# Hunter review (2026): still the best at name plus domain

By [Florian Martens](https://pipe0.com/authors/florian-martens) · Published Oct 6, 2026

Source: https://pipe0.com/reviews/hunter
Scoring method: https://pipe0.com/reviews#methodology
Disclosure: pipe0 buys data from Hunter and uses it in its waterfalls. The scores come from our own benchmark, not from that relationship.

> Hunter finds work emails from a name and a company domain better than any provider we tested, with a free plan, unlimited users, and an MCP server on every plan.

**Verdict: 3.9/5.** The most accurate way we know to turn a name and a company domain into a work email, with honest sourcing, free misses, and API and MCP on every plan. It sells emails only, so phone numbers come from elsewhere.

| Criterion | Score | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ease of use | 3.9/5 | Type a domain, get the people and their addresses. The extension, Sheets add-on, and free plan make the first result take minutes. |
| Data quality | 3.8/5 | First on name and domain to work email in our benchmark, at 77% with 95% agreement. No phone numbers, and every address comes from the public web. |
| Pricing value | 4.0/5 | A free plan, unlimited users, misses and repeat lookups free. From $34 a month billed annually for 2,000 emails, though credits don't roll over. |
| API and agent access | 3.9/5 | API and MCP on every plan, including Free, at 15 requests a second, with a confidence score and sources on every email. |
| **Overall** (mean) | **3.9/5** | |

**Best for:**

- Finding work emails when you know the person and the company
- Small teams that want a free plan and unlimited users
- Agents that need email lookups over MCP

**Skip it if:**

- You need mobile phone numbers
- You start from LinkedIn profiles rather than names and domains
- You need coverage beyond what the public web shows

**Price:** from $34/mo for Starter, billed annually ($49 billed monthly). Free plan available.

## Hunter at a glance

- **Founded:** April 2015 by Antoine Finkelstein and François Grante ([source](https://hunter.io/about))
- **CEO:** Matthew Tharp ([source](https://hunter.io/about))
- **Company:** Hunter Web Services, Inc., fully remote ([source](https://hunter.io/terms-of-service))
- **Users:** 7M+ accounts, according to Hunter ([source](https://hunter.io/about))
- **Data:** 150M professional emails indexed from the public web ([source](https://hunter.io/our-data))
- **API:** 15 requests a second and 500 a minute for search; every plan ([source](https://hunter.io/api-documentation/v2))
- **MCP server:** mcp.hunter.io, on every plan including Free ([source](https://hunter.io/mcp))
- **GDPR:** EU and UK representatives named in its privacy policy ([source](https://hunter.io/privacy-policy))

## Hunter in our benchmark

pipe0 ran the same records through every provider it tests (July 2026).

| Test | Records | Coverage | Agreement | Median time | Run |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Name and domain to work email (signup emails) | 100 | 77% | 95% | 1.5 s | 20260731T122257Z-f809 |

### How fast Hunter answers

Name and domain to work email, median response time per lookup (run 20260731T122257Z-f809).

- Hunter: 1.5 s
- LeadMagic (low-cost): 4.8 s
- Amplemarket (premium): 0.6 s

### How often Hunter agrees with other providers

Name and domain to work email (run 20260731T122257Z-f809).

- Prospeo (low-cost): Hunter and Prospeo returned the same work email for 25 of 26 people (96%).
- Amplemarket (premium): Hunter and Amplemarket returned the same work email for 24 of 26 people (92%).

- Name and domain are derived from each signup email, so this test measures finding a person's address format, not finding the company.
- In a September repeat on the same 100 signups (20260907T143742Z-3e4b) with Wiza added, Hunter again found 77% and Wiza 73%.
- We left out our LinkedIn URL to email test for Hunter. The result points to a bug in our own integration, which passes a URL where Hunter expects a handle.
- Samples are small, 100 records per test, so treat a few points of difference as noise.
- The signup set is real pipe0 signup emails with no vendor involved in choosing them, a harder and more realistic population than the profile set.
- Agreement is the share of results that match what other providers returned for the same person. It is a proxy for accuracy, not ground truth.

## What is Hunter? [#what-is-hunter]

Hunter has been finding email addresses since 2015, when Antoine Finkelstein
and François Grante built a tool that answers one question: what is the
email address of this person at this company? Type a domain and Hunter lists
the people it knows there with their addresses. Type a name and a domain and
it returns the most likely address, a confidence score, and the web pages
where it found it.

Around that it has added a verifier, a company search, cold email sequences,
a browser extension, a Google Sheets add-on, an API, and an MCP server. More
than seven million accounts have signed up, and every plan, including the
free one, comes with unlimited users.

## Why it wins on name and domain [#why-it-wins-on-name-and-domain]

Most providers start from a LinkedIn profile. Hunter starts from the
company's website, and that is exactly what a name-and-domain lookup needs.
It crawls about 30 million pages a day and indexes the addresses it finds,
so it knows each company's email pattern from real examples, not from
assumptions.

In our benchmark, we gave five providers the names and company domains of
100 real pipe0 signups. Hunter found a work email for 77 of them. The next
best found 50. When we repeated the test in September with Wiza added,
Hunter found 77% again and Wiza 73%. Its answers also held up: when Hunter
and another provider both found an address, they matched 95% of the time.

Hunter is honest about where an address comes from. Each result shows its
public sources, or says it was derived from the company's pattern. Addresses
that no longer appear anywhere are removed after six months.

## What it costs [#what-it-costs]

The free plan gives 50 credits a month. Starter costs $34 a month billed
annually for 2,000 credits, which is under 2 cents per email found, and a
lookup that finds nothing is free. Repeating a search in the same billing
period costs nothing either, and verification is half a credit. Visitors in
Europe see the same figures in euros.

Monthly credits don't roll over. On yearly plans, you get the year's credits
up front, which helps teams whose volume comes in bursts.

## Hunter for agents [#hunter-for-agents]

Hunter's API and MCP server are available on every plan, the free one
included. The API allows 15 requests a second for searches, and the MCP
server at `mcp.hunter.io` works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and others,
with OAuth where the client supports it. Every email comes back with a
confidence score, which is what an agent needs to decide whether to use it.

## Hunter and pipe0 [#hunter-and-pipe0]

We buy data from Hunter. It is part of pipe0's name-and-domain work email
waterfall, and its benchmark result is why it stays there. Its strength is
specific: give it a name and a domain and it does better than anyone else
we have tested. Starting from a LinkedIn profile, and for phone numbers,
other providers take over.

## Who should buy Hunter [#who-should-buy-hunter]

Buy Hunter if you know who you want to reach and where they work, and you
need their work email. The free plan is enough to judge it, and the paid
plans are cheap per address.

Look elsewhere if you need mobile numbers or start from LinkedIn profiles.
[LeadMagic](/reviews/leadmagic) covers emails and phones from one API, and
[Surfe](/reviews/surfe) found the most mobile numbers in our tests.

## Hunter pros and cons

### Pros

- **The best name and domain lookup we tested.** From a name and company domain, Hunter found a work email for 77% of 100 real signups, ahead of every other provider we ran on that test, Wiza included.
- **Its answers hold up.** When Hunter and another provider both found an address, they matched 95% of the time. It agreed with Prospeo on 25 of 26 people and with Amplemarket on 24 of 26.
- **Transparent sourcing.** Hunter crawls the public web and shows where it found each address, or says it is a pattern guess. Addresses with no remaining public source are dropped after six months.
- **Fair billing.** Misses are free, repeating a search in the same billing period is free, and verifying an address costs half a credit.

### Cons

- **Emails only.** Hunter sells no phone numbers. For mobiles you need a second provider.
- **Public web data has limits.** An address that never appears on a website can only be guessed from the company's pattern. Hunter labels those guesses, but they are guesses.
- **Credits don't roll over.** Monthly credits reset each month. Yearly plans grant the year's credits up front instead.

## Hunter pricing

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 50 credits a month, 1 connected email account, API and MCP access. |
| Starter | $34/mo annual, $49 monthly | 2,000 credits a month, 3 email accounts, unlimited users. |
| Growth | $104/mo annual, $149 monthly | 10,000 credits a month, 10 email accounts. |
| Scale | $209/mo annual, $299 monthly | 25,000 credits a month, 20 email accounts, account manager. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom credits and terms. |

- Visitors in Europe see the same figures in euros.
- One credit buys one email found through Domain Search or Email Finder. Verifying an email costs half a credit.
- No email found, an unknown verification result, or a repeat of the same search in the same period costs nothing.
- Every plan includes unlimited users, the API, the MCP server, and the browser extensions.

Prices as of Oct 6, 2026, from https://hunter.io/pricing.

## Hunter alternatives

- [pipe0](https://pipe0.com/enrichment-api): You want Hunter's lookups inside a waterfall that also finds phones and starts from LinkedIn profiles, billed per result.
- [LeadMagic](https://pipe0.com/reviews/leadmagic): You want emails and mobile numbers from one cheap API.
- [Surfe](https://pipe0.com/reviews/surfe): You start from LinkedIn and need mobile numbers at high coverage.
- [Apollo](https://pipe0.com/reviews/apollo): You want a contact database with sequences and a dialer.

## FAQ

### Is Hunter accurate?

In our benchmark it was the best at finding a work email from a name and company domain: 77% of 100 real signups, and its addresses matched other providers 95% of the time. Hunter also labels each address with its public sources or as a pattern guess.

### How much does Hunter cost?

Hunter has a free plan with 50 credits a month. Starter costs $34 a month billed annually or $49 monthly for 2,000 credits, Growth $104 or $149, and Scale $209 or $299; Europe sees the same figures in euros. Every plan has unlimited users.

### Does Hunter find phone numbers?

No. Hunter finds and verifies email addresses only. For phone numbers you need another provider or a waterfall.

### Does Hunter have an API and an MCP server?

Yes, both on every plan including Free. The API allows 15 requests a second for searches. The MCP server at mcp.hunter.io works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and other clients.

### Where does Hunter get its data?

Hunter crawls the public web, about 30 million pages a day, and indexes addresses that appear on websites. Addresses with no public source left are removed after six months, and people can claim and delete their own address.