ContactOut vs Interseller: Is This Comparison Still Worth Making?
If you're weighing ContactOut against Interseller in 2026, here's the uncomfortable truth - one of these tools is barely alive. Interseller was acquired by Greenhouse in late 2021, and by now it's effectively in maintenance mode. No dedicated support team, minor bugs that won't get fixed, and it still costs $200/seat/month. ContactOut still functions, but its pricing hides behind a "Talk to us" wall and the free tier runs dry in about two prospecting sessions.
Let's be honest: this comparison is mostly academic at this point. But if you're here, you probably found both names on an old list and want to know what's actually worth your money. We've dug into both so you don't have to.
30-Second Verdict
Interseller is a ghost ship. It's moved to self-service support with no dedicated team, and its own FAQ confirms minor bugs won't be addressed - they'll only monitor for major outages. The standard subscription remains $200/seat/month for a product nobody's actively building.
ContactOut works, but the credit limits are punishing. The free tier caps at 40 emails per month, so you'll hit the ceiling fast. Paid plans require a sales conversation, and recruiters have flagged the 25-candidate export cap as a dealbreaker.
Skip both if you're starting fresh. Look for transparent pricing and verified data instead - especially if you're building a repeatable outbound motion.
What Happened to Interseller?
We've tracked Interseller's decline since the 2021 acquisition, and the trajectory is grim.
In October 2021, Greenhouse announced the acquisition. The team officially joined November 1, with plans to embed Interseller's sourcing automation into Greenhouse's recruiting platform before Q2 2022. By April 2024, Greenhouse killed custom and legacy plans, pushing every user onto a standardized Recruiter plan at $200/user/month for 250 lookups, email sequences, and Chrome extension access. G2 still lists an Agency plan at $600/month for 3 users, but the Help Center's Recruiter plan appears to be the only current option. Then by late 2024, Interseller transitioned to a fully self-service support model - no dedicated team, and their own FAQ explicitly states "minor bugs will not be addressed."
The product still carries a 4.7/5 on G2 with 210 reviews, but most of those were written before the acquisition. They reflect a product with an active team and dedicated support, neither of which exists today. User reviews also flagged the inability to add notes to profiles; the workaround was creating a "DO NOT CONTACT" sequence, which tells you everything about the product's polish.
Here's a fun detail: if you try to find recent community discussion about Interseller on Reddit, most results are actually about the film Interstellar. That's how far off the radar this tool has fallen.
Interseller charges $200/seat for a product no one maintains. ContactOut hides pricing behind a sales wall. Prospeo gives you 98% verified emails refreshed every 7 days - at $0.01 each, with pricing you can see right now.
Stop paying ghost-ship prices for stale data.
ContactOut in 2026
Use this if: You need a quick Chrome extension for grabbing emails from professional profiles, you're okay with tight credit limits, and you don't mind negotiating pricing through a sales team.
Skip this if: You're running outbound at any real volume. One recruiter on r/recruiting rejected ContactOut specifically because the tool could only export 25 candidates at a time from Sales Navigator searches - far short of the roughly 1,000 they needed. They also called the email campaign function "primitive."
ContactOut claims 700M+ profiles on its pricing page, but in our testing the Chrome extension loaded noticeably slower than competitors, and there's no public information on how frequently that data gets refreshed. Paid plans land around $99-$199/month based on third-party breakdowns, but ContactOut's own pricing page shows blank dollar fields and a "Talk to us" button. A self-serve data tool that won't publish pricing in 2026 is a red flag. G2 reviewers give it a 4.4/5 across 109 reviews, praising accuracy but consistently flagging credit limits and the sluggish extension.
If you're evaluating tools like this, it helps to separate finding from verifying - most teams end up pairing a finder with an email verification layer anyway.
Head-to-Head Feature Comparison
| Dimension | Interseller | ContactOut | Prospeo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $200/user/mo | Free -> ~$99-$199/mo | Free -> ~$0.01/email |
| Database | Not disclosed | 700M+ (claimed) | 300M+ verified |
| Email accuracy | Inconsistent | Generally accurate | 98% verified |
| G2 rating | 4.7/5 (210 reviews) | 4.4/5 (109 reviews) | - |
| Sequences | Yes | Basic | No native (via Instantly, Lemlist) |
| Support | Self-service only | Sales-gated pricing | Self-serve, active team |
| Data refresh | Unknown | Unknown | 7 days |
| Chrome ext. | Yes | Yes (slow) | Yes (40,000+ users) |
Interseller's numbers look decent until you remember there's no one maintaining the product. ContactOut's database size is large on paper, but without knowing how fresh that data is, the number is marketing fluff.
The metrics that actually matter for outbound are data freshness and email accuracy - especially if deliverability drives your entire motion. A 7-day refresh cycle means you're not emailing people who changed jobs six weeks ago.
Hot take: ContactOut's 700M profiles might technically be a bigger number than 300M, but a database you can't trust is worse than a smaller one you can. I'd rather have 300M verified contacts refreshed weekly than 700M of unknown vintage.
The Verdict
This ContactOut vs Interseller comparison shouldn't really exist anymore. Interseller is a maintenance-mode product charging $200/seat/month with self-service-only support and no meaningful roadmap. ContactOut is functional but hamstrung by opaque pricing and credit limits that make it impractical for anything beyond light prospecting.
Neither is the right starting point in 2026.
You want a product team that's actually shipping updates, pricing you can see before talking to sales, and email data you can trust. The benchmarks to beat are 98% email accuracy, a 7-day data refresh cycle, and transparent pricing at ~$0.01/email - with a free tier that includes 75 emails plus 100 Chrome extension credits per month. No contracts, no "Talk to us" gates. Native integrations push contacts straight into Salesforce, HubSpot, Instantly, Lemlist, or Clay.
If you're still shopping around, start with a shortlist of sales prospecting databases and compare refresh + verification, not just database size.
ContactOut's 700M profiles mean nothing without a known refresh cycle. Prospeo's 300M+ contacts are verified through a 5-step process and refreshed every 7 days - not every 6 weeks. No credit card, no sales call, no 25-candidate export caps.
Verified data, transparent pricing, zero gatekeeping.
FAQ
Is Interseller still available in 2026?
Yes, but it's in maintenance mode under Greenhouse. There's no dedicated support team, minor bugs won't be fixed, and it still charges $200/user/month. Active development stopped years ago - only major outages get attention.
What does ContactOut's free plan include?
ContactOut's free tier gives you 40 emails and 3 phone numbers per month, limited to standard profiles. Paid plans require contacting sales - expect roughly $99-$199/month depending on the tier and volume.
What's a good free alternative to both tools?
Prospeo's free tier includes 75 verified emails and 100 Chrome extension credits per month - no credit card or sales call required. That's nearly double ContactOut's free allowance, with 98% email accuracy and a 7-day data refresh cycle.