Updated January 15, 2026

TL;DR: Scaling email finding across 10+ agency clients requires workspace separation, not more logins. Hunter.io excels at single-user workflows with 100M+ verified emails, but agencies sharing one login face credential chaos and credit conflicts. Instantly's workspace model gives you isolated client environments under one login, unlimited email accounts per workspace at a flat $97/month, and integrated lead finding through SuperSearch's 450M+ contact database. For agencies, build with workspace architecture or drown in password spreadsheets.

Managing email finding for one client is straightforward. Managing it for ten reveals the architectural gaps in tools built for individuals.

Six-client agencies hit this wall repeatedly. They start with Hunter.io or similar platforms designed for single users, then stretch them across multiple clients. The result is predictable: security risks from shared passwords and weak credential rotation, billing chaos when one client burns through the credit pool, and constant fear that Client R's data will leak into Client S's export. Study participants reported account information being shared through spreadsheets, with former employees retaining access because passwords weren't changed after they left.

The answer isn't more logins. It's workspace architecture that isolates client data, keeps billing centralized, and scales without per-seat penalties.

What is "Hunter"? Distinguishing the email finder from the college

Before we solve the agency scaling problem, let's clear up the search confusion.

• Hunter.io is a B2B email finding tool that surfaces verified professional email addresses. Hunter.io combines email format patterns, publicly available addresses, and verification status to deliver contact information in seconds. Over 6 million professionals use the platform for domain search and email verification.
• Hunter College (CUNY) is an educational institution founded in 1870, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side with more than 23,000 students. Students access email through Microsoft Office 365 at @hunter.cuny.edu addresses.

These are completely separate entities. Hunter College was founded 145 years before Hunter.io launched in 2015. If you're searching for student email access, skip to the Hunter College section below. If you're an agency operator scaling professional email finding, keep reading.

How to find professional email addresses using Hunter.io

Hunter.io's core workflow is simple for individual searches. Understanding it helps you see why it breaks at agency scale.

Step 1: Using the Domain Search

Go to the Domain Search page and enter a domain name into the search bar. If you don't know the domain, type the company name and Hunter suggests matching domains. The tool returns email addresses found on that domain, along with names and job titles.

You can filter results by job title, department, location, verification status, email type, and required fields like phone numbers. The Decision Makers tab focuses on senior contacts like CEOs, VPs, and Directors.

Step 2: Verifying email validity

Each email address comes with a confidence score calculated from quality of sources, SMTP verifications, and other data points. The score estimates deliverability as a percentage. All email addresses go through verification before being returned, with addresses showing the green Verified shield confirmed as deliverable. Higher scores indicate stronger delivery likelihood.

Hunter.io makes individual searches fast with one of the most extensive databases of more than 100 million professional email addresses. The friction starts when you need to manage this across multiple client accounts with team access.

The agency problem: Why single accounts fail at scale

The breaking point comes around client five or six. You're managing multiple campaigns, each client expects their data kept separate, and your team needs access without sharing master credentials.

Credential chaos and security risks

Most security teams lack visibility into which accounts use shared logins or weak credentials. One misplaced password gives unauthorized access to all client data. When VAs leave, password rotation requires updating credentials across every platform they touched.

"Managing multiple clients from a single account can be confusing... you need to isolate each client... then use the dashboard to monitor them all." - Email service provider documentation

Data commingling and client trust violations

Client R should never see Client S's data. Not their contacts, not their campaigns, not their reports. But when you're exporting CSVs from a shared Hunter.io account, that separation depends on manual diligence. One misnamed export violates client trust.

Agencies need multi-account management with centralized dashboards to avoid spreadsheet juggling. Tools built for individual users don't enforce data boundaries because they weren't designed for client separation.

Cost scaling and credit pool conflicts

Hunter.io allows unlimited team member invitations at no extra cost, but everyone shares the same credit pool. When Client A needs 5,000 searches and Client B needs 500, you're either buying the highest tier for everyone or manually rationing credits between clients.

Hunter.io’s Growth plan costs $99 per month on monthly billing and approximately $69 per month when billed annually, with 2,500 searches included. An agency with 10 clients averaging 2,000 searches each needs either 10 separate Growth accounts at $990/month (reintroducing credential chaos) or a custom Enterprise plan estimated at $500+ monthly for 20,000+ searches with shared credit conflicts. Enterprise plans require more than 15,000 credits per month with custom pricing that scales up quickly.

Agencies managing numerous clients may prefer tools purpose-built for large-scale outreach operations.

How to manage multiple client workspaces in Instantly

We solve the agency scaling problem with workspace isolation, unlimited accounts, and flat-fee pricing. Here's how to set it up.

Setting up isolated client environments

Workspaces are completely separate Instantly spaces primarily meant for agency customers managing multiple end-customers. Each workspace keeps client data strictly separated.

Creation process:

We make workspace creation straightforward. You need an active Email Outreach plan to start. Click Create Workspace, enter the client name (like "Client A - Acme Corp"), and click Continue. Subscribe to any plan to activate that workspace.

We use a single-login architecture. All your workspaces share the same login credentials, and you switch between them using the dropdown selector in your dashboard. Team members select from the workspace list or search by name to switch contexts.

Data isolation guarantee:

You cannot have the same sending email accounts in different workspaces. We cannot share leads, campaigns, or stats between workspaces since they are strictly separated. This isn't a limitation, it's the security model. Client R's data physically cannot touch Client S's workspace.

For advanced agency needs, a workspace group allows you to organize multiple workspaces within a single admin workspace, providing step-by-step management through the platform and API.

Assigning team permissions and access roles

Our permission system gives you granular control over who sees what. Available roles include:

Permission levels:

• Owner: Full privileges including account deletion, team assignment, and billing.
• Admin: Manage team, billing, and settings, but cannot delete the workspace.
• Editor: Manage everything except team and billing.

Invitation process:

You can invite new users by entering their email address and selecting their role from the dropdown, then click Invite. If they're already Instantly users, we add this workspace to their list. If not, they're prompted to create a new Instantly account with access only to the workspaces you specify.

Unlimited team member invitations are available on Hypergrowth Outreach at $97 per month or Light Speed at $358 per month. Add your entire team without per-seat costs, then control which workspaces each person sees.

"I absolutely appreciate Instantly's unlimited email warm-up feature. It allows me to properly warm up multiple email accounts, crucial for the success of my email campaigns." - Verified user review of Instantly

Centralized billing with decentralized data

We price differently than 99% of sales and marketing platforms. Our pricing is per workspace per month, not per user per month. You pay for each client workspace, but within that workspace you get unlimited email accounts and unlimited team members.

How this works in practice:

Agency with 10 clients runs Hypergrowth Outreach at $97 per month per workspace, totaling $970/month for all clients. Each workspace includes:

• Unlimited email accounts with no per-inbox fee
• Unlimited warmup through our deliverability network of 4.2M+ accounts
• 100,000 emails per month sending capacity
• A/Z testing, analytics, and automation
• Unlimited team members on that workspace

For lead finding, add SuperSearch plans starting at $47/month for 1,500 credits. SuperSearch taps into 450M+ contacts and runs real-time enrichment across 5+ providers to maximize results. Verified work email found by Instantly costs 1 credit, while verified work email via a partner provider costs 2 or more credits, averaging about 1.5 credits per verified email.

Most agencies run Hypergrowth Outreach at $97 per month, then add SuperSearch credits at $97 to $197 per month and Growth CRM at $47, keeping stacks under $300 monthly per client.

"I really enjoy using Instantly for a variety of reasons. Its simplicity in managing inboxes and campaigns stood out immediately, making it a clear choice over other tools I had used before." - Verified user review of Instantly

Watch a complete setup walkthrough in this Instantly AI Full Tutorial covering workspace configuration and campaign management.

Comparison: Hunter.io vs. Instantly for agency growth

Let's compare both approaches for an agency managing 10 clients with 5 team members, needing 20,000 monthly email searches.

The architectural difference is clear. Hunter.io focuses on email finding with pay-per-search economics. We combine email finding (SuperSearch), sending infrastructure (unlimited accounts), and workspace isolation into one system.

For freelancers running single-client projects, Hunter.io's interface is clean and reliable. It integrates perfectly with Chrome and has been a huge asset to agencies managing basic discovery workflows.

For agencies managing 10+ client workspaces with team members who need data separation and integrated sending, we built Instantly to eliminate tool sprawl and per-seat penalties. Agencies managing numerous clients prefer tools purpose-built for large-scale outreach operations.

"I've been using Instantly for all my cold email campaigns, and it's been great so far. In my last campaign, I sent 2,500 emails and landed 4 clients (I run a web design agency)." - Verified user review of Instantly

For a detailed agency setup walkthrough, watch this on How To Setup Your Cold Email System In 2024 tutorial covering domain configuration, warmup, and campaign launch.

Agency setup checklist: 7 steps to workspace separation

Copy this workflow to onboard your next client without credential chaos or data leaks.

Pre-launch (Week 0):

1. Create isolated workspace: Click Create Workspace, name it "Client Name - Brief Descriptor", subscribe to Hypergrowth Outreach at $97/month.
2. Configure team access: Invite team members to this workspace only with role-based permissions (Admin for account managers, Editor for campaign builders).
3. Set up domain infrastructure: Connect 5-15 sending accounts using client domains, enable warmup through our 4.2M+ deliverability network.

Campaign build (Week 1):

1. Import and verify leads: Upload client list to SuperSearch for enrichment and verification, keeping bounce rate at or below 1%.
2. Build sequences with A/B tests: Create 2-3 subject line variants using spin syntax, set send windows to 8:30-10:30am recipient local time, cap at 30 emails per inbox per day.

Ongoing management:

1. Monitor workspace dashboard: Track reply rate (target 5%+), bounce rate (keep under 1%), and meetings booked, filtering by this workspace only.
2. Monthly client reporting: Export workspace-specific analytics, deliver white-label reports through agency portal, adjust based on performance.

Watch the complete agency implementation process in this Full Instantly.ai Tutorial 2025 covering workspace setup, team permissions, domain configuration, and campaign launch.

Quick guide: Accessing Hunter College (CUNY) email

If you searched for "Hunter email" looking for student access at Hunter College, here's what you need. Hunter College's email is powered by Microsoft Office 365. Access your CUNY email through outlook.office365.com using your NetID and CUNYfirst password. All Hunter students receive email accounts automatically, with credentials sent 1-3 months before classes begin. For CUNYfirst or NetID problems, contact the Faculty & Staff Helpdesk at [email protected] or 212-772-4357. This has nothing to do with Hunter.io, the B2B email finder.

Ready to test workspace separation for your agency? Start with Instantly's free trial to create your first client workspace, add team members with role permissions, and run a pilot campaign. Compare the setup time and security posture to your current login spreadsheet. For agencies managing 10+ clients, workspace architecture isn't a nice-to-have, it's the foundation that prevents credential chaos from killing client trust.

Watch how agencies integrate workflows with the Valley integration for combined email and social outreach, or explore automation patterns with N8N and Make for advanced campaign orchestration.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Hunter.io and Hunter College email?

Hunter.io is a commercial B2B email finding software tool launched in 2015, while Hunter College is an educational institution founded in 1870. They have no connection and serve completely different purposes.

How do I access my Hunter College email as a student?

Go to outlook.office365.com or mail.hunter.cuny.edu and sign in with your CUNYfirst credentials.

Can multiple team members use one Hunter.io account?

You can invite as many team members as you'd like at no extra cost, but everyone shares the same pool of credits. For agencies managing multiple clients, this creates resource conflicts and requires credit rationing.

How does Instantly's workspace model prevent credential sharing?

Each team member gets their own login and is assigned to specific workspaces with role-based permissions. Workspaces strictly separate data so you cannot share leads, campaigns, or stats between clients.

What's the cost difference between Hunter.io and Instantly for 10 clients?

Hunter.io requires 10 separate Growth accounts at $99 each totaling $990/month, or a custom Enterprise plan. Instantly Hypergrowth costs $97 per workspace per month totaling $970/month, plus SuperSearch credits for lead finding.

Can I connect the same email account to multiple workspaces?

No. We maintain strict data separation by preventing the same sending email accounts from existing in different workspaces. Each workspace must have its own dedicated sending infrastructure.

How many email accounts can I connect per workspace?

Our plans currently offer up to a maximum of 100 connected accounts per workspace. Most agencies run inbox rotation with 5-15 accounts per client to maintain deliverability while scaling volume.