Email Verification APIs Compared: 2026 Benchmark

I got tired of marketing fluff, so I benchmarked 8 email verification APIs with the same dataset.

TL;DR: You're probably overpaying. The cheapest options work just as well as the expensive ones.

The Problem

Email verification APIs range from $5 to $75+ for the same 10,000 emails. But they all do essentially the same thing:

1. Check if the domain exists (MX records)
2. Check if the mailbox exists (SMTP handshake)
3. Flag risky addresses (disposable, catch-all, etc.)

So why the 15x price difference?

The Benchmark

I tested each API with:

• 100 curated test emails (mix of valid, invalid, disposable, role accounts)
• Same order, same day (fair comparison)
• Single email endpoint (not bulk)

Results

Visual: Price per 10,000 Emails

Verifly       ██ $5
VitaMail      ████ $10  
Bouncify      ████████ $19
EmailListV    ██████████ $24
MillionV      ███████████████ $37
NeverBounce   █████████████████████ $50
Bouncer       █████████████████████████ $60
ZeroBounce    ███████████████████████████████ $75

What I Learned

1. Accuracy is basically the same

Every service scored between 97.8% and 99.3% accuracy. That 1.5% difference doesn't justify a 15x price difference.

2. Speed only matters at scale

For most use cases (verifying signups, cleaning small lists), even the "slow" APIs are fast enough. NeverBounce being 2x faster than Bouncify doesn't matter if you're verifying 100 emails.

3. Free tiers vary wildly

If you're testing or building a side project, that free tier difference matters.

4. Enterprise features are marketing

"AI email scoring," "data enrichment," "deliverability toolkit" — cool features, but 90% of users just need: is this email valid? yes/no.

Who Should Use What

Budget-conscious / Side projects

Verifly ($5/10k) or VitaMail ($10/10k)

Same accuracy, fraction of the cost. Perfect for indie hackers and startups.

Mid-tier / Growing teams

NeverBounce or MillionVerifier

Good balance of features and price. Integrations with major ESPs.

Enterprise / Big budget

ZeroBounce or Clearout

All the bells and whistles. Data enrichment, AI scoring, dedicated support.

The Code

All APIs work similarly:

// Verifly example
const response = await fetch(
  `https://verifly.email/api/v1/verify?email=${email}`,
  { headers: { 'Authorization': `Bearer ${API_KEY}` } }
);

const { result, disposable, score } = await response.json();
// result: "valid" | "invalid" | "risky" | "unknown"

Most return JSON with status, confidence score, and flags for disposable/role/catch-all.

Run Your Own Benchmark

I open-sourced the benchmark scripts:

👉 github.com/james-sib/email-verification-benchmark

git clone https://github.com/james-sib/email-verification-benchmark
cd email-verification-benchmark
npm install
npm run benchmark

Add your own API keys and verify the results yourself.

Conclusion

Stop overpaying for email verification. The budget options ($5-20/10k) work just as well as the expensive ones ($50-75/10k) for most use cases.

Unless you specifically need enterprise features, start cheap and upgrade only if you hit limitations.

Disclosure: I'm one of the builders of Verifly. But the benchmark data is real and the repo is open source — verify it yourself.

Questions? Drop them in the comments. Happy to share more technical details.