September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › GTM data and infrastructure › Email verification › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Email verification for small business buyers

Asked as “email verification service”, and as “email list validation tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
33%
Contested · Hunter Email Verifier 13%
33Bouncer13Hunter Email Verifier07MyEmailVerifier47others

33% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Bouncer33%2%41endorsed leader
02Hunter Email Verifier13%7%44accepted challenger
03ZeroBounce7%13%53accepted challenger
04Clearout4%3%33accepted challenger
05Kickbox4%4%28accepted challenger
06EmailListVerify4%12%24accepted challenger
07NeverBounce4%21%34accepted challenger
08MillionVerifier4%44%16criticized challenger
09DeBounce2%4%23accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Emailable0%0%25accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Bouncer33%
02Hunter Email Verifier13%
03ZeroBounce7%
04Clearout4%
05Kickbox4%
06EmailListVerify4%
07NeverBounce4%
08MillionVerifier4%
09DeBounce2%
10Emailable0%

What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
MillionVerifier
44%
7 of 16 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Companies like MillionVerifier have drawn criticism for lost bounces and unhelpful support after problems.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
NeverBounce
21%
7 of 34 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“NeverBounce — Post-Acquisition Issues ... Price increases: Users report prices rose by up to 300% after the acquisition” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
ZeroBounce
13%
7 of 53 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Downside: It is more expensive than Bouncer or BounceBan, and you are partially paying for extra deliverability features you may not use” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
EmailMarker
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid EmailMarker — the 74% accuracy isn't worth any price” Kimi K2, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 262 links across 94 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

14 answers · 30 citations · 4 models
vendor site · ZeroBounce12 answers · 17 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Hunter10 answers · 11 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Mailtrap10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Sparkle.io7 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Overloop7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Reddit6 answers · 12 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo6 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Clearout5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Sender4 answers · 5 citations · 1 model

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best email verification service”, “email verification service”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Bouncer usebouncer.com33%12427,1006,6219,553246
Hunter Email Verifier hunter.io13%465,4000152,78265
ZeroBounce zerobounce.net7%2509,90011838,183$7781202
MyEmailVerifier myemailverifier.com7%2317003,2225
Clearout clearout.io4%461,6004910,29822
Kickbox kickbox.com4%14074,00015,51439,93631
EmailListVerify emaillistverify.com4%36480111,19224
NeverBounce neverbounce.com4%1558,1006473,30116
BillionVerify billionverify.com4%5
MillionVerifier millionverifier.com4%511,90011,2604

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (emailvendorselection.com, hunter.io, mailtrap.io, reddit.com, usebouncer.com, zerobounce.net). The first result for “best email verification service” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best email verification service for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which email list validation tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top email verification services for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best email verification service for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an email verification service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which email verification services should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Bouncer
Three alternativesHunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
NeverBounce, SkrappChanged
One alternativeListmint
Bouncer
Five alternativesEmailable, MailerCheck, Mailfloss, QuickEmailVerification, ZeroBounce
QuickEmailVerification, Reoon Email Verifier
Three alternativesPabbly, Proofy.io, VerifiedEmail
no first choiceagainst: BriteVerify, EmailVerify.io, NeverBounce, VerifiedEmail
GPT-5.4 miniHunter Email Verifier
One alternativeZeroBounce
NeverBounce, ZeroBounceChanged
Three alternativesBriteVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox
Clearout, Emailable
Three alternativesKickbox, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
Bouncer
Two alternativesHunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashBouncer
Three alternativesApollo.io, BounceBan, Hunter Email Verifier
against: ZeroBounce
BounceBan, BouncerChanged
One alternativeHunter Email Verifier
Bouncer
One alternativeDeBounce
against: MillionVerifier, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
BillionVerify
Three alternativesBouncer, DeBounce, MillionVerifier
no first choiceagainst: Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, NeverBounce, QuickEmailVerification, Snov.io, Verifalia, VoilaNorbert, ZeroBounce
Perplexity SonarBouncer
Four alternativesEmailListVerify, Emailable, Hunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
BouncerHeld
Five alternativesClearout, Hunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce, Skrapp, ZeroBounce
Bouncer
Six alternativesClearout, DeBounce, Emailable, Hunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
Bouncer
Four alternativesDeBounce, EmailListVerify, Emailable, Hunter Email Verifier
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20ZeroBounce
Two alternativesBouncer, Hunter Email Verifier
against: DeBounce, EmailListVerify
BouncerChanged
Two alternativesHunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
against: EmailListVerify
Bouncer, Kickbox
Four alternativesDeBounce, Emailable, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
against: ZoomInfo
EmailListVerify, MyEmailVerifier
Two alternativesHunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
against: EmailMarker, VerifiedEmail
Bouncer
Two alternativesEmailable, ZeroBounce
against: Mails.so, MillionVerifier, Snov.io, ZeroBounce
Mistral SmallBouncer
Four alternativesClearout, Hunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
Hunter Email VerifierChanged
Four alternativesClearout, Emailable, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
Bouncer, EmailListVerify
Four alternativesClearout, Emailable, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
against: Hunter Email Verifier
Bouncer
Two alternativesDeBounce, ZeroBounce
no first choice
Nine alternativesBouncer, Clearout, DeBounce, EmailListVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, NeverBounce, Xverify, ZeroBounce
against: EmailMarker, Mails.so, MillionVerifier, NeverBounce
DeepSeek V4 FlashBouncer
Five alternativesDeBounce, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, MillionVerifier, ZeroBounce
Hunter Email VerifierChanged
Three alternativesClearout, MillionVerifier, ZeroBounce
against: Apollo.io, NeverBounce
Bouncer
Six alternativesDeBounce, EmailListVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
MillionVerifier
Two alternativesDeBounce, EmailListVerify
against: Bouncer, Clearout, NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
ZeroBounce
Four alternativesBouncer, Clearout, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox
against: FreeEmailVerifier sites, MillionVerifier
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceHunter Email VerifierChanged
Two alternativesEmail Finder, ZeroBounce
Hunter Email Verifier
Two alternativesClearout, Kickbox
Hunter Email Verifier
Four alternativesEmailListVerify, Emailable, MyEmailVerifier, Proofy.io
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashClearout
Four alternativesEmailListVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, ZeroBounce
KickboxChanged
Two alternativesNeverBounce, ZeroBounce
ZeroBounce
Four alternativesClearout, Emailable, Hunter Email Verifier, NeverBounce
Bouncer
Two alternativesEmailListVerify, Verifalia
against: VitaMail
no first choiceagainst: BulkEmailChecker, Hunter Email Verifier, MillionVerifier
Kimi K2Bouncer
Four alternativesDeBounce, EmailListVerify, Hunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
BouncerHeld
Three alternativesEmailListVerify, Emailable, ZeroBounce
Bouncer
Four alternativesEmailListVerify, Emailable, Kickbox, ZeroBounce
BillionVerify, MyEmailVerifier
Three alternativesClearout, EmailListVerify, ZeroBounce
no first choiceagainst: Bouncify, EmailListVerify, EmailMarker, FindEmails.com, MillionVerifier
GLM 4.7 FlashXKickbox
Three alternativesClearout, DeBounce, NeverBounce
EmailListVerifyChanged
Three alternativesApollo.io, Hunter Email Verifier, ZeroBounce
Hunter Email Verifier
Four alternativesClearout, DeBounce, Kickbox, Prospeo
DeBounce, MyEmailVerifier
Four alternativesHunter Email Verifier, Kickbox, MillionVerifier, ZeroBounce
no first choiceagainst: Bouncify, Email List Validation, Lead Magic, MailerCheck, MillionVerifier, Snov.io, ZeroBounce
MiniMax M2.5Hunter Email Verifier
Two alternativesDeBounce, ZeroBounce
ClearoutChanged
Three alternativesEmailable, ZeroBounce, ZoomInfo
Hunter Email Verifier
Four alternativesBouncer, EmailListVerify, NeverBounce, Prospeo
MillionVerifier, Proofy.io
Three alternativesDeBounce, LeadMagic, MyEmailVerifier
no first choiceagainst: NeverBounce, ZeroBounce
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:05yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:52yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:38yes1420 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:22yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:38yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:50yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:39yes012 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:18yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:26yes033 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:14yes025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:24yes0145 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:18yes019 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:12yes77 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:00no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:12yes1520 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:53yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:08yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:30yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:45yes017 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:43yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:11no038 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:19yes040 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:39yes093 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:07yes09 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:32yes79 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:11yes813 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:24yes1627 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 22:56yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:40yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:01yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:19yes021 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:25yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:22yes034 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:35yes025 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:07yes0149 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:03yes017 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:57yes1110 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:23yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:46yes1316 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:06yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:29yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:31yes06 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:03yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:12yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:59yes035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:22yes024 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:00yes0135 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:14yes08 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:11no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:28no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:16no012 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:16yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:23yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:11no012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:48yes021 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:38yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:31no025 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:00yes078 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:00yes042 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:24yes021 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:33yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:11yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:07yes1624 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:41yes2015 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:15yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:43yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:54yes020 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:31yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:03yes062 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:30yes044 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:57yes069 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:32yes033 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Bulk Email Checker (bulkemailchecker.com) read as BulkEmailChecker
Hunter read as Hunter Email Verifier
Hunter.io read as Hunter Email Verifier
Hunter.io (Email Verifier) read as Hunter Email Verifier
Hunter.io Email Verifier read as Hunter Email Verifier
Reoon read as Reoon Email Verifier
Unresolved, counted raw
Email Finder
FreeEmailVerifier sites
Validto
VitaMail
VoilaNorbert
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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