Mailbeam vs Bouncer
An honest comparison of features, pricing, and performance — updated January 2025.
TL;DR — Which should you choose?
Choose Mailbeam if:
- You're a developer integrating real-time verification into a product (not cleaning lists)
- You need official SDKs and typed API clients
- You want subscription pricing without credits
Choose Bouncer if:
- Your primary use case is bulk list cleaning for email marketing campaigns
- You heavily use Bouncer's ESP integrations (Mailchimp, GetResponse)
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Mailbeam | Bouncer |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Free tier size | 1,000/month | Trial credits only |
| Pricing model | Per-verification | Credits |
| Monthly subscription | ||
| Price at 50K/month | €49 | ~€149 |
| Price at 1M/month | €499 | ~€999 |
| Verification checks | ||
| Syntax validation | ||
| MX records | ||
| SMTP probing | ||
| Disposable detection | ||
| Role-based detection | ||
| Catch-all detection | ||
| AI quality scoring | ||
| Explainable reason field | ||
| Typo suggestions | ||
| API & platform | ||
| Real-time API < 100ms | ||
| P95 response time | < 100ms | ~150ms |
| Official SDKs | 6 languages | |
| Webhooks | ||
| Batch verification | ||
| Test / sandbox mode | ||
| OpenAPI spec | ||
| Compliance & security | ||
| EU data residency | ||
| GDPR compliant | ||
| DPA available | ||
| Server location | Frankfurt, DE | Warsaw, PL |
| Developer experience | ||
| Developer-first product | ||
| TypeScript support | ||
| Documentation quality | Excellent | Good |
| Error codes (machine-readable) | ||
| Support | ||
| Email support | yes (Starter+) | |
| Priority support | yes (Growth+) | yes (paid) |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% (Pro+) | no public SLA |
Pricing comparison at every volume
| Monthly volume | Mailbeam | Bouncer | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1K / month | €0(Free) | ~€10 | 100% less |
| 10K / month | €19(Starter) | ~€50 | 62% less |
| 50K / month | €49(Growth) | ~€149 | 67% less |
| 200K / month | €149(Pro) | ~€349 | 57% less |
| 1M / month | €499(Scale) | ~€999 | 50% less |
Bouncer prices are approximate based on public information as of January 2025. Actual prices may vary.
Feature analysis
Developer experience
Mailbeam winsBouncer is built for email marketers — its dashboard, workflows, and documentation assume you're cleaning a list, not integrating an API. Mailbeam ships official SDKs for Node.js, Python, PHP, Ruby, and Go, all with TypeScript definitions. API responses include machine-readable reason codes so your application can respond differently to 'disposable email' vs 'SMTP rejected'. Bouncer has no official SDKs and returns simpler status strings.
Real-time API speed
Mailbeam winsMailbeam's p95 API response time is under 100ms. Bouncer's API is designed for bulk jobs, not sub-100ms real-time responses. For a signup flow where a user is waiting, 100ms is invisible; 400ms is a perceptible lag. Mailbeam pre-warms MX record caches for common EU domains to achieve consistent low latency.
EU compliance
TieBoth Mailbeam and Bouncer are EU-hosted and GDPR-compliant. Bouncer processes data in Warsaw, Poland; Mailbeam in Frankfurt, Germany. Both provide DPAs. For most European companies, either product satisfies GDPR data residency requirements. Mailbeam's DPA is automatically presented during onboarding on Scale+ plans; Bouncer requires you to request one.
AI catch-all scoring
Mailbeam winsBouncer detects catch-all domains and flags them as such. Mailbeam goes further with an AI model that assigns a 0–100 quality score to catch-all addresses based on domain reputation, sending history patterns, and structural signals. This means you can safely accept high-quality catch-all addresses from recognised enterprises while rejecting low-quality ones, instead of applying a blanket policy.
Free tier and self-serve
Mailbeam winsMailbeam offers a free tier of 1,000 verifications per month — no credit card required. Bouncer requires you to start a paid trial to access the API. For developers evaluating options, the ability to integrate and test without a credit card is a meaningful difference.
Switching from Bouncer to Mailbeam
Most migrations take under an hour. Here's the key code change:
// Before — Bouncer
// Bouncer (old)
const res = await fetch("https://api.usebouncer.com/v1/email/verify", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "x-api-key": apiKey, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
body: JSON.stringify({ email }),
});
const { status } = await res.json();
if (status !== "deliverable") return 422;
// After — Mailbeam
// Mailbeam (new)
const mb = new Mailbeam({ apiKey: process.env.MAILBEAM_KEY });
const { valid, score } = await mb.verify(email);
if (!valid || score < 60) return 422;Read the full migration guide: Migrating from Bouncer →
“We switched from Bouncer because we needed real GDPR compliance for our EU users, not just a checkbox. Mailbeam's Frankfurt hosting and DPA made the compliance conversation easy.”
Frequently asked questions
Start verifying emails — for free
1,000 free verifications per month. No credit card required. Switch from Bouncer in under an hour.