tapacapi.com / mcp / compare
Five ways to get business emails. Two of the five were built for a human in a browser and later wrapped in an API; TAPAC was built to be called by an agent and returns only addresses that passed SMTP validation on that request.
| TAPAC | Apollo.io | ZoomInfo | Hunter.io | Lusha | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core model | Tool call: find + verify at request time | Static database + sequences | Static database + GTM platform | Domain search / email finder | Database + extension |
| Where data comes from | Live sourcing: public company websites, Discord, Telegram | Crawled + contributed database | Crawled + contributed database | Web crawls (domain patterns) | Community + crawled database |
| Email verification | SMTP at request time, per address | Verification/credits inside the platform | Verification/credits inside the platform | Verification, credit-metered | Verification, credit-metered |
| Bounce rate | 2–5% (product data) | Static databases typically 10–35% | Static databases typically 10–35% | Static databases typically 10–35% | Static databases typically 10–35% |
| Pricing model | Pay per contact, $0.10–0.50, 100 free searches | Per seat + credit ladder | Consumption credits, quote-based | Per plan + credits | Per plan + credits |
| Published entry price | $0 — 100 free searches, then per contact | Free tier; Basic $49/user/mo annual (30,000 credits/yr), Professional $79, Organization $119 (3-seat minimum) | Not published — quote-based (ZoomInfo Lite free tier) | Free 50 credits/mo; paid from $34/mo annual (2,000 credits), Growth $149/mo (10,000 credits) | Free 40 credits/mo; Starter $49.90/mo annual |
| Seat cost for a 3-person team | $0 fixed — you pay only for contacts found | $1,764/yr on Basic (3 x $49 x 12) before overages | Quote — annual contract typical | From $408/yr (annual, single plan) | From $1,796/yr (3 x $49.90 x 12) |
| MCP / agent-native | Yes — MCP server (stdio + streamable HTTP), llms.txt, SKILL.md | REST API (separate from seat plan) | API on higher tiers | REST API | REST API |
| Works without a key | Yes — server returns onboarding, never crashes the agent | No | No | No | No |
| Subscription required | No | Yes — annual billing on paid tiers | Yes — annual contract typical | Paid plans are subscriptions (credits valid 12 months) | Monthly or annual plans |
Competitor prices are the vendors' own published list prices as of 2026 (apollo.io/pricing, hunter.io/pricing; ZoomInfo pricing is not published; Lusha Starter annual as published in third-party plan comparisons). Always re-check before you buy — vendors change tiers often.
You need a full sales platform: sequences, dialer, CRM sync, territory management, and humans working inside a UI all day. You're buying workflow, and contact data is one module of it.
You mainly need to find the email pattern for a domain or a handful of names, and you're fine with credit metering at small volume.
An agent is doing the prospecting. You want a verified list back from a tool call, sourced fresh, verified by SMTP at that moment, priced per contact — with no seat licence and no annual commit.
40% of emails are dead within two years (NeverBounce), and 23% of contacts change jobs every year (ZoomInfo 2025). Any list that was verified when it was built is decaying from that moment. Fresh sourcing plus validation at request time is what keeps a real campaign under a few percent bounce; TAPAC publishes 2–5% against 10–35% for static databases.
npx -y @tapacapi/mcp # or hosted: https://tapacapi.com/mcp
Facts and sources are maintained in AGENTS.md. Bounce and pricing figures are product claims from the vendor (tapacapi.com); the decay statistics carry third-party attribution.