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One of the critical factors in the success of your cold email or email marketing campaigns is the quality of your email list.
Email verification software can help you verify the validity of emails in your list and improve your campaign deliverability. It’s one of the best methods to ensure that your emails land in the inbox.
We’ll show you some of the best tools on the market to help with this process.
Let’s dive in.
What is Email Verification Software?
Email verification software works by running checks to see if the emails in your list are valid and able to receive emails.
If the emails you input into the email verification software are invalid, the tool will flag them, and you’ll know not to reach out to that person.
You need email verification software to ensure you don’t reach out to contacts with email addresses that will bounce and hurt your overall inbox deliverability.
How does Email Verification Software Work?
Email verification tools work by checking several factors:
If the email domain exists
If the inbox can receive external emails
If the domain records are real, e.g., SMTP, MX, and DNS records
Each of these is an indication of whether or not the email address you’re checking is real.
As well as checking the validity of your email list, most tools will also flag if you have duplicate addresses in the list to help you avoid sending emails to the same contacts multiple times.
Features to Look for in Email Verification Software
Most email verification tools have standard features, so it’s not a category where you need to be overly picky with your choice of software.
However, here are some features to look for when choosing:
Bulk email verification: you need to be able to check a large list, with hundreds, or thousands of emails at once. If you’re running cold email or email marketing campaigns, you’ll constantly be working with lists, so it helps if you can upload a CSV and run your email validation checks.
Individual email verification: sometimes, you’ll need to check an individual email, such as if you had a bounce in a campaign. It’s useful to be able to check emails on an individual basis.
Automatically remove invalid emails: When your email validation is complete, you need your tool to automatically clean the list and deliver you a CSV or similar file that only includes valid emails. You can then use these in your email campaign without worrying about any invalid emails being left in.
Integrations with your email tools: Your email verification process adds another step to your email outreach or marketing process. To keep it as streamlined as possible, look for email verification software that integrates with tools like QuickMail, or your email marketing tools of choice.
Reporting: At the end of an email verification process, most tools will provide you with a breakdown of your valid vs. invalid emails. This is useful as a benchmark as it can help you understand how effective your prospecting tools and email-finding workflow is.
7 Best Email Verification Tools & Software for Cleaning Your Email List
1. NeverBounce
One of the most popular real-time email verification platforms on the market, ideal for teams with consistent email verification needs.
NeverBounce is one of the leading email verification tools, and for good reason. It’s easy to use – all you need to do is upload your email list, and it will verify each email address. Once the list is ready, you’ll see a clear report that shows your number of valid emails, number of invalid emails, and number of unknowns. Plus, you can easily download your clean list.
Because it’s a popular tool, the database of valid emails is always growing, resulting in a more accurate verification process.
If you’re running inbound marketing campaigns and asking leads for email addresses, you can add NeverBounce to that point of entry. All emails that go through a form, or are added to your CMS, are automatically verified so your list is always clean.
NeverBounce also integrates directly into QuickMail, so if you’re running cold email campaigns, you can verify prospects as you import them, or before sending an email.
Pricing: Starts at $0.008 per email
Pros:
99.9% accuracy when verifying emails and a bounce analysis to give you a quick overview of your list
Connects with QuickMail and 80+ other tools to improve your workflow
Simply, easy-to-use dashboard so there are no hurdles to getting started
Cons:
Only allows CSV uploads, so if your files are in another format you’ll need to convert them
Reviewers on G2 say the UI takes time to get used to and has a steep learning curve
2. ZeroBounce
Email verification software with 98% accuracy that also has additional email deliverability tools to reduce the number of bounces in a campaign.
ZeroBounce is an email validation tool to help you spot invalid emails, validate IP addresses, and eliminate bounces from your campaigns.
Like NeverBounce, you upload your list, and it will verify if the emails exist and can be contacted. If an email isn’t verifiable, it’ll tell you why. For example, possible typo, no mailbox matching that address found, or other similar problems. In some cases, you’ll be able to fix these (for example, if a name is misspelled).
As well as having email verification tools, ZeroBounce also includes some extra deliverability features such as an inbox placement tester which shows you how often your emails land in the primary inbox across different email service providers.
The main downside of ZeroBounce that users on Capterra report is the speed. It can take around 30 minutes to process a list with a few thousand entries. However, that’s not too long to wait so as long as you’re not in a rush, it’s unlikely to be a barrier to using it.
Pricing: From $0.008 per email
Pros:
Monthly email verification credits roll over into your future months
Deliverability features to help you ensure every email lands in the inbox
98+% accuracy when verifying email validity
Cons:
Reviews on G2 highlight that it takes around 30 minutes to process a list, so it’s not ideal if you’re in a rush
Integrations work with API keys and require some technical knowledge
3. Dropcontact
B2B-focused email validation software to help you verify and centralize all information on your prospects.
Dropcontact’s email verification service is GDPR compliant and has a range of powerful features to help you detect duplicate emails, verify the validity of individual emails, and clean email lists in bulk.
The interesting thing about Dropcontact is that, unlike many other email verification tools, it doesn't rely on an email database to cross-reference emails. Instead, they rely solely on their algorithm and test servers, which have a 98+% hit rate.
Dropcontact also has CRM integrations which means you can verify emails in your contact records automatically.
Pricing: Starts at €24 per month for 1,000 email credits
Pros:
Dropcontact relies on proprietary email verification algorithms rather than a simple email database check, which can help you find otherwise unknown emails
CRM integration to clean emails without leaving your main sales workflow
Cons:
Users on Capterra report that the loading times can take a while
Not a credit-based system as it works on fixed monthly plans, which may be a downside for some users.
4. BriteVerify
Contact verification platform made for sales and marketing teams running high-volume campaigns.
BriteVerify is an email verification service offered by Validity, which is software focused on helping marketers send email campaigns at scale.
The platform has an email verification API which you can add to any point on your website or sales funnel where you collect customer email addresses. When the email is submitted, the tool will automatically verify it for you.
As you would expect, there’s also a web app where you can upload spreadsheets or individual emails and have those verified for you.
Pricing: Schedule a demo for pricing
Pros:
Easy to use and get started with
Powerful reporting to help you understand your email list health
Cons:
Users on G2 report that the price is high compared to other vendors
Made for enterprise users, so contracts can lock you in for a long time
5. Proofy
Email verification platform with a simple drag & drop system to upload files and quickly check your list.
Proofy is an email verification platform that does what it promises. It’s easy to use - just upload your list of prospect email addresses, and it’ll verify them and show you which ones are valid, and which ones aren’t.
The tool reports a 98.5% accuracy rate, which is in line with other competitors like NeverBounce and ZeroBounce.
The main downside that users on Capterra and G2 mention is that the integration options are limited compared to some of the more established players in the email verification software market, so you can’t easily verify emails in your CRM like you can with other tools.
However, if you need a straightforward platform that verifies emails with high accuracy, Proofy is still a good choice.
Pricing: $0.0024 per email for 5,000 emails
Pros:
Simple to use and get started with
API available to connect Proofy with other tools
Cons:
You can only upload CSV or TXT files
6. Bounceless
Email validation software that’s easy to use, has fast list processing times, and runs multiple types of checks to see if an email will bounce.
Bounceless’s email verification software helps marketers eliminate bad email addresses from your list. Customers on Capterra report that it’s an excellent tool if you want to move quickly, as the list processing time is fast.
After uploading your list, Bounceless will quickly verify if the emails are accurate and can be used in your next campaign. If an email is invalid and likely to hard bounce, it will be flagged and moved out of your list. It detects catch-all addresses, removes addresses with high-risk keywords in them, and spots duplicates in your list.
Pricing: $19 for 2,500 email verification credits
Pros:
Runs multiple types of email validation checks for a high accuracy rate
The dashboard is easy to use and clearly displays reasons for invalid emails
Cons:
Lack of direct integrations with other tools, like CRMs
7. DeBounce
Bulk email validation tool with customizable export options so you can move your list into your email outreach tool as quickly as possible.
DeBounce’s email validation software includes a variety of helpful tools for anyone needing to clean email lists and contact records regularly.
The tool is broken down into different sections. First, there’s a standard email verification tool that lets you drop a CSV in, and verify the contacts in bulk. Second, there’s an email list monitoring feature. This connects to your email marketing platform, such as Mailchimp, and will automatically flag any contacts on there at risk of a bounce.
You can also use DeBounce’s verification API to connect it to any custom workflows you’re using if the 100+ integrations don’t already cover your use case.
All-in-all, it’s a powerful platform. Like the majority of other email verification tools here, it works on a credit-based system, and each credit gets cheaper the more you pay for at once.
Pricing: $0.002 per credit for 5,000 emails
Pros:
Suite of powerful email validation tools to fit almost any use case
Email list monitoring to validate your existing list regularly
Lots of integrations with email marketing and outreach tools
Cons:
Users on Capterra say that the export functionality can be difficult to work with as it removes extra columns from your spreadsheet, only leaving the email address
Automatically Verify Emails with QuickMail
The more easily you can verify your email list, the faster you can start reaching out to prospects, and the sooner you’ll be having conversations with decision-makers.
You can integrate NeverBounce, ZeroBounce, Dropcontact, and other email verification software directly with QuickMail.
This means you can:
Import your list of cold prospects into QuickMail
Verify every email address in your prospect list during the import process
Know that every person you’re reaching out to has a real, valid email address
You can then spend more of your time building a qualified prospect list, crafting high-converting email templates, and learning about your prospects.
There are two main ways you can verify emails in QuickMail. First, you’ll need to connect your email verification software with QuickMail using the API key in your account.
Once that’s in place, you can get started.
The first option is to verify your prospect emails individually. This is useful if you want to double-check one or two email addresses in your list before sending, or if your campaign is limited to only 5-10 recipients.
Just click on the prospect (or highlight multiple at once) and click the ‘Verify email validity’ button.
QuickMail will verify the email, and flag it if it’s an invalid address.
You can also verify prospect emails as part of your workflow using buckets.
During the process of adding prospects to a bucket, select the ‘Verify emails’ option and choose your email verification tool of choice.
Every prospect you add to this bucket before sending a cold outreach campaign to them will have their email verified. If the email is invalid, they’ll be rejected and you won’t risk your cold emails bouncing, which would hurt your account email deliverability.
You can start sending your cold email campaigns knowing that every email will land in the primary inbox.
You can use this hand-in-hand with a cold email warm-up tool, the MailFlow which has a native integration with QuickMail for its users. MailFlow ensures that you have the best deliverability possible.
Wrapping Up
Email verification software is a necessary part of every cold email or email marketing expert’s toolbox.
The tools in this list are some of the best on the market, and you can’t go wrong with any of them.
Some, like BriteVerify, are designed for larger enterprise companies, but the most popular options like NeverBounce, Dropcontact, or DeBounce, are all great choices for companies and agencies of all sizes. Most offer a free trial so you can test how their verification process holds up against your expectations.
When your email list has been verified, you can start reaching out to your prospects with QuickMail.
