People protect their email addresses for a good reason, and even if you run an email address search by Googling somebody’s full name with the word “email,” you’re unlikely to find anything. Putting it on the web invites anyone and everyone to contact them—even spammers.
But in the age of social media, is email still really relevant? Should we give up on finding people’s email addresses and resort to social media instead? Nope. At least not yet. Emailing someone can still be more powerful than contacting them on social media.
It’s the most personal and professional way to make contact, and it might be the best way to reach someone quickly (not everyone checks their Facebook Messages or Twitter DMs daily).
If you want to send an email to someone but don’t know how to contact them, take a look at some of the best tools that can help you find somebody’s email address in as little as a few seconds.
Search for Email Addresses by Domain: Hunter
Hunter is probably the most useful tool to take advantage of if you’re looking for somebody’s company email address.
You don’t need to know the person’s name.
Shows sources where the email address was found.
Preview the results before opening them.
Free users limited per month.
Results cannot be exported to a file unless you pay.
Can’t search for addresses by name.
It works by asking you to type a company domain name in the given field and then displays a list of all the email results it finds based on sources from around the web. Depending on the results, the tool may even suggest a pattern like {first}@companydomain.com if it detects any.
After you find an email address from the results that you want to email, look at the icons beside the address to see Hunter’s confidence score assigned to it and an option to verify. When you click to verify, you’re told whether the address is deliverable.
You’re allowed to perform up to 100 searches for free every month, make bulk requests for email searches as well as verify and export results to a CSV file. Premium subscriptions are available for larger monthly request limits.
Make sure to check out the Hunter Chrome extension, which makes it possible for you to get a quick list of email addresses when you’re browsing a company site. No need to open up a new tab and search Hunter.io. It even adds a Hunter button to LinkedIn user profiles to help you find their email addresses.
Search for Email Addresses by Name and Domain: Voila Norbert
Voila Norbert is another email address search tool that’s free to sign up and easy to use.
Narrow results by name.
Option to email directly.
Can save a list to a file.
Account required.
Name and domain required.
Limited number of searches.
In addition to a domain name field, you can fill out the first and last name of the person you want to contact. Based on the information you provide, Norbert searches for related email addresses and notifies you of anything it finds.
The tool works best with company domains because there are only so many users with company email addresses. It also works with free email providers like Gmail.
Like Hunter, Voila Norbert lets you search for email addresses manually or in bulk. It also has a handy Contacts tab to keep your email contacts organized and a Verification tab for verified addresses. You can even integrate the app with other popular business services like HubPost, SalesForce, and Zapier.
When searching for a first and last name with a Gmail.com domain, the results Norbert gives you may not correspond to the exact person you want to contact, mainly because Gmail has a massive user base. There are bound to be multiple users who share the same names.
The major downside to this tool is that you can only make a total of 50 free requests before you are asked to provide payment either with a “pay as you go” plan at $0.10 per lead or a monthly subscription for more requests.
Search for Email Addresses by Name and Domain: Anymail Finder
Anymail Finder has a few subtle differences from the above options that make it a worthwhile mention here.
Find emails in bulk.
Easy to use.
Results can be saved to a file.
Company-specific searches only.
Requires both a first and last name.
Trial version has limited features.
You can enter any name and a domain to search for an email address on the homepage before you sign up. The tool works fast, and you get three verified email addresses beneath the search fields if it finds any.
The biggest downside to Anymail is that it’s constrained in use for free users, with only 90 free requests to make before you are asked to buy more. This tool offers users the opportunity to buy a certain number of email requests rather than operating on a monthly subscription model.
Another big downside is that Anymail Finder doesn’t seem to work with free email providers such as Gmail. If you search for one, it will be stuck in search mode for a long time before a “We could not find this email” message appears.
If you do decide to sign up for the free trial of 20 email requests, you can search emails manually or in bulk. Anymail Finder also has a Chrome extension with good ratings.
Find Active Email Addresses: Rapportive
Rapportive is a neat little email tool from LinkedIn that works with Gmail. It only comes in the form of a Google Chrome extension.
Works seamlessly with Gmail.
Easy to install.
Often doesn’t work or is very slow to load.
Runs in Chrome only.
Once installed, you can compose a new email message in Gmail by typing any email address into the To field. Active email addresses that are linked to LinkedIn profiles display profile information on the right side.
Rapportive won’t give you any suggested email addresses like the previous tools mentioned. So, you can either use one of the previously mentioned tools to come up with email addresses or guess them yourself by typing examples into the Gmail To field like firstname@domain.com, firstandlastname@domain.com, or generic addresses like info@domain.com and contact@domain.com to see what sort of information appears in the right column.
What’s great about Rapportive is that it can give hints about email addresses that aren’t connected to any social data. For example, info@domain.com may not be in use for a particular person’s LinkedIn profile, but if you type it into the To field in a new Gmail message, it may display a message in the right column confirming that it’s a role-based email address.
If you type an email address that doesn’t show any information in the right column, it probably isn’t a valid email address.
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