ZeroBounce
$15
per 1,000
MailsGuard
$3
per 1,000
ZeroBounce has been around since 2012 and is the best-known name in email verification. MailsGuard is newer and built with one clear goal: deliver the same core accuracy at a much lower price. This comparison covers everything you need to decide which one to use.
Quick comparison table
| Feature | MailsGuard | ZeroBounce |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1,000 | $3 | $15 |
| Credits expire | Never | After 12 months |
| Free tier | 100 credits | 100 credits |
| No card to start | ✓ | ✓ |
| SMTP verification | ✓ | ✓ |
| Disposable detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Catch-all detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Role-based detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk CSV upload | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spam trap database | ✗ | ✓ |
| Email activity data | ✗ | ✓ |
Where MailsGuard wins
Price. There is no other way to say it — $3 vs $15 per 1,000 is an 80% saving. At 100,000 verifications per year, that is $300 vs $1,500. The technology doing the verification is the same. You are paying for brand with ZeroBounce.
Credits never expire. ZeroBounce credits expire after 12 months. MailsGuard credits never expire. If your usage is irregular — a big campaign every few months — you will lose credits with ZeroBounce. With MailsGuard, what you buy is what you have.
Simplicity. MailsGuard has a clean developer-first API with straightforward pricing. No tiered plans with different feature gates, no upsells, no add-ons.
Where ZeroBounce wins
Spam trap database. ZeroBounce maintains a proprietary database of known spam traps — email addresses set up by ISPs and blocklist operators specifically to catch spammers. Pure SMTP probing cannot detect these because they technically accept emails. If you are concerned about spam trap hits specifically, ZeroBounce has a genuine edge here.
Email activity data. ZeroBounce offers supplementary data showing when an email address was last active. This can help with segmentation decisions beyond just valid/invalid. MailsGuard does not offer this.
Brand recognition. ZeroBounce has 1,000+ reviews on G2 and Capterra and has been the default recommendation for years. If you need to justify a tool choice to a skeptical stakeholder, ZeroBounce is an easier sell by name alone.
Who should use which
Choose MailsGuard if...
✓ You want the lowest cost per verification
✓ You send irregularly (credits never expire)
✓ You are a developer who wants a clean API
✓ You need bulk CSV or API integration
✓ You do not have spam trap concerns
Choose ZeroBounce if...
→ Spam trap detection is a priority
→ You need email activity data for segmentation
→ Brand recognition matters for stakeholder buy-in
→ You are at enterprise scale with specific compliance needs
The bottom line
For most teams — developers integrating verification into their app, marketers cleaning lists before campaigns, agencies managing multiple clients — MailsGuard delivers the same core verification results at 80% lower cost. The cases where ZeroBounce's additional features justify the 5× price premium are real but narrow.
If you are unsure, start with MailsGuard. The 100 free credits let you test accuracy directly on your own email addresses before committing to anything.