Find Business Email Addresses That Work for free: 4 Tools Tested in 2024
There’s something faintly uncomfortable about hunting down someone’s business email address. Yet here’s what we know:
86% of B2B buyers say email prospecting delivers excellent ROI.
*The State of Prospecting 2024
Email marketing can clearly be an effective way to reach decision-makers. But only if you can find their actual email address.
Finding email addresses is crucial for B2B outreach, but the email verification process matters just as much. A successful prospecting process depends on both finding the right contact information and ensuring the address is valid.
Business email finder tools – The Reality Check
I’ve spent the last week testing four popular email finder tools: Hunter, Snov.io, Zerobounce, and Voila Norbert with contacts from my own list. Testing these tools against my own contact list revealed something concerning. When a tool confidently presents an incorrect email as “97% verified,” it raises serious questions. If they’re wrong about emails I know, how can I trust their results for contacts I don’t? We will come on to the results shortly.
The Domain Name Problem
Sending emails to invalid addresses can harm your domain reputation especially when sending cold emails as email providers track bounce rates. Too many failed deliveries, and your future emails might land in spam folders – even the legitimate ones. Therefore It’s important we are sending out to accurate email addresses wherever possible.
The 2 types of email searchers
When it comes to finding business emails, searchers typically fall into two distinct camps.
Finding and Verifying Individual Business Emails for Ad Hoc Needs
If you’re occasionally hunting down specific email addresses, you won’t need a paid tool. We’ll show you some free techniques that can work.
Building Business Email Lists for Cold Outreach Campaigns
For cold email campaigns, you’ll need a paid solution. This camp includes sales teams focusing on lead generation, startup founders, and marketing professionals by job title who need accurate email addresses to reach their ideal customer profile. They might be after hundreds, sometimes thousands of verified contacts. For them, accuracy is crucial. A bounced email is a potential hit to their sender reputation.
How Email Finder tools Work
Most email finder tools maintain vast databases of professional email addresses. They work by combining a person’s name (first name and last name) with their company name to search for verified email patterns. These tools then verify email patterns across company domains. Common email formats include:
firstname.lastname@company.comf.lastname@company.comfirstinitial.lastname@company.comand cross-reference multiple sources to verify accuracy.
What makes a trustworthy Email Finder
After testing these tools, three factors stand out:
- Honesty about uncertainty – the best tools admit when they’re not sure rather than making confident guesses about email addresses. I’d rather see a clear “we couldn’t find it” than risk damaging my sender reputation with incorrect emails.
- Accuracy rate – how many correct email addresses the tool can actually find.
- A clear search history showing confidence scores and verification dates helps track reliability over time.
In the following results, we’ll examine how each tool measures up against these crucial factors.
Results and verdict
I’ve used a small sample of my own contacts which was enough to see how these tools work and if I would use them for a big task. I have added a trustworthiness score to measure how honest each tool is about uncertainty and track false positives – when a tool confidently presents incorrect emails as valid. These false positives are the most dangerous results, as they can damage your sender reputation.
A note about catch-all addresses: Email finder tools often flag certain results as “catch-all.” These are domains configured to accept any email, making verification impossible without sending a test email. If you encounter catch-all results, segment them separately and expect some bounces.
Hunter
- Found correctly: 11/14
- Not found: 1
- Low confidence (clearly indicated): 2
- False positives: 0
- Trustworthiness score: 100%
Free monthly search allowance: 25
List upload options for Bulk processing: CSV or TXT
Ease of use and Contact management
My favourite of the UI’s. Easy to create lists, campaigns and this tool includes its own CRM.
ZeroBounce
- Found correctly: 11/14
- Not found: 1
- Low confidence (clearly indicated): 1
- False positives: 1
- Trustworthiness score: 93%
Free monthly search allowance: 100 – In practice it is 10 for email searches.
Bulk search pricing: The cheapest option
List upload options for Bulk processing:CSV, TXT, XLS, or XLSX – In testing bulk upload from a list did not locate any of the emails despite formatting the CSV correctly.
Ease of use and Contact management
My bulk upload test did not yield any results despite confirming the correct columns. Unfortunately when using the single email address search, your history is not saved into a list as it is in all the other tools tested. Zerobounce did have the 2nd highest trustworthiness score along with Snov.io
Voila Norbert
- Found correctly: 11/14
- Not found: 1
- Low confidence (clearly indicated): 0
- False positives: 2
- Trustworthiness score: 85%
Free monthly search allowance: No free tier but first 50 are free during trial
List upload options for Bulk processing:CSV
Ease of use and Contact management
Easy enough to add search results to a list but some features a little hidden in the UI. Vague about the search results for example you will hear ‘80% sure about this one’ but no mention whether it is a catchall email or any other reason why the tool is less confident. On a few occasions I was told ‘97% certain’ about results I knew to be wrong.
Snov.io
- Found correctly: 7/14
- Not found: 1
- Low confidence (clearly indicated): 5
- False positives: 1
- Trustworthiness score: 93%
Free monthly search allowance: 50
List upload options for Bulk processing: CSV
Ease of use and Contact management
Great interface and very easy to create lists and look back over results to see verification status. A fully fledged CRM is included with the tool.
Snov.io has a Linkedin prospecting tool which did perform well getting 4 out of 5 of the contacts correct. I have not included a full section on finding emails from Linked in because using plugins and extensions on their site is against their terms of service. There are plenty of tools out there that do this and plenty of people doing it however.
Final Verdict: Best Email Finding Tool in 2024
From my testing it is easy to come to a final verdict. Hunter.io wins. It has the highest trustworthiness score meaning I am less likely to send out to invalid email addresses and the joint highest accuracy. It’s a great UI and there are plenty of advanced features and CRM for those that need it.
However If you’re about to start building a list of prospects, I’d strongly recommend running your own tests first. These tools’ databases update constantly, and their accuracy can shift over time. Use their free tiers to search some email addresses you already know, explore their interfaces, and see which tool gives you the most reliable results. It’s exactly what I did before committing to this review, and it’s the best way to make an informed decision for your specific needs.
Free tools and methods for occasional use
While a simple Google search might seem like the obvious starting point, we’ll show you some more effective techniques that can work, including advanced search operators that deliver better results.
Email Permutator
The Email Permutator is a simple web tool that generates common email combinations from a person’s name and company website. Unlike paid email finders, it won’t attempt to verify which addresses work – it just creates the likely variations. After generating the combinations in the tool you then paste them into Gmail’s “To” field. Gmail will show you if any match real accounts by displaying the person’s profile picture or additional details. It’s a basic but effective approach when you only need to find one or two email addresses.
Use X’s advanced search
Twitter’s advanced search can uncover email addresses people share in their tweets. Most users write their addresses with “dot” and “at” instead of “.” and “@” to avoid spam bots. Simply search for these text versions along with the person’s name and terms like “email” or “contact.” It’s surprisingly effective for finding contact information that people have publicly shared. Of course the person does need to be an X user. While other social media platforms might seem promising for finding email addresses, X’s advanced search is particularly effective because users often deliberately share their contact information there.
Finding Business Emails Through LinkedIn Contact Info
LinkedIn’s contact information section occasionally reveals email addresses and phone numbers, though it’s rarely successful – when I exported my 227 LinkedIn contacts, only 3.1% had shared their email address. While you can export your LinkedIn connections to a CSV file (here’s how), most users keep their email private. Still, it’s worth checking the contact info section of profiles, especially for people you’re already connected with. For more comprehensive results, LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers advanced search capabilities and lead management features that can help identify decision-makers. However, using third-party plugins to extract emails from Sales Navigator violates LinkedIn’s terms of service, so stick to manual methods or email finder tools that respect platform policies.
Tip 💡 : Export your LinkedIn connections to a spreadsheet to quickly check which contacts have shared their email addresses. Learn how in our step-by-step guide.
Finding Business Emails Through Advanced Google Search
When you need to track down someone’s email address, Google’s advanced search operators can help uncover contact details that are publicly available but not immediately obvious. Here’s the most effective and up to date search format:
site:domain.com [full name] (email OR contact OR “get in touch”)
e.g.
site:fsf.org [Richard Stallman] (email OR contact)Using “OR” in Google searches is better than “AND” because:“AND” is actually the default operator – Google automatically assumes you want results containing all terms“OR” allows you to broaden your search to find results containing either term, increasing potential matches
Conclusion
Finding business email addresses doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark. While paid tools offer convenience and verification features, their accuracy claims need careful scrutiny. Hunter.io stands out for its honest approach and consistent results, but every tool’s database updates regularly.Whether you’re building a prospect list or searching for individual contacts, start with a small test using addresses you can verify. This helps you understand which tool works best for your needs. For occasional searches, free methods like the Email Permutator, advanced Google searches, or LinkedIn’s contact sections might be all you need.Remember – a tool that admits its limitations is more valuable than one that makes empty promises. Your sender reputation depends on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to find business email addresses?
Use email finder tools like Hunter.io to search company names. For other options, check LinkedIn contact sections, search Twitter for “email” mentions, or use Google’s format: site:domain.com [full name] (email OR contact OR “get in touch”). Try common patterns like firstname.lastname@company.com.
How to find company email address for free?
Most company email finder tools offer free monthly searches to find corporate email addresses – Hunter.io provides 25 free searches, GetProspect 50, and Snov.io 50 credits monthly. Additionally, try Google’s advanced search using site:companyname.com (email OR contact), check LinkedIn contact sections, or use Twitter’s advanced search with terms like “email” and “contact.”
How do I find a list of company emails?
Use email finder tools like Hunter.io, GetProspect, or Snov.io to perform company-wide email searches or look up individual addresses. These tools offer domain-wide scanning features and free monthly searches (25-50 emails). For manual methods, check LinkedIn company pages or use Google’s site: operator with company domains.
How Do I Ensure the Emails I Find Are Accurate?
Use email verification tools that perform multiple validation checks, including domain verification, SMTP checks, and mailbox validation. Look for tools that show confidence scores and detailed verification status. While verification tools help, be aware that even “97% verified” results can include false positives. For additional verification, check email patterns in Gmail’s “To” field – valid addresses often display profile pictures or additional details.
Is It Legal to Use Email Finder Tools?
Email finder tools are legal but require compliance with privacy regulations. GDPR (for EU residents) and CCPA (for California residents) have different consent requirements. GDPR requires explicit consent before sending marketing emails, while CCPA allows sending emails but requires clear opt-out options. Using these tools for spamming violates both regulations
How Can I Avoid Spam Filters When Using Found Email Addresses?
Use personalized snippets and avoid mass mailouts. Keep your sending volume consistent, warm up new email domains slowly, and regularly remove invalid or inactive addresses. Keep HTML minimal, avoid spam trigger words, and use a reputable email service provider with DKIM/SPF authentication for better deliverability.