Bouncer vs MailTester.ninja (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Bouncer if

• Fits if you clean a list a few times a year and don't want a subscription
• Works for companies that want their data processed and hosted in the EU

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need a new inbox warmed up or DMARC managed, as Bouncer does neither
• Pricey if you also want placement and blocklist tests, as the Deliverability Kit is sold apart from $25 a month
• Watch out: Bouncer Shield for sign-up forms is another monthly subscription, priced by the number of checks
• Tight if you want to test first, as the 100 free credits cover a sample, not a whole list
• Watch out: the monthly credit subscription shows its price only inside the calculator

Pick MailTester.ninja if

• Fits if you want a steady stream of live checks from an API
• Works for people who check a few addresses by hand on the free site

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you work in bursts, as requests over the daily limit are refused until the next day
• Skip it if you want credits that carry over, since plans are priced by daily limit
• Watch out: Starter is billed weekly, and the monthly plans are Pro and Ultimate
• Watch out: free API calls are 10 or 50 a day, one every 30 seconds
• Watch out: a catch-all domain's accepted address is not proof the mailbox exists

Bouncer

• Credits can also be bought as a monthly subscription that refills each month; the page shows its price only inside the calculator.
• Bouncer Shield, for form checks, is a separate monthly subscription priced by the number of checks.
• The Deliverability Kit is sold separately from verification credits.
• Bouncer does not warm up inboxes or manage DMARC records; the kit only tests them.

MailTester.ninja

• Free API calls are limited to one request every 30 seconds, and 10 or 50 checks a day.
• Plans are priced by a daily limit, not a credit balance: requests above it are refused until the next day.
• Starter is billed weekly; the monthly plans are Pro and Ultimate.
• An accepted address on a catch-all domain cannot be confirmed to exist.

Bouncer

List verification

Upload a CSV and get each address back as deliverable, risky, undeliverable or unknown, with reasons. Catch-all domains get a deeper check.

Verification API

Synchronous and batch endpoints verify addresses from your own app, and an MCP server connects Bouncer to ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools.

Toxicity Check

Scores each address from 0 to 5 for risks such as breached or widely shared addresses, known complainers and likely spam traps.

Bouncer Shield

Checks addresses as they are typed into sign-up forms and can block invalid, malicious or fraudulent entries by address or IP.

Deliverability Kit

Sends test emails to see whether they land in the inbox or spam, checks SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and monitors IPs and domains on blocklists.

AutoClean and integrations

Connects to email and CRM tools such as Mailchimp, HubSpot and Klaviyo to verify lists where they live, and AutoClean verifies a connected CRM without manual uploads.

MailTester.ninja

Live mailbox check

Each address is tested against the recipient's mail server (syntax, DNS, MX and an SMTP handshake). No message is sent, and the page says no copy of the address is kept.

Verdict codes

Results are ok, ko (invalid) or mb (unverifiable), with messages such as Catch-All, Disposable, Greylisted, Timeout and No MX.

Email finder

Tries common address formats such as first.last and flast for a name and company domain, and returns the first the server accepts. The Finder API needs a paid key.

REST API, SDKs and MCP server

Two endpoints, an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, JavaScript and Python SDKs and an MCP server for AI agents.

Deliverability tools

The site also offers a domain audit report, a sender score test for a sent email and a blocklist checker.

Bouncer

• Pay as you go$8

  one-time for 1,000 credits

  Credits never expire and get cheaper in bulk: $60 for 10,000, $400 for 100,000 and $2,000 for 1 million. Duplicates and unknown results are not charged.

• Deliverability Kit Starter$25

  per month for 250 test emails

  Inbox placement, blocklist, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and SpamAssassin tests, with 10 IPs or domains monitored. Sold apart from verification.

• Deliverability Kit Standard$125

  per month for 1,000 test emails

  The same tests with 25 IPs or domains monitored.

• Deliverability Kit Pro$250

  per month for 2,500 test emails

  The same tests with 50 IPs or domains monitored.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Unlimited test emails and monitored IPs or domains, multi-organization setup, custom agreements and an account manager.

MailTester.ninja

• Starter$6.99

  per week, billed weekly

  Up to 100,000 verifications and 100,000 API calls a day. Cancel any time.

• Pro$23.99

  per month, billed monthly

  Up to 100,000 verifications and 100,000 API calls a day.

• Ultimate$39.99

  per month, billed monthly

  Up to 200,000 verifications and 200,000 API calls a day. A quantity above 1 multiplies the limit, so 5 gives 1 million a day.