ContactOut vs SalesQL in 2026: Pricing, Accuracy, Verdict

ContactOut vs SalesQL: Which Chrome Extension Is Worth Your Money?

Both tools pull contact data from professional profiles, and both Chrome extensions look nearly identical at first glance. So what actually separates them? It comes down to pricing structure, credit mechanics, and whether the emails you extract land in inboxes or bounce back and torch your domain.

30-Second Verdict

SalesQL wins on per-credit cost: its Basic plan runs $39 for 2,000 credits (about $0.0195 each), dropping to $29/mo on annual billing. ContactOut wins for recruiters who need personal emails and want to preview results before burning a credit.

Skip both if you need verified outbound data. We've watched too many teams bolt on a separate verification tool when they could start with one that doesn't need it.

On G2, the two are neck-and-neck - ContactOut at 4.4/5 (109 reviews), SalesQL at 4.5/5 (166 reviews). The real gap isn't ratings. It's data reliability.

Pricing Breakdown

SalesQL Plans

One credit gets you the full profile - work email, direct email, and phone number when available. Annual billing saves roughly 25%.

ContactOut Plans

Here's the thing: ContactOut markets certain plans with "unlimited" language, but multiple reviewers flag a fair-use cap around ~2,000 emails/month and ~800 phones/month under that framing. One reviewer called it "deceptive credit practices." Clarify the cap before you buy.

Data Quality and Deliverability

The cheapest data isn't the data that costs the least per credit - it's the data that doesn't bounce.

SalesQL reviews consistently call its validation inaccurate and recommend running exports through a dedicated verifier to keep bounces under 2%. ContactOut hits the same wall: if you care about deliverability, you end up verifying anyway. That's an extra $15-25/mo and another tool in your stack, which nobody accounts for when comparing sticker prices.

A simple framework:

• Coverage = "Did the tool find something?"
• Accuracy = "Is it deliverable? Does it connect?"
• Workflow cost = credits + time + verification + domain risk

One telling data point: a user sent 300+ emails from SalesQL data and got 13 bounces (~4.3%), well above the industry-standard 2% threshold. That's the kind of number that gets your domain flagged.

Features and UX

Both extensions overlay contact data on professional profiles. The UX difference that actually matters day-to-day: ContactOut shows whether it found anything before consuming a credit. SalesQL charges the credit upfront, then takes up to two minutes to search.

That distinction adds up fast when you're working through 200 prospects and half won't return results.

SalesQL's own help docs put find rates at 70-80% for business emails and 10-20% for mobile numbers - coverage numbers, not accuracy numbers. ContactOut doesn't publish equivalent stats, which makes direct comparison harder.

Other practical differences:

• Credit mechanics: SalesQL charges upfront; ContactOut lets you preview then spend
• Recruiting workflow fit: personal email access matters more for recruiters than pure B2B deliverability
• Export and enrichment: both support CSV exports, but neither verifies by default

If you're building a bigger outbound stack, it helps to compare other SDR tools and data enrichment services so you don't end up paying twice for the same workflow.

What Real Users Say

SalesQL

SalesQL scores 4.5/5 on G2 but drops to 3.8/5 on Capterra. The praise is consistent: fast extension, easy extraction, good value compared to Lusha or RocketReach.

The complaints are consistent too. Support is the #1 issue - reviewers describe refused refunds, blocked accounts, and what one Capterra user called "arrogant" support. If you're evaluating SalesQL, test the free tier first and make sure you can actually reach someone if something goes wrong.

ContactOut

The big controversy is that "unlimited" pricing language and the fair-use cap that comes with it. When users discover the practical limit is around ~2,000 emails/month on an "unlimited" plan, they feel misled - several recommend switching to Apollo or Hunter.io at that price point.

That said, reviewers found ContactOut easier to set up, and the personal email plus mobile data is genuinely useful for recruiters reaching candidates outside work channels.

The Cost Nobody Calculates

Let's run the real math on SalesQL: $39/mo for 2,000 credits x ~80% find rate = 1,600 emails found. Add about $20/mo for a verification service. Your effective cost per usable, verified email lands around $0.037.

ContactOut is priced very differently: its Sales plan runs $79/user/mo for 6,000 emails/year (roughly ~500/month), and you're still likely to verify if you're doing cold outbound at scale.

Prospeo starts free with 75 emails/month and scales at roughly $0.01 per verified email - with 98% accuracy through 5-step verification that includes catch-all handling and spam-trap removal. No second tool, no annual contracts. In our experience, teams that switch from a "cheap credits + separate verifier" setup to a verification-first workflow save both money and the headache of managing two platforms.

If you're trying to keep bounces down, it's worth understanding email bounce rate benchmarks and how to improve sender reputation before scaling volume.

Bottom Line

Budget extraction from professional profiles - SalesQL at $39/mo. You'll need to verify emails separately, but the per-credit cost is hard to beat for teams on a tight budget.

Recruiter needing personal emails - ContactOut. The preview-before-credit UX and personal email coverage justify the higher price for recruiting workflows. Skip it if you're purely doing B2B outbound.

Verified outbound data you can actually send to - Prospeo. Built-in verification at ~$0.01/email means you skip the verification step entirely and protect your sender reputation. Both ContactOut and SalesQL support CSV exports, so migrating existing lists into a verification-first workflow takes minutes.

If you're choosing strictly between the two, it usually comes down to whether you value preview-before-credit (ContactOut) or lowest cost per pull (SalesQL). But if deliverability is the KPI that matters, verification-first beats both.

Reddit threads comparing these two are sparse - most community discussion centers on whether either tool's data is accurate enough for cold outbound without external verification. That tells you something.

If you're evaluating similar extensions, you may also want to compare options in our roundup of email scraper Chrome extensions and broader email search tools.

FAQ

Is SalesQL cheaper than ContactOut?

Yes. SalesQL starts at $39/mo for 2,000 credits versus ContactOut's $79/mo Sales plan (6,000 emails/year, roughly ~500/month). On annual billing, SalesQL drops to $29/mo. For pure volume on a budget, SalesQL is the cheaper option in 2026.

Do ContactOut and SalesQL verify emails?

They include some validation signals, but many teams still run exports through a dedicated verifier to keep bounces under 2%. If you're sending cold email at any real volume, plan for a verification layer unless you use a tool that verifies before export.

Can I use ContactOut or SalesQL for free?

Yes, but they're closer to trials than "free forever" for real prospecting. ContactOut gives 40 emails and 3 phone numbers per year, while SalesQL offers 100 credits per month on the free plan. You'll hit limits quickly once you're building lists weekly.

What's a good alternative if I care about accuracy?

For outbound teams optimizing deliverability, Prospeo verifies before you export and delivers 98% email accuracy with 5-step verification including catch-all handling and spam-trap removal. You get 75 free emails/month plus 100 Chrome extension credits, so you can test it against your exact ICP before paying anything.