{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "hunter", "name": "Hunter API + MCP", "vendor": "Hunter", "vendorUrl": "https://hunter.io", "kind": "http-api", "category": "lead-data", "summary": "Email finder, email verifier, domain search, company discovery and person and company enrichment over a REST API, plus a hosted MCP server that also drives Hunter's leads, lists and cold-email sequences.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hunter", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hunter.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hunter.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hunter.json", "dns": "hunter.grade.anchorterminal.com", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.hunter.io/v2", "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "REST takes the key in the `X-API-Key` header (the `?api_key=` query form still works but puts the key in logs). Hosted MCP at mcp.hunter.io uses OAuth for Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, or the same `X-API-Key` header for other clients. A `test-api-key` returns dummy responses on Domain Search, Email Finder and Email Verifier.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "Free plan with 50 credits a month and API access. Starter $49 a month ($34 billed yearly, 2,000 credits), Growth $149 ($104 yearly, 10,000 credits), Scale $299 ($209 yearly, 25,000 credits), Enterprise custom. One credit per email found by Email Finder or Domain Search (Bulk Domain Search is 1 credit per 10 emails), 0.5 per verification, nothing when no result comes back, and repeat lookups count once per billing period. Discover (company search) and Email Count are free. An API-only Data Platform sells search and verification credits in bulk, valid 12 months (https://hunter.io/pricing).", "priceSummary": "$49 / mo", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402 mention in the API docs, MCP docs or pricing (checked 2026-09-30).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 102, "popularity": { "githubStars": 9, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://hunter.io/api-documentation/v2", "llmsTxt": "https://hunter.io/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://hunter.io/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "email.finder", "email.verification", "lead.search", "lead.enrichment", "data.company", "data.person" ], "tags": [ "lead-search", "enrichment", "email-verification", "hosted", "freemium", "no-card", "mcp", "llms-txt", "openapi", "webhooks", "closed-source" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-30", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 58.4, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 751, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 11, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 63, "payments": 40, "reliability": 50, "schema": 90, "security": 43, "transparency": 79 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-04" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Finds and verifies work emails, returns 451 for people who asked not to be processed, and runs a public paid bug bounty. Its hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode, and the API key may travel in the query string.", "bestFor": "Finding and verifying work emails from a domain or a name, where GDPR handling of the people looked up matters.", "strengths": [ "Returns 451 for people who asked not to be processed", "Privacy policy names its sources, cites a legitimate interest assessment and DPIA, and hosts in Belgium", "Free plan with API and MCP access, no card", "Charges only when an email is found or a verification completes, and repeats in a billing period are free", "OpenAPI JSON, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, a test key with dummy responses, and a public paid bug bounty" ], "weaknesses": [ "Hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode", "API key accepted in the `api_key` query string", "Rate limits answer 403 and quota exhaustion answers 429, with no Retry-After or back-off guidance", "No security.txt or certification found", "Status page renders client-side and its history couldn't be read" ], "agentNotes": [ "Treat 451 as final. The person opted out and retrying won't help", "Back off on 403 with a rate-limit message. 429 means the plan's credits are gone", "Send the key in `X-API-Key`, never as `?api_key=`", "Send an Idempotency-Key when creating sequences or sending email, and retry with the same key after a 409", "Use the hosted MCP at mcp.hunter.io/mcp, not the deprecated local npm package" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 58.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 63, "payments": 40, "reliability": 50, "schema": 90, "security": 43, "transparency": 71 }, "provenanceScore": 86, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-04", "maintenance": "2026-11-04", "payments": "2026-11-04", "reliability": "2026-11-04", "schema": "2026-11-04", "security": "2026-11-04", "transparency": "2026-11-04" }, "last": "2026-11-04", "lastMoved": "2026-11-04", "oldest": "2026-11-04", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://api.hunter.io/v2/domain-search?domain=stripe.com\u0026limit=5\" -H \"X-API-Key: $HUNTER_API_KEY\"", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add --transport http hunter https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/email.finder", "tool": "https://letme.dev/hunter" }, "area": "web-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Starter plan", "unit": "month", "usd": 49, "note": "2,000 credits. $34 a month billed yearly" }, { "item": "Growth plan", "unit": "month", "usd": 149, "note": "10,000 credits. $104 a month billed yearly" }, { "item": "Scale plan", "unit": "month", "usd": 299, "note": "25,000 credits. $209 a month billed yearly" }, { "item": "Email found or verified", "unit": "credit", "usd": 0.0245, "note": "Starter monthly, $49 for 2,000 credits. One email found is 1 credit, one verification 0.5" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Hunter Web Services, Inc.", "domain": "hunter.io", "domainRegistered": "2012-08-24", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://hunter.io/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://hunter.io/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.hunter.io", "changelog": "https://hunter.io/changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-09-30", "notes": [ "hunter.io served the pricing page in euros from our location. USD figures match the same numbers and third-party reports" ], "score": 86 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hunter.json", "live": { "slug": "hunter", "probe": { "target": "https://api.hunter.io/v2", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:12.620282598Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 118, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 99.99, "p50ms24h": 103, "p95ms24h": 188, "samples24h": 238, "samples30d": 7920, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-17", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-18", "probes": 256, "ok": 256 }, { "date": "2026-10-19", "probes": 255, "ok": 255 }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-22", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-23", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-24", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-25", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-26", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-27", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-28", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-29", "probes": 248, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-30", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-31", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-11-01", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-11-02", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-11-03", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-11-04", "probes": 246, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-05", "probes": 185, "ok": 185 }, { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 241, "ok": 241 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 197, "ok": 197 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.hunter.io", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T04:47:55.682512369Z" }, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://hunter.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:00:16.218418148Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://hunter.io/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:32:43.31704857Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "hunter.io", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:10:30.175953493Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://hunter.io/changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:11:12.422787947Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:54.682281696Z", "fingerprint": "646788a7e0c7" }, { "url": "https://hunter.io/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:11:14.625853397Z", "changedAt": "2026-11-07T14:11:14.625853397Z", "fingerprint": "d52d68975866" }, { "url": "https://hunter.io/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:11:16.658327382Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:20:58.809513027Z", "fingerprint": "c2ea1ffda353" }, { "url": "https://hunter.io/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:11:18.521821886Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:21:00.870589486Z", "fingerprint": "8093d765728f" } ], "mcpTools": { "url": "https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T01:45:20.394107637Z", "status": "auth", "note": "asks for credentials before listing its tools", "changedAt": "2026-11-07T01:45:20.394107637Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:12.620282598Z" } }, "answer": "ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 58.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "zerobounce", "name": "ZeroBounce", "vendor": "Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce)", "vendorUrl": "https://www.zerobounce.net", "kind": "http-api", "category": "lead-data", "summary": "ZeroBounce is an email verification API from Hertza L.L.C. that checks single addresses and lists for deliverability, with status and sub-status codes, plus AI scoring, email finder, domain search and activity data, and an open-source MCP server.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json", "dns": "zerobounce.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/zerobounce", "license": "Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source", "transports": [ "http", "stdio" ], "remoteUrl": "https://api.zerobounce.net/v2", "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@zerobounce/zero-bounce-sdk" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "API key from the dashboard, sent as the `api_key` query parameter in the documented calls. Several keys per account besides a Master key; keys can be named, switched off, regenerated, deleted and limited to whitelisted IPs or ranges. No endpoint scopes found.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Pay as you go from $39 for 2,000 validations, one credit per email, 20 per successful Email Finder query, nothing for unknown results. ZeroBounce ONE from $99 a month, minimum 10,000 credits. Freemium of 100 validations a month for business or premium domains. Credits bought after 1 June 2026 expire two years after the last purchase (https://www.zerobounce.net/pricing, https://www.zerobounce.net/terms-of-use, checked 2026-11-06).", "priceSummary": "$0.0195 / call", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, pricing or MCP page (checked 2026-11-06).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 0, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.zerobounce.net/docs/", "llmsTxt": "https://www.zerobounce.net/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "email.verification", "email.finder", "lead.enrichment" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "mcp", "status-page", "soc2", "iso27001", "free-tier", "usage-based", "typescript", "eu-region", "closed-source" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-25", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 62.4, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 561, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 35, "reliability": 75, "schema": 54, "security": 65, "transparency": 63 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-06" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "ZeroBounce's v2 API verifies emails with detailed status and sub-status codes, publishes per-endpoint limits, a Statuspage with short incidents only in the last 90 days, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and $0.0195 per email at the smallest pack. The documented key travels in the query string, and there is no OpenAPI contract.", "bestFor": "Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.", "strengths": [ "Status and sub-status codes per address, and unknown results don't use credits", "Statuspage with API, API-US, API-EU and Bulk API components; three short incidents in the 90 days to 6 November 2026", "Rate limits published per endpoint group, with the block length for each", "SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Intigriti testing and a published sub-processor list", "Freemium of 100 validations a month for business domains, and pay-as-you-go from $39 for 2,000" ], "weaknesses": [ "Every documented example sends the key as an `api_key` query parameter", "No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract; a Postman collection only", "Going over a limit blocks the key for a minute to a day, with no Retry-After documented", "llms.txt lists marketing pages, not the API docs", "Keys can be IP-whitelisted but not scoped to endpoints" ], "agentNotes": [ "Use the regional host (api-us or api-eu) that matches the data, and test with the sandbox addresses, which spend no credits", "Set `timeout` (3 to 60 seconds); slow mail servers return unknown, which is free to retry later", "Stay under 80,000 validations per 10 seconds and avoid repeated bad requests, which block the key for an hour", "Use the bulk file API for large lists instead of looping on /v2/validate", "Keep the key out of logs; the API takes it only as `api_key` in the URL" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 62.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 35, "reliability": 75, "schema": 54, "security": 65, "transparency": 59 }, "provenanceScore": 67, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://api.zerobounce.net/v2/validate?api_key=$ZEROBOUNCE_API_KEY\u0026email=valid@example.com\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/email.verification", "tool": "https://letme.dev/zerobounce" }, "area": "web-data", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Email validation, smallest pay-as-you-go pack", "unit": "call", "usd": 0.0195, "note": "$39 for 2,000 validations" }, { "item": "ZeroBounce ONE", "unit": "month", "usd": 99, "note": "From $99 a month" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Hertza L.L.C.", "domain": "zerobounce.net", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.zerobounce.net/terms-of-use", "privacy": "https://www.zerobounce.net/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.zerobounce.net", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "Terms of use name Hertza L.L.C., doing business as ZeroBounce, a Nevada LLC, under Nevada law; the terms take effect on the date accepted. Privacy policy last updated 30 June 2026.", "www.zerobounce.net/robots.txt allows all and names ClaudeBot as allowed. status.zerobounce.net disallows /api/ and /embed/; its history was read from history.rss.", "No public changelog for the API was found.", "security.txt was not checked." ], "score": 67 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.json", "live": { "slug": "zerobounce", "probe": { "target": "https://api.zerobounce.net/v2", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:46.255334057Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 94, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 70, "p95ms24h": 170, "samples24h": 210, "samples30d": 210, "days": [ { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 13, "ok": 13 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 197, "ok": 197 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.zerobounce.net", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T19:24:02.77448048Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@zerobounce/zero-bounce-sdk", "version": "3.0.0", "seenAt": "2026-11-07T00:19:09.899173295Z" } ], "npmWeekly": 36734, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://zerobounce.net/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:59:52.305113224Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://www.zerobounce.net/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:34:27.000344109Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.zerobounce.net/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:37:41.302855774Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "6cbf992fb3f3" }, { "url": "https://www.zerobounce.net/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:37:45.799553831Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "6267cfec1592" }, { "url": "https://www.zerobounce.net/terms-of-use", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:37:45.965675933Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "08727e5bbf09" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:24:02.77448048Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 36, "category": "schema", "leads": "hunter", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "reasons": { "a": "OpenAPI 3.0.3 JSON at hunter.io/openapi.json, version 2.0.0, 101 paths and 182 operations on 4 November (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and agents.md written for agents (10). Reference pages state purpose and credit rules per endpoint, and llms-full.txt adds usage advice and a when-to-use line per MCP tool (15 of 20). Typed parameters with documented maxima (12 of 15). Examples, a `test-api-key` that returns dummy responses, and an error envelope `{errors: [{id, code, details}]}` including 451 for people who opted out (14 of 15). v2 API and a public dated changelog, with several newer endpoints labelled Beta (14 of 15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 14 + 14 = 90.", "b": "No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found; a Postman collection is linked (5 of 25). llms.txt lists marketing pages, and the docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Endpoint pages explain timing, credits and when to use batch or file APIs (14 of 20). Parameter tables and listed status and sub-status values, including the ai_agent_mailbox sub-status added in July 2026 (10 of 15). Examples per endpoint, a sandbox and an error-code page (12 of 15). v2 paths, an API migration page and dated maintenance notices on the status page, with no API changelog (8 of 15). 5+5+14+10+12+8 = 54." }, "scores": { "a": 90, "b": 54 } }, { "by": 25, "category": "reliability", "leads": "zerobounce", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "A status page at status.hunter.io (a Checkly dashboard) exists per the 30 September check, but it renders client-side and both the page and its incidents feed came back empty on 1 October, so components were never confirmed (15 of 20, the earlier partial kept). On 4 November its robots.txt answered with the dashboard's app page, so the host was not read further and no history is readable (5). Per-endpoint limits published, from 5 a second and 50 a minute on Discover to 15 a second and 500 a minute on Domain Search and Email Finder (15). Hitting a rate limit returns 403, while 429 means the plan's usage is spent, and no Retry-After or back-off guidance for either was found. The API reference now documents an Idempotency-Key on sequence and email writes (409 with Retry-After 2 while a request with the same key runs) and calls POST and PUT /v2/leads retry-safe, but with no overload guidance the line stays at the earlier partial (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 15 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 50.", "b": "Hosted lines. Statuspage at status.zerobounce.net with API, API-US, API-EU, Bulk API, website and Cloudflare components (20). The incident feed for 8 August to 6 November shows a 6-minute members platform disruption on 9 September, about 3 minutes of reduced EU API availability on 1 October, and a file upload issue on 26 October resolved within 6 minutes, all minor (20). Limits published per endpoint group with numbers and block lengths (15). 429 is documented with advice to throttle, but no Retry-After, and a block can last an hour or a day (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+0+10 = 75." }, "scores": { "a": 50, "b": 75 } }, { "by": 22, "category": "security", "leads": "zerobounce", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "reasons": { "a": "API keys can be created and deleted, and the docs accept the key in a header, as a bearer token or in the `api_key` query string, which puts it in logs (20 less 10). OAuth for the MCP in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Codex, `X-API-Key` elsewhere (15 of 30). No read-only mode. MCP tools can delete leads and lists in bulk, create and delete API keys and start sequences that send email, with no built-in confirmation (3 of 20). Results are emails, names and source URLs with little free text (8 of 15). Account usage via the API, no per-call log found (5 of 15). The 1 October check found hunter.io/security returning 404, but the footer links a Security Policy (last updated 19 October 2023) and a public, paid Bounty Program page with a report form, security@hunter.io, \"We answer all submissions within a few days\" and a hall of fame of paid reports. No security.txt (404 on 4 November), certification or public advisory found (12 of 20, as dropcontact's HackerOne programme and openrouter's private bounty). 15 + 3 + 8 + 5 + 12 = 43.", "b": "Several named keys besides a Master key, regeneration, deactivation and IP whitelists (25), less 10 because the documented calls carry the key in the `api_key` query string (15 of 30). Validation only reads, though file and list endpoints can delete uploads (12 of 20). Results are structured status codes with little free text (10 of 15). API usage and dashboard statistics endpoints (10 of 15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, continuous testing with Intigriti and penetration testing with BitSentinel; no public disclosure policy found (18 of 20). 15+12+10+10+18 = 65." }, "scores": { "a": 43, "b": 65 } }, { "by": 16, "category": "transparency", "leads": "hunter", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "reasons": { "a": "Closed service with terms naming Hunter Web Services, Inc. (last updated 23 May 2024, 15 days' notice of material changes) (15). The privacy policy (updated 13 April 2026, unchanged on 4 November) covers the people in Hunter's index, says profiles come from crawling public pages that allow it and from pattern-generated addresses, cites a legitimate interest assessment and a DPIA, takes removal requests at hunter.io/claim, drops profiles within 3 months of leaving their source page, and links a DPA. The API enforces opt-outs with a 451 (28 of 30). The changelog flagged the June 2026 switch to recipient-based engagement figures as affecting API users, Beta endpoints warn of breaking changes, and no deprecation policy found (8 of 20). Subprocessors at hunter.io/subprocessors and servers on Google Cloud in Belgium (20). 15 + 28 + 8 + 20 = 71.", "b": "Closed service under terms naming Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) of Nevada; SDKs and MCP server open source (15 of 30). The data protection page says uploaded data is never kept more than 30 days, the privacy policy of 30 June 2026 keeps account data 'as long as needed', and EU and UK DPAs are published (22 of 30). An API migration page, with no dated deprecation policy (6 of 20). A sub-processor list naming each provider and the data exchanged (16 of 20). 15+22+6+16 = 59." }, "scores": { "a": 79, "b": 63 } }, { "by": 15, "category": "ergonomics", "leads": "zerobounce", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "reasons": { "a": "The hosted MCP exposes about 100 tools (102 by our count of llms-full.txt on 4 November, 96 on 1 October, 107 in the 30 September check) across search, enrichment, leads, lists, sequences and account admin, with no toolsets or read-only subset found. The REST side returns up to 100 rows a call (8 of 25). `limit` up to 100, `offset` up to 10,000, cursor pagination on multi-domain search (18 of 20). Structured errors, but rate limits answer 403 and quota exhaustion 429, which inverts what most clients expect (12 of 20). Repeat lookups within a billing period are free, POST and PUT /v2/leads dedupe by email, and sequence and email writes take an Idempotency-Key, but the MCP's 16 delete and bulk-delete tools carry no annotations we could find (8 of 20, the earlier partial kept). Few required parameters and a test key (8 of 15). 8 + 18 + 12 + 8 + 8 = 54.", "b": "A compact JSON result per address, batch validation and a file API for lists (18 of 25). Little to paginate; file status and results by file id (10 of 20). Status and sub-status codes say why an address failed, and the error page explains 400, 404 and 429 (14 of 20). Unknown results are free and safe to retry; repeated validations are charged again (12 of 20). Many official SDK wrappers and an MCP server, with few required parameters (15). 18+10+14+12+15 = 69." }, "scores": { "a": 54, "b": 69 } }, { "by": 7, "category": "maintenance", "leads": "zerobounce", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "reasons": { "a": "Newest changelog entries are three dated 30 September 2026 (the ChatGPT app, saved searches and AI tool setup paths), 35 days before 4 November. The official Claude Code plugin (hunter-io/claude-plugin) moved from 0.1.0 (18 March) to 0.1.1 on 28 October. The commit that bumps the version only adds an icon, but 0.1.1 is the first version to carry the skill changes made since 0.1.0, including domain-search on 17 August, build-sequences on 14 September and 16 October, and discover on 16 October, so it counts as a full release, 7 days before 4 November (30). Three changelog entries and the plugin release in the 90 days from 6 August (20). Public changelog and support. Issue handling not visible (10 of 15). Not in the official MCP registry. We didn't find current official SDKs; the plugin is MIT on GitHub (0). llms-full.txt tells agents to avoid a deprecated local package, whose repository was last changed on 7 July 2025 (3 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 3 = 63.", "b": "Closed service. The JavaScript SDK 3.0.0 was published on 25 October 2026 (30). No API changelog; the dated changes found in 90 days are that release and status-page notices, fewer than three releases (10 of 20). Support by email and 24/7 chat per the docs, a public status page; replies not tested (10 of 15). Official SDKs in many languages and an MCP server (15). Package health not checked (5 of 10). 30+10+10+15+5 = 70." }, "scores": { "a": 63, "b": 70 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Hunter", "b": "Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://api.hunter.io/v2", "b": "https://api.zerobounce.net/v2", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "b": "HTTP, stdio", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "none", "b": "Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "102", "b": "0", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-30", "b": "2026-10-25", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-05-05", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-06-30", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "9 stars", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 58.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Hunter API + MCP or ZeroBounce?" }, { "answer": "Hunter API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ZeroBounce needs an API key.", "question": "Do Hunter API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Hunter API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hunter.io/v2 and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.", "question": "Can an agent call Hunter API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 90 against 54", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 35", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 79 against 63" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "Finding and verifying work emails from a domain or a name, where GDPR handling of the people looked up matters.", "slug": "hunter", "watchFor": "Hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 75 against 50", "Agent ergonomics, 69 against 54", "Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 43", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 70 against 63" ], "also": [ "Runs on your own machine" ], "goodFor": "Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.", "slug": "zerobounce", "watchFor": "Every documented example sends the key as an `api_key` query parameter" } ], "history": { "hunter": [ { "causes": [ "evidence" ], "date": "2026-11-04", "delta": 1.8, "from": 56.6, "fromGrade": "C", "to": 58.4, "toGrade": "C" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-27", "delta": 0.1, "from": 56.5, "fromGrade": "C", "to": 56.6, "toGrade": "C" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-08", "delta": -0.3, "from": 56.8, "fromGrade": "C", "to": 56.5, "toGrade": "C" } ], "zerobounce": null }, "job": { "capability": "email.finder", "name": "Email finding" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Apollo API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Clay vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Coresignal API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Crustdata API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Dievio vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Enrich Layer API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Explorium AgentSource vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-hunter.json", "title": "FullEnrich API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Fuse MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Gojiberry vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-people-data-labs.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs People Data Labs", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-people-data-labs" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zoominfo.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs ZoomInfo API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zoominfo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Apollo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Clay vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Clearbit vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Clearbit vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Coresignal API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Crustdata API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Databar vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Databar vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Dievio vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-hunter.json", "title": "Dropcontact API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Dropcontact API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Enrich Layer API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Explorium AgentSource vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-hunter.json", "title": "FullContact vs Hunter API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-hunter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "FullContact vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "FullEnrich API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Gojiberry vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lusha-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Lusha API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lusha-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "People Data Labs vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prospeo-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Prospeo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prospeo-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zerobounce-vs-zoominfo.json", "title": "ZeroBounce vs ZoomInfo API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zerobounce-vs-zoominfo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-leadmagic.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs LeadMagic API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-leadmagic" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-lusha.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs Lusha API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-lusha" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-prospeo.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs Prospeo API + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-prospeo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-rocketreach.json", "title": "Hunter API + MCP vs RocketReach API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-rocketreach" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "Fuse MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "LeadMagic API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rocketreach-vs-zerobounce.json", "title": "RocketReach API vs ZeroBounce", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rocketreach-vs-zerobounce" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "by": 25, "edge": "zerobounce", "hunter": 50, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16, "zerobounce": 75 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 36, "edge": "hunter", "hunter": 90, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13, "zerobounce": 54 }, { "by": 15, "edge": "zerobounce", "hunter": 54, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13, "zerobounce": 69 }, { "by": 22, "edge": "zerobounce", "hunter": 43, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14, "zerobounce": 65 }, { "by": 5, "edge": "hunter", "hunter": 40, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10, "zerobounce": 35 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 7, "edge": "zerobounce", "hunter": 63, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7, "zerobounce": 70 }, { "by": 16, "edge": "hunter", "hunter": 79, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7, "zerobounce": 63 } ], "summary": "ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 58.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do email finding.", "tasks": null, "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "hunter": "Finds and verifies work emails, returns 451 for people who asked not to be processed, and runs a public paid bug bounty. Its hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode, and the API key may travel in the query string.", "zerobounce": "ZeroBounce's v2 API verifies emails with detailed status and sub-status codes, publishes per-endpoint limits, a Statuspage with short incidents only in the last 90 days, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and $0.0195 per email at the smallest pack. The documented key travels in the query string, and there is no OpenAPI contract." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce.min.md" }, "markdown": "ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 58.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do email finding.\n\n- Hunter API + MCP: grade C, 58.4/100, rank #751 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hunter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hunter.json\n- ZeroBounce: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #561 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json\n- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md\n- All 231 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Hunter API + MCP (C)\n\nGood for: Finding and verifying work emails from a domain or a name, where GDPR handling of the people looked up matters.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 90 against 54\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 40 against 35\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 79 against 63\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: Hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode\n\n### ZeroBounce (B)\n\nGood for: Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 75 against 50\n- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 54\n- Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 43\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 70 against 63\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Runs on your own machine\n\nWatch for: Every documented example sends the key as an `api_key` query parameter\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Schema \u0026 documentation: Hunter API + MCP +36\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (90): OpenAPI 3.0.3 JSON at hunter.io/openapi.json, version 2.0.0, 101 paths and 182 operations on 4 November (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and agents.md written for agents (10). Reference pages state purpose and credit rules per endpoint, and llms-full.txt adds usage advice and a when-to-use line per MCP tool (15 of 20). Typed parameters with documented maxima (12 of 15). Examples, a `test-api-key` that returns dummy responses, and an error envelope `{errors: [{id, code, details}]}` including 451 for people who opted out (14 of 15). v2 API and a public dated changelog, with several newer endpoints labelled Beta (14 of 15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 14 + 14 = 90.\n- ZeroBounce (54): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found; a Postman collection is linked (5 of 25). llms.txt lists marketing pages, and the docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Endpoint pages explain timing, credits and when to use batch or file APIs (14 of 20). Parameter tables and listed status and sub-status values, including the ai_agent_mailbox sub-status added in July 2026 (10 of 15). Examples per endpoint, a sandbox and an error-code page (12 of 15). v2 paths, an API migration page and dated maintenance notices on the status page, with no API changelog (8 of 15). 5+5+14+10+12+8 = 54.\n\n### Reliability: ZeroBounce +25\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (50): A status page at status.hunter.io (a Checkly dashboard) exists per the 30 September check, but it renders client-side and both the page and its incidents feed came back empty on 1 October, so components were never confirmed (15 of 20, the earlier partial kept). On 4 November its robots.txt answered with the dashboard's app page, so the host was not read further and no history is readable (5). Per-endpoint limits published, from 5 a second and 50 a minute on Discover to 15 a second and 500 a minute on Domain Search and Email Finder (15). Hitting a rate limit returns 403, while 429 means the plan's usage is spent, and no Retry-After or back-off guidance for either was found. The API reference now documents an Idempotency-Key on sequence and email writes (409 with Retry-After 2 while a request with the same key runs) and calls POST and PUT /v2/leads retry-safe, but with no overload guidance the line stays at the earlier partial (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 15 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 50.\n- ZeroBounce (75): Hosted lines. Statuspage at status.zerobounce.net with API, API-US, API-EU, Bulk API, website and Cloudflare components (20). The incident feed for 8 August to 6 November shows a 6-minute members platform disruption on 9 September, about 3 minutes of reduced EU API availability on 1 October, and a file upload issue on 26 October resolved within 6 minutes, all minor (20). Limits published per endpoint group with numbers and block lengths (15). 429 is documented with advice to throttle, but no Retry-After, and a block can last an hour or a day (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+0+10 = 75.\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: ZeroBounce +22\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (43): API keys can be created and deleted, and the docs accept the key in a header, as a bearer token or in the `api_key` query string, which puts it in logs (20 less 10). OAuth for the MCP in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Codex, `X-API-Key` elsewhere (15 of 30). No read-only mode. MCP tools can delete leads and lists in bulk, create and delete API keys and start sequences that send email, with no built-in confirmation (3 of 20). Results are emails, names and source URLs with little free text (8 of 15). Account usage via the API, no per-call log found (5 of 15). The 1 October check found hunter.io/security returning 404, but the footer links a Security Policy (last updated 19 October 2023) and a public, paid Bounty Program page with a report form, security@hunter.io, \"We answer all submissions within a few days\" and a hall of fame of paid reports. No security.txt (404 on 4 November), certification or public advisory found (12 of 20, as dropcontact's HackerOne programme and openrouter's private bounty). 15 + 3 + 8 + 5 + 12 = 43.\n- ZeroBounce (65): Several named keys besides a Master key, regeneration, deactivation and IP whitelists (25), less 10 because the documented calls carry the key in the `api_key` query string (15 of 30). Validation only reads, though file and list endpoints can delete uploads (12 of 20). Results are structured status codes with little free text (10 of 15). API usage and dashboard statistics endpoints (10 of 15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, continuous testing with Intigriti and penetration testing with BitSentinel; no public disclosure policy found (18 of 20). 15+12+10+10+18 = 65.\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: Hunter API + MCP +16\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (79): Closed service with terms naming Hunter Web Services, Inc. (last updated 23 May 2024, 15 days' notice of material changes) (15). The privacy policy (updated 13 April 2026, unchanged on 4 November) covers the people in Hunter's index, says profiles come from crawling public pages that allow it and from pattern-generated addresses, cites a legitimate interest assessment and a DPIA, takes removal requests at hunter.io/claim, drops profiles within 3 months of leaving their source page, and links a DPA. The API enforces opt-outs with a 451 (28 of 30). The changelog flagged the June 2026 switch to recipient-based engagement figures as affecting API users, Beta endpoints warn of breaking changes, and no deprecation policy found (8 of 20). Subprocessors at hunter.io/subprocessors and servers on Google Cloud in Belgium (20). 15 + 28 + 8 + 20 = 71.\n- ZeroBounce (63): Closed service under terms naming Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) of Nevada; SDKs and MCP server open source (15 of 30). The data protection page says uploaded data is never kept more than 30 days, the privacy policy of 30 June 2026 keeps account data 'as long as needed', and EU and UK DPAs are published (22 of 30). An API migration page, with no dated deprecation policy (6 of 20). A sub-processor list naming each provider and the data exchanged (16 of 20). 15+22+6+16 = 59.\n\n### Agent ergonomics: ZeroBounce +15\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (54): The hosted MCP exposes about 100 tools (102 by our count of llms-full.txt on 4 November, 96 on 1 October, 107 in the 30 September check) across search, enrichment, leads, lists, sequences and account admin, with no toolsets or read-only subset found. The REST side returns up to 100 rows a call (8 of 25). `limit` up to 100, `offset` up to 10,000, cursor pagination on multi-domain search (18 of 20). Structured errors, but rate limits answer 403 and quota exhaustion 429, which inverts what most clients expect (12 of 20). Repeat lookups within a billing period are free, POST and PUT /v2/leads dedupe by email, and sequence and email writes take an Idempotency-Key, but the MCP's 16 delete and bulk-delete tools carry no annotations we could find (8 of 20, the earlier partial kept). Few required parameters and a test key (8 of 15). 8 + 18 + 12 + 8 + 8 = 54.\n- ZeroBounce (69): A compact JSON result per address, batch validation and a file API for lists (18 of 25). Little to paginate; file status and results by file id (10 of 20). Status and sub-status codes say why an address failed, and the error page explains 400, 404 and 429 (14 of 20). Unknown results are free and safe to retry; repeated validations are charged again (12 of 20). Many official SDK wrappers and an MCP server, with few required parameters (15). 18+10+14+12+15 = 69.\n\n### Maintenance \u0026 community: ZeroBounce +7\n\n- Hunter API + MCP (63): Newest changelog entries are three dated 30 September 2026 (the ChatGPT app, saved searches and AI tool setup paths), 35 days before 4 November. The official Claude Code plugin (hunter-io/claude-plugin) moved from 0.1.0 (18 March) to 0.1.1 on 28 October. The commit that bumps the version only adds an icon, but 0.1.1 is the first version to carry the skill changes made since 0.1.0, including domain-search on 17 August, build-sequences on 14 September and 16 October, and discover on 16 October, so it counts as a full release, 7 days before 4 November (30). Three changelog entries and the plugin release in the 90 days from 6 August (20). Public changelog and support. Issue handling not visible (10 of 15). Not in the official MCP registry. We didn't find current official SDKs; the plugin is MIT on GitHub (0). llms-full.txt tells agents to avoid a deprecated local package, whose repository was last changed on 7 July 2025 (3 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 3 = 63.\n- ZeroBounce (70): Closed service. The JavaScript SDK 3.0.0 was published on 25 October 2026 (30). No API changelog; the dated changes found in 90 days are that release and status-page notices, fewer than three releases (10 of 20). Support by email and 24/7 chat per the docs, a public status page; replies not tested (10 of 15). Official SDKs in many languages and an MCP server (15). Package health not checked (5 of 10). 30+10+10+15+5 = 70.\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Hunter API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 75 | ZeroBounce +25 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 54 | Hunter API + MCP +36 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 69 | ZeroBounce +15 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 65 | ZeroBounce +22 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Hunter API + MCP +5 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 70 | ZeroBounce +7 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 63 | Hunter API + MCP +16 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **58.4 · C** | **62.4 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Hunter API + MCP | ZeroBounce |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Hunter | Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.hunter.io/v2` | `https://api.zerobounce.net/v2` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | none | Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source |\n| Tools exposed | 102 | 0 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-25 |\n| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-05-05 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-06-30 |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |\n| Popularity | 9 stars | none |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### Hunter API + MCP\n\n- +1.8 on 4 November 2026: new evidence\n- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist\n- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist\n\n### ZeroBounce\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Hunter API + MCP.** Finds and verifies work emails, returns 451 for people who asked not to be processed, and runs a public paid bug bounty. Its hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode, and the API key may travel in the query string.\n\n**ZeroBounce.** ZeroBounce's v2 API verifies emails with detailed status and sub-status codes, publishes per-endpoint limits, a Statuspage with short incidents only in the last 90 days, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and $0.0195 per email at the smallest pack. The documented key travels in the query string, and there is no OpenAPI contract.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Hunter API + MCP\n\n1. Treat 451 as final. The person opted out and retrying won't help\n2. Back off on 403 with a rate-limit message. 429 means the plan's credits are gone\n3. Send the key in `X-API-Key`, never as `?api_key=`\n4. Send an Idempotency-Key when creating sequences or sending email, and retry with the same key after a 409\n5. Use the hosted MCP at mcp.hunter.io/mcp, not the deprecated local npm package\n\n### ZeroBounce\n\n1. Use the regional host (api-us or api-eu) that matches the data, and test with the sandbox addresses, which spend no credits\n2. Set `timeout` (3 to 60 seconds); slow mail servers return unknown, which is free to retry later\n3. Stay under 80,000 validations per 10 seconds and avoid repeated bad requests, which block the key for an hour\n4. Use the bulk file API for large lists instead of looping on /v2/validate\n5. Keep the key out of logs; the API takes it only as `api_key` in the URL\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Hunter API + MCP or ZeroBounce?\n\nZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 58.4 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema \u0026 documentation, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Do Hunter API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?\n\nHunter API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ZeroBounce needs an API key.\n\n### Can an agent call Hunter API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?\n\nYes. Hunter API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hunter.io/v2 and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"hunter\", \"b\": \"zerobounce\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare hunter zerobounce`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hunter.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Hunter API + MCP or ZeroBounce\n\n- [Apollo API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Clay vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Coresignal API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Crustdata API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Dievio vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Enrich Layer API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Explorium AgentSource vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-hunter.md)\n- [FullEnrich API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Fuse MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Gojiberry vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs People Data Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-people-data-labs.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zoominfo.md)\n- [Apollo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Clay vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Clearbit vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Clearbit vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Coresignal API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Crustdata API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Databar vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Databar vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Dievio vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dievio-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Dropcontact API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-hunter.md)\n- [Dropcontact API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Enrich Layer API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Explorium AgentSource vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/explorium-agentsource-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [FullContact vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-hunter.md)\n- [FullContact vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullcontact-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [FullEnrich API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fullenrich-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Gojiberry vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gojiberry-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Lusha API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lusha-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [People Data Labs vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [Prospeo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prospeo-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [ZeroBounce vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/zerobounce-vs-zoominfo.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-leadmagic.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-lusha.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs Prospeo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-prospeo.md)\n- [Hunter API + MCP vs RocketReach API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-rocketreach.md)\n- [Fuse MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fuse-mcp-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [LeadMagic API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leadmagic-vs-zerobounce.md)\n- [RocketReach API vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rocketreach-vs-zerobounce.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", 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Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Hunter API + MCP C 58.4", "ZeroBounce B 62.4", "scores" ], "h1": "Hunter API + MCP vs ZeroBounce", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/default.png", "path": "/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Hunter vs ZeroBounce for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-11-07", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hunter-vs-zerobounce" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 5150, "slim": 2930 }, "version": 1 }