Every verifier runs roughly the same checks. The difference is what happens when the answer is murky, and how honest the label is when it lands in your spreadsheet. That's where we spent our effort.
| The situation | Typical verifier | BounceSolvi |
|---|---|---|
| Catch-all domain (accepts every address) | Marks it "valid", or hides it behind "risky, 60%" you can't act on. | Labels it Catch-all, shows the domain, lets you decide per campaign. No fake percentage. |
| Slow or greylisting mail server | Times out, guesses "unknown", moves on. You paid for a list that's 15% unknown. | Retries with backoff first. Unknown is a last resort, and comes with the reason. |
| Gmail / Microsoft 365 / Yahoo | One-size SMTP probe, or "probably fine". | Provider-aware handling per domain, plain SMTP fallback if a provider changes overnight. |
| Role inboxes (info@, sales@) | Silently "valid". Then you wonder why nobody replies. | Flagged Role separately. Deliverable, yes, but you'll want to know. |
| Disposable domains | Often only the famous ones. | Updated disposable list plus pattern detection for the new ones each week. |
| What you get back | Status column and a mystery score. | Status, reason, and the exact server response. Auditable, no mystery numbers. |
| Pricing | Credit packs that expire, seat fees, "contact sales" above a few hundred thousand. | Same price list as ZeroBounce. No seats, credits never expire, every tier public. |
| Support | Ticket queue, chatbot first. | Email a human. Same-day answers. |
Head to head
ZeroBounce is the market leader and a fine product. We copied their price list on purpose. Where we differ:
Fast bulk, strong ZoomInfo integration, "valid / invalid / accept-all / unknown / disposable" results. Pricing by list size, cheaper at very high volume.
Same result classes plus the reason and MX host on every row, role-address flagging, and a free tier. Pay-as-you-go from 2,000 credits, no minimum list size.
Great for finding addresses; verification is a side feature with a confidence score. Best when your problem is "who do I email", not "will it bounce".
Verification only, done properly. Use Hunter to find, BounceSolvi to verify before you send.
Both solid, developer-friendly verifiers with good APIs and clean dashboards. Emailable leans on a 0 to 100 score; Bouncer adds a "toxicity" check.
No scores. Label + reason + server response, catch-all always explicit, free daily checks without an account, and pricing published to a million credits.
Straight talk
A mailbox can exist today and be deleted tomorrow. Some servers accept mail and bounce it later. Verification cuts hard bounces dramatically; it doesn't make them impossible. Anyone promising 100% is selling something.
When a domain accepts every address, no external check can tell a real mailbox from a fake one. We tell you it's catch-all instead of pretending. That honesty is the feature.