Hunter helps people connect with business professionals through its email finder and email verification tool. It’s a great option for lead generation, as sales reps can use it to quickly find contact information for decision-makers. Hunter’s email verifier helps ensure email lists are accurate and active, so you get fewer bounces and higher deliverability rates.
You can also use Hunter to personalize and schedule cold email campaigns directly from Gmail and integrate it with your favorite CRMs to simplify lead management flows.
Hunter.io Compared
Hunter did not make our list of the best lead generation companies and services. LeadGeneration.com is the best lead generation service for most businesses due to its versatile and effective approach to generating qualified leads through multiple channels to maximize ROI. Get a free lead generation analysis today.
Read our complete reviews of the best lead generation services.
About Hunter.io
Hunter brands itself as a tool to “connect with anyone.” Its most-used feature is the email finder, which lets you find the email address of someone by searching for a company’s name or entering a website domain. Hunter has an email verification feature that helps business professionals and sales reps ensure they’re reaching out to verified addresses. Users can also use Hunter’s cold email tool to extend the functionality of a Gmail or Outlook inbox for cold outreach.
While Hunter’s suite of products may seem simple, they can be used for a wide range of use cases across sales, marketing, and recruitment.
Hunter.io Health and Stability
Founded in 2015, Hunter is a relatively new company. With that said, more than three million users have signed up to use Hunter’s tools. So if you want to try it, it’s not like you’ll be a beta user.
Online sources put Hunter’s employee count at less than 25, which is small. But they’re still expanding and typically have open positions posted on the web. It’s usually a sign of good things when companies are actively looking to hire.
It’s also interesting to note that Hunter is a carbon-neutral brand, which might be strange to hear for a software company. But it shows that they’re environmentally conscious and doing their part to lower and offset carbon emissions.
The only potential concern for Hunter is its data. Any company that keeps such a large database of personal information could be susceptible to some kind of lawsuit or breach. However, Hunter says that it only takes email addresses from publicly accessible sources. They also claim to be GDPR compliant and say that email addresses are removed from their databases once they’re no longer public.
Hunter.io Pricing
Hunter’s rates are affordable for businesses of all sizes. The low entry-level price point even makes it a good option for professionals who want a personal account, even if they’re not purchasing it through their business.
One of the best parts of Hunter’s pricing structure is its flexibility. They offer month-to-month billing terms, and you can upgrade or downgrade your plan anytime. So if your needs suddenly scale, you can increase your plan limitations to accommodate that volume. But you’re also not forced to pay exorbitant pricing in low-volume months. Just downgrade your plan accordingly.
Hunter.io Pricing Structure
Hunter’s five plans are tiered based on the number of monthly searches and verifications for email addresses. It starts at 500 searches and 1,000 verifications for the $49 per month Starter plan and goes up to 30,000 searches and 60,000 certifications for the $399 Business plan.
The email campaign feature is included with every plan as well, ranging from 2,500 to 10,000 participants, depending on the plan you select.
Hunter counts a search when up to ten email addresses are found per domain search. Every email provided in an email finder query counts as a search, and every address put through the email verifier counts as a verification. If Hunter can’t find an email or you have a duplicate search in the same month, you won’t have anything counted toward your monthly plan limits.
Hunter.io Pricing Comparison
Hunter’s pricing is significantly lower than other lead generation companies on the market. In fact, none of the seven best lead generation services we reviewed post prices on their websites. You’ll need to reach out for a custom quote, likely meaning you’ll pay more than $49 per month.
Aside from DiscoverOrg, none of the other services offer a free trial. However, DiscoverOrg’s free trial is a bit more than just spitting out email addresses. They also provide department-level org charts and direct-dial phone numbers.
In terms of contract length, you’ll likely have a tough time finding month-to-month options available. For example, many of CIENCE’s packages require an annual subscription, and a few require a three-month commitment.
But Hunter’s low pricing is a direct reflection of the product. These other tools are more service-oriented. Hunter is a DIY software and doesn’t provide extras like outbound SDR, lead profiles, buying behavior, account-based marketing, outsourced lead gen, and more.
Hunter.io Trials and Guarantees
Hunter also has a free forever plan that lets you conduct 25 searches and 50 verifications per month. This plan supports up to 500 emails per campaign.
This isn’t much and won’t be useful at scale. But it’s a great way to try Hunter without having to pay. You can use this for one-off email searches or just treat it as an extended free trial.
You can save up to 30% on any Hunter plan when you sign up for annual billing.
Hunter.io Lead Generation Review
Hunter’s email finder and verification tool is great for lead generation and cold outreach. If you want to connect with someone at a company but can’t find their contact information online, Hunter makes it easy to find their email address in seconds.
As a lead generation tool, it’s only the first step in the process—securing the lead’s contact information. But it’s still up to you to take it from there and manage all the outreach and communication on your own. If you’re interested in something a bit more advanced, check out our reviews of the best lead generation companies and services.
What Makes Hunter.io Lead Generation Great
Simplicity: Hunter is about as straightforward as it gets. There’s no complex learning curve, and anyone can use it. All you need to do is enter a person’s name, business name, or website, and the tool will spit out the results you’re looking for.
Versatile: There are so many different ways you can use Hunter across departments. While it’s helpful for lead generation, it also works well for recruitment purposes, marketing, networking, and more.
Affordable: With plans starting at just $49 per month, you likely won’t find a cheaper lead generation tool on the market.
Advanced filtering: If you’re searching Hunter using a business name or domain, you can focus your search by department to narrow down the name and position of potential leads.
Easy integrations: Once you’ve identified a lead’s contact information, you can quickly export the data or send it straight to your CRM. Hunter integrates directly with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM.
Where Hunter.io Lead Generation Falls Short
Requires manual input: Hunter won’t identify lead opportunities or ideas automatically. Instead, you need to manually input the information for each potential lead, and Hunter will help you find their contact information.
No phone numbers: Hunter only gives you the lead’s email address and social profiles. Some of the other top lead generation services on the market also provide phone numbers.
No lead qualification: While Hunter is a great starting point, it doesn’t actively qualify leads. You’ll need to do that elsewhere and then use Hunter to verify the contact information.
No services: Hunter is strictly a tool, and they don’t have anybody working to find leads for you or reach out to qualify them on your behalf. While they do have custom enterprise plans with a dedicated account manager, that person doesn’t provide outsourced lead generation services.
No pipeline management: Once you find or verify a lead’s email address with Hunter, you can’t manage that lead’s progress through your pipeline within the software. You’ll need to integrate it with a third-party CRM or pipeline management tool to get the most out of Hunter.
Hunter.io Lead Generation Compared
LeadGeneration.com ranks first on our list of the best lead generation companies due to its versatile service offerings and proven ability to produce qualified leads.
Hunter.io Link Building Tools Review
One of the hardest parts about cold outreach for link-building opportunities is finding the right person to contact. But once you know which websites you want to get backlinks from, you can use Hunter to find the appropriate contact information.
This is much more effective than filling out contact forms on a website or sending messages to general info@company.com inboxes. That’s what makes Hunter one of the best link building tools on the market.
What Makes Hunter.io Link Building Great
No names required: You only need a domain to search for email addresses. So even if you don’t know the name of the person you want to contact, you can still use Hunter to search for options.
Employee positions: In addition to names and email addresses, Hunter will show you the employee’s title. This is crucial for link building, as emailing someone in accounting or HR won’t be helpful.
Cold outreach tools: To succeed with cold outreach for link building, your messages must be highly personalized. Hunter’s email campaign tool works with your existing Gmail and Outlook accounts. So, you can carefully manage these interactions with a higher level of precision compared to bulk email marketing software.
Accuracy: Hunter shows a confidence score that takes into account how accurate the contact information might be. You’ll see most of these scores around 96% or higher, indicating that it’s highly accurate. If the address has a green checkmark next to it, then it’s already gone through a verification service to ensure deliverability.
Email templates: If you’re not quite sure what to say when you’re reaching out to someone for a link, you can use one of Hunter’s outreach templates to get the ball rolling. This saves you time and helps generate better results.
Where Hunter.io Link Building Falls Short
No backlink data: You can’t use Hunter to see your own backlink profile or analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles. This information is necessary for several different link-building strategies.
No domain rating or other data: When you enter a website into Hunter, you won’t find information on that site beyond email addresses. Other tools provide domain ratings, traffic information, referring domain data, and other metrics showing whether it’s even worth reaching out for a link.
No SEO features: Link building is part of a broader SEO strategy. That’s why so many link-building tools on the market also have a variety of SEO tools. But Hunter does not.
Limited agency applications: Hunter is best suited for internal use. While every plan supports unlimited users and up to 40 email accounts, it’s not designed for agencies that want to build client links.
Hunter.io Link Building Compared
Ahrefs is the best link building tool for most people because it’s a comprehensive solution that provides everything you need to analyze backlink profiles and identify new opportunities.
- Ahrefs — Best for competitor research and link analysis
- Buzzstream — Best for link prospecting and outreach
- Semrush — Best for Agencies
- Moz Link Explorer — Best for link tracking
- Hunter — Best for easy email verification
- Linkody — Best for affordability
Hunter.io Email Campaigns Review
Hunter’s Email Campaigns tool is included with every plan. However, Hunter did not make our list of the best email services.
Hunter isn’t really a dedicated email solution. The tool simply extends your existing Gmail or Outlook inbox to improve your cold outreach campaigns. It’s great for tracking conversations, customizing messages, and nurturing leads, but it’s not on the same level as a dedicated CRM or email marketing solution.
This is a nice-to-have feature if you’re already using Hunter to search for email addresses. Once you verify a contact’s information, you can use this tool to streamline the campaign. But it doesn’t replace a traditional email tool with contact management features and sending messages at scale.
Email Services Compared
If you’re looking for a more traditional email marketing solution for your business, check out our list of the best email services.
- Constant Contact — Best overall
- Omnisend —Best email and SMS marketing combo
- Sendinblue — Best for growing your customer base
- MailerLite — Best for the essentials at an affordable price
- AWeber — Best value for low subscriber count
- GetResponse — Best for automated lead generation
Final Verdict
Overall, Hunter is a simple and affordable tool to find and verify email addresses. It’s built to scale but can also be used for one-off queries. Hunter is versatile enough to be used for lead generation, link building, recruitment, and cold outreach campaigns.
While it does lack some of the advanced offerings of other lead generation services on the market, it’s still a viable option for anyone who wants to quickly find someone’s business email address by searching for a business name or website. We can confidently recommend it for these use cases.