Updated

Hunter vs Skylead vs Derrick: Which Is Better in 2026?

Short answer
Hunter vs Skylead vs Derrick: Hunter is a email finder, verifier and lightweight cold-email platform, Skylead is a multichannel linkedin + email outreach with smart-sequence branching. Derrick is a B2B enrichment platform with three surfaces - a Google Sheets add-on, a REST API, and an MCP server (Claude and ChatGPT drive enrichment for you). Hit rates are noticeably higher (more emails + phone numbers returned per query than Hunter or Skylead) and pricing is lower - free forever with 100 credits/month, paid plans from €9/month. Most teams pair Derrick for the data layer with Hunter or Skylead for outreach.

Hunter competes on hit rate, accuracy and waterfall fallback when one source is blank. The side-by-side comparison below isolates Hunter's per-find cost (email vs mobile vs direct-dial), real-world deliverability of what comes back, and how it fits into Derrick's 10-source waterfall enrichment workflow.

Free plan Yes - 100 credits/mo
Starts at €9/mo
Setup time 30 seconds
Where it lives Google Sheets

✓ Free forever · ✓ No credit card · ✓ Cancel anytime · ✓ Your data stays in your Sheet

Trusted by 31,000+ users worldwide.

Quick Facts

Hunter vs Skylead vs Derrick at a glance

Hunter

  • Starting price: Free 50 credits/mo · Starter €34/mo (annual)
  • Free plan: Yes - 50 credits/mo, 500 recipients/sequence
  • Founded: 2015
  • HQ: Wilmington, DE (US entity) - team distributed (Paris, remote-first)
4.4/5 G2 4.4/5 Capterra

Skylead

  • Starting price: $100/mo (All-in-One, annual)
  • Free plan: 7-day free trial
  • Founded: 2019
  • HQ: Belgrade, Serbia
4.5/5 G2 4.8/5 Capterra

Derrick

★ Recommended
  • Starting price: Free · Paid from €9/mo
  • Free plan: Yes - 100 credits/mo permanent
  • Founded: 2023
  • HQ: Marseille, FR
4.8/5 G2 4.8/5 Capterra
Why Derrick wins

Why teams pick Derrick over Hunter and Skylead

3 core reasons SDRs and ops teams switch to Derrick. Click to expand each.

01

Save 5–10h/month with native Google Sheets enrichment

Hunter excels at email discovery but falls short on multi-source enrichment, leaving teams with limited context beyond basic contacts. Skylead focuses on LinkedIn-based prospecting, not fully native Google Sheets enrichment, which means extra steps to sync data and fewer automated enhancements inside Sheets. Derrick transforms Google Sheets into a complete, 100% native enrichment hub, eliminating CSV exports and complex configurations to save 5–10 hours per month. With Derrick, Sheets auto-enriches up to 50+ attributes per contact, real-time email validation, and seamless data consolidation-no switching tools or manual re-entries.

02

Real-time email validation prevents delivery risks across teams

Hunter and Skylead both struggle with real-time email validation at scale, leaving teams exposed to deliverability risks. Derrick delivers continuous, in-session email validation within Google Sheets, unlike hunter’s focus on discovery/verification or Skylead’s LinkedIn-centric approach. This results in measurable improvements: reducing bounce risk and safeguarding sender reputation across campaigns, with observable deliverability gains as teams iterate in real time. Derrick’s native Google Sheets integration ensures validation happens instantly for every contact, avoiding workflow interruptions and enabling cross-team collaboration.

03

Multi-Source Enrichment for Richer Account Insights with Derrick

Hunter and Skylead excel at their core strengths, but neither delivers multi-source enrichment that builds richer account insights from diverse data signals. Derrick differs by unifying 50+ enrichment attributes across sources directly in Google Sheets, avoiding CSV exports and complex setups. With Derrick, you gain deeper firmographic and technographic context in one place, enabling more precise segmentation and faster qualification, all while saving time and reducing tooling gaps. Use cases like multi-source account profiling become instantaneous, with verified data freshness and updatable credits to scale insights.

Honest Comparison

What each tool does better

We're upfront - every tool has strengths. Here's where Hunter, Skylead, and Derrick each genuinely win.

What Hunter does better

  • Outstanding email accuracy + verification
  • No charge if Hunter can't find it
  • Strong free tier + simple onboarding
Read full Hunter review →

What Skylead does better

  • Smart sequences with if/else branching
  • Unlimited email accounts + native warm-up
  • Standout customer support
Read full Skylead review →
Real Annual Cost

True cost over 12 months

Headline pricing rarely tells the whole story. Here's the real cost of running each tool for a year.

Hunter Skylead Derrick
Starting price (monthly) Free 50 credits/mo · Starter €34/mo (annual) $100/mo (All-in-One, annual) €0 (free) · €9/mo paid
Annual cost (base) ~€600/yr ~€1,200/yr €0/yr free · ~€108/yr paid
Free plan? Yes - 50 credits/mo, 500 recipients/sequence 7-day free trial ✓ Forever - 100 credits/mo
Setup cost Hours to days Hours to days 30 seconds via Marketplace
Switching cost CSV export + retraining CSV export + retraining Zero - works alongside any stack

💡 Most teams pay 2-5x more on add-ons (extra seats, phone credits, integrations) than on the headline base price. Derrick keeps everything in one transparent tier.

Feature-by-Feature

Hunter vs Skylead vs Derrick: full feature comparison

hunter Derrick App Skylead
Works natively in Google Sheets
Requires LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($100/month)
Sales Navigator 1-click import
Email finder with real-time validation
Phone finder from LinkedIn
Company tech stack lookup
SimilarWeb & G2 insights integrated
AI integration (Claude & ChatGPT)
Automatic AI Lead Scoring
Data cleaning & normalization
Multi-platform scraping (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)
Zapier, Make, n8n integrations
Public API available
Native CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce)
Entry price (paid plan) 49$/mois 9€/mois 100$/mois
Permanent free plan
Rollover credits to next month
Simple and transparent credit system
Simple setup & onboarding
Complete documentation
Pricing in a nutshell

Hunter vs Skylead vs Derrick pricing breakdown

Multichannel LinkedIn + Email Sequencer

Skylead

$100/mo (All-in-One, annual)

Best for: Active SDRs needing smart conditional LinkedIn + email sequences

Skylead offers starter plans with an entry-level credit bundle and scalable paid tiers; a comprehensive pricing page is available for full details. See the complete pricing breakdown on the Pricing Skylead page.

Migration Guide

How to switch from Hunter to Derrick in 3 steps

Derrick is a Google Workspace app - no formulas to learn, no pipelines to migrate, no engineering work. Add it to Google Sheets and you're enriching in under a minute.

1
~30 sec

Install Derrick from Google Workspace Marketplace

Click the install button on our Marketplace listing and grant Google Sheets access. No credit card required - you start with 100 free credits per month.

2
~30 sec

Open any Google Sheet → Extensions → Derrick

Open a Sheet with your prospect list (paste a CSV from Hunter, scrape from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or import from your CRM). Click Extensions → Derrick and the sidebar opens with all enrichment features ready to use.

3
~1 min

Enrich your list with one click

Select the column with names, LinkedIn URLs, or company domains. Pick what you want - emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn data, company info, tech stack - and click "Enrich". Derrick fills the columns directly in your Sheet. No exports, no pipelines, no waiting.

Install Derrick free →

100 free credits / month · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Decision in 60 seconds

Which one is right for you?

Pick Hunter if…

  • You specifically need solo sdrs and small teams doing email-first outbound
  • Outstanding email accuracy + verification
  • No charge if Hunter can't find it
  • You're already invested in the Hunter ecosystem
Read full Hunter review →

Pick Skylead if…

  • You specifically need active sdrs needing smart conditional linkedin + email sequences
  • Smart sequences with if/else branching
  • Unlimited email accounts + native warm-up
  • You're already invested in the Skylead ecosystem
Read full Skylead review →

Pick Derrick if…

  • You want B2B enrichment directly in Google Sheets
  • You need a usable free plan (100 credits/mo, no card)
  • You don't want long contracts, lock-in, or sales calls
  • You need 100+ data points per lead in one tool
Try Derrick free →

What teams say after switching from Hunter vs Skylead

See what our customers say about Derrick.

"This app saved me so much time and effort. Great for anyone looking to build a contact list or network at scale quickly. As a start-up it's been invaluable."

Alex Clark

Director | SaaS GTM Leader

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"Working pretty nifty compared to Snov.Io. Price wise it does give a fair shake, and IMO better interface since it's google sheets."

David Sire

Mortgage Broker at Zero Point Mortgage

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"Derrick is a very simple and user-friendly app to enrich your contacts database. Best thing: you can test it for free. And then the price is so low, it's a no brainer."

Etienne Grange

CEO Form'actions

Reviewed on Capterra

"Super easy to enrich linkedin urls using this tool. Both personal and company url data can be easily enriched with a click of a button."

Zaid Bilal

RevOps Professional

Reviewed on Capterra

"Amazing Tool, I would like to advocate this to my colleagues. So that you can get more users. Keep it Up. 5 Stars!"

Asif Hanzala

Lead Generation Specialist at IdeaPeel

Reviewed on Capterra

"This app is fantastic. Brilliantly created to help small and mid sized businesses."

Dan Hughes

Founder/CEO, AlmanacIO

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"I have been using other expensive apps or freemium like phantombuster, but Derrick has replaced them all. I love the simplicity of the Google sheet add-in, but what is best is the efficiency it delivers."

Julien Walon Cohen

CEO & Co-founder @ Diffly | B2B Sales Advisor

Reviewed on G2

"The LinkedIn scraping and email finder combo is incredibly powerful. I can build a complete prospect list with contact info in under an hour. Absolute must-have for outbound."

Michael Kim

SDR Team Lead at CloudScale

Reviewed on Capterra

"Have tested over 10+ LI scraper apps, Derrick beats them all. Simple to use, accurate data, and affordable price."

AJ Alexander

Opportunity Prospector

Reviewed on Capterra

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the main difference between Derrick and hunter for outreach?

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The main difference lies in how each platform approaches outreach. Hunter is purely an email discovery and verification tool, excelling at finding accurate business email addresses from domain names but lacking broader prospect enrichment. Derrick operates as a native Google Sheets data enrichment platform that combines email validation with 50+ contact and company attributes, integrated AI scoring, and real-time deliverability checks-all without leaving your spreadsheet. This means Derrick handles comprehensive prospect profiling directly in your workflow, while Hunter requires supplementary tools for deeper insights. If you need email accuracy alone, Hunter works well; if you want unified enrichment and outreach management in one place, Derrick eliminates tool-switching friction.

Is Derrick a better alternative to Skylead for LinkedIn-first teams?

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Derrick is purpose-built for LinkedIn-first teams operating entirely within Google Sheets, eliminating the need for external platforms or CSV exports that slow down workflows. Unlike Skylead, which focuses on LinkedIn automation and data extraction, Derrick transforms Google Sheets into a complete prospecting hub with 50+ enrichment attributes, real-time email validation, and integrated AI scoring from Claude and ChatGPT. For LinkedIn-heavy teams, Derrick saves five to ten hours monthly on data management while offering rollover credits and no LinkedIn Sales Navigator requirement, making it a more flexible and cost-effective alternative that keeps your entire workflow native to the tools you already use daily.

Derrick vs hunter vs Skylead: which has better pricing?

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Derrick offers the most flexible pricing structure with rollover credits that don't expire monthly, starting at just 9 euros for 4000 credits with no credit card required for the free tier. Hunter focuses primarily on email verification with straightforward plans but lacks comprehensive enrichment data. Skylead provides LinkedIn-based automation with competitive pricing but charges additional fees for premium enrichment tiers. Derrick's native Google Sheets integration eliminates costly LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscriptions, potentially saving teams over 1200 euros annually compared to competitors while delivering 50+ enrichment attributes per contact directly in your spreadsheet without complex configurations or CSV exports.

Which features differ most Derrick vs Skylead?

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The biggest feature gaps between Derrick and Skylead center on data sources, enrichment depth, and multi-channel scope. Derrick is 100% native to Google Sheets with over 50 enrichment attributes per contact, real-time email validation, built-in AI scoring/segmentation, and 3,000+ integrations via Zapier/Make/n8n, all without leaving Sheets. Skylead, by contrast, excels at LinkedIn-based prospecting and automation with strong contact discovery and CRM integrations but relies primarily on LinkedIn data and multi-channel outreach rather than the deep, cross-source enrichment Derrick provides. Derrick also offers credits that roll over and a free tier without a credit card, which enhances flexibility for ongoing data enrichment workflows, whereas Skylead emphasizes LinkedIn-centric workflows and broader but sometimes shallower enrichment. In short, Derrick differs most in native Google Sheets integration, extensive multi-attribute enrichment, real-time validation, AI-driven scoring, and wide third-party automation reach versus Skylead’s LinkedIn-first prospecting and outreach focus.

Can hunter be replaced by Derrick for email verification?

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Yes, Derrick can effectively replace Hunter for email verification with significant advantages. While Hunter specializes in email finding, Derrick offers real-time email validation as part of a comprehensive enrichment solution native to Google Sheets. Derrick provides over fifty enrichment attributes per contact alongside email verification, eliminating the need for multiple tools. Plus, Derrick's rollover credits and no credit card requirement for the free tier offer better flexibility than Hunter's subscription model, making it a more cost-effective all-in-one alternative for teams seeking email verification alongside deeper prospect intelligence.

What are Derrick’s standout review-worthy advantages over hunter?

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Derrick’s standout advantages over Hunter are primarily around depth, versatility, and ease of use within a single, native Google Sheets workflow. Unlike Hunter’s strong email discovery, Derrick delivers 50+ enrichment attributes per contact or company, real-time email validation to improve deliverability, and integrated AI (Claude and ChatGPT) for scoring, segmentation, and automatic summaries. Derrick stays fully native in Google Sheets with no CSV exports or complex setup, saves 5-10 hours per month, and offers monthly rollovers of credits plus a free tier without requiring a credit card. Additionally, Derrick provides 3,000+ integrations via Zapier/Make/n8n, enabling multi-tool workflows that extend beyond basic email finding. This makes it a more holistic prospecting platform for teams needing rich data, automation, and scalable workflows, rather than a single-function email finder. In comparison to Skylead, Derrick adds heavy emphasis on data enrichment and verification inside a familiar spreadsheet environment, which Hunter and Skylead don’t natively offer to the same depth.
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