--- title: "WhoLayer vs Hunter (2026): pricing, features, and where each is stronger" description: "A sourced, dated comparison of WhoLayer and Hunter: person-level ID, ecommerce, API, MCP, and pricing, plus where Hunter is the better pick." url: https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter --- Compare · Contact data, enrichment, and MCP # WhoLayer vs Hunter Hunter in one line: Self-serve email finder and verifier, now an outreach platform with an MCP server. WhoLayer identifies website visitors (person-level for US traffic, company-level free) and offers contact data through an API and MCP server, all from one credit wallet, starting with a free plan with 100 credits a month. Pick Hunter if you need email finding from public web sources, with the origin of each email. Checked November 4, 2026. Every Hunter figure links to its source. ## Side by side WhoLayer compared with Hunter |   | Hunter | WhoLayer | | --- | --- | --- | | Positioning | Self-serve email finder and verifier, now an outreach platform with an MCP server. [\[1\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-1) | Website visitor identification, ecommerce shopper ID, and contact data for teams and AI agents. | | Person-level visitor ID | No website visitor identification [\[1\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-1) | Yes, US traffic only (1 credit per person, charged once a month); company-level worldwide (free) | | Ecommerce | No ecommerce product found in our research | Yes: Shopper ID sends identified US shoppers to Klaviyo, Customer.io, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Iterable, Braze, ActiveCampaign, or Brevo, with Returning Shopper events for existing Attentive and Postscript subscribers (2 credits per new shopper, 1 credit for shoppers already on your list where the platform can be checked), Growth plan and up | | API | Yes, with an OpenAPI spec [\[3\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-3) | Yes: REST API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec | | MCP server | Yes, a hosted MCP server [\[4\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-4) | Yes: a data MCP server with 13 tools, plus a public docs MCP server with 5 | | Pricing model | Monthly credits; nothing charged when no email is found, and repeat searches in a period are free [\[2\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-2) | Monthly or annual plans with credits from one wallet for every product; overage between $0.045 and $0.060 a credit on paid plans | | Entry price | Free (50 credits a month); Starter $49 a month ($34 a month billed annually) [\[2\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-2) | Free plan with 100 credits a month; paid plans from $49 a month | WhoLayer's column is generated from our live pricing and API limits. See [pricing](https://wholayer.com/pricing) and the [MCP docs](https://wholayer.com/docs/mcp). ## Where Hunter is stronger An honest list. If one of these is what you need, it may be the better pick. - Email finding from public web sources, with the origin of each email - Low-cost bulk email verification - Built-in sequences, sending accounts, and inbox warm-up - A mature API with an OpenAPI spec and a large MCP tool set ## Where WhoLayer is different ### Built for agents A data MCP server with 13 tools and a REST API with an OpenAPI spec. Per-key daily caps, a 250-credit default ceiling per call, read-only keys, and idempotent retries keep an agent's spending predictable. ### Contact data with checks Work and personal emails come with a risk grade, mobiles come with a carrier and line-type check, and you can verify lists of up to 1,000 emails per call. ### Company-level ID is free Company identification is free and unlimited on every plan. Person-level ID is US-only and charged once per person per month; repeat visits are free. ### One wallet, published per-result prices Visitor ID, Shopper ID, the Data API, and the MCP server draw from the same credits, and every credit cost is listed on the pricing page. Misses aren't charged. ### Opt-outs honored everywhere Opted-out and suppressed people are never returned, delivered, or charged. Global Privacy Control signals are honored, and the rules we enforce are published as a machine-readable policy. ### Monthly plans, spend caps Monthly plans stop at the end of the billing period, and you can set a hard monthly spend cap so overage never surprises you. ### WhoLayer isn't the right fit if - You need a large global contact database for prospecting by country. WhoLayer's person-level data is US-only. - You need person-level identification of visitors outside the US. WhoLayer identifies people for US traffic only; elsewhere it's company-level, after consent. - You want a full ABM advertising suite, an on-site AI chat agent, or a built-in sequencer and dialer. WhoLayer identifies and enriches; it doesn't run ads, chat, or send email for you. ## Pricing Hunter's published entry price, next to WhoLayer's plans. Hunter Free (50 credits a month); Starter $49 a month ($34 a month billed annually) [\[2\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-2) Monthly credits; nothing charged when no email is found, and repeat searches in a period are free [\[2\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/compare/hunter#source-2) WhoLayer WhoLayer plans | Plan | Monthly | Credits | Overage | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Free | Free | 100 | None | | Starter | $49 | 1,000 | $0.060 a credit | | Growth | $199 | 5,000 | $0.050 a credit | | Scale | $799 | 20,000 | $0.045 a credit | Example: identifying 1,000 US people a month uses 1,000 credits. The cheapest fit is Starter at $49 a month. Repeat visits by the same person in a month are free, and company-level ID doesn't use credits. [Price your own volume](https://wholayer.com/calculator) ## Use them together Use Hunter for public-web email finding and sequences, and WhoLayer to tell you which people and companies are on your site. ## Questions ### Is WhoLayer cheaper than Hunter? It depends on what you need and how much. Hunter's entry price is: Free (50 credits a month); Starter $49 a month ($34 a month billed annually) (as of November 4, 2026). WhoLayer: Free plan with 100 credits a month; paid plans from $49 a month. Use the WhoLayer cost calculator to price your own volume. ### Does WhoLayer identify people outside the US? No. Person-level identification is US-only. Outside the US, WhoLayer identifies the company, and only after the visitor's consent is recorded. ### Do Hunter and WhoLayer have MCP servers? Hunter: Yes, a hosted MCP server. WhoLayer: Yes: a data MCP server with 13 tools, plus a public docs MCP server with 5. ### When is Hunter the better choice? When you need email finding from public web sources, with the origin of each email, or low-cost bulk email verification. ### Can I use Hunter and WhoLayer together? Use Hunter for public-web email finding and sequences, and WhoLayer to tell you which people and companies are on your site. ## Sources - \[1\] [hunter.io](https://hunter.io/) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026) - \[2\] [Hunter pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026) - \[3\] [Hunter API docs](https://hunter.io/api-documentation/v2) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026) - \[4\] [Hunter: MCP server](https://hunter.io/blog/hunter-mcp-server-bringing-ai-and-b2b-data-together) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026) Competitor information is from public sources as of November 4, 2026 and may have changed. Trademarks belong to their owners. WhoLayer wrote this page; if something here is wrong, [tell us](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales) and we'll fix it. [Hunter alternatives](https://wholayer.com/alternatives/hunter) · [All comparisons](https://wholayer.com/compare) Ready when you are ## See who's on your site this week Install one tag. Your first 100 identified people are free, no card needed. [Start free](https://wholayer.com/signup) [Talk to sales](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales)