Explorium vs Clearbit vs ContactOut

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Clearbit, and ContactOut to help you evaluate features, pricing, and performance and find the perfect fit for your data needs.

Explorium

4.8

The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
150M+
Companies
800M+
People
4000+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Clay • Common Room • Cognism • Outreach • Bombora • Monday.com • Artisan

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Clearbit

4.4

The data foundation for B2B go-to-market teams, combining 250+ data sources with ML processing to deliver firmographic, technographic, and contact-level enrichment natively inside HubSpot CRM

  • API
  • GDPR Compliance
200M+
Companies
500M+
People
100+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Intercom • Asana • Segment • Zendesk • Stripe • Atlassian

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ContactOut

4.4

The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
30M+
Companies
300M+
People
20+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Google • Microsoft • Netflix • Amazon • Salesforce

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Primary Use Cases

Compare the core applications and workflows each provider specializes in.

Explorium

  • GTM Agents

    Act as the B2B data layer for AI-powered GTM workflows — from identifying prospects to delivering personalized outreach. Supports MCP-native access via Claude and other AI agents.

  • ABM Targeting

    Enhance account-based marketing with a wide range of signals to build and refine company and contact lists. Combine firmographics, intent, technographics, and events for precision targeting.

  • AI Recruiting

    Build recruiting automation systems on top of a premium B2B data layer. Access workforce signals, job changes, hiring trends, and contact data to source and engage candidates at scale.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Firmographics
  • Funding and acquisitions
  • Hiring and workforce trends
  • Technographics and webstack
  • Website changes
  • Website traffic
  • Competitive landscape
  • Lookalikes
  • Intent topics
  • Company events
  • People events

Clearbit

  • Real-Time Data Enrichment

    Automatically enrich CRM contacts and company records with 100+ firmographic, demographic, and technographic attributes from 250+ data sources, refreshed every 30 days.

  • Anonymous Visitor Intelligence

    Clearbit Reveal uses IP matching across 4.5 billion mapped IPs to de-anonymize website traffic, surfacing buying intent signals and enabling real-time lead routing.

  • Lead Scoring & Form Optimization

    Power dynamic form shortening by pre-filling known fields via email-based enrichment, and apply enriched firmographic data to score and route inbound leads by ICP fit.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Anonymous website visitor identification via IP (Reveal)
  • Intent signals from website traffic
  • Technographic stack data
  • Corporate hierarchy mapping
  • Employee count and revenue range changes
  • Job title and role changes

ContactOut

  • Recruiting & Talent Sourcing

    Find verified personal and work emails for passive candidates directly from LinkedIn profiles, enabling recruiters to reach talent outside traditional apply flows.

  • Outbound Sales Prospecting

    Build targeted prospect lists using 20+ search filters, then launch automated email campaigns directly within ContactOut's platform to accelerate pipeline generation.

  • CRM & ATS Data Enrichment

    Enrich existing CRM and ATS records with up-to-date verified emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and company firmographics via API or CSV upload.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Data auto-refreshed every 15 days to minimize contact decay
  • Personal email coverage including Gmail, Yahoo, and other personal domains
  • Trusted by 76%+ of Fortune 500 companies for sourcing and outreach
  • Chrome Extension for LinkedIn and GitHub prospecting

Snapshot

Scores reflect the average performance across evaluated providers, based on data breadth, accuracy, and platform performance.

Explorium Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.5
  • Signals depth 5.0
  • Freshness 1.8

Clearbit Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.8
  • Signals depth 3.5

ContactOut Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.5
  • Signals depth 1.2

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Clearbit, and ContactOut across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Clearbit
ContactOut
Data Enrichment
ML Discovery
-
API Access
REST JSON API with batch support (up to 100 entities), webhooks, sync/async; up to 100 QPS; 99.999% uptime
Available; primarily through HubSpot ecosystem post-acquisition; standalone API limited for new customers
REST API with hourly data refresh; supports CRM/ATS enrichment pipelines
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
Not publicly documented post-HubSpot acquisition
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2 certified; Trust Center and Privacy Request Form available
GDPR and CCPA compliant
Custom Entities
-
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
Global company and contact coverage; 4.5B mapped IPs; EU suppression settings
300M+ professionals globally with strong EMEA and APAC coverage
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Native HubSpot integration; Salesforce integration available
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Native HubSpot CRM UI; standalone dashboard deprecated for new users
Chrome extension, web search portal, and REST API
Natural language search
-
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Zapier, Tray.io, Segment (Twilio), Drift, Intercom, Qualified
Zapier, CSV export, API-based workflows
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
50 million company records
30M+ company profiles
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
389 million contact records
300M+ professional profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global; 4.5 billion mapped IPs for Reveal; EU GDPR suppression settings available
Global, with strong coverage in North America, EMEA, and APAC
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
250+ public and proprietary sources: social profiles, company websites, legal filings, crowdsourced data
Aggregated from public web, LinkedIn, company websites, and proprietary crawling
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Standardized role, seniority, and industry taxonomy (NAICS, GICS, SIC) applied globally
Consistent contact schema across regions; data refreshed every 15 days
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Full dataset refresh every 30 days
Contact data refreshed every 15 days
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Employee count, revenue, industry (GICS/SIC/NAICS), tech stack, funding raised, market cap, corporate parent/hierarchy
Company size, revenue, industry, website, technologies used, LinkedIn company profile
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Job title, standardized role and seniority, social profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub), email, location, employment history
Verified work email, personal email, direct phone, mobile, LinkedIn URL, job title, location
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Firmographic, technographic, demographic, corporate hierarchy, funding data
Emails (personal and work), phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, company firmographics, job titles
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Anonymous visitor identification (Reveal), job title changes, employee count changes, new company registrations
Job change signals via profile refresh; limited real-time intent signals
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Email-based and domain-based matching; IP-based matching for Reveal (4.5B mapped IPs)
Name + company domain matching; Chrome extension captures data directly from LinkedIn profile context
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Four-stage verification; ML algorithms; 2,500-person flexible QA team; 94% email deliverability
Dual verification system cross-checks emails across multiple trusted data sources; up to 97% accuracy claimed
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
No charges for re-enriching previously enriched records within the same billing period
CRM/ATS enrichment mode identifies and avoids duplicate records on export
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
Historically ~10–20 req/sec; post-acquisition limits governed by credit system
Records refreshed hourly in the API layer for low data decay
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
HubSpot (native), Salesforce
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever, and other CRM/ATS platforms via API or native integration
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Batch enrichment available; Salesforce integration supported
-
Bulk data delivery
Claude Connector
ChatGPT App
Custom MCP
Claude Plugin
ChatGPT Plugin
OpenClaw Plugin
Skills
16
-
-
GDPR compliance
CCPA support
SOC 2
-
ISO certifications
ISO 27001
-
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
Not publicly specified post-HubSpot acquisition
-
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based, consumption model bundled with HubSpot subscription
Subscription with credit allocations per tier
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
HubSpot Credits; 1 credit per contact or company enrichment; packs of 100/1,000/10,000
Credits consumed per email or phone lookup; phones typically cost more credits than emails
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Starter, Professional, Enterprise (mapped to HubSpot Customer Platform tiers)
Free, Sales ($79/mo), Email + Phone (~$99/mo), Recruiter ($199/mo annual), Team (custom)
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
No free trial; no free plan; legacy free tools (Reveal Lite, TAM) sunset April 30, 2025
Free plan with 5 daily lookups across email, phone, and exports; no time limit
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Annual commitment with monthly billing; enterprise negotiated contracts
Monthly or annual commitment; annual pricing reduces effective per-credit cost
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Clearbit
ContactOut
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based consumption model bundled with HubSpot subscription
Credit-based per lookup, with subscription tiers defining monthly or annual credit allocations
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Annual commitment for best pricing; monthly option available
Monthly or annual; annual billing provides discounted rates
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly billing with annual contract
Monthly or Annual
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
No free trial; legacy free tools sunset April 30, 2025
Free plan available with 5 daily email/phone lookups and 5 exports
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Available via HubSpot Enterprise Customer Platform with custom pricing
Custom team packages with shared credit pools, CRM/ATS integrations, and account management
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve within HubSpot; sales-assisted for enterprise
Self-serve; Chrome extension and search portal require no professional onboarding

What Experts Say

V

Verified Customer

Head of Growth, B2B SaaS

"Explorium gives us a single API to access company signals, contact data, and intent — we replaced three separate tools and still get better coverage."
Verified User for Explorium
V

Verified G2 User

Sales Operations Manager

"Clearbit summarized everything I needed about a contact before a meeting — saved me 30 minutes of prep. The HubSpot integration is seamless, but the credit system caught us off guard when automatic enrichment ran on our full database."
Verified User for Clearbit
V

Verified Reviewer

Sales and Marketing Associate

"ContactOut is an excellent source of email addresses and phone numbers for our marketing operations. It helps us find verified leads without any inconveniences, and the populating features allow us to refine data to outreach effectively. We have been using it for three years with no doubt in email accuracy."
Verified User for ContactOut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Clearbit better than ContactOut?

It depends on your use case. Clearbit The data foundation for B2B go-to-market teams, combining 250+ data sources with ML processing to deliver firmographic, technographic, and contact-level enrichment natively inside HubSpot CRM ContactOut The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach

What is the difference between Clearbit and ContactOut?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Clearbit focuses on The data foundation for B2B go-to-market teams, combining 250+ data sources with ML processing to deliver firmographic, technographic, and contact-level enrichment natively inside HubSpot CRM while ContactOut focuses on The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach.

How much does Clearbit cost compared to ContactOut?

Clearbit pricing model: Credit-based (HubSpot Credits), requires paid HubSpot subscription. ContactOut pricing model: Credit-based subscription.

Is Clearbit or ContactOut better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than Clearbit?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform Clearbit The data foundation for B2B go-to-market teams, combining 250+ data sources with ML processing to deliver firmographic, technographic, and contact-level enrichment natively inside HubSpot CRM

What is the difference between Explorium and Clearbit?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while Clearbit focuses on The data foundation for B2B go-to-market teams, combining 250+ data sources with ML processing to deliver firmographic, technographic, and contact-level enrichment natively inside HubSpot CRM.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Clearbit?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Clearbit pricing model: Credit-based (HubSpot Credits), requires paid HubSpot subscription.

Is Explorium or Clearbit better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than ContactOut?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform ContactOut The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach

What is the difference between Explorium and ContactOut?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while ContactOut focuses on The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach.

How much does Explorium cost compared to ContactOut?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. ContactOut pricing model: Credit-based subscription.

Is Explorium or ContactOut better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Does Explorium have an MCP server?

Yes. Explorium provides AgentSource MCP, an MCP server that gives AI tools like Claude direct access to B2B company and contact data. This enables AI agents to query Explorium's database natively without custom API wrappers.

What is Explorium's data accuracy?

Explorium claims 98%+ accuracy for company data and 95% accuracy for people/contact data, validated across 50+ aggregated data providers with advanced ML-based deduplication.

What is Explorium's API rate limit?

The default rate limit is 200 requests per minute per API key. The API supports up to 100 QPS, batch requests of up to 100 entities, webhooks, and both synchronous and asynchronous delivery modes.

Does Explorium offer a free trial?

Yes. Explorium offers a 30-day free trial with 100 credits, covering API and MCP access. Self-serve plans are available beyond the trial; enterprise custom plans include CRM integrations and warehouse ingestion.

What is Explorium's data refresh rate?

High-velocity signals (intent, events, hiring) refresh daily. Semi-dynamic attributes refresh weekly. Stable firmographic fields refresh monthly or quarterly.

How does Explorium compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo for coverage?

Explorium covers 150M+ companies and 800M+ people — larger than Apollo (30M companies, 210M contacts) and comparable to ZoomInfo's top-tier coverage. Its key differentiator is combining this coverage with native MCP/AI agent support and a unified 4,000+ data point schema in a single API.

Do I need a HubSpot subscription to use Clearbit in 2025?

Yes. Since HubSpot acquired Clearbit and rebranded it as Breeze Intelligence, all functionality requires a paid HubSpot subscription. Standalone access for new customers is no longer offered, and all legacy free tools were discontinued on April 30, 2025.

How does Clearbit's credit system work?

Clearbit operates on HubSpot Credits. Each contact or company enrichment consumes one credit. Credits reset monthly with no rollover. Re-enriching a previously enriched record within the same billing period does not consume additional credits.

How does Clearbit Reveal identify anonymous website visitors?

Reveal matches incoming website traffic against 4.5 billion mapped IP addresses to identify the company behind an anonymous visit, surfacing company name, industry, size, and location without requiring a form fill.

Is Clearbit GDPR compliant?

Yes. Clearbit is GDPR and CCPA compliant and SOC 2 certified. It offers EU suppression settings that prevent person-level enrichment for EU contacts. Individuals can submit data requests through Clearbit's Privacy Request Form.

How large is Clearbit's database?

50 million company records and 389 million contact profiles from 250+ data sources, refreshed every 30 days. 94% email deliverability reported across contact records.

Does Clearbit have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Clearbit does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.

Does ContactOut find personal email addresses as well as work emails?

Yes. ContactOut is one of the few platforms that consistently surfaces personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) alongside verified work emails. This is especially valued by recruiters trying to reach passive candidates who may not monitor corporate inboxes.

What is the ContactOut free plan and what are its limits?

The free plan allows 5 email lookups, 5 phone number lookups, and 5 exports per day with no time limit. It includes access to the Chrome extension for LinkedIn prospecting, making it useful for low-volume individual users.

How accurate is ContactOut's contact data?

ContactOut claims up to 97% email accuracy through its dual verification system, which cross-checks data across multiple trusted sources. Data is refreshed every 15 days to reduce decay from job changes.

Does ContactOut integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot?

Yes. ContactOut integrates natively with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Lever, and also offers a REST API for building custom enrichment pipelines into other CRM and ATS platforms.

Is ContactOut GDPR compliant?

Yes. ContactOut is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and US privacy laws. The platform sources and processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection regulations.

What does ContactOut cover beyond email — does it include phone numbers and company data?

Yes. ContactOut provides direct phone numbers and mobile numbers alongside emails, and enriches company profiles with firmographic data including industry, company size, revenue, and LinkedIn company profiles. The database covers 300M+ professionals and 30M+ companies.

Does ContactOut have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

ContactOut does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.