ScoutKite

Compare · Hunter and ScoutKite

A Hunter.io alternative that starts before you have a domain

Hunter answers "what's the email address at this company?" It's quick and accurate at that. But if you sell to small businesses, the harder question comes first: which businesses, and what do I say to them?

MBy Motyar, who builds ScoutKite

Hunter starts here

domain acme-plumbing.example
{first}@ · 92%{first}.{last}@info@

ScoutKite starts here

"A customer I already have: harbourphysio.example"
  1. → 50 clinics like them, found on the web
  2. → each one's published email, inbox checked
  3. → a first email from one fact on their site
no domain needed
Different first questions. Example domains, made up.

Where Hunter fits, and where it doesn't

Hunter is an email finder and verifier with a campaign tool on top. Give it a domain and it lists the addresses it has seen for that company, with the public sources it found them on. Give it a name and a domain and it returns the most likely address with a confidence score, often by working out the company's pattern (first@, first.last@). It's honest about where its data comes from, and for B2B prospecting it does the job well.

It fits when you already know who you want: a list of target companies, a named contact, a domain from your CRM. It fits less well when your market is thousands of small businesses you haven't identified yet. Hunter has a Discover feature for finding companies, but its index leans towards businesses with a footprint in B2B data. The family-run bakery is easy to find on a map and hard to find in a company database.

And Hunter's job ends at the address. What you write is up to you.

Published-site sourcing vs a database of addresses

The difference that matters for small businesses: ScoutKite never builds an address from a pattern. If anna@ isn't written on Harbour Physio's website, Scout doesn't send to it, even if every other address at the domain follows first@. Small business owners notice when someone has guessed their way in, and guessed addresses bounce more often, which is what slowly pushes a sender into spam folders.

HunterScoutKite
You start withA domain, or a person's name and companyA customer you already have, or a kind of business
FindsAddresses at that domainThe businesses themselves, then their published address
Address sourcePublic web sources it has indexed, plus pattern-based findingOnly the business's own pages, read at the time
VerificationVerifier with deliverability statusMail server asked before sending; catch-all and unknown skipped
First emailYou write it (templates and an AI assistant available)Drafted from one fact on their site; you edit and approve
SendingCampaigns from your connected mailboxesFrom your inbox, about 25 a day, one follow-up
Free plan50 credits a month50 people with drafts, no card
Paid from$49/mo (or $34/mo yearly), 2,000 credits$29/mo, 500 people

Hunter details from its website and pricing page as listed in October 2026. Check hunter.io/pricing for current plans.

Credits vs people

Hunter charges in credits, shared across searches, verifications and some campaign actions. That's fair for a lookup tool, but it means a search that returns nothing useful still costs you. ScoutKite charges per person it found, checked and wrote to. If it can't confirm someone's inbox, or can't find anything true to say about their business, it skips them and you aren't charged. Bounces are credited back.

Neither is cheaper in every case. If you need a thousand verified addresses at named companies a month, Hunter's Starter credits go further. If you need fifty small businesses found and written to each week, ScoutKite does more of the work per dollar.

Who should stay on Hunter

If what you actually want is "more customers like the ones I have, and a decent first email to each", that's the job ScoutKite was built for.

Questions

Questions people ask

Is there a free Hunter alternative?

For looking up one site at a time, our published email finder is free with no sign-up: paste a website, see every address on its own pages and which ones reach a person. For finding the businesses in the first place, ScoutKite's free plan covers 50 people with drafts, no card.

Does ScoutKite verify emails like Hunter does?

Yes, before anything is sent. Scout asks each address's mail server whether the inbox exists, without sending a message, and also tests whether the server accepts any address at all. Only a clear yes counts; anyone else is skipped and doesn't count against your plan. It asks again before the first email if the last answer is over two weeks old.

Can ScoutKite find the email of a specific person at a company?

No. That's Hunter's Email Finder, and it's good at it. ScoutKite doesn't take a name and work out their address; it only uses addresses people published themselves.

How much is Hunter compared to ScoutKite?

Hunter's pricing page in October 2026 listed a free plan with 50 credits a month, Starter at $49 a month (or $34 billed yearly) for 2,000 credits, and Growth at $149 a month. ScoutKite is free for 50 people, then $29 a month for 500 people found, checked and written to. Check Hunter's page for current prices.

Can I use both?

Plenty of people would: Hunter for "what's the email of the head of partnerships at this company", ScoutKite for "find me fifty independent bookshops worth writing to, and write to them".

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 Who it's for Cold email for local businesses →

Why a café owner answers one email and deletes the next, and how to write the one they answer.

No domain list? Start with one customer.

Paste the website of a business that already buys from you. ScoutKite finds fifty more like them, with emails they published and inboxes checked, and writes the first email to each.

Find your first 50 people free No card. You see real people and real drafts first.