Let’s be honest, you don’t have a recent and/or optin email list. If you want your emails to get in the inbox, email cleaning tools are probably the best way to achieve it. To keep a good deliverability, you should keep a very low bounce rate level and run far away from spam traps. Once your domain / IP has been identified as “bad” or “spammy” by ISPs (google, hotmail, …), it is really difficult to improve your reputation. Let’s say you’re convinced, you want to clean your “not perfectly optin” email list, which tool should you use?
There are many email cleaning tools, I found more than 30 during my benchmark investigation. It is not easy to compare them, because the core feature is just the same for all of them. Let’s say we want to test if “john@dupont.com” is a correct email adress. The tool will start by doing some basic syntax check, then it checks if the “dupont.com” has a valid MX record (it means if the domain is configured to accept emails), then the most difficult, it sends a SMTP request (almost like an email) to check if john@ exists. Actually, it is quite simple. I upload my CSV, I wait my list to be processed (few minutes generally depending on your list size), then I download the results.
We have reviewed the top 10 email cleaning tools to help you choose the right tool.
DataValidation
DataValidation is probably the best email cleaning tool. Several reasons for that. One, DataValidation does not only tell you if the email is valid or not, it tells you also wether this email adress has opened or clicked recently (it looks they partnered with some marketing professionals sending lot of emails…), and this behavoral data is really key when you want to work an inactive email list. The second reason for which I consider DataValidation as the best tool is the User Experience. When most email cleaning tools clean (and bill) directly the files you upload, Datavalidation first gives you a “Quality score” (e.g 79% in the screenshot above), and let you decide if you want to clean the list. This is really useful when you manage lot of lists, and you want to invest your money only on the lists who really need some cleaning. The third reason is DataValidation team and reputation. They are true email deliverability professionals, and they work for some of the biggest ESPs in the world to help them score the email lists uploaded by their own users. Of course, this quality and professional level has a price, and DataValidation is one the most expensive email cleaning tool. Last but not least, the Datavalidation API can support very large volume of requests and files (we got some feedback from one ESP) and is well documented of course.
Features
- Cleaning and behavioral results
- Detailed results at list or email adress level
- CSV upload, API and various ESP integrations
Price
- Free List Quality Reporting
- For 10k emails – $50
- For 100k emails – $300
EmailListVerify
EmailListVerify has become quickly one of the main email cleaning tools, and not only because they have a easy to find name. Launched in 2013 by a company based in HK, they have built a quite powerful cleaning engine that includes some “original” steps like semantical risk scoring or complainers database matching. As most of its competitors, EmailListVerify let users upload a CSV email list, use directly the API, or more original connect one Mailchimp account. The API is basic, but correctly documented. Last but not least, the price is very competitive, and explains most of their success.
Features
- Classic cleaning engine with detailed results
- CSV upload, API or Mailchimp connection
- API available in PHP, Python, NodeJs, etc.
Price
- Free up to 100 emails
- For 10k emails – $24
- For 100k emails – $169
Bounceless
Launched in 2015 by a californian startup, Bounceless is among the new players in email cleaning. Bounceless offers a classic yet powerful email cleaning engine, from syntax verification to SMTP request. You can either upload your email lists from the user interface or use the API. We did not test it, but the API documentation is quite poor… Bounceless differenciates from other tools with a very nice User Interface and a Mailchimp integration. Bounceless price is also quite competitive, but clearly not the cheapest.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox check
- CSV upload or API
- Up to 500k emails in one CSV upload
Price
- Free up to 100 verifications
- For 10k emails – $49
- For 100k emails – $259
Email Hippo
Launched in 2005, Email Hippo is a very fast, reliable and popular email cleaning tool. Like most other email cleaning tools, it easily freshen up your email list by detecting invalid or non-operational emails, improves deliverabiliy and prevents from hard and soft bounces. The strength of Email Hippo is that they have the ISO27001 certification, which is a significant pledge of security. Besides they are able to process big data volumes (more than 40 millions of email addresses per month) which is very useful when working with big companies. Their API documentation is understandably well-filled. These are the reasons why they have been serving thousands of customers and reputed references. Email Hippo price remains fairly high.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox verification
- CSV upload or API
- Up to 500k emails in one CSV upload
Price
- Free up to 100 verifications
- For 10k emails – $82
- For 100k emails – $389
Neverbounce
Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Neverbounce is a manageable, trustworthy email list cleaning tool. It is possible to process a real time verification with their validation service. The main advantage is their turn-around, which is one of the fastest in the industry : they are able to check 10K emails in 2 or 10 minutes and 100k emails in only 45 minutes. Their operating mode is classic, but more structured and decomposed than the others : there are 12 clear and specific steps processes for the verification, from simple results (if an email is valid, invalid, unknown, disposable…) to DNS and MX validation and de-duplication and social validation, etc. Their API remains classic and correctly documented. Neverbounce price remains fairly high as well.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox verification
- CSV upload or API
- Instant bounce analysis and monthly verifications available with a free account
Price
- Free up to 1000 monthly API verifications every month
- For 10k emails – $50
- For 100k emails – $400
XVerify
XVerify is a data verification system that enables you to check and validate email, phone and address information. It is thus a very comprehensive cleaning tool with real-time email verification solution. However the postal address verification is possible as long as it is within the US or Canada. XVerify offers a hybrid approach of both email verification and maintenance of your data to keep them clean. In addition to the classical process of cleaning services, XVerify has composed a database with risky email addresses in which they put your email addresses in order to avoid temporary or dangerous addresses. Their documentation is well-filled.
Features
- Data verification system and tools to keep your data clean
- CSV upload or API
- Batch uploading available
Price
- No setup fees
- For 10k verifications (email, phone, address)- $100
- For 100k verifications (email, phone, address) – $1000
Klemail
Klemail is a french email cleaning tool which allows you to protect your domain’s reputation and send emails to valid contacts, just like the other players in the industry. Klemail offers a classic email cleaning engine and several tests to avoid false positive and doubts. Having said that, I couldn’t help but notice that their dashboard is really easy to use and well designed. You can either upload your email lists from the user interface or use the API (soon). Their API documentation is being drafted and should be publish soon. Klemail price is quite competitive, but clearly not the cheapest.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox check
- Only text files upload or API (coming soon)
- Up to 500k emails in one CSV upload
Price
- Free up to 150 verifications
- For 10k emails – 49,99 €
- For 100k emails – 299,99 €
Email Hunter
Email Hunter tracks email addresses for you. Thanks to their cleaning tool, you can not only check if an email is correct or not, but you can also find every single email addresses from a website or of any LinkedIn profile. Email Hunter is known for its strength and simplicity. For example, the cleaning tool offers an extension for Google Chrome that allows you to send a request from the site that you’re visiting to get email addresses corresponding to the website. A button will also appear on the LinkedIn interface to search and collect the email address of the profile. This extension is free. You can either upload your email lists from the user interface or use directly the API, which is by the way well documented. Email Hunter price is high.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox check
- CSV upload or API
- Chrome extension available
Price
- Free up to 150 verifications
- For 5k emails – 79 €
- For 50k emails – 319 €
Verifalia
Verifalia is an email validation service developed and maintained by Cobisi, an italian provider of software development tools founded in 2005. This company is known as a leader in software development solutions across various industries. Verifalia is a very comprehensive email validation solution. Its strength is that they developed a web-based email validation service which allows you to upload, validate and check lists of email addresses easily. You just have to upload your lists in one or more files and this cleaning tool gives you which addresses are valide or not. In addition, they offer a detailed report. If you want to learn more about this cleaning tool, their API is fairly well documented.
Features
- Syntax, DNS validation, including MX record(s) lookup
- CSV upload or API
- A hosted email validation service automated through HTTPS-based RESTful API
Price
- Free up to 125 verifications per day
- For 10k emails – 57 €
- For 100k emails – 339 €
Kickbox
Kickbox is the last cleaning tool of our list. Headquartered at Dallas, TX, this is one of the prominent email validation service providers as it has been in this industriy for 10 years. It is possible to check and validate millions of email addresses every day with Kickbox. Kickbox allows you to quickly separate low-quality addresses from high-value profiles in order to preserve your reputation. Indeed, Kickbox has developed a Sendex score which can be really hepful. Besides, Kickbox has also developed a “Recipient Authentification” that can confirm users that the email address they provide is correct, prevent fake account signups and protect your sending reputation, for free ! Last but not least, they offer a pro-rated refund if you’re unhappy with their services. Their API is well-documented. When using Kickbox, you know what you’re paying for : their price is fairly high, but their service is a good one.
Features
- Syntax, DNS and mailbox check
- CSV upload, API and various ESP integrations
- API available in PHP, Python, NodeJs, etc.
Price
- Free up to 100 verifications
- For 10k emails – 70 $
- For 100k emails – 400 $
Thank you for preparing this excellent list of email verification tools!
I would like to also suggest Email Checker because they are a strong contender in terms of speed and high validation accuracy: https://www.emailchecker.io
This list is pretty comprehensive but doesn’t have any desktop based tool. We can do it for a single time payment if use a desktop based took like List Janitor – http://listjanitor.in
Great post! Thanks for sharing. Another service to check out is proofy.io – email verification tool which is cost effective and very much efficient and give lots of value addition services.
Yes, That’s great information. Your content is really helpful to compare vendors. However, there are another one provider who provide best features. Emailmarker offers affordable price as well great accuracy. Their price starts with $3 only for 1000 credits. For more information regarding features you can visit : https://bulkemailverification.com/service-provider/emailmarker
Yo!bounce https://www.yobounce.com is one the best service for validation and verification of email in real time application. Yo!bounce is one of cheapest and highly accurate email validation and verification service to verify or validate email. Yo!bounce also provide a very fast and high accuracy service for bulk email validation and verification. Yo!bounce is one of the secure site for proceeding any type of data its is certified with various security certificate and also following the rule of GDPR.
Thanks for a great post! We actually had very old list. When we used that list very first time on the email sending service our account was suspended due to very high bounce rate ~20%. With this post we come to know about the email list cleaning solution which can work best with old email list too. We compared many services listed on this post and other service providers listed on the http://www.theappguruz.com/blog/top-email-verification-services-compared and some other posts on the web. Many of them offers free trial which helped us to choose the best list cleaning service for our lists of about 15 Million addresses. After comparing different list cleaning services for the accuracy, we found https://quickemailverification.com/ the best service. After cleaning our lists with QuickEmailVerification, we achieved nearly 99% deliverability. Now we have been using this service on regular base before sending any email campaign from our email sending service.
Thanks for a great post!
I hope, you’ll update your article and add more tools and tips. I suggest you to add https://snov.io/email-verifier.html validation tool as well.
Thanks for mentioning the great tools, I have used https://debounce.io/ personally, what makes it ahead of its peers is its highly competitive pricing and free email verification API for detecting disposable email accounts.