Explorium vs ContactOut vs Seamless.AI

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, ContactOut, and Seamless.AI 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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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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Seamless.AI

4.4

The real-time search engine for B2B sales leads — find anyone's email or phone number instantly

  • API
  • GDPR Compliance
150M+
Companies
1.7B+
People

Selected Customers

Google • Amazon • Logitech • IBM

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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

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

Seamless.AI

  • Real-Time Contact Discovery

    Instantly find verified emails and direct-dial phone numbers for any prospect via LinkedIn, company websites, or bulk search — with no lag from stale databases.

  • AI-Powered Pitch Intelligence

    Generate AI-crafted talking points, pain points, and personalized outreach messages for each prospect based on their role, company, and industry.

  • CRM Enrichment & Automation

    Automatically enrich and update CRM records in Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive with fresh contact data, reducing manual entry and keeping pipelines accurate.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Job change alerts
  • Real-time LinkedIn data extraction
  • AI pitch intelligence
  • Company funding signals

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

ContactOut Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.5
  • Signals depth 1.2

Seamless.AI Snapshot

  • Company coverage 4.1
  • Signals depth 1.0
  • Freshness 2.2

Detailed Feature Comparison

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

Feature Comparison
Explorium
ContactOut
Seamless.AI
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
REST API with hourly data refresh; supports CRM/ATS enrichment pipelines
Available on Pro and Enterprise plans
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
-
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR and CCPA compliant
GDPR and CCPA compliant
Custom Entities
-
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
300M+ professionals globally with strong EMEA and APAC coverage
Global with North America strength
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever
Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, Dynamics 365
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Chrome extension, web search portal, and REST API
Web app, Chrome extension, CRM integrations
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Zapier, CSV export, API-based workflows
Zapier, Outreach, SalesLoft
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
30M+ company profiles
150M+ company profiles
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
300M+ professional profiles
1.7B+ contact profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global, with strong coverage in North America, EMEA, and APAC
Global, with strongest coverage in North America
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Aggregated from public web, LinkedIn, company websites, and proprietary crawling
Real-time AI-powered web crawling, LinkedIn data, public web sources
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Consistent contact schema across regions; data refreshed every 15 days
Consistent schema across geographies
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Contact data refreshed every 15 days
Real-time at point of search
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Company size, revenue, industry, website, technologies used, LinkedIn company profile
Company size, industry, revenue, technology stack, location
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Verified work email, personal email, direct phone, mobile, LinkedIn URL, job title, location
Email, phone, title, LinkedIn URL, department
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Emails (personal and work), phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, company firmographics, job titles
Email, direct dial, mobile phone, job title, company firmographics, intent signals
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Job change signals via profile refresh; limited real-time intent signals
Job changes, company funding announcements
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Name + company domain matching; Chrome extension captures data directly from LinkedIn profile context
LinkedIn-based identity matching via Chrome extension
Confidence scoring
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Dual verification system cross-checks emails across multiple trusted data sources; up to 97% accuracy claimed
AI-driven real-time verification; marketing claims 98% accuracy but user-reported bounce rates average 15-25%
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
CRM/ATS enrichment mode identifies and avoids duplicate records on export
Basic deduplication within platform; CRM-level deduplication depends on integration
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
Records refreshed hourly in the API layer for low data decay
-
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce, HubSpot, Lever, and other CRM/ATS platforms via API or native integration
Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
-
Export to CSV; Zapier for custom integrations
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
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Subscription with credit allocations per tier
Credit-based subscription
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Credits consumed per email or phone lookup; phones typically cost more credits than emails
1 credit = 1 contact reveal; credits do not roll over on most plans
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Free, Sales ($79/mo), Email + Phone (~$99/mo), Recruiter ($199/mo annual), Team (custom)
Free, Basic, Pro, Enterprise
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Free plan with 5 daily lookups across email, phone, and exports; no time limit
Free tier with 50 lifetime credits; no time-limited free trial
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly or annual commitment; annual pricing reduces effective per-credit cost
Annual contracts standard; monthly available for Basic
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
ContactOut
Seamless.AI
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based per lookup, with subscription tiers defining monthly or annual credit allocations
Credit-based; one credit = one contact reveal (email + phone)
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual; annual billing provides discounted rates
Annual contracts required for Pro and Enterprise; Basic available monthly
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or Annual
Annual (discounted) or monthly
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free plan available with 5 daily email/phone lookups and 5 exports
Free plan with 50 lifetime credits — not a time-limited trial
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Custom team packages with shared credit pools, CRM/ATS integrations, and account management
Fully custom pricing with dedicated CSM, advanced integrations, and volume credits
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve; Chrome extension and search portal require no professional onboarding
Self-serve for Basic; sales-assisted onboarding for Pro and Enterprise

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 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 Reviewer

Account Executive, Mid-Market SaaS

"Seamless.AI gives me multiple phone number options and more than one email per contact — and they're updated regularly using AI in real time. It's become a core part of my daily prospecting workflow."
Verified User for Seamless.AI

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ContactOut better than Seamless.AI?

It depends on your use case. ContactOut The most accurate contact finder trusted by Fortune 500 companies for LinkedIn prospecting and outbound outreach Seamless.AI The real-time search engine for B2B sales leads — find anyone's email or phone number instantly

What is the difference between ContactOut and Seamless.AI?

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 Seamless.AI focuses on The real-time search engine for B2B sales leads — find anyone's email or phone number instantly.

How much does ContactOut cost compared to Seamless.AI?

ContactOut pricing model: Credit-based subscription. Seamless.AI pricing model: Credit-based subscription (annual contract).

Is ContactOut or Seamless.AI 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.

Is Explorium better than Seamless.AI?

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 Seamless.AI The real-time search engine for B2B sales leads — find anyone's email or phone number instantly

What is the difference between Explorium and Seamless.AI?

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 Seamless.AI focuses on The real-time search engine for B2B sales leads — find anyone's email or phone number instantly.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Seamless.AI?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Seamless.AI pricing model: Credit-based subscription (annual contract).

Is Explorium or Seamless.AI 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.

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.

How does Seamless.AI's real-time search differ from traditional B2B databases?

Unlike static databases that are refreshed periodically, Seamless.AI re-crawls and verifies contact data at the moment of each search. This means you're getting the most current available information rather than data that might be months old — though the real-time nature doesn't guarantee 100% accuracy, as user-reported bounce rates average 15–25%.

What exactly is a credit in Seamless.AI, and do unused credits roll over?

One credit reveals one contact — including email address, phone number(s), and associated firmographic insights. Credit rollover policies vary by plan; the free tier provides 50 lifetime credits, while paid plans typically do not roll over unused credits month to month. Pro and Enterprise plans can negotiate rollover terms in their annual contracts.

Does Seamless.AI's Chrome extension work on sites other than LinkedIn?

Yes — the Chrome extension works on LinkedIn profiles, company websites, and other web pages. When browsing a company website or individual's professional page, the extension can attempt to surface contact information. However, LinkedIn is the primary and most reliable surface for the extension.

What makes Seamless.AI's AI pitch intelligence different from basic templates?

Seamless.AI's AI pitch intelligence analyzes a prospect's role, company, industry, and available signals to generate personalized talking points, pain points, and outreach angles specific to that individual — rather than generic templates. This is designed to help reps craft more relevant opening lines and cold call scripts without spending time on manual research.

How difficult is it to cancel a Seamless.AI subscription?

Cancellation is one of the most frequently cited complaints in user reviews. Seamless.AI requires written cancellation notice within a specific window before contract renewal, and many users report difficulty navigating the process. Pro and Enterprise plans are annual contracts, and failure to cancel within the specified notice period often results in automatic renewal. Always review the contract terms carefully before signing.

Is Seamless.AI suitable for international prospecting outside the US?

Seamless.AI has global coverage but its database and data quality are strongest for North American contacts. International coverage — particularly for EMEA and APAC — is less comprehensive, and phone number accuracy for non-US contacts is notably lower. Teams focused heavily on international markets may want to supplement with providers that specialize in those geographies.

Does Seamless.AI have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Not officially — Seamless.AI has a custom MCP server that can be used with Claude, but no dedicated Claude Code plugin or skill. 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.