RecruiterContacts vs Hunter.io
Hunter.io is excellent at finding emails—but only if you already know who you're looking for. Need to discover recruiters in the first place? That's a different problem.
The Problem With Hunter.io
Hunter is a powerful email finder—but it doesn't help you discover who to contact in the first place.
You need names before finding emails
Hunter finds emails for people you already know. But how do you discover recruiters in the first place? You need a database, not just a finder.
No searchable database
Hunter doesn't help you discover new contacts. It only finds/verifies emails for names you already have from LinkedIn, Google, etc.
$49/month for serious use
Free tier gives 25 searches/month. Starter at $49/month gives 500 searches. Power users need Growth ($149/month) or higher.
Limited to email finding
Hunter is laser-focused on finding/verifying emails. No job titles, company info, or filtering by industry/location.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Honest Pros & Cons
Hunter.io
Pros
- Best-in-class email verification
- Domain search to find company emails
- Email pattern detection
- Chrome extension for LinkedIn
- API for developers
- Confidence scores for accuracy
Cons
- No database of contacts to discover
- Must already know who you're looking for
- Can't search by job title or location
- $49+/month for meaningful usage
- Not built for recruiting workflows
- Limited free tier (25 searches/month)
RecruiterContacts
Pros
- 41% cheaper than Hunter Starter
- Full database of 650K+ recruiters
- Search by location, company, industry
- Bulk export hundreds of contacts
- Built specifically for finding recruiters
- Unlimited searches (no monthly limits)
Cons
- Only recruiters/HR professionals
- No email verification API
- No Chrome extension
- No domain search feature
- Not a general email finder
- Can't find emails for arbitrary people
The Bottom Line
Choose Hunter.io If:
- You already know who you want to contact
- You need to verify email addresses
- You want domain-wide email patterns
- You need an email verification API
Choose RecruiterContacts If:
- You need to discover recruiters, not just find their emails
- You want to search by location, company, or industry
- You need bulk access to recruiter contacts
- You want to save 41% vs Hunter Starter
The Cost Difference
Hunter.io Starter
$588
/year
500 searches/month limit
RecruiterContacts Pro
$348
/year
Unlimited searches
Save $240/year (41%)
Plus get a searchable database, not just an email finder