Prospeo vs Hunter.io (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Hunter.io is cheaper on list price at both 10,000 and 1M records, and it is the better fit if you also send the emails. Prospeo is the better fit if you need mobile numbers or want to search a market by title before you pay for an address. Both sell credits. The numbers below come from each vendor's own pages, checked in September 2026.

Verdict

• Pick Hunter.io if you find emails by name and domain and send from the same tool. It prints a price at 1M records ($6,900 once) and has sequences, a Chrome extension and a Google Sheets add-on (Hunter pricing, September 2026; Hunter Data Platform, September 2026).
• Pick Prospeo if you need mobile numbers or people search with contact data on top. A mobile costs 10 credits, and a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing (Prospeo help center, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you pull data in code at volume and want a flat bill. Both meter every lookup and both turn into quotes past about 1M. LeadOcean fits that case and is covered below.

Side by side

Every cell links to the page it came from. "Not published" means the vendor prints no figure on the pages we checked.

Data and coverage

The two databases are close in email count and differ in shape. Hunter cites 150,430,313 verified email addresses (Hunter, September 2026). Prospeo cites 143M verified emails inside 280M leads and companies (Prospeo, September 2026). Both are vendor claims, and neither explains how it counts a record.

Hunter is built around the domain. Domain Search returns the addresses found for one company, with sources. Email Finder takes a name plus a domain, a company name or a LinkedIn handle. Each found email is verified automatically as valid, accept_all or unknown, and a miss costs no credit (Hunter API docs, September 2026).

Prospeo is built around the person. It enriches from a name plus a company, a LinkedIn URL, an email or an id returned by its search (Prospeo enrich docs, September 2026). Search returns 25 results a page with no contact data, so you pay again to enrich them (Prospeo search docs, September 2026).

Phones are the real gap. Prospeo sells a mobile finder at 10 credits per mobile, email included. Hunter's docs show a phone_number field and no price or count for it. Neither vendor publishes phone coverage.

Hunter's Discover endpoint lists companies, not people. Its default page is 100 companies and the offset stops at 10,000, with some filters limited to Premium (Hunter API docs, September 2026).

API and developer experience

Both have a REST API and a hosted MCP server. Hunter uses GET with query parameters. Prospeo uses POST with a JSON body. Placeholders below stand in for real people.

Hunter, find an email from a name and a domain.

curl "https://api.hunter.io/v2/email-finder?domain=acme.com&first_name=Jane&last_name=Doe" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $HUNTER_API_KEY"

The response carries the email, a score, sources and a verification status (Hunter API docs, September 2026). Hunter also has a quirk worth coding for: a 403 means you hit the rate limit, and a 429 means you hit your usage quota. Most APIs use 429 for both.

Prospeo, enrich a person from a name and a company website.

curl -X POST "https://api.prospeo.io/enrich-person" \
  -H "X-KEY: $PROSPEO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"only_verified_email": true, "data": {"first_name": "Jane", "last_name": "Doe", "company_website": "acme.com"}}'

The response is synchronous. The flags only_verified_email and enrich_mobile control when credits are spent. Re-enriching the same record within 90 days is free (Prospeo enrich docs, September 2026). Prospeo's own docs advise the bulk endpoint, up to 50 people per request, for speed.

Limits matter more than syntax at volume. Hunter allows 15 requests a second on Email Finder on every plan. Prospeo allows 5 a second on Starter and Growth and 30 on Pro, with a daily cap of 2,000 on Starter and 500,000 on Pro (Prospeo rate limits, September 2026). Hunter is faster on small plans. Prospeo's Pro plan has the higher ceiling.

One point is unsettled. Prospeo's pricing table shows no public API on Free. Its help center lists 50 requests a day (Prospeo help center, September 2026). Its API docs promise free access for all (Prospeo API docs, September 2026). Test a free key before you plan around it.

Hunter's MCP server takes your API key in a header or a one-click OAuth flow, and it spends your plan credits (Hunter MCP, September 2026). Prospeo's has 8 tools (Prospeo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pricing

Both tools sell credits, so cost scales with volume. The worked example uses work emails only, one credit each, every lookup a hit. A Prospeo mobile costs 10 credits, so a phone pull multiplies the count by ten. Prices are monthly list first, billed-yearly after.

10,000 records a month

• Hunter: the Growth plan includes 10,000 credits for $149 a month. Billed yearly it is $104 a month ($1,248 a year) for 120,000 credits a year. Data Platform sells 10,000 Search credits for $209 once, read from Hunter's calculator (Hunter pricing, September 2026; Hunter Data Platform, September 2026).
• Prospeo: one Growth seat gives 5,000 credits for $99. The 5,000-credit add-on is $90. That is 10,000 credits for $99 + $90 = $189 a month. Billed yearly, 2 Growth seats at $74 a month ($888 a year each) give 120,000 credits a year for $1,776, or $148 a month (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

At 10,000 a month Hunter is $40 cheaper on monthly billing ($189 - $149) and $44 cheaper billed yearly ($148 - $104). Hunter's enrichment endpoints are cheaper still, at 0.2 credit per enriched email or domain on all-in-one plans (Hunter help center, September 2026).

1M records a month

• Hunter: 1,000,000 Search credits at $0.0069 each is $6,900. It is one purchase, valid 12 months, on the API-and-bulk Data Platform. The all-in-one route costs more and packs cap at 180,000 credits per purchase (Hunter Data Platform, September 2026; Hunter help center, September 2026).
• Prospeo: no single tier reaches 1M. On monthly billing the cheapest public mix starts with (1,000,000 - 350,000 add-on credits) / 15,000 = 43.3. Round up to 44 Pro seats at $249 = $10,956, then add the 350,000-credit add-on at $3,500. That is 1,010,000 credits for $14,456 a month. Billed yearly, 3 Pro seats at $2,241 plus the 500,000-credit yearly add-on at $4,500 is $11,223 once, with 1,040,000 credits upfront (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

Compare like with like. Hunter's $6,900 and Prospeo's $11,223 are both one purchase for about 1M credits, so Hunter is $4,323 cheaper. Prospeo's monthly path is $14,456 a month.

Neither prints a price above 1M. Hunter says above 1,000,000 credits is custom. Prospeo publishes nothing past 350,000 add-on credits a month or 500,000 a year, and extended pricing is enabled on request (Prospeo help center, September 2026). For a steady 1M every month, ask both for a quote.

Rollover. Prospeo credits never roll over. Hunter's monthly credits reset each month, while yearly and Data Platform credits last 12 months (Hunter help center, September 2026).

Where Prospeo wins

Mobile numbers. Prospeo has a priced mobile finder and a verified-mobile option. Hunter publishes neither a phone price nor phone coverage.

Person-first search. Prospeo enriches from a LinkedIn URL, an email or a search id, and its search filters people by attributes (Prospeo pricing, September 2026). Hunter's search starts from a company or a domain.

A higher API ceiling. Pro allows 30 enrich requests a second and 500,000 a day. Hunter lists 15 a second and no daily figure.

You pay for verified results. With only_verified_email set, credits go only to verified addresses. A repeat lookup inside 90 days is free.

Where Hunter.io wins

Price. Hunter is cheaper at 10,000 records on both billing views and at 1M. It also prints a one-off 1M price, which Prospeo does not.

Outreach in the same tool. Hunter has sequences, inbox protection and managed email accounts, plus a Chrome extension and a Google Sheets add-on (Hunter, September 2026).

Simple lookups. Name plus domain returns a verified email in one GET. Each found email is verified automatically, and a miss is free.

Unlimited seats. Every Hunter plan includes unlimited team members sharing one credit pool (Hunter pricing, September 2026). Prospeo prices per user.

If you need volume through an API

LeadOcean is a people and company data API with a hosted MCP server, with no seats and no credits. Free gives 1,000 records one-off with no card, and Pro is $499 a month flat with the whole database over REST and MCP. Export up to 50,000 rows per request with POST /v1/exports, so a 1M-row pull is 20 requests over two days. Call count_leads first because counts are free. It is the data layer only, with an export app but no rep workspace, sequencer or Chrome extension. Reps who send from one app should keep Hunter. See LeadOcean pricing, the Prospeo alternative and Prospeo alternatives.

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