Nearly half as many again, found
Same 288 contacts, same live re-verification: OrbiSearch 79.2%, Hunter 53.5%. Hunter returned 57.3% before verification, so about one in 15 of the emails it handed back did not verify. OrbiSearch results are verified before they are returned.
Credits you keep
Hunter's monthly credits reset every cycle, annual and Data Platform credits last 12 months, and top-up packs 3 months. OrbiSearch sells one-time packs that never expire, plus unlimited finder plans from $249 a month, and is cheaper per found email on every pack.
Verification at a fraction of the price
Verifying 100,000 emails costs $103 on OrbiSearch and at least $690 on Hunter; 1 million costs $311 against $2,800. OrbiSearch resolves catch-all and greylisted addresses at the mailbox level, where Hunter returns accept-all or unknown.
Find rate
Which finds more emails, Hunter.io or OrbiSearch?
Both tools were run on the same 288 real B2B contacts in August 2026, alongside Apollo, Icypeas, LeadMagic, Prospeo and People Data Labs. Every returned address was re-verified live at benchmark time, so these are deliverable emails, not source-sheet hits.
OrbiSearch
79.2%
live-verified find rate
Highest of the 7 tools. By region: 78.9% North America, 85.9% EMEA, 72.3% APAC. Full data.
Hunter
53.5%
live-verified find rate
57.3% returned before verification. By region: 53.7% North America, 65.7% EMEA, 40.4% APAC.
The gap is widest in APAC, where OrbiSearch found 72.3% to Hunter's 40.4%. Per-contact outcomes are in the benchmark download.
Worked example
What do 10,000 contacts a month cost?
Hunter at its benchmark 53.5% find rate on the Growth plan, OrbiSearch at 79.2% on the 100,000-search pack. Our waterfall calculator lets you change every input.
Hunter alone
~5,350 emails
for $149 a month
10,000 contacts × 53.5% = 5,350 credits, inside Growth's 10,000. About $0.028 per found email; the 4,650 unused credits reset at the end of the month. Annual billing brings Growth to $104 a month.
OrbiSearch
~7,920 emails
for $62
The $62 Professional pack covers 10,000 searches, so 48% more emails for 58% less. On the $207 pack, which covers ten months like this and never expires, it is about $21 a month. Adding Hunter on the 2,080 left would find about 100 more.
Rates from the OrbiSearch email finder benchmark and Hunter's published pricing. Change the volume, packs or find rates to match your lists.
Finder pricing
Is OrbiSearch cheaper than Hunter.io for finding emails?
Hunter charges per email returned; OrbiSearch charges per search. To compare like with like, this table shows cost per 1,000 found emails, converting OrbiSearch at its 79.2% benchmark find rate and matching each volume to the Hunter option that covers it at 53.5%.
| OrbiSearch pack | OrbiSearch $/1K found | Hunter option | Hunter $/1K found | You Save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter ($30, 2,000 searches) | $18.94 | Starter | $24.50 | 23% |
| Professional ($62, 10,000 searches) | $7.83 | Growth | $14.90 | 47% |
| Business ($103, 20,000 searches) | $6.50 | Scale | $11.96 | 46% |
| Enterprise ($207, 100,000 searches) | $2.61 | Data Platform, 53,500 credits | $9.50 | 72% |
| Premium ($311, 200,000 searches) | $1.96 | Data Platform, 107,000 credits | $9.50 | 79% |
| Mega ($1,151, 1,000,000 searches) | $1.45 | Data Platform, 535,000 credits | $7.30 | 80% |
| Unlimited Starter ($249/mo, 10K searches/day) | ~$1.05 | Data Platform, 160,500 credits | $9.20 | 89% |
Hunter: 1 credit per email returned, at the plan's per-credit rate with every credit used, which flatters Hunter; monthly plans run $0.0245 (Starter) to $0.01196 (Scale) per credit, 30% less on annual billing, and larger volumes use Data Platform search credits. Accept-all and unknown results also cost a credit. OrbiSearch: 1 credit per search, found or not, converted at 79.2% found, so the searches that find nothing are already priced in. OrbiSearch is 23% cheaper per found email on the smallest pack and 46% to 80% cheaper from 10,000 searches up. The Unlimited Starter row assumes the full 10,000 searches a day for 30 days; larger unlimited plans cover 30,000 a day for $499 and 75,000 a day for $999. Prices checked October 28, 2026.
Is OrbiSearch cheaper than Hunter.io for email verification?
Hunter charges 0.5 credits per verification on its outreach plans and 1 verification credit on the Data Platform, for valid, invalid and accept-all results. Each row uses the cheapest single Hunter purchase that covers the volume. OrbiSearch: one-time packs, 1 credit = 5 validations.
| Emails | Hunter | Hunter option | OrbiSearch | You Save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $110 | Data Platform | $30 | 73% |
| 25,000 | $225 | Data Platform | $39 | 83% |
| 50,000 | $299 | Scale, monthly | $62 | 79% |
| 100,000 | $690 | Data Platform (150,000 tier) | $103 | 85% |
| 500,000 | $1,500 | Data Platform | $207 | 86% |
| 1,000,000 | $2,800 | Data Platform | $311 | 89% |
| 5,000,000 | Custom | Sales | $1,151 | - |
| 10,000,000 | Custom | Sales | $2,023 | - |
At 100,000 emails, Hunter's 150,000-credit Data Platform tier ($690) costs less than buying exactly 100,000 ($740). Annual Scale ($2,508 for 600,000 verifications) brings Hunter to about $0.0042 per email if you use it all within the year. Above 1 million, Hunter prices through sales. Hunter returns catch-all addresses as accept-all and greylisted or blocked checks as unknown. OrbiSearch checks catch-all, secure-email-gateway and greylisted addresses at the mailbox level and resolves them to valid or invalid wherever the mailbox can be checked. See the catch-all domains research. Prices checked October 28, 2026.
Verifying millions of emails?
Hunter quotes custom pricing above 1 million credits. OrbiSearch sells 5 million validations for $1,151 and 10 million for $2,023, with private dedicated infrastructure and white glove support on those packs: no queues, no file splitting, and we handle data cleaning and quality monitoring.
How do Hunter.io and OrbiSearch features compare?
| Feature | OrbiSearch | Hunter |
|---|---|---|
| Work email finder by name + domain | ||
| Work email finder by LinkedIn profile | Profile URL, 1 credit per search | LinkedIn handle, via the API |
| Live-verified find rate (same 288 contacts) | 79.2% | 53.5% |
| Found emails returned already verified | Yes, every result | Verified automatically; can also return accept-all or unknown with a confidence score |
| Finder billing | Per search (any outcome), or unlimited plans | Per email returned, free if none found |
| Standalone email verification | From $0.0002 per email | $0.0028 to $0.011 per email on Data Platform; 0.5 credits on plans |
| Catch-all resolution | Resolved to valid or invalid at the mailbox level, wherever it can be checked | Mostly returned as accept-all (charged) with a probability score; Hunter says it can verify some, at several major email providers it does not name |
| Greylisted addresses | Resolved wherever the mailbox can be checked | Returned as unknown (free) when greylisted or blocked |
| Domain Search (all emails at a company) | ||
| B2B lead database (Discover) | ||
| Cold email sequences | ||
| Company enrichment | 1 credit per company, by LinkedIn URL or domain | By domain, via the API |
| Unlimited email finder plans | From $249/mo | |
| Pay-as-you-go (no subscription required) | Data Platform credit purchases (API only) | |
| Credits expire | Never | Monthly plans reset monthly; annual and Data Platform after 12 months; packs after 3 months |
| Free tier | 500 validations or 100 searches, no card | 50 credits a month |
| Browser extension and Google Sheets add-on | ||
| Native HubSpot, Pipedrive and Zapier integrations | ||
| REST API | On every pack | On every plan, including Free |
| MCP server | ||
| Private dedicated infrastructure | Not advertised |
Should you choose Hunter.io or OrbiSearch?
Choose OrbiSearch when you want:
- The highest live-verified find rate of 7 tools tested, 79.2% against Hunter's 53.5% on the same contacts
- $1.45 to $18.94 per 1,000 found emails instead of $7.30 to $24.50, and verification for 73% to 89% less
- Credits that never expire with no subscription required, or unlimited finder plans from $249 a month for heavy use
- Catch-all and greylisted addresses resolved to valid or invalid at the mailbox level, plus company enrichment in the same account
Choose Hunter if you need:
- Domain Search, to list the email addresses Hunter has found for a company
- A B2B lead database and cold email sequences in the same tool as your email finder
- A browser extension, Google Sheets add-on, native HubSpot, Pipedrive and Zapier integrations, or an MCP server
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do teams switch from Hunter to OrbiSearch?
How much does Hunter cost?
What is Hunter?
Is OrbiSearch a Hunter alternative?
How does OrbiSearch compare to Hunter on find rate?
Should I run Hunter after OrbiSearch in a waterfall?
Does Hunter charge for emails it cannot find?
How does Hunter handle catch-all emails?
Do Hunter credits expire?
Does OrbiSearch have a Domain Search like Hunter?
Compare OrbiSearch with other email finders:
And with email verifiers:
Where OrbiSearch fits: data platforms validating millions of contacts per month, and cold outreach agencies running Clay-based prospect workflows.