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Boundstone vs NumVerify
NumVerify is the cheapest way to format-check a phone number, and for some jobs that's genuinely enough. Here's the honest version of where it stops — including the part where our free tier and theirs run on the same class of data.
Facts checked July 2026 — spot something stale and we'll fix it in public.Pick NumVerify if…
- You need dead-simple format validation at hobby volume, and the 100-free-checks tier covers you.
- You want the APILayer ecosystem's one-key-many-APIs convenience.
Pick Boundstone if…
- You want the same metadata tier NumVerify sells — free, 250/mo, with the limits disclosed in every response.
- You want a path to live carrier data (licensed LRN at launch) and HLR liveness (V2) — not static metadata forever.
- You want email and IP validation in the same credit system.
- You want a public benchmark instead of a reputation you have to guess about.
| NumVerify | Boundstone | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 100 checks/mo | 250 credits/mo (phone + email + IP) |
| Paid price | ~$0.005/check at 10k volume | $0.004 → $0.0028/credit, printed per tier |
| Phone data depth | Static format/metadata — no liveness | Same metadata tier today, disclosed per-response; licensed carrier data at launch, HLR in V2 |
| Scope | Phone only | Phone + email + IP |
| Honesty about limits | Marketed as validation | checks.not_performed names what wasn't checked, every response |
Is Boundstone's free phone check better than NumVerify's?
Today they run on the same class of data — Google's libphonenumber metadata. The differences: ours is 250/mo free instead of 100, covers email and IP too, and every response states that carrier and liveness weren't checked. We think selling metadata as 'validation' without saying that is the category's bad habit.
What does Boundstone add over format checking?
At launch: licensed carrier and ported-number data on paid tiers. In V2: live HLR liveness at a published 5 credits. Each lands in checks.performed the day it's real — that's how you'll know it's not a roadmap promise.
Decide with data — one email when the benchmark drops
Pre-launch — benchmark results and early API access. One email. We validate emails for a living — we're not going to spam yours.