Hunter is an all-in-one platform for cold email outreach that supports your entire workflow — from identifying companies that match your ideal customer profile, to finding and verifying decision-makers’ email addresses, and engaging them through automated, highly targeted email sequences.Users can discover and manage leads and companies based on role, industry, company size, location and more. Contacts are enriched and verified using publicly available B2B data, then stored in a centralized Leads section for easy organization and reuse.Used by sales teams, recruiters, marketers, and founders worldwide, Hunter helps teams build accurate prospect lists, keep data clean, and scale outbound outreach using only publicly available professional information.
Hunter.io (hunter.io) has 345 customer reviews on Five Star Index, with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5.
Website
hunter.io
Category
Internet & Software
Listed on Five Star Index
2026
About these reviews
Replies
The company replied to 68% of reviews.
Latest
Most recent review: October 2026.
Edits
Reviews are shown as their authors wrote them. The company can reply, but cannot edit them.
Score
This company cannot pay to remove reviews or change its score.
Absolutely worst experirince ever. They make you watch video for "FREE" credits, after that LinkedIn sigin is required and pull out your photo and email.
After that you get screen that they "could not verify you" and upgrade is required.
Response from Hunter.ioApr 10, 2026
Hi Nikola,
To clarify, since Hunter handles sensitive B2B data, users who sign up with a generic webmail address are required to validate their identity. This includes a LinkedIn verification step, and is unfortunately necessary due to some illicit usage we've experienced in the past.
Based on what you've described, it seems your LinkedIn profile may not have contained enough information for our system to verify your identity, such as a profile picture or any professional /academic details.
As for the videos, these are simply onboarding videos to help you get the most out of Hunter — once completed, they unlock additional free credits on top of those already included in our free plan.
We'd love to help you get access as soon as possible. Please don't hesitate to reach out at [email protected] and we'll sort this out together.
Laura — Customer Success @ Hunter
DM
Dan M.
Billing issues outweigh product benefits
I had a subscription for this mail tracker for a little less than a year. A few months ago, I was sent an email with a link asking me to update my card on file, likely because the one on file was about to expire. I followed the link and updated my card. The company then began charging me for two subscriptions tied to the same email, which doesn’t make any sense.
I tried canceling the duplicate subscription and it ended up closing my entire account, which is fine. However, the company continued charging me for my original subscription for two months, which no longer worked due to my entire account being closed after I tried to cancel the duplicate subscription. I had to send multiple emails over the span of a couple months with screenshots and repeated explanations to get them to refund a couple of the charges. They’ve assured me now that both subscriptions tied to my email have been cancelled and there will not be any additional recurring payments. Hopefully that’s true. Overall, the product worked well, but the billing issues made it not worth it.
Response from Hunter.ioMar 11, 2026
Hi Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
Based on the details in your review, it looks like this may be related to MailTracker, which is a separate service. Hunter doesn’t manage or operate MailTracker, and we don’t have access to their user accounts, subscriptions, or billing systems.
If the charges came from MailTracker, their support team will be the right point of contact to review the subscriptions associated with your email and billing information.
Laura - Customer Success @ Hunter
IT
itsnotbroken
Old Data
I ran a test on Hunter.io before we used the service. I ran a search on the firm I currently work at. Over 50% of the names & email addresses listed on Hunter.io NO LONGER WORK AT THE FIRM.
If you think you are getting accurate data, you are not. Go somewhere else.
Response from Hunter.ioJan 13, 2026
Hi there,
We noticed this review is a repeat of your previous one, and our response remains the same.
What you’re describing isn’t expected. We’ve asked for your contact details so we could properly investigate this with you, but we haven’t received any information. Without any contact details, we’re unable to look into the issue you mentioned.
That said, we’re still happy to help. Please reach out to us at [email protected], from the email linked to your account, or kindly share your details so we can follow up.
Laura - Customer Success @ Hunter
AN
Anthony
Read the fine print
Before you verify any e-mails, you better make sure they're all verified, cause hunter will charge you for EVERY SINGLE query, even the unknown ones.
Even though it explicitly says "You won't be charged for duplicates or unknown results" before you try to verify.
This is by definition misleading, and very scummy.
Better read the fine print before using this very overpriced, scummy software.
07/11/2025 EDIT: The reply to this comment is a lie, the way the system charges per verification is extremely misleading.
The reply below claims 0.5 credits per verification, well I'm looking at it right now and it says 1 credit per verification, it is very inconsistent.
Furthermore they claim not to charge for "unknowns" and "duplicates". This is semi-true, very misleading yet again.
They WILL charge you for every single attempt at verification, even if the result comes back with nothing.
Snov.io for example does this fairly, they only charge for succesful verifications + catch-alls, which is what Hunter.io claims to be doing, but it's a lie, there's probably some fineprint hidden in the terms and conditions.
Don't use this service, there's so many better options out there.
Response from Hunter.ioNov 7, 2025
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for sharing your feedback.
To clarify, Hunter doesn’t charge for duplicates or unknown results: those occur mostly when an email server doesn’t respond. Unlike many other verification tools, you only use 0.5 credit for emails that are getting verified if you are on a All in one outreach plan or 1 Verification credit if you are on a Data Platform plan (where we use a split credit system: Search and Verification credits).
We never charge for emails that you verify and come back with an unknown result.
You can also re-verify an email you have already verified at no extra cost during the same monthly period. Most emails found through Hunter are already verified, but you can also verify them again to ensure accuracy.
If you’d like us to review your case, feel free to reach out to [email protected], and we’ll be glad to check it for you.
Also, paid plans include monthly re-verification at no extra cost to keep your leads always up to date.
Laura - Customer Success @ Hunter
KL
Kirsten L.
They took my credits that I had paid for.
Annoyed that I paid $150 for membership for 3 months which gave me credits. I then cancelled my subscription as I had been busy and did not use the credits fast enough. They then removed my credits that I had paid for. I got almost no value.
Using their leads and system, not one email response when the same email sent directly had a 30% response rate. Their support usually took more than 10 hours to respond to queries. All in all, disappointing experience. I contacted them about this experience and asked for my credits to be reinstated so I could have used them, which would have kept me as a customer and when I had used them I would have started my subscription again. they just kept arguing. Really poor customer service. Refused to give me my credits and just told me to resubscribe. Half the time bots reply instead of a real person from customer service. Now I read the other reviews of people who they refused to refund or give back their credits I can see a pattern.
Response from Hunter.ioNov 4, 2025
Hi Kirsten,
I understand how frustrating this felt and appreciate the time you took to go over it with us. You’ve been on a monthly plan for several months, so this wasn’t the first credit reset.
As explained during checkout and in our Help Center, credits on monthly plans are valid for 30 days and renew with each billing cycle: you had a full month to use the credits as for all users in Hunter. We had also suggested switching to a yearly plan, where credits stay valid for 12 months to give you more flexibility when to use them.
Since you cancelled the subscription, it was automatically cancelled at the end of your billing period, as requested.
On deliverability, emails sent via Hunter go through your own connected email account, not Hunter’s servers, so there’s no negative impact compared to sending directly from your inbox. We’d still be happy to review your setup and share best practices to help improve results, as the open rate is often strictly linked to the subject line used.
Our support team typically replies within one working day, often much faster during business hours. When offline, our AI assistant may offer quick guidance, but specific cases are always handled by a real person, as in your case, where my colleagues and I provided chat assistance.
We’re a dedicated team that aims to be fair and transparent with every user, and while I’m sorry this experience didn’t meet your expectations, your feedback helps us improve.
Laura - Customer Success @ Hunter
KG
Kristina G.
won't let me cancel
I refuse to be a slave to this company. I don't wanna use this website anymore, but there's no cancel button for a subscription, can't cancel unless I pay this month. Fix that. It makes 0 sense.
Response from Hunter.ioSep 16, 2025
Hi Kristina,
I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t find the cancellation button. It’s available to all team owners in the Subscription section. You can also find a step-by-step guide here: https://help.hunter.io/en/articles/1897850-cancelling-your-subscription-s-renewal.
It looks like my colleague Laura already assisted you when you reached out to support. The reason you couldn’t access the Subscription section is that you’re not the team owner, so you don’t have the necessary permissions to access your team's subscription section (this is for privacy and security reasons as the team owner is the only that can assign permissions to perform actions on a subscription).
As a reminder, your account is set up as a regular team member without admin or owner rights.
If you need any further help, we’re here to assist.
Giovanni
Head of Customer Success at Hunter
JH
Jake H.
We’ve just had a deeply disappointing experience with Hunter.io - and I feel compelled to share it so other businesses don’t face the same vulnerabilities.
In response to the company's comment:
While Hunter.io frames this as "account sharing," the core issue is that their platform design allows prolonged exploitation without intervention.
No enforced admin controls: Anyone with a company email can create an account under your domain, with no verification or approval process.
Weak anomaly detection: Hundreds of IP changes, suspicious upgrades, and heavy credit usage triggered no proactive lockouts or verification checks.
Single point-of-contact flaw: All security alerts went to one outdated email, with no secondary contact or admin override — effectively leaving us blind.
For a SaaS handling billing and sensitive data, these aren't "nice-to-have" features — they're basic safeguards. Without them, businesses are left exposed until it's too late.
Our account, originally set up years ago under an old company email that’s no longer in use, was recently hijacked. Thousands of lead credits were purchased, upgrades were made, and our billing details were exploited - all without our knowledge or approval.
Hunter’s response?
They refused to issue a refund and shifted the blame onto us, citing “too many people having access to the account.” Not only is this dismissive, it misses the core issue: their platform failed to enforce even the most basic security standards.
Let me break this down:
No alerts or account lockouts were triggered, even though the account experienced hundreds of IP changes in a short span - a red flag for any credible SaaS handling payments.
The only notifications were sent to an unmonitored email address — one we’d long since decommissioned and openly disclosed during our support outreach.
The account’s original creator, John Valmonte, left our company five years ago. He had no authorization, no access to our systems, and was not an active user. Yet Hunter claims his past involvement somehow justifies the activity.
Anyone with a company email can create and operate a Hunter account under your domain — without identity verification, admin alerts, or enforced security checks. That’s a massive loophole.
Hunter's platform made it dangerously easy for someone to exploit our domain - and then leaned on vague Terms of Service clauses to deny accountability. Despite obvious signs of abuse, no action was taken to verify the user or freeze the account until after our credits were drained.
This isn't just a billing issue — it’s a serious product and trust issue. Any platform handling sensitive data and billing at scale should default to proactive security, not reactive support scripts.
We’ve now transitioned to platforms that actively enforce fraud prevention, identity verification, and account-level admin controls. Features like real-time alerts, suspicious login monitoring, and multi-user management aren’t optional “upgrades” — they’re table stakes.
Hunter.io might be helpful for finding leads, but the moment something goes wrong, you’re completely on your own. No refund. No safety net. No accountability.
If you’re a business that cares about security and support - I’d strongly suggest you look elsewhere.
Response from Hunter.ioAug 4, 2025
Hi Jake,
We’re genuinely sorry to read your review and would like to clarify several important points, as there are multiple inaccuracies.
Security and Account Integrity
Security is a top priority for us. Our platform undergoes two external security audits each year, including penetration tests through HackerOne, and we’ve never had a reported vulnerability. We also offer enterprise-grade features like audit logs, proactive alerts, and multi-user team workspaces at no extra cost.
We do require verification when creating an account. The process includes a two-step check: first, an activation email is sent to the inbox used for sign-up. Additionally, our system may require further verification (via SMS or LinkedIn sign-up) if we need to confirm the identity more thoroughly.
In your case, after a thorough investigation with our Engineering team, it’s clear that this wasn’t a platform security failure, but rather a case of intentional and prolonged account sharing. Here’s a breakdown we have already shared with you when you contacted our support:
• The account in question (tied to John Valmonte) was created on April 2, 2020, and showed signs of multi-user access from the start. Even if the inbox associated with the account was active, the security alerts were always ignored.
• Within hours, our logs recorded multiple IPs from different locations in the Philippines, and since then, the account registered over 770 IP address changes — a clear sign of shared access.
• All account actions, including upgrades and usage of thousands of credits, came from users logged in with valid credentials.
This is a direct violation of our Terms of Service, which explicitly prohibit account sharing. It’s also a key reason why we offer unlimited seats in our team workspaces, to avoid scenarios like this.
Notification and Email Alerts
Between March 1 and May 6, we sent over 100 alerts to the registered email, including:
• IP change notifications
• Bulk activity alerts
• Billing confirmations and plan upgrade receipts
These were successfully delivered with no bouncebacks (the email linked to the account was still active), and we received no password resets, access requests, or security reports during this period. If the inbox had been decommissioned on your end, we were not informed, and no alternative contact was provided.
Unfortunately, we can’t prevent account misuse if users don’t report suspicious activity or update contact info over a multi-year period.
On the Account Owner and Access
The account is currently accessed by you, but it was originally registered under John Valmonte, who, according to you, left the company five years ago. Despite this, no ownership transfer, access removal, or billing changes were requested until recently.
Our recommendation has always been to have the company credit card holder register the main account and invite teammates as needed. This approach prevents any single user — especially one who has left the company — from having access to billing or admin privileges.
Refund and Usage
All credits were used, and all plan upgrades were initiated from within the logged-in account. Since no platform breach occurred and all services were consumed, we could not issue a refund.
This is not a case of unauthorized access by a third party, but rather continued use of a shared account without security hygiene — and without any reporting from your side for years.
We understand your frustration and we’re always open to feedback. But we also need to stand by the facts:
• No security breach occurred.
• All activity came from users with valid login access.
• Alerts were sent, they didn't bounce, but not acted on.
• We offer secure team environments, which were not used here.
We wish you all the best with your new provider, and should you wish to properly set up a secure, team-managed account in the future, we’d be happy to guide you through the process.
Best,
Giovanni
Head of Customer Success, Hunter.io
JA
Jessica A.
Bad policy, email look up changed and no longer a good tool
I was a regular user until Hunter.io made changes to their email/domain search functionality, which significantly degraded the user experience. The tool no longer returned the volume or quality of contact data it once did, making it basically unusable for my needs.
After noticing how little value I was getting, I stopped using it entirely. Unfortunately, I forgot to cancel in time and was billed for another month. When I reached out to request a refund (having clearly not logged in or used the tool in weeks), I was told no refunds, but they’d offer a free month.
The issue is—I’m not using it and don’t plan to. I just wanted to recover the most recent charge for a tool I no longer rely on due to its declining usefulness.
All around, a frustrating experience with an unhelpful support response and a product that no longer lives up to its original value.
I will never use this tool, or recommend to my clients in the future. Also, 'Mary with Hunter' sent me 5 emails with the same AI response. The entire experience gave me a bad taste in my mouth. Hope that was worth keeping $49 :-/
Response from Hunter.ioJul 29, 2025
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for taking the time to share this feedback. I’m really sorry to hear your experience with Hunter didn’t match what you expected.
Regarding the recent updates: we introduced new features for the Domain Search to improve the overall experience, not to degrade it. These changes were driven by feedback from active users, including the addition of filters like job titles and decision-maker roles to help better target searches.
The goal is to give users more control and only use credits on the results that matter most, whereas before, credits could be used without the ability to narrow results upfront.
Just to clarify, our database hasn’t been reduced. On the contrary, the number of verified profiles available in Hunter has grown 15x over the past year.
Regarding the unexpected renewal: we offer monthly and yearly plans that can be cancelled at any time directly from your account. We’re sorry this didn’t happen in your case. When you contacted our support team, my colleague May offered a full credit as a gesture of goodwill, even though our policy doesn’t include refunds for unused time. The credit has no expiration and could be used anytime in the future, but we understand you preferred a refund, which unfortunately isn’t something we’re able to provide.
I’m also really sorry the replies felt impersonal. While we use tools to streamline replies, every conversation is handled and reviewed by a real person on our small (and human!) support team. We’re a close-knit group of six people in support, and we always aim to respond personally in a few hours, maximum.
If you ever need help using the tool or discover the new updates, we are here to help!
Laura - Customer Success @ Hunter
