Free Alternatives to ZeroBounce's Free Tier: Bigger, Smaller and Different
ZeroBounce's free tier is 100 validations a month. If that is too few, too restrictive, or you want something that does not refill monthly, there are alternatives with bigger or differently shaped free allowances. SimpleVerifier is one, though not the biggest: we give 100 checks once per Google account, with no card. This post lays out the others side by side, with the dates we read them.
Figures come from each vendor's own public pages as recorded in our comparison data. Free tiers change often. Confirm before you build a workflow on one.
What ZeroBounce's free tier is
ZeroBounce's pricing page lists a Freemium plan at 100 validations a month. We read it on 19 October 2026 and re-read it on 22 October, and it was unchanged. Two things to note:
- It recurs. You get 100 every month, so over a year it is 1,200 validations. That makes it better than any one-off 100 for someone who checks a few leads each month.
- It is small. A single campaign list of a few thousand does not fit in it.
If you are staying under 100 a month, there is no good reason to leave. The reasons to look elsewhere are wanting more, wanting it daily, wanting a bigger first batch to test a list, or wanting a different payment shape afterward.
Free tiers compared
| Vendor | Free allowance as published | Shape | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZeroBounce | 100 validations a month on Freemium | Recurring, monthly | 19 Oct 2026 |
| Bounceless | 1,000 free credits a month with a work email, no card | Recurring, monthly | 4 Nov 2026 |
| QuickEmailVerification | 100 free verifications a day on its free plan | Recurring, daily | 3 Nov 2026 |
| MyEmailVerifier | 100 free credits a day for verified accounts, no card | Recurring, daily | 5 Nov 2026 |
| BillionVerify | 20 free credits every day you log in, up to 600 a month, no card | Recurring, daily | 5 Nov 2026 |
| EmailVerify.io | 100 free credits every month, no card | Recurring, monthly | 5 Nov 2026 |
| Hunter | 50 credits a month on Free (a verification costs 0.5 credits) | Recurring, monthly | 23 Oct 2026 |
| Reoon | 20 verifications a day, plus 100 instant credits at sign-up | Daily plus one-off | 30 Oct 2026 |
| Verifalia | 25 verifications a day on its Free plan | Recurring, daily | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Emailable | 250 free credits for every new account | One-off | 23 Oct 2026 |
| Scrubby | 200 free credits for every new account, no card | One-off | 3 Nov 2026 |
| Selzy | Up to 300 addresses verified free after signup, no card | One-off | 5 Nov 2026 |
| Clearout | 100 credits, one time, with no expiry | One-off | 19 Oct 2026 |
| SimpleVerifier | 100 checks per Google account, no card | One-off | Our own plan |
A few readings of it:
- Bounceless is the biggest recurring allowance in the table, at 1,000 a month, on a work email address. If your free volume is a few hundred leads a month, that is the one to try first.
- The daily ones add up unevenly. A hundred a day is a lot of headroom if you check leads as they arrive. It is less useful if you have one big file, because you would wait days to push it through.
- Hunter's credits are not verifications. A verification costs 0.5 credits, so 50 credits means 100 verifications. It is a suite, so the credits also cover finding.
- One-off batches suit a trial. Emailable's 250, Scrubby's 200 and Selzy's 300 let you test more of a list before deciding.
- Ours is the same size as most one-off batches. We are not claiming a bigger free tier.
Where SimpleVerifier's free tier is different
It is not bigger, so be clear about what it is:
- The real mailbox check on every free row, the same SMTP check the paid plans run. Addresses the server will not confirm come back risky, not valid.
- No card. Sign in with Google and go.
- A CSV in, a CSV out. The 100 can be a pasted list or a file.
- A free single-address checker with no account, at /tools/verify-email, five a minute, for the case where you want one answer and do not want to sign in.
The steps: go to the login page, continue with Google, open /verify, paste or upload, download the results. Our post on verifying 100 emails free has the full walk-through.
Which free tier for which job
You check a few leads each month. ZeroBounce's own 100 a month, or EmailVerify.io's 100, are enough. Stay.
You check leads as they arrive, a few a day. QuickEmailVerification (100 a day), MyEmailVerifier (100 a day) or Verifalia (25 a day) fit better than a monthly bucket, because you can use the allowance as you go.
You want to test a verifier on a real slice of a list before paying. A bigger one-off batch is best: Selzy, Emailable or Scrubby. Or ours, if 100 rows is enough of a slice for you.
You want 1,000 or so free a month. Bounceless's published allowance is the largest we have on record.
You want to test how honest the labels are. Any of them, using the ten-address test in is free email verification accurate.
What happens after the free tier
Free tiers end. What you pay next matters more than the first hundred.
| Option | What it sells | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| ZeroBounce pay-as-you-go | Smallest pack 2,000 credits for $39; 10,000 for $129 | 20 Oct 2026 |
| ZeroBounce ONE | $99 a month for 10,000 validations | 22 Oct 2026 |
| SimpleVerifier Pro | $39 a month, first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off | Our own plan |
| SimpleVerifier Starter | $9 a month for 2,500 emails | Our own plan |
Using the published figures: ZeroBounce's 10,000-credit pack is $129 and 10,000 on ZeroBounce ONE is $99 a month, while a month of SimpleVerifier Pro is $39 and covers the first 100,000 checks at full speed. If you verify under a few thousand addresses once, a smaller pack may cost you less than a month of Pro, and ZeroBounce's own pack or another vendor's could be the cheaper choice. That is why we do not pretend a flat plan wins every case. The small-lists post works through the costs at 1,000 to 10,000 addresses, and the ZeroBounce comparison page lists where ZeroBounce is better.
ZeroBounce does things we do not: inbox placement tests, blacklist monitoring and warmup seeds sit in ZeroBounce ONE, and it publishes SDKs for popular languages. If you want those in the same account as verification, that is a reason to stay with it.
When paying makes sense
Move up from free when your monthly volume is a real list, not a trickle. As a rule of thumb, if you check the same size of list every month, a monthly plan is simpler than buying credits each time. If you clean one list a year, buy a pack. You can see the numbers on the pricing page.
Bottom line
ZeroBounce's recurring 100 a month is a fair free tier, and others are bigger or refill more often. Pick the shape that fits how you work, run the ten-address test on whichever you choose, and keep SimpleVerifier's 100 free checks, no card, in your back pocket for a second opinion. Use the verify page when you want it.
Common questions
What is ZeroBounce's free tier?
ZeroBounce's Freemium plan is 100 validations a month, per its pricing page when we read it on 19 and 22 October 2026.
Which verifier has a bigger free tier than ZeroBounce?
On published figures, Bounceless gives 1,000 free credits a month with a work email, MyEmailVerifier and QuickEmailVerification each list 100 a day, and Emailable, Scrubby and Selzy give 250, 200 and up to 300 as one-off batches. Dates are in the table.
Does SimpleVerifier beat ZeroBounce's free tier?
Not on volume for a small monthly user. SimpleVerifier gives 100 checks once per Google account, with no card, against a recurring 100 a month. We compete on what comes after: a flat $39 a month for the first 100,000 checks at full speed.
What is ZeroBounce's cheapest paid option?
Its smallest pay-as-you-go pack is 2,000 credits for $39, and ZeroBounce ONE is $99 a month for 10,000 validations, as read on its pricing page in October 2026.
Are free tiers enough for cold email lists?
Almost never. Free allowances are for testing or for a trickle of leads. A real list needs a paid plan or pack.
Check your list before you send
Real mailbox checks over SMTP, and nothing is sent to the address. Sign in with Google and your first 100 email checks are free, no card. Plans for bigger lists are on the pricing page.