PeopleSearch.im vs Hunter.io
Hunter.io is built around the company domain: point it at acme.com and it returns the email pattern and known addresses, which is unbeatable when you already know which company you want. The gap it leaves is the other direction, when you know the KIND of person you need but not the company. PeopleSearch.im starts from a plain-English description of the people ("product marketers at climate-tech companies"), finds the matching profiles, and looks up their verified work email, pay per profile, no monthly plan.
The short version
Choose PeopleSearch.im
Choose PeopleSearch.im when you need to discover people by who they are, not by a domain you already know, and want to pay per profile instead of a monthly subscription.
Choose Hunter.io
Choose Hunter.io when you already know the target companies and want their email patterns, a strong standalone verifier, and built-in cold-email campaigns.
PeopleSearch.im vs Hunter.io, side by side
| PeopleSearch.im | Hunter.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per profile, prepaid credits | Freemium subscription, credit-metered |
| Starts at | $5 for 25 profiles (3 free to start) | Free 50 credits/mo; paid from ~€34/mo (billed annually) |
| Commitment | None. Credits don't expire monthly | Monthly or annual; credits reset monthly, no real rollover |
| How you find people | Describe who you want in plain English | By company domain, not by a description of the person |
| Pay for misses? | No. The email credit is refunded if none is found | No charge for an empty search, but monthly credits still reset |
| Phone numbers | ||
| Email sending / sequencing | ||
| Best for | One-off and low-volume sourcing | Domain-level email discovery + cold email |
Where PeopleSearch.im fits better
Find people by describing them, not by already knowing the company domain, which is the whole search Hunter is not built to do.
Pay per profile from $5 with no monthly plan, versus a €49/mo (or discounted annual) Hunter subscription for light use.
Browse masked previews for free and reveal only the profiles that fit, so you validate the results before spending.
The verified-email credit is refunded on a miss, so a light month costs a few dollars instead of a monthly credit bucket you lose whether or not it delivered.
Where Hunter.io wins
Domain Search returns a whole company's email pattern and known addresses at once, ideal for covering an entire target account.
A best-in-class standalone email verifier with confidence scoring for cleaning large lists.
Built-in cold-email sequencing and mailbox connections (Campaigns), so finding and sending live in one tool.
A mature public API, Chrome extension, and Google Sheets add-on with a long-established crawled index.
Pricing, plainly
PeopleSearch.im
Pay per profile, no subscription. 3 free credits to start, then prepaid packs:
- Starter$5 / 25 profiles ($0.20 each)
- Pro$20 / 120 profiles ($0.17 each)
- Scale$50 / 350 profiles ($0.14 each)
Hunter.io
Hunter has a genuine free tier (50 credits/month) and paid plans from roughly €34/month on the Starter tier when billed annually (about €49 month-to-month), rising through Growth and Scale. Credits reset monthly with no meaningful rollover, one credit finds one email while verification costs less, and high-volume API access is a separate, far more expensive package.
Indicative, last reviewed August 2026. Confirm on Hunter.io(opens in a new tab).Questions
What is the difference between Hunter.io and PeopleSearch.im?
Hunter finds emails at a company domain you already know; PeopleSearch.im finds the people themselves from a plain-English description and then looks up their verified work email. Hunter also bundles a verifier and cold-email campaigns; PeopleSearch.im is pay-per-profile finding with no subscription.
Is there a pay-as-you-go alternative to Hunter.io?
Yes. PeopleSearch.im is pay-per-profile: no monthly subscription, packs from $5, and the verified-email credit is refunded when no email is found. It suits light or one-off use where a €34-€49/month Hunter plan would sit mostly unused.
Does PeopleSearch.im verify emails like Hunter?
PeopleSearch.im looks up a verified work email live at request time, each with a confidence level, and also offers a standalone email verifier tool. For bulk-verifying a large existing list, Hunter's dedicated verifier is the more specialized tool.
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See what PeopleSearch.im returns before you commit to Hunter.io
Describe the people you need and preview real matches for free. Only pay for the profiles you keep.