A side-by-side look at how the two compare, and which one fits your use case.
| Dimension | PersistData | Hunter.io |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Server-side data API; per-request fetch, not a large owned brand-name database | Owned, self-crawled email index plus pattern-generation, per Hunter's docs: it crawls public web pages (company sites, directories, press releases, bylines) and records a source URL per address; Domain Search returns indexed emails, Email Finder predicts name@domain then verifies via SMTP. Hunter states it does not crawl LinkedIn or use your LinkedIn session. Database size is a vendor/third-party claim, not audited, and varies by source: marketing/reviews cite ~100M sites crawled and ~76M indexed, a 2026 Cleanlist comparison cites ~107M contacts. As of June 2026. |
| Login / seat required | No login, no seat, no extension | Login required (a free Hunter account) to use any tool, per Hunter's site. Hunter states 'unlimited team members' on all plans sharing one credit pool, so it is not priced per seat. A Chrome/Edge/Firefox extension exists but is described as optional convenience UI; the same data is reachable via web app, CSV export, integrations, and API. Net: login = required, paid seat = not required to start (free tier exists), extension = not required. As of June 2026. |
| LinkedIn account ban risk | None; fully server-side, never touches your LinkedIn session | Low-to-none by design. Hunter serves from its own email DB and, per its docs, does not log into or automate under your LinkedIn session; the extension does not use LinkedIn credentials. 2026 reviews (BookYourData, ReachStream) describe the extension as passively reading the name/company already on the open page, then querying Hunter's DB. Honest framing: this property is shared by any server-side/own-DB provider, including PersistData, so it is NOT a PersistData-exclusive advantage. As of June 2026. |
| Pricing model | One-time packs or month-to-month; transparent per-credit (PersistData's published terms) | Self-serve tiered subscription (5 tiers), credit-based, per Hunter's published pricing (verified June 2026): Free $0 / 50 credits per month; Starter $49/mo ($34/mo annual) / 2,000 credits; Growth $149/mo ($104/mo annual) / 10,000 credits; Scale $299/mo ($209/mo annual) / 25,000 credits; Enterprise and the separate Data Platform plans are custom-quoted, not published. Annual billing applies a flat ~30% discount. Credit model: 1 credit = an email found, 0.5 credit = a verification; add-on credit packs (reported ~$50 per 1,000) sold to paid plans only. As of June 2026. |
| Approx. $ per record | ~$0.02-$0.10 per credit; 1 credit per profile/company, 5 credits per verified email (PersistData's stated rates) | List price per credit (arithmetic from Hunter's published pricing): ~$0.0245/credit on Starter monthly, ~$0.0149 on Growth monthly, ~$0.012 on Scale monthly; annual billing knocks ~30% off (Growth annual ~$0.0104, Scale annual ~$0.0084). Real cost per deliverable email is higher than list for any provider, but we could not substantiate a specific Hunter deliverability multiplier from a credible public source, so list-price-per-credit is the only factual figure and effective deliverable cost is flagged unknown/higher. On list price per credit, the two sit in a comparable low band. As of June 2026. |
| Pay only for found | Yes; a not-found costs 0 credits (per PersistData's terms) | Pay-for-found, per Hunter's stated policy: Email Finder charges 1 credit only when an email is returned; Email Verifier returns 'unknown' and charges no credit when it cannot verify; duplicates are not charged. Caveat 1: this is Hunter's stated policy, not unanimously experienced; some 2025-2026 Trustpilot reviewers dispute it, reporting credits consumed on no-result queries (unresolved, presented as a reviewer dispute). Caveat 2: this is NOT a PersistData-exclusive advantage; Hunter and several others also bill only for results. As of June 2026. |
| Free tier | Evaluation via low-cost packs (no perpetual free plan) | Genuinely free with no time limit and no card required, per Hunter's free-plan help page: 50 credits/month across tools, 1 connected email account, CSV export capped at 10 emails/domain, Discover capped at 100 saved companies. Hunter lists the free plan as including email finding/verification, cold-email sequences, Leads CRM, Signals, the extension, Zapier/Make/Sheets integrations, unlimited team members, and API access (free-plan API capped to the first 10 addresses). Free-plan users cannot buy add-on credit packs. As of June 2026. |
| Annual lock-in | None; one-time packs or month-to-month | Month-to-month is available (no obligation to go annual); annual is opt-in for the ~30% discount, per Hunter's docs. Both auto-renew until cancelled; cancellation stops future renewal anytime, access runs to the end of the paid cycle. Refunds: per Hunter's ToS/help, subscriptions are non-refundable, with no proration on a cancelled annual term and no refund on an already-processed renewal. Honest framing: PersistData's 'no annual lock-in' is only a partial differentiator here (Hunter offers true month-to-month too); the sharper contrast is Hunter's non-refundable prepaid annual term vs PersistData's one-time packs. As of June 2026. |
| API access | API-first by design; server-side, no seat | Yes; a key-based REST API (v2) with a test key provided, per Hunter's API docs. Hunter states API access is included on all plans, including free (free-plan API capped to the first 10 emails). Core endpoints: Domain Search, Email Finder, Email Verifier, Email Count, plus Discover/Company/account. Documented rate limits 15 req/sec & 500 req/min (Finder/Domain Search), 10 req/sec & 300 req/min (Verifier). Some advanced pieces are tier-gated; Hunter added an MCP server in 2025 for agent workflows. API is notably NOT locked to a top tier, a differentiator versus enterprise-contract-gated platforms. As of June 2026. |
Hunter is a category leader in email discovery and verification at company-domain scale: Domain Search exposes the source URL for each address (so results are auditable), and verification accuracy is a frequently cited strength in 2026 reviews. Its developer experience is excellent (a key-based API on every tier including free, a 2025 MCP server, documented rate limits) and it ships native one-click integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive plus Google Sheets, Make, and 5,000+ apps via Zapier. It markets GDPR/CCPA compliance (a formal SOC 2/ISO 27001 attestation could not be confirmed from a primary source, so we do not claim it), runs a genuine free tier, and is broadly trusted, with reviews solid at roughly G2 4.4/5 and Trustpilot 4.2/5 as of 2026 (counts approximate and drifting). It is fully operational and independent as of June 2026, having survived the LinkedIn legal wave that ended cookie-scraper rivals like Proxycurl precisely because of its own-database, no-LinkedIn-session model.
PersistData fits when you want a single server-side endpoint that returns profile, company, and verified-email data in one programmatic call on one transparent per-credit meter, with no login and no recurring subscription to manage, paid via one-time packs rather than a plan with a non-refundable annual option. If your need extends beyond email-only data into profile/company enrichment, that is where PersistData's scope and commercial model are the cleaner fit. Honest caveats: pay-for-found is matched by Hunter (and others), so it is not a PersistData-only feature; no LinkedIn-account ban risk is also shared by Hunter and any own-DB provider; and 'no annual lock-in' is only a partial edge because Hunter offers true month-to-month too. PersistData does not match Hunter on its owned email index, source-URL auditability, native CRM integrations, cold-email/sequencing workflow, or its perpetual free tier.