ContactOut vs Explorium

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

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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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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Primary Use Cases

Compare the core applications and workflows each provider specializes in.

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

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

Snapshot

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

ContactOut Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.5
  • Signals depth 1.2

Explorium Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.5
  • Signals depth 5.0
  • Freshness 1.8

Detailed Feature Comparison

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

Feature Comparison
ContactOut
Explorium
Data Enrichment
ML Discovery
-
API Access
REST API with hourly data refresh; supports CRM/ATS enrichment pipelines
REST JSON API with batch support (up to 100 entities), webhooks, sync/async; up to 100 QPS; 99.999% uptime
SLA
-
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
Compliance
GDPR and CCPA compliant
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
Custom Entities
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
300M+ professionals globally with strong EMEA and APAC coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
CRM Integration
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever
Available on custom enterprise plans
Platform interface
Chrome extension, web search portal, and REST API
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
Zapier, CSV export, API-based workflows
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Company coverage
30M+ company profiles
150M+ company profiles
People coverage
300M+ professional profiles
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
Geographic coverage
Global, with strong coverage in North America, EMEA, and APAC
150+ countries
Data sources type
Aggregated from public web, LinkedIn, company websites, and proprietary crawling
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Global schema consistency
Consistent contact schema across regions; data refreshed every 15 days
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Refresh frequency
Contact data refreshed every 15 days
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, website, technologies used, LinkedIn company profile
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Prospect enrichments
Verified work email, personal email, direct phone, mobile, LinkedIn URL, job title, location
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Enrichment categories
Emails (personal and work), phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, company firmographics, job titles
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Intent data
Event signals
Job change signals via profile refresh; limited real-time intent signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
Name + company domain matching; Chrome extension captures data directly from LinkedIn profile context
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Confidence scoring
Validation methodology
Dual verification system cross-checks emails across multiple trusted data sources; up to 97% accuracy claimed
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Deduplication logic
CRM/ATS enrichment mode identifies and avoids duplicate records on export
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
API availability
QPS performance
Records refreshed hourly in the API layer for low data decay
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
CRM integrations
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever, and other CRM/ATS platforms via API or native integration
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Data warehouse support
-
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
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
Pricing model
Subscription with credit allocations per tier
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Credit system
Credits consumed per email or phone lookup; phones typically cost more credits than emails
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Tier structure
Free, Sales ($79/mo), Email + Phone (~$99/mo), Recruiter ($199/mo annual), Team (custom)
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Free trial details
Free plan with 5 daily lookups across email, phone, and exports; no time limit
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Budget commitment options
Monthly or annual commitment; annual pricing reduces effective per-credit cost
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

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

What Experts Say

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
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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ContactOut better than Explorium?

It depends on your use case. ContactOut The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach 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

What is the difference between ContactOut and Explorium?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: ContactOut focuses on The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach while 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.

How much does ContactOut cost compared to Explorium?

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

Is ContactOut or Explorium 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 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.

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.