Hunter is the go-to email finder — type a domain, get email addresses. If you already know which businesses to contact, it does one thing well. If you need to discover prospects, qualify them with website audits and review data, and send personalized outreach assets — Hunter stops at the email address.
Same prospect. Two different tools. Here's exactly what changes.
| Dimension | prospectup Recommended Built for US local-business prospecting | hunter.io Email finder Designed for VP-targeting at large companies |
|---|---|---|
| 01 · Category Data depth | ||
| Total records indexedWhat sits inside the platform you're paying for | ✓ 13.7M US local businesses Every record indexed with operating signals, owner data, and a website audit. | ~ 100M+ verified emails Email index focused on professional addresses discovered from public web sources. |
| SMB owner contact dataReaching the decision-maker at a local business | ✓ Verified email + mobile + owner name Sub-5% bounce rate on owner emails. Direct dial phone where available. | ~ Email addresses only Strong email finding for known domains. No phone numbers, no owner identification by name. |
| Local business signalsReviews, GBP, hours, Maps rank, photos | ✓ Full coverage Star rating, review volume, response rate, Maps rank, GBP completeness. | ✗ Not indexed Hunter is an email tool. No Maps, review, or local business operating data. |
| Website audit per prospectPageSpeed, SEO, tech stack grading | ✓ Automatic on every lead Full-site crawl, Lighthouse score, CMS detection, schema analysis — attached to the lead record. | ✗ Not available Hunter finds emails associated with a domain — it doesn't audit the website behind it. |
| 02 · Category Search & filters | ||
| Prospect discoveryFinding new businesses to sell to | ✓ Core function — 80+ filters Search 13.7M businesses by category, location, tech stack, review health, and 75+ more signals. | ✗ Domain search only You input a domain you already know. Hunter doesn't discover businesses for you. |
| Natural-language search"Plumbers in Austin with no website" | ✓ Type a sentence Parsed into filters live; results returned in under a second. | ✗ Not available Hunter searches by domain name or person name — no natural-language queries. |
| Email verificationConfirming an email is deliverable | ✓ Built in — verified on save Every email is validated at save time. Sub-5% bounce rate. | ✓ Core strength Syntax, domain, and SMTP checks. Hunter claims under 1% bounce on 'Valid' results. |
| 03 · Category Outreach assets | ||
| AI-generated personalized assetsA unique asset for every prospect, not a template | ✓ 6 asset types per prospect Scan report, instant mockup, postcard, voice demo, social series, custom asset. | ✗ No asset generation Hunter provides email addresses and a basic campaign tool. No per-prospect asset creation. |
| Email campaignsSending outreach sequences | ✓ Multi-channel sequences Email, SMS, postcard, and voicemail — with auto-pause on reply or booking. | ~ Basic email campaigns Hunter Campaigns sends cold email sequences. No SMS, no physical mail, no voicemail drops. |
| Physical mail integrationPrinted postcards mailed for you | ✓ Lob — printed and mailed QR-tracked postcards built into the same sequence as email. | ✗ Not available Email only. No physical mail channel. |
| 04 · Category Pricing | ||
| Pricing modelWhat you actually pay for | ✓ $1/lead — pay per saved record All 6 asset types included. No seat fees. | ~ Starts at $34/mo for 2,000 searches Credit-based tiers: Starter $34/mo, Growth $104/mo, Scale $209/mo (annual). Credits cover email searches. |
| Free tierTry-before-you-buy | ✓ 50 leads free, no card Full product with all 6 asset types. Keep the assets even if you never upgrade. | ✓ 50 credits/mo free Enough for light email lookups. Unlimited team members share the credit pool. |
| Seat licensesAdding teammates | ✓ None — invite anyone Whole agency, whole sales team. Pay per lead, not per head. | ✓ Unlimited team members All plans include unlimited users sharing one credit pool. No per-seat charges. |
| 05 · Summary Best for | ||
The ICP this tool was designed for | Agencies, vertical SaaS, and field sales teams who need to discover, qualify, and engage US local businesses with proof. | Individuals and teams who need quick email lookups for domains they already know, with a generous free tier. |
Hunter pricing and feature data current as of May 2026 · last reviewed by the ProspectUp team.
Not "we're better at everything" — here are the four concrete problems agency owners and vertical-SaaS founders have called out, with what changes when you switch.
Hunter is an email finder — you input a domain name, and it returns associated professional email addresses. If you already have a list of businesses and just need contact emails, Hunter does that efficiently with strong verification.
But most SMB prospecting starts before you have a list. You need to discover which businesses to sell to — filtered by category, location, tech stack, review health, and digital maturity. Hunter doesn't do discovery. ProspectUp's core function is searching 13.7M US businesses with 80+ filter dimensions, then enriching every saved lead with 50+ data points and 6 branded outreach assets.
Hunter answers 'what's the email for this domain?' ProspectUp answers 'which businesses should I be selling to, and what should I send them?'
See the AI prospect searchFor enterprise outbound, an email address is the starting point for a 6-touch sequence. For SMB owners — who get dozens of generic sales emails daily — an email address plus a template isn't enough. What moves an SMB owner to reply is proof that you looked at their specific business.
ProspectUp generates six asset types per saved prospect: a branded scan report with their real PageSpeed score and Maps rank, an instant website mockup showing what their site could look like, a personalized postcard with a QR code, a voice AI demo, a social post series, and custom assets. Hunter gives you the email. ProspectUp gives you the reason they'll open it.
See the scan reportsHunter's 100M+ email index skews toward larger organizations and US/European markets. G2 reviewers frequently report finding just one or two contacts for smaller or niche businesses — exactly the businesses that agencies, vertical SaaS, and field sales teams are prospecting into.
Hunter also relies on pattern guessing for many emails (e.g., first.last@domain.com), which produces lower accuracy than verified lookups. For SMB owner-operators who often use personal email addresses or non-standard patterns, this approach has limitations that multiple reviewers have flagged.
See the live enrichment pipelineIf you need a simple, fast email finder for domains you already know — Hunter is excellent and well-priced. The free tier (50 credits/month) is genuinely useful for occasional lookups, the Chrome extension is convenient, and email verification accuracy is strong. For teams that already have a prospect list and just need emails, Hunter is a focused, affordable tool.
If you need to discover prospects, qualify them with operating signals, and send personalized outreach assets — Hunter's scope is too narrow. That's where ProspectUp's full prospecting stack wins.
Yes — but you probably won't need to. ProspectUp includes verified email and phone for SMB owners as part of its enrichment pipeline. Hunter's value is highest when you have domains but no contacts. ProspectUp gives you both the discovery and the contact data in one platform.
Hunter's Starter plan is $34/mo for 2,000 email searches. ProspectUp's $1/lead includes the email plus 50+ enrichment signals and 6 branded outreach assets. At 100 leads/month, ProspectUp is $100 vs. Hunter's $34 — but ProspectUp delivers dramatically more per lead. At scale, the value gap widens in ProspectUp's favor.
For the emails Hunter finds, verification accuracy is strong — under 1% bounce on 'Valid' results. ProspectUp's owner email verification has a sub-5% bounce rate. Hunter's advantage is in email-specific accuracy; ProspectUp's advantage is in finding the right person (the owner) at SMB businesses where Hunter's pattern-guessing may not work.
No. Hunter is email-only. ProspectUp includes direct dial phone numbers and mobile numbers for SMB owners where available, as part of the standard enrichment — no extra cost or credit charge.
Hunter has a basic email campaign tool (Hunter Campaigns) for cold email sequences. ProspectUp offers multi-channel sequences spanning email, SMS, postcards, and voicemail — with per-prospect personalized assets attached to each step. If your outreach is email-only, Hunter works. If you need multi-channel with proof assets, ProspectUp is the fuller tool.
Hunter's free tier gives you 50 email lookups per month — useful for occasional use. ProspectUp's free tier gives you 50 fully enriched leads with website audits, Maps data, owner contacts, and 6 outreach assets each. The depth per lead is dramatically different — one gives you an email address, the other gives you a complete outreach package.
Try ProspectUp free. See your prospects with full enrichment, owner contact data, and 6 outreach asset types — not just an email and a guess.
Create your account →