For a Hunter.io beginner, ScaledMail’s Google option at $3.50 per mailbox is the best balance of cost, capacity and easy connection
Asked (summary):
I’m new to cold outreach, domains, mailboxes and compliance. I need an email host / mailbox to use with Hunter.io — something with a generous free tier or a budget structure similar to purelymail.com. How do I set that up?
This is a practical shortlist drawn from 97 collected pages — Hunter’s own product and help pages, provider and pricing research on ScaledMail, Mailforge, Infraforge and peers, and mainstream anti-spam policy documents — not a census of every mailbox provider. Prices are per month as published by each vendor or reviewer; daily limits are the provider’s own conservative guidance per mailbox. There is no credible fully free custom-domain mailbox in these results that combines IMAP/SMTP, cold-outreach suitability and straightforward Hunter compatibility — Hunter’s own campaign software has a $0 plan, but that is not the underlying mailbox.
Recommended vs cheapest: ScaledMail Google against ScaledMail SMTP
Google Workspace $3.50/mailbox — recommended: native Hunter connection
SMTP $3.75/domain — conditional runner-up: cheapest, but 10/day and integration must be confirmed
A two-mailbox ScaledMail Google setup costs about $7/month plus the annual cost of a secondary domain, and each mailbox may send up to 25 emails/day under ScaledMail’s published guidance — well above Hunter’s 15/day default.
emailgum.comScaledMail’s SMTP tier is $3.75 per domain for 4 mailboxes (≈$0.94 each) but is limited to 10 emails/mailbox/day, and Hunter connects it only over SMTP/IMAP — confirm ScaledMail supplies both credentials before buying.
filipkonecny.comHunter Sequences’ free plan connects one Gmail or Outlook account, defaults to 15 emails/day, and limits sequences to 500 recipients; every package of ScaledMail includes domain connection or registration plus SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
hunter.ioProvider compatibility is not legal compliance: Microsoft, for example, blocks a user whose outbound mail is more than half spam and routes suspicious mail through a high-risk pool — your obligations depend on recipient location and applicable laws.
learn.microsoft.com
Setup path for a beginner
- Buy a clearly related secondary domain (never send cold email from your main domain).
- Create two Google Workspace mailboxes on it through ScaledMail (≈$7/month); the provider handles domain connection or registration and publishes SPF, DKIM and DMARC for you.
- Connect each mailbox to Hunter with the native Google authorization — no SMTP settings needed.
- Start at Hunter’s 15 emails/day default per mailbox and do not exceed ScaledMail’s 25/day guidance.
- Verify addresses before sending; use accurate sender identity, relevant messaging, physical/business details where applicable, an easy opt-out, and keep a suppression list.
Compliance caveat: a compatible provider does not make a campaign legal. Obligations depend on where recipients live and which laws apply, and spam or complaint activity can still trigger provider restrictions regardless of plan or price.
The shortlist
| Option | Published price | Mailboxes per domain | Daily send guidance | Hunter connection | Source |
|---|
Method: practical shortlist built from 97 collected pages (9 Hunter product/help rows, 60 provider and pricing research rows, 28 anti-spam policy rows), gathered 2026. Prices are vendors’ published monthly rates; daily limits are each provider’s own per-mailbox guidance. Some candidate pages are vendor-authored or affiliate reviews; published pricing is reported as listed and independent judgment is noted. Duplicate pages and providers without usable pricing were cut for space.