Mailbeam vs Hunter
An honest comparison of features, pricing, and performance — updated January 2025.
TL;DR — Which should you choose?
Choose Mailbeam if:
- Email verification is your primary use case (not email finding)
- You need real-time verification in a signup flow
- You want dedicated verification infrastructure with typed SDKs
Choose Hunter if:
- You need email finding (discovering addresses from domains) as your primary feature
- You use Hunter's CRM integrations heavily for sales outreach
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | Mailbeam | Hunter |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | yes (25 verifications) | |
| Pricing model | Per-verification | Shared credits |
| Credits shared with email finder | ||
| Price at 50K verifications | €49 | ~$149 (credits) |
| Annual discount | 20% | |
| Verification checks | ||
| Syntax validation | ||
| MX records | ||
| SMTP probing | ||
| Disposable detection | ||
| Role-based detection | ||
| Catch-all detection | ||
| AI quality scoring | ||
| Typo suggestions | ||
| API & platform | ||
| Real-time signup focus | ||
| P95 response time | < 100ms | ~200ms |
| Batch verification | ||
| Webhooks | ||
| Official SDKs | 6 languages | partial (Ruby, JS) |
| Test / sandbox mode | ||
| Compliance & security | ||
| EU data residency | ||
| GDPR compliant | yes (EU company) | |
| DPA included | ||
| No US data transfer | ||
| Developer experience | ||
| Verification-first product | ||
| TypeScript support | ||
| Dedicated verify documentation | ||
| 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 | Hunter | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1K / month | €0(Free) | ~€0 | — |
| 10K / month | €19(Starter) | ~€49 | 61% less |
| 50K / month | €49(Growth) | ~€149 | 67% less |
| 200K / month | €149(Pro) | ~€349 | 57% less |
| 1M / month | €499(Scale) | ~€999 | 50% less |
Hunter prices are approximate based on public information as of January 2025. Actual prices may vary.
Feature analysis
Verification as a primary product
Mailbeam winsHunter's core business is email finding — discovering email addresses for sales outreach. Verification is a bolt-on feature that shares credits with the finder. Mailbeam's entire product is verification. Every engineering decision, API design, latency optimization, and compliance choice is made with verification in mind. You get a dedicated tool, not a secondary tab.
Real-time API for signup flows
Mailbeam winsHunter's verification API is designed for verifying prospect lists before outreach, not for real-time signup validation. Mailbeam is engineered specifically for the sub-100ms latency required to verify email addresses as users type or submit a form. The architectural difference matters: MX caches are pre-warmed for common EU domains, SMTP probes run in parallel with other checks, and the response includes everything you need to gate signup in a single call.
EU compliance
TieBoth Hunter and Mailbeam are EU-based companies. Hunter is headquartered in Paris, France, and operates under GDPR. Mailbeam processes all data in Frankfurt, Germany. The key difference is focus: Hunter's compliance documentation centers around their email finder product; Mailbeam's DPA is specifically written for email verification API usage.
Pricing and credits
Mailbeam winsHunter uses a shared credit pool for both email finding and verification. If you're only using Hunter for verification, you're effectively paying for a finder you don't use. Mailbeam's pricing is verification-only — you pay per verification, with no credits, no multipliers, and no budget wasted on unused features.
Email finding
Hunter winsHunter pioneered email finding from domain names and LinkedIn profiles. If you need to discover email addresses for outreach — not just verify ones users submit — Hunter has no equivalent in Mailbeam. Mailbeam is strictly a verification product. Combine it with Hunter for finding if you need both.
Switching from Hunter to Mailbeam
Most migrations take under an hour. Here's the key code change:
// Before — Hunter
// Hunter (old)
const res = await fetch(
`https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-verifier?email=${email}&api_key=${apiKey}`
);
const { data } = await res.json();
if (data.result !== "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 Hunter →
“We switched from Hunter 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 Hunter in under an hour.