Searchbase vs Hunter (2026 Comparison)
2026-09-08
Quick answer: Searchbase searches B2B contact databases (Apollo alone: 240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states; plus Hunter and more) and the open web from one prompt, so the list and the contact details arrive together: companies or people with email and phone where a provider has them, plus the ads they run, the jobs they post and the social profiles they keep. Describe your ideal customer. Searchbase finds them across Europe in one prompt, with the source on every cell. It works in English and Italian, bills in euros, and charges per action rather than per seat, so a ten-person team pays what one person pays (€0 to €199 a month). Hunter is the better pick if you already have the target accounts and the job is verifying addresses and sending the cold email from the same tool, because that is the entire product (€0 to €299 a month, or €34 to €209 a month on annual billing, with unlimited users on every plan). Both are European, both price in euros, and both start free.
What each tool actually does
Hunter (hunter.io) calls itself an all-in-one outreach platform and states it serves more than 7 million users. The core is email: Domain Search fetches every email address Hunter has found for a domain, Email Finder locates a professional address from a name and a domain, and Email Verifier checks whether an address is valid. Every result carries a confidence score and the sources Hunter saw the address on, which is an unusually honest design for a data product. Around that core sit Discover, which identifies companies matching an ideal customer profile from natural language queries or filters, Sequences for cold email with personalization and scheduling, Signals for intent data, and TechLookup for listing websites by the technology they run. Hunter also ships a Data Platform for bulk access, a broad API covering Domain Search, Email Finder, Email Verifier, Leads, Sequences, lead and company enrichment and a Clearbit replacement endpoint, a free Logo API, browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and a Google Sheets add-on. Hunter states its API integrates with more than 5,000 destinations.
Searchbase (searchbase.org, Europe) puts Hunter's kind of data and the open web behind one sentence. You describe the leads you want in plain words, "every digital agency in Milan with an email and a website", "heads of marketing at Italian furniture manufacturers", "creators in the running niche with over 10k followers and a contact email", "companies advertising kitchen furniture on Meta in Italy", and the agent decides where to look. For standard B2B contacts it queries contact databases, Apollo (240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states) and Hunter among them, and enriches companies against Crunchbase and the Italian company registry. For everything a database does not hold it searches, reads the pages, extracts the rows and streams them into a spreadsheet while you watch. Every cell carries a link to the page or provider it came from, a badge with when it was collected and the extraction method, and emails carry the provider's status. If a value cannot be verified it stays n/a rather than being guessed. Coverage runs from those databases to any public web page, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries and 9 job boards, across roughly 33 extraction methods. From the people it finds, the agent drafts personalised email and LinkedIn sequences that you approve before anything launches.
Side by side
| Searchbase | Hunter | |
|---|---|---|
| Input | plain-language prompt | a domain, a name, or an ICP filter in Discover |
| Coverage | B2B contact databases (Apollo alone: 240M+ people and 30M+ companies, as Apollo states; plus Hunter and more) plus any public web page, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries (Meta, Google, TikTok), 9 job boards, the Italian company registry, Crunchbase | company and email index, plus Discover, Signals and TechLookup |
| Output | table of companies or people: email and phone where a provider has them, website, LinkedIn, any column you ask for; source link on every cell | email addresses with a confidence score and sources |
| Verification | source link, collection time and method on every cell; provider status on emails; unknown = n/a, never guessed | Email Verifier, confidence score, auto-verification from Starter |
| Ad intelligence | yes, the Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries | no |
| Creators and social | yes, 12 platforms | no |
| Languages | English, Italian | English |
| Pricing model | per action, no seats: a 10-person team pays the same as one | credits per lookup, unlimited users on every plan |
| Pricing | €0 / €29 / €79 / €199 per month, billed annually; 150 to 12,000 credits | €0 / €49 / €149 / €299 per month, or €34 / €104 / €209 annually |
| Free tier | 150 credits every month | 50 credits a month, unlimited users |
| CRM and export | HubSpot push; CSV, JSON, API, webhooks | API, Google Sheets add-on, browser extensions, CRM destinations |
| Outreach | drafts personalised email and LinkedIn sequences per lead; you approve before launch | sends cold email sequences from connected mailboxes |
| Email accounts | not applicable, nothing is sent | 1 on Free, 3 on Starter, 10 on Growth, 20 on Scale |
| Best for | any team that needs a list a single database cannot give: B2B sales, agencies, recruiters, marketers, European and Italian teams | teams with a target account list who need to reach the right people |
Where Hunter is stronger
- Sending from the tool. Sequences are a real cold email product with personalization, scheduling and connected mailboxes, up to 20 email accounts on Scale. Searchbase drafts the sequence and waits for your approval, and launching from the campaign wizard is still rolling out.
- Dedicated email verification, and a developer API. Email Verifier with auto-verification from Starter is more thorough than what a general research agent does with an address, and the API covers Domain Search, Email Finder, Email Verifier, Leads, Sequences, enrichment and a Clearbit replacement, with a stated 5,000 or more integration destinations.
- Where you already work. Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, plus a Google Sheets add-on that finds and verifies inside a spreadsheet. Searchbase has no browser extension.
Where Searchbase is stronger
- One prompt, every source. Hunter is at its best once you know the companies. Searchbase covers the step before that and the step after: it queries the contact databases, Hunter's kind of data included, and then reads the open web, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries, 9 job boards, Crunchbase and the Italian company registry, so agencies in one city, companies hiring for a specific role and brands running a specific kind of ad all come back in the same table.
- A source on every cell, not only on emails. Hunter attributes sources for the addresses it returns, which is the same instinct and deserves saying out loud. Searchbase does it for every field in the table, including columns you invented in the prompt, with a freshness badge, the extraction method and the provider's status on emails.
- Unverifiable stays empty. A confidence score of 60 still hands you an address. Searchbase writes
n/awhen it cannot point at a page or a provider. - Competitor ads. Searchbase reads the Meta, Google and TikTok ad libraries, so "who is advertising this in Italy right now" is a table rather than a manual search. Hunter has no ad library.
- Creators and social. Twelve platforms with follower counts and contact details where they are public. Hunter does not cover social profiles.
- Per action, no seats, and built for Europe. Searchbase Starter is €29 against Hunter Starter at €49, and Business is €199 against Hunter Scale at €299, with Hunter's annual discount narrowing that considerably. Prompts, interface and results are in English and Italian, and the agent reads European sources natively, including the Italian company registry. Hunter is English only. On the rest, credit where it is due: Hunter is a European company that bills in euros, so currency and GDPR posture are not differentiators here. Language, open-web coverage and the per-action meter are.
How credits work in Searchbase
You pay per action, not per seat. Reading a page costs about 1 credit, a social profile about 3, a Deep Research report 20 to 40. The Free plan renews 150 credits every month with no card. Starter (€29) gives 1,000, Pro (€79) 4,000 with API access and rollover, Business (€199) 12,000 with webhooks, and contacts push straight into HubSpot. The comparison with Hunter's credits is not one to one: a Hunter credit is mostly a lookup or a verification, a Searchbase credit is a unit of research, so a single prompt that returns fifty rows costs more than one credit and buys you a whole list.
Frequently asked questions
Is Searchbase a Hunter alternative? For finding the companies and people in the first place, and for getting their contact details in the same table, yes. For verifying an address you already have, or for sending a cold email sequence, Hunter is the more complete tool. The two sit next to each other more naturally than they compete.
Does Searchbase verify email addresses?
It records where each address came from, links the cell to that page or provider, carries the provider's status on the email and leaves the cell n/a if it cannot find one. It does not run a dedicated verification service the way Hunter's Email Verifier does.
Does Searchbase send emails? No. The agent drafts personalised email and LinkedIn sequences for the people it found and you approve every message. Hunter sends, from mailboxes you connect, with 1 email account on Free and up to 20 on Scale.
Which one is cheaper? Both have a free tier, Searchbase with 150 credits a month and Hunter with 50 plus unlimited users. Paid plans start at €29 for Searchbase and €49 a month for Hunter, or €34 on annual billing. At the top, Searchbase Business is €199 and Hunter Scale is €299, or €209 annually. Neither charges per seat.
Can I use either one from a spreadsheet or the browser? Hunter has a Google Sheets add-on and extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Searchbase pushes contacts into HubSpot and exports JSON on every plan, CSV from Starter, an API from Pro and webhooks on Business, but has no browser extension.
Where does the data come from? Searchbase: B2B contact databases including Apollo and Hunter, plus company sites, 12 social platforms, 3 ad libraries, 9 job boards, Crunchbase, the Italian company registry, reviews and press, each linked from the cell. Hunter: its own company and email index, with the sources it saw each address on.
Prices and features checked on 2026-09-08 from https://hunter.io/, https://hunter.io/pricing and https://hunter.io/api. Tell us if something changed.