Comparisons / Website Contacts API

Clair vs Hunter: domain contact lookup compared

Hunter and Clair answer different questions about a domain. Hunter searches its index of addresses found across the web, so it finds personal emails a company never put on its own site, scores and verifies each one, and names the person behind it. Clair reads the company's own website when you call, and returns the role inboxes, phone numbers, social profiles, and addresses it publishes, each with the page it was on. For company-level contact data Clair costs less at every volume in the table below. For reaching a named person by email, use Hunter.

Published by Clair. Hunter facts checked September 28, 2026 against the sources listed below.

Cost

Monthly cost at the same volume

Domains	Clair	Hunter	Clair as share
500 / month	$10.05 (Pay as you go)	$49 (Starter)	21%
2,000 / month	$40.20 (Pay as you go)	$49 (Starter)	82%
5,000 / month	$67.76 (Pro)	$149 (Growth)	45%
10,000 / month	$134.76 (Pro)	$149 (Growth)	90%
25,000 / month	$252.02 (Ultra)	$299 (Scale)	84%

Clair: the cheapest Website Contacts API plan for each volume, fee plus overage. Hunter: the smallest plan that covers the volume. USD, before tax.

Hunter's Domain Search uses 1 credit per 1 to 10 emails found for a domain, the same through the API as in the app. The table assumes every domain returns 10 emails or fewer, one credit each, which is Hunter's cheapest case; a domain with 52 emails uses 6 credits. A search that finds no email uses none.
Hunter prices are monthly billing. Annual billing is about 30% lower: $34, $104, and $209 a month.
Hunter also sells Data Platform plans for API-only use, configured with its sales team and renewed yearly. They are not in the table.
Clair prices the cheapest of its plans for that volume. Every lookup is one request whatever it finds; a lookup that fails on Clair's side (5xx) is refunded.

Request

The same search on each

Clair

curl "https://api.clair.im/v1/contacts?domain=stripe.com&pages=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLAIR_API_KEY"

Hunter

curl "https://api.hunter.io/v2/domain-search?domain=stripe.com&api_key=$HUNTER_API_KEY"

Hunter returns data.emails[] with value, type (personal or generic), confidence, verification, sources, and the person's name and position. Clair returns emails[] with value, type, domain_match, and sources, plus phones[] in E.164, social[], addresses, company metadata, and people[] named on the site. The full Clair response is on the Website Contacts API page.

Features

What each returns and supports

	Clair	Hunter
Where the data comes from	The company's website, read live	Hunter's index of addresses found across the web
Personal emails not on the company's site	No	Yes
Email verification and confidence score	No	Yes
Name, position, and seniority per email	When the site lists them	Yes
Phone numbers	Yes, in E.164	Per person, when known
Social profiles and postal addresses	Yes	Social handles per person
Page each value was found on	Yes	Up to 20 sources per email
Data as of the call	Yes	As of Hunter's last crawl
Cost the same whatever the result	One request per lookup	By emails found; none when nothing is found
Free usage each month	200 lookups	50 credits
Email sequences and CRM tools	No	Yes

Verdict

When to pick each

Pick Clair when

You enrich accounts with company-level contacts: the general inbox, phone, LinkedIn page, and address.
You need phones and social profiles as much as emails, for example for local businesses from a Google Maps search.
You want each value traced to the page it was published on, as of today.
Cost per domain matters: Clair is cheaper than Hunter's monthly plans at every volume in the table.

Pick Hunter when

You need the email address of a specific person, such as a head of marketing, that the company does not publish.
You send cold email and need each address verified before it goes into a sequence.
You want outreach, sequences, and the email finder in one product.

FAQ

Common questions

Does Clair find personal email addresses?

Only the ones the company publishes on its own site, such as on a team or contact page. It does not guess addresses from name patterns or search the wider web.

Can I use both?

Yes. A common order is Clair first for every account, since it is cheaper and returns phones and profiles, then Hunter's Email Finder for the named people you want to reach.

Why does Hunter charge nothing when it finds nothing?

Hunter charges by emails found in its index. Clair reads the site on every call, and that fetch has a cost whether or not the site lists an email, so every lookup is one request.

Sources

Where the numbers come from

Competitor details read from these pages on September 28, 2026. Plans change; check the source before deciding.

Try Website Contacts API free

200 requests a month on the free tier, no card. Compare the output on your own queries.

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