Hunter.io Finds Emails.1Lookup Validates Perfectly.
Hunter.io specializes in finding emails. 1Lookup specializes in validating them: instantly, accurately, and with advanced fraud detection built-in for production use.
Feature Comparison
How validation specialists compare to email finders
| Feature | 1Lookup | Hunter.io | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
Fraud Detection Identify suspicious email patterns and disposable addresses | Built-in fraud scoring | Not available | 1Lookup |
Disposable Email Detection Extensive database of disposable email providers | Real-time disposable detection | Basic disposable list | 1Lookup |
API Performance Modern API with docs, code examples, and Zapier/Make/n8n integrations | REST API + code examples + no-code integrations | Basic REST API | 1Lookup |
Pricing Model Simple pricing - pay only for what you use | Pay-per-verification | Subscription + credits | 1Lookup |
Email Finding Hunter focuses on finding emails, 1Lookup on validation quality | Validation focused | Email finder + validation | Different |
Domain Verification Full domain and mailbox verification | DNS + SMTP verification | Basic domain check | 1Lookup |
Hunter.io vs 1Lookup FAQ
Common questions about Hunter.io and switching to 1Lookup
What is Hunter.io?
Hunter.io is an email intelligence platform best known for finding and verifying professional email addresses. Its core tools include Domain Search and Email Finder for discovering contact addresses, an Email Verifier for checking deliverability, and built-in cold email campaign features. It is widely used by sales, recruiting, and marketing teams for prospecting and list building.
How much does Hunter.io cost?
Hunter.io uses a tiered subscription model built around monthly credits, with a free plan for light use and paid plans that scale with your search and verification volume. As of publication, its paid tiers start around $49/month for the Starter plan, with higher Growth, Scale, and custom Enterprise options, and annual billing is discounted. Roughly one credit is consumed per email found and a partial credit per email verified, so your effective cost depends on how many lookups you run.
What is the best Hunter.io alternative?
The best Hunter.io alternative depends on your goal. If you mainly need to find new email addresses, dedicated prospecting tools compete directly; if your priority is verifying contact data before you use it, 1Lookup is a strong choice because it validates phone numbers, emails, and IP addresses through a single API and one universal credit system rather than email alone. 1Lookup also offers a 7-day free trial, so you can test accuracy on your own data before committing.
How is 1Lookup different from Hunter.io?
Hunter.io focuses on discovering and verifying email addresses, while 1Lookup is a broader data-verification API that validates phone numbers, emails, and IPs through one endpoint and one shared credit system. 1Lookup’s data is refreshed daily from FCC and carrier sources, and it adds carrier/HLR lookup, reverse lookup, and fraud and IP intelligence beyond email. Many teams use Hunter.io to find contacts and 1Lookup to verify and enrich them across multiple data types.
Can I try 1Lookup for free?
Yes. 1Lookup offers a 7-day free trial so you can validate phone numbers, emails, and IPs against your own records before you pay. Because everything runs on one universal credit system, you can test email verification, phone and carrier lookups, and IP and fraud checks during the same trial.
Is Hunter.io worth it in 2026?
Hunter.io is worth it if you want the whole outreach workflow in one subscription: email finding, verification, the Discover B2B database, and cold-email sequences share one credit pool, with unlimited team members on every plan including Free. It is a weaker fit for verification-only buyers: plans are sized for search plus outreach, the Starter tier caps out at 4,000 verifications per month, monthly credits do not roll over, and add-on Credit Packs expire after 3 months. Pay-as-you-go exists only through the separate API-only Data Platform. If all you need is validation, especially across phone or IP as well as email, a multi-channel per-lookup API like 1Lookup lets you pay for lookups instead of a bundled suite.
Validate Emails Instantly and Accurately
Keep Hunter for finding emails. Use 1Lookup for validating them in real-time with higher accuracy and fraud detection.
1Lookup vs Hunter.io: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with Hunter.io’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioMulti-channel validation- Phone
- IP
hunter.ioEmail verification- Hunter.io · Starts at
- $49/mo for 2,000 credits ($34/mo billed yearly, -30%); 2,000 credits = up to 2,000 email searches or up to 4,000 verifications (verification costs 0.5 credit)
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise)
- Hunter.io · Cheapest published per 1,000
- $4.60 at their largest published tier
- 1Lookup: $2.00 per 1,000 at 1,000,000 lookups/mo
- Hunter.io · Free trial
- No time-limited free trial of paid plans advertised; the Free plan (50 credits/mo) serves as the trial, and the FAQ confirms you can subscribe for a single month and cancel anytime
- 1Lookup: 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front)
- Hunter.io · Do credits expire?
- Monthly-plan credits reset each billing cycle with no rollover; yearly-plan credits are valid for 12 months; add-on Credit Packs expire 3 months after purchase; Data Platform bulk credits can be used up to 12 months from purchase
- 1Lookup: Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year
| Criteria |  1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact-data coverage | EmailPhoneIP | EmailPhoneIP |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Monthly/annual subscription tiers with a shared credit pool - searches and verifications draw from the same credits (1 credit = 1 email found via Email Finder/Domain Search, 0.5 credit = 1 email verified). Plans bundle the full outreach suite (Discover B2B database, Sequences, AI assistant). A separate API-only "Data Platform" offers pay-as-you-go bulk search/verification credits with volume-tiered per-credit rates. |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $49/mo for 2,000 credits ($34/mo billed yearly, -30%); 2,000 credits = up to 2,000 email searches or up to 4,000 verifications (verification costs 0.5 credit) |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | Free plan: 50 credits/mo (= up to 100 verifications or 50 searches), 1 connected email account, 500 recipients per sequence, basic Discover filters, unlimited team members |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | No time-limited free trial of paid plans advertised; the Free plan (50 credits/mo) serves as the trial, and the FAQ confirms you can subscribe for a single month and cancel anytime |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Monthly-plan credits reset each billing cycle with no rollover; yearly-plan credits are valid for 12 months; add-on Credit Packs expire 3 months after purchase; Data Platform bulk credits can be used up to 12 months from purchase |
Cost per 1,000: Hunter.io and 1Lookup
Published rates only, drawn on one shared scale that starts at $0.
- 1Lookup rate card
- Hunter.io published tiers
Hunter.io, per published tier
10,000 verifications/mo (subscription)
$14.90As published: $14.90 at that usage; $7.45/1k if the plan's full 20k-verification capacity is used
50,000 verifications/mo (subscription)
$5.9810,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go)
$11.00150,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go)
$4.60
1Lookup, reference band (a range, not a bar from $0)
All 4 plans, 20,000 lookups/mo to 1,000,000 lookups/mo
Cost per 1,000
| Product | Volume tier | Price | Cost per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter.io | 10,000 verifications/mo (subscription) | $149/mo Growth plan (10,000 credits; 10k verifications consumes 5,000 credits) - $104/mo billed yearly | $14.90 at that usage; $7.45/1k if the plan's full 20k-verification capacity is used |
| Hunter.io | 50,000 verifications/mo (subscription) | $299/mo Scale plan (25,000 credits = max 50,000 verifications) - $209/mo billed yearly | $5.98 |
| Hunter.io | 10,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go) | ~$110 at $0.011 per verification (rate at the ~10k volume tier) | $11.00 |
| Hunter.io | 150,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go) | ~$690 at $0.0046 per verification (rate at the ~150k volume tier) | $4.60 |
| 1Lookup | 20,000 lookups/mo | $99/mo (Starter) | $4.95 |
| 1Lookup | 85,000 lookups/mo | $299/mo (Growth) | $3.52 |
| 1Lookup | 250,000 lookups/mo | $799/mo (Professional) | $3.20 |
| 1Lookup | 1,000,000 lookups/mo | $1,999/mo (Enterprise) | $2.00 |
What Hunter.io costs at volume
| Volume | Hunter.io price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 verifications/mo (subscription) | $149/mo Growth plan (10,000 credits; 10k verifications consumes 5,000 credits) - $104/mo billed yearly | $14.90 at that usage; $7.45/1k if the plan's full 20k-verification capacity is used |
| 50,000 verifications/mo (subscription) | $299/mo Scale plan (25,000 credits = max 50,000 verifications) - $209/mo billed yearly | $5.98 |
| 10,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go) | ~$110 at $0.011 per verification (rate at the ~10k volume tier) | $11.00 |
| 150,000 verifications (Data Platform pay-as-you-go) | ~$690 at $0.0046 per verification (rate at the ~150k volume tier) | $4.60 |
For scale: 1Lookup’s plans work out to $4.95 per 1,000 lookups on Starter down to $2.00 per 1,000 on Enterprise, with every lookup type (phone, email, IP, spam) drawing from the same credits. Pricing models differ (subscription vs pay-as-you-go), so compare at your real monthly volume.
The same month, priced both ways
Pick one of Hunter.io’s own published volumes. Their figure is their published price at that tier; ours is the cheapest plan on our rate card that covers it. Nothing here is interpolated.
1Lookup
$299/mo
The Growth plan, 85,000 credits a month at $3.52 per 1,000. Using 50,000 of them is 59% of the plan, so $5.98 per 1,000 effective.
Hunter.io
$299
Their published price for “50,000 verifications/mo (subscription)”, at $5.98 per 1,000.
Hunter.io rates as published on hunter.io, verified July 2026. Pricing models differ (a monthly plan is not a credit pack), so a like-for-like month depends on your real mix of lookups. Check their pricing page
Hunter.io’s pricing page, as we read it
Every Hunter.io figure above is taken from this page. It is reproduced here so you can check the numbers against the source instead of trusting our transcription of them, and the caption links straight to it. Prices change; the capture date says how fresh this is.
Before you sign: Hunter.io and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. A blank means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | Hunter.io |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | None published. 'Yes, you can change or cancel your plan at any time in your dashboard' and 'You're free to take a subscription just for one month and cancel it when your work is done.' Enterprise is quote-only. |
| Cost per extra seat | — | No per-seat charge. 'You can invite as many team members as you'd like at no extra cost. Everyone added will share the same pool of credits included in your plan.' Connected email accounts are capped per plan (1 Free, 3 Starter, 10 Growth, 20 Scale, Custom Enterprise). On every paid tier (Starter through Enterprise, but not Free) two add-on rows are offered: 'Additional email accounts (from $10/month)' and 'Buy custom domains & email accounts (from $6.00/mo)'. |
| Going over your quota | — | No overage rate published. Plan credits are a fixed monthly pool; 'Extra credit packs' are listed as an add-on on the four paid tiers (Starter, Growth, Scale, Enterprise) and are marked unavailable on Free. Repeat searches or verifications on the same address are counted once per billing period ('The same email searches or verifications are counted once per billing period'), and failed finds/verifications consume no credit. |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | API is checked on every tier in the plan comparison table, Free through Enterprise. Some endpoint options are marked 'Premium only' (e.g. custom pagination limits, the Discover similar_to filter). |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests per minute on standard accounts, with higher limits available on request | Per-endpoint, stated in the API reference and not described as varying by plan: Domain Search and Email Finder 'rate limited to 15 requests per second and 500 requests per minute'; Email Verifier '10 requests per second and 300 requests per minute'; Discover '5 requests per second and 50 requests per minute'. |
| Compliance | — | GDPR, with a Data Processing Agreement (hunter.io/data-processing-agreement) and a published sub-processor list. No SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA claim appears on hunter.io/security-policy. |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | By tier on the pricing table: Free 'Regular support'; Starter, Growth and Scale 'Priority support'; Enterprise 'Priority support + Account manager'. Channels named elsewhere on the site are the Help Center (help.hunter.io), a contact form, and status.hunter.io. Specific channels per tier are not published. |
Hunter.io fine print worth reading twice
Published terms that change what Hunter.io costs or what you can do with it. Each one links to the Hunter.io page it was read on, because a claim about somebody else’s contract should be checkable in one click.
The headline monthly prices require annual billing: Starter is $34/month billed yearly ($408/year) but $49/month billed monthly, Growth $104 vs $149, and Scale $209 vs $299, under a 'Pay yearly -30%' toggle.
Read it on Hunter.io’s sitePurchased Data Platform credits expire: 'Credits can be used up to 12 months from purchase.'
Read it on Hunter.io’s siteConnected sending email accounts are capped per plan (1/3/10/20) and additional ones are paid add-ons. Two add-on rows appear on every paid tier (Starter through Enterprise) and are unavailable on Free: 'Additional email accounts (from $10/month)' and 'Buy custom domains & email accounts (from $6.00/mo)'.
Read it on Hunter.io’s siteCredits are consumed per result rather than per query: 1 credit per email found via Domain Search or Email Finder, 1 credit per up to 10 emails via Bulk Domain Search, and 0.5 credit per email verified.
Read it on Hunter.io’s site
Hunter.io’s API reference
Their public developer documentation, so you can judge the integration before you start one.
1Lookup
Hunter.io
Where Hunter.io wins
- All-in-one outreach platform: the same credit pool covers email finding (Domain Search/Email Finder), verification, a B2B lead database (Discover), and cold-email sequences - no separate tools needed
- Unlimited team members on every plan including Free, sharing one credit pool at no extra cost
- Fair metering: no credit charged for failed searches or Unknown verification results, and repeated searches/verifications are counted once per billing period
- Large ecosystem and adoption: 7M+ users claimed, 4.6 on Capterra / 4.4 on G2, with browser extensions, Google Sheets add-on, CRM integrations, API, and MCP support; Data Platform volume rates fall to ~$0.0022/verification at ~2M volume
Where 1Lookup wins
- Phone, email, and IP validation in one API with one universal credit balance
- Phone data refreshed daily from FCC and carrier sources
- Carrier/HLR lookup, line type, spam score, and reverse lookup included alongside validation
- Self-serve plans with no contracts and 3-month credit rollover
Hunter.io pricing and product facts verified against hunter.io as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: your priority is verifying that contact data is real and reachable across phone, email, and IP, not finding new addresses.
Consider Hunter.io instead if: you mainly need to find and gather professional email addresses for outreach and prospecting.