· Sales data · 4 min read
LeadMagic's Email Validation Beat ZeroBounce in Our Test
We added LeadMagic to our verification benchmark: 100 addresses where we know every answer. It got 97 right, one more than ZeroBounce, and charged nothing when it couldn't tell.
›In this post · 7 sections
Earlier today we published a test of ZeroBounce against MillionVerifier on 100 addresses where we know every answer. LeadMagic, which we mostly use for finding emails and phone numbers, also sells validation, so we ran the same 100 addresses through it. It came out on top.
The test, briefly
Fifty addresses are real: pipe0 users who signed in with Google in the 45 days before the test, 30 on company domains and 20 on Gmail. Fifty are fake, generated for the test with no person behind them: random mailboxes at Gmail, Outlook, and well-known company domains, and addresses at domains that don't exist.
A verdict is right when it calls a real address valid or a fake one invalid. Calling a fake valid is the costly error, because it bounces. Calling a real address invalid loses a lead. Catch-all and unknown count as undetermined: the verifier didn't commit, which is better than guessing wrong.
The results
| LeadMagic | ZeroBounce | MixRank | MillionVerifier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Right answers | 97 of 100 | 96 of 100 | 93 of 100 | 66 of 100 |
| Real addresses confirmed | 49 of 50 | 47 of 50 | 47 of 50 | 31 of 50 |
| Fakes caught | 48 of 50 | 49 of 50 | 46 of 50 | 35 of 50 |
| Fakes passed as valid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Real addresses rejected | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Undetermined | 2 | 2 | 4 | 32 |
| Median time per check | 2.0 s | 0.3 s | 1.3 s | 0.7 s |
LeadMagic and ZeroBounce are close enough that one address separates them, and on 100 addresses that is within noise. What sets LeadMagic apart is where its few misses fall.
Every real address but one
LeadMagic confirmed 49 of the 50 real addresses. The one it rejected, every verifier rejected, and MillionVerifier's reason was "no mailbox". A Google sign-in 45 days ago proves the account existed then, not that the address still works today, so that one is most likely our label, not LeadMagic's mistake. Read that way, LeadMagic confirmed every real mailbox in the test.
For outbound, that is the number that matters most. A verifier that wrongly rejects real work addresses quietly shrinks every list it touches, and you never find out which leads you lost. ZeroBounce rejected two real addresses and MixRank three.
Unknown, and free
LeadMagic's two undetermined verdicts were both on fake addresses at salesforce.com and atlassian.com, where it said unknown rather than guess. LeadMagic has no separate catch-all status: an address on a domain that accepts all mail comes back as unknown.
It also doesn't charge for that. A valid or invalid verdict costs a quarter credit, between 0.18 and 0.5 cents depending on the plan, and an unknown is free. ZeroBounce charges for catch-all results, and MillionVerifier credits them back as a goodwill gesture its terms say it can withdraw.
The trade-off is speed
LeadMagic took a median of 2 seconds per check, the slowest of the four. ZeroBounce answered in 0.3 seconds. For a signup form, where a person waits for the answer, that difference is noticeable. For cleaning a list before a campaign or checking addresses in a batch, it isn't.
What we'd use, and when
For cold outbound to work addresses, both LeadMagic and ZeroBounce are good choices, and the test can't separate them on accuracy. LeadMagic is cheaper per check and doesn't bill unknowns, ZeroBounce is much faster and comes with compliance paperwork and deliverability tools. MillionVerifier stays the cheapest option for consumer lists, where it was as accurate as the others, but a third of its answers on work domains were catch-all.
In a pipe0 sheet you don't have to settle it once. Validation is a column, so you can run it after the email waterfall on every new row and see the verdict next to the address.
What this test can't tell you
A hundred addresses is a small sample, and 30 real work addresses decide most of the differences. Our fake company addresses sit on 20 large domains, and your prospects' mail servers will behave differently. LeadMagic ran about half an hour after the other three, so a mail server that changed its behavior in between would affect the comparison. The full scorecards are in the reviews of LeadMagic, ZeroBounce, and MillionVerifier.
Frequently asked questions
Is LeadMagic's email validation accurate?
In our test it was the most accurate of four verifiers: 97 of 100 labelled addresses right, 49 of 50 real addresses confirmed, and no fake address passed as valid. Its one rejected real address was rejected by every verifier.
LeadMagic or ZeroBounce for email validation?
On accuracy the two were nearly tied, 97 against 96. LeadMagic confirmed two more real addresses, ZeroBounce caught one more fake. ZeroBounce answered in 0.3 seconds against about 2 for LeadMagic, and LeadMagic is cheaper per check and doesn't charge for unknown results.
How much does LeadMagic email validation cost?
A quarter credit per valid or invalid verdict, which is between 0.18 and 0.5 cents depending on the plan. Unknown results, including addresses on catch-all domains, are free.
How was the test run?
We used 50 real addresses of pipe0 users who signed in with Google in the last 45 days and 50 fake ones we generated, then scored each verdict against the known answer. Catch-all and unknown verdicts count as undetermined, not as wrong.
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