alpinemail

GDPR-compliant email validation API for Node.js. European alternative to ZeroBounce, NeverBounce.

Austrian company | Servers in Germany | Data never leaves EU

Features

• MX record validation
• SMTP deliverability check
• Disposable email detection (10k+ domains)
• AI fraud scoring (gibberish, keyboard walks)
• Role account detection (info@, support@, etc.)
• Catch-all detection
• Automatic retries with exponential backoff
• Full TypeScript support
• Zero dependencies
• Node.js 18+

Installation

npm install alpinemail

Quick Start

import { validateEmail } from 'alpinemail';

const result = await validateEmail('[email protected]', {
  apiKey: process.env.ALPINEMAIL_API_KEY,
});

console.log(result);
// {
//   valid: true,
//   email: '[email protected]',
//   score: 0.95,
//   disposable: false,
//   risk: 'low',
//   reason: 'valid',
//   catchAll: false,
//   roleAccount: false
// }

Client Usage

For multiple validations, create a client instance:

import { AlpineMail } from 'alpinemail';

const client = new AlpineMail({
  apiKey: process.env.ALPINEMAIL_API_KEY,
  timeout: 15000, // optional, default 10000ms
  retries: 3,     // optional, default 2
});

// Basic validation
const result = await client.validate('[email protected]');

// With fraud detection context
const result = await client.validate('[email protected]', {
  name: 'John Doe',           // helps detect name/email mismatches
  checks: ['basic', 'fraud'], // default
  context: {},                // additional context
});

// Health check
const health = await client.healthCheck();
console.log(health.latency);   // 42

Error Handling

import {
  AlpineMail,
  AuthenticationError,
  RateLimitError,
  TimeoutError,
  NetworkError,
  ValidationError,
} from 'alpinemail';

const client = new AlpineMail({ apiKey: 'invalid' });

try {
  await client.validate('[email protected]');
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof AuthenticationError) {
    console.error('Invalid API key');
  } else if (error instanceof RateLimitError) {
    console.error(`Rate limited. Retry after ${error.retryAfter}s`);
  } else if (error instanceof TimeoutError) {
    console.error('Request timed out');
  } else if (error instanceof NetworkError) {
    console.error('Network error:', error.message);
  } else if (error instanceof ValidationError) {
    console.error(`Invalid ${error.field}: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

Request Cancellation

const controller = new AbortController();

// Cancel after 5 seconds
setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);

try {
  await client.validate('[email protected]', {
    signal: controller.signal,
  });
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof TimeoutError) {
    console.error('Request was cancelled');
  }
}

Response Fields

| Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | valid | boolean | Whether email is deliverable | | email | string | Normalized email address | | score | number | Quality score 0-1 (higher is better) | | disposable | boolean | Is temporary/disposable email | | risk | 'low' | 'medium' | 'high' | Overall risk level | | reason | string | Validation result reason | | catchAll | boolean | Domain accepts all emails | | roleAccount | boolean | Is role account (info@, etc.) | | mxRecords | string[] | MX records found (optional) |

Validation Reasons

| Reason | Description | |--------|-------------| | valid | Email is valid and deliverable | | invalid_format | Email format is invalid | | invalid_mx | No valid MX records found | | invalid_smtp | SMTP check failed | | disposable_domain | Known disposable email domain | | role_account | Generic role account detected | | gibberish | Random/gibberish local part | | keyboard_walk | Keyboard pattern detected (qwerty, etc.) | | catch_all | Domain accepts all emails | | unknown | Could not determine validity |

Configuration

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | apiKey | string | required | Your API key | | baseUrl | string | https://api.alpinemail.at | API base URL | | timeout | number | 10000 | Request timeout in ms | | retries | number | 2 | Retry attempts | | retryDelay | number | 1000 | Base retry delay in ms |

Security

Never commit API keys to version control.

Use environment variables:

export ALPINEMAIL_API_KEY=your-api-key

Or .env file with dotenv:

ALPINEMAIL_API_KEY=your-api-key

Get API Key

Sign up at alpinemail.at to get your API key.

Pricing: 100 free validations/month, then 0.01/request.

Support

• Email: [email protected]
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Docs: alpinemail.at/docs

License

MIT © Sync Motion GmbH