Domain search against a filterable database
Hunter grew out of one question: what is the email of someone at this company? You start from a domain (Domain Search lists the addresses Hunter has indexed there, with their sources) or from a name and a domain (Email Finder). Hunter says it has indexed 81M websites. It does have a database too, Discover, where companies and people are searched with filters and an AI assistant on every plan, Free included (advanced filters are for paid plans), but the core of the product is still the domain.
Apollo starts the other way round: from a database you narrow down with filters (advanced filters and Bombora buying-intent data from Basic), then you reveal the contacts you keep. Apollo’s site claims 240M contacts and 30M companies (its Trustpilot profile says 210 million and 35 million).
On both, an email costs 1 credit when one is found. If you already know which companies to target, Hunter’s Bulk Domain Search is the cheapest route, at 1 credit for up to 10 emails of the same domain; if you need to find out who to target, Apollo is built for that.
The bill for 3 inboxes and 2,000 emails found a month, then for a team of 5
Same need in each column, billed monthly unless stated. Emelia’s plans give credits once at signup, so its monthly lookups are paid with a credit pack. With one person and 3 mailboxes, Apollo Basic is out (one mailbox per licence), so its cheapest option is Professional.
1 person, 3 mailboxes, 2,000 emails found a month
Team of 5, 10 mailboxes, 10,000 emails found a month
Same team, warm-up on every mailbox
Same team, billed yearly
Everything is in dollars, the only currency Apollo bills in; Hunter’s plans and Emelia carry the same figure in euros, so nothing is converted. Apollo’s extra credits are counted at the low end of its price range. Hunter’s warm-up costs $7.50 per mailbox per month; Apollo’s is counted as its pricing table and help centre describe it: one mailbox per licence included, then 200 credits per mailbox per month.
Hunter and Apollo Chrome extensions: a company website on one side, LinkedIn and Gmail on the other
Hunter’s extension, for Chrome, Firefox and Edge, starts from the website open in your tab. One click runs a Domain Search on that domain, with each address’s sources, the company’s usual email pattern and department filters; “Find by name” runs the Email Finder for one person. A lead then goes into a list, into a Hunter sequence or to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho. It needs a Hunter account, and its store listing points to the 50 free credits a month. Because it searches Hunter’s index for the domain rather than reading the page, a LinkedIn profile gives it nothing to work with.
Apollo’s extension covers that ground: on a LinkedIn profile, it saves the person and reveals their email and phone number for credits (1 for an email, 8 for a number), and it also runs on company websites and inside Gmail, Google Calendar, Salesforce and HubSpot, with a separate add-in for Outlook. Apollo does not filter out contacts based in the EU or the UK there, and tells users to check where a person is located before reaching out.
Hunter API vs Apollo API: rate limits, plans and MCP servers
Hunter opens its API on every plan, Free included, and sets its limits per key or IP rather than by plan: 15 requests a second and 500 a minute for search and enrichment, 300 a minute for verification, 50 for Discover. A lookup through the API costs the same credits as in the app (enrichment endpoints take 0.2 credit), and teams that only want the API can buy search and verification credits by the year on its Data Platform rather than taking a plan.
Apollo raises its limits with the plan, endpoint by endpoint: 50 requests a minute, 200 an hour and 600 a day on Free; 200, 400 and 2,000 on Basic and Professional; 200, 600 and 6,000 on Organization. Its pricing table and help centre open the API on every plan, while its pricing FAQ mentions Custom plans only. Some endpoints consume credits, and its terms forbid using the API with LinkedIn automation.
Both also run an MCP server, so either can be driven from an AI assistant: Hunter names Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, Apollo lists its own under “LLM Integrations” on every plan. On raw volume, Hunter’s free plan already allows more search requests a minute than any Apollo plan.
Free seats against paid licences
Hunter bills the team, not the person: every plan, the free one included, has unlimited users at no extra cost, sharing the plan’s credits. Starter costs $49 a month whether one or ten people use it.
Apollo bills one licence per person who signs in, all on the same plan: $65 on Basic, $99 on Professional, monthly, and its Organization plan is sold yearly only, from 3 licences. Credits come per licence (2,500 on Basic, 4,000 on Professional), pooled by the team. For a team of 5, that is the main gap: $495 a month on Apollo Professional against $149 on Hunter Growth for the need priced above.
Both have a free plan: 50 credits a month and one mailbox on Hunter, 75 credits and one mailbox on Apollo. Apollo also offers a 14-day trial of Basic or Professional. Hunter itself has no trial of its paid plans, the free plan filling that role, even though its Capterra listing says “Free Trial: Available”.
Sending: inbox slots and warm-up on each side
Hunter fixes the number of mailboxes by plan: 1, 3, 10 and 20, then $10 per extra mailbox per month, up to 50 in all. Each mailbox sends 15 emails a day by default, up to 400 on Google. Warm-up is an add-on, $7.50 per mailbox per month, and blocks sequence sending from that mailbox for its first 30 days.
Apollo ties mailboxes to licences: one per licence on Free and Basic, unlimited Gmail and Microsoft mailboxes on Professional, plus 5 SMTP mailboxes per user. For warm-up, its pricing table and help centre include one mailbox (one per licence, says the help centre), then charge 200 credits per mailbox per month, taken from the shared credits; its plan cards just list “Email Warmup”.
Emelia sets mailboxes by plan, with no licence per user and warm-up always included: 3 on Start, 50 on Grow, as many as you need on Scale.
Phone numbers and LinkedIn: what each one covers
Phone numbers: Hunter has no dedicated tool, it only shows a number when one is available in its results. Apollo reveals phone numbers for 8 credits each. Emelia’s phone finder costs 50 credits per number.
LinkedIn: Hunter does nothing there (“Hunter cannot be integrated with LinkedIn”), and Apollo’s sequences turn LinkedIn steps into tasks you complete by hand. Neither sends invitations or messages for you. Emelia automates both, with 1 to 10 LinkedIn accounts depending on the plan, and its Chrome extension adds an Export with Emelia button to Sales Navigator searches (how it works).
Hunter.io or Apollo: which one to choose?
- Hunter, if you already know your target companies, want to find and verify their emails and send from a few mailboxes: with 3 mailboxes and 2,000 emails a month, Starter at $49 is the cheapest of the three.
- Apollo, if you build your lists from a filterable database, or need phone numbers, for which Hunter has no dedicated tool.
- For a team, Hunter’s free users make the biggest gap with Apollo, which charges each person: $149 against $495 a month for 5 people in the table above.
- Emelia, if your prospecting also runs on LinkedIn, or if mailboxes and warm-up drive your bill: neither Hunter nor Apollo automates LinkedIn.
Emelia is a Hunter.io competitor. We have tried to stay fair: every figure about Hunter.io comes from its own website or public review sites.
