ContactOut vs The Data City: Do These Tools Even Compete?
Someone on your team dropped both these names in a Slack thread, and now you're trying to figure out how they stack up. Here's the reality: comparing ContactOut to The Data City is like comparing a phone book to an economic research database. They don't compete. They don't even share a category.
ContactOut finds emails and phone numbers for sales outreach. The Data City maps UK industries using AI-powered sector classifications. The Data City's actual competitors are Dun & Bradstreet, Beauhurst, Bureau van Dijk, and Glass.AI - not contact-finding tools. Let's break down what each does and which one you actually need.
30-Second Verdict
Need verified emails and phone numbers for outbound? Skip The Data City entirely. ContactOut works, but its pricing opacity and export caps frustrate most teams.
Need UK sector mapping and economic research? The Data City is purpose-built for that. ContactOut won't help you here.
What Is ContactOut?
ContactOut is a contact-finding tool for recruiters and sales reps who need professional emails and direct dials. Its Chrome extension pulls contact details from professional profiles, and a search portal covers 700 million+ profiles for prospecting at scale.
What works:
- Large database (700M+ profiles)
- Chrome extension is solid for one-off lookups
- Free tier gives you 5 emails and 5 phones per day
What doesn't:
- The pricing page shows "Talk to us" instead of actual numbers
- Real pricing runs $99/mo (Email) or $199/mo (Email+Phone), but you won't find that on their site
- "Unlimited" plans have fair-use caps: roughly 91 email lookups per day, about 2,000 emails and 1,000 phones per month
- Exports capped at 300/month on Email, 600 on Email+Phone - no overage options
We've seen Reddit threads raising concerns about granting Outlook access and the domain reputation impact of bounced emails through the platform. Hiding numbers behind a "Talk to us" wall at this price point feels like a tactic, not a feature. If you're trying to protect deliverability, it helps to track your email bounce rate and use proper email reputation tools.
Common ContactOut alternatives include Apollo, Lusha, RocketReach, and Prospeo - tools that actually compete on contact data. If you're evaluating options, start with a shortlist of best email search tools or broader outbound lead generation tools.
What Is The Data City?
The Data City is a Leeds-based, Series A company (Oxford Economics is an investor) that replaces outdated SIC codes with Real-Time Industrial Classifications (RTICs). It covers 9M UK companies across 400+ RTICs, with 90+ data points per company - financials, growth trajectory, funding rounds, and basic contact fields like email, social, and telephone. No caps on company downloads, which is a sharp contrast to ContactOut's export limits. (If what you actually need is company-level datasets, see our guide to B2B company data providers.)
The standout feature is the ML List Builder: feed it example companies or keywords, and it builds a bespoke classification to surface similar firms. Investors use it to map emerging sectors. Policymakers use it to track economic trends. A FinRegTech dataset they built with Innovate Finance found companies in that sector averaging 19% growth - the kind of insight no contact database will ever produce.
Pricing is refreshingly transparent: £8,000/year for a solo seat, £18,000 for a 5-seat team, £30,000 for a 15-seat department. Add-ons like Lightcast Jobs & Skills run £2,000-£8,000 extra, and multi-year contracts get a 10% discount. There's a 7-day free trial with a one-on-one analyst demo. Independent reviewers at the University of Birmingham noted the platform can be complicated to learn given its depth - a fair trade-off for the analytical power.
ContactOut caps exports at 300-600/month and hides pricing behind a "Talk to us" wall. Prospeo gives you 300M+ profiles with 98% email accuracy, a 7-day data refresh cycle, and transparent pricing at ~$0.01 per email. No contracts, no fair-use caps, no guessing.
Run a side-by-side test - your bounce rates will tell the story.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown
| Dimension | ContactOut | The Data City |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Contact-finding tool | Industry intelligence |
| Primary use | Find emails/phones | Map sectors, analyze companies |
| Data type | Professional contacts | Company/industry data |
| Coverage | Global (700M+ profiles) | UK-focused (9M companies) |
| Pricing | $99-$199/mo (gated) | £8K-£30K/year |
| Free tier | 5 emails + 5 phones/day | 7-day free trial |
| Integrations | Salesforce + ATS | Lightcast (jobs/skills) |
| Best for | Sales/recruiting teams | Investors, policymakers |
If you need both contact data and UK industry intelligence, you'd buy one of each. They don't substitute for each other. For teams building repeatable outbound, it’s worth aligning on sales prospecting techniques and a clean lead generation workflow before you add more tools.
Most People Searching This Need Neither
Here's our honest read: if you're comparing these two, you probably need a contact-finding tool and stumbled across The Data City by accident. The Data City is enterprise research software for a niche audience. ContactOut, while functional, makes you jump through hoops just to learn what it costs.
Most outbound teams with deal sizes under £50K don't need either tool's complexity. A self-serve platform with verified data and no pricing games will outperform both for standard prospecting workflows. In our testing, Prospeo's 7-day data refresh cycle consistently produces fresher emails and fewer bounces than databases that update monthly or less - and at roughly $0.01 per lead, there's no "Talk to us" button in sight. If you're tightening performance, track lead generation metrics and improve sender reputation alongside data quality.
The Bottom Line
ContactOut vs The Data City isn't really a comparison at all. They solve completely different problems for completely different buyers.
If you need real-time UK sector mapping for research or investment decisions, The Data City is purpose-built for that job and nothing else comes close in its niche. If you need verified contact data for outbound, skip the pricing runaround. Start with a free tier, run a side-by-side accuracy test against whatever you're using now, and let the bounce rates decide.
Neither ContactOut nor The Data City solves the core outbound problem: reaching real buyers with verified data that doesn't torch your domain. Prospeo's 5-step verification and weekly refresh keep bounce rates under 4% - just ask the 15,000+ teams already using it.
Skip the pricing runaround. 75 free emails, no credit card required.
FAQ
Are ContactOut and The Data City competitors?
No. ContactOut finds emails and phone numbers for outbound sales. The Data City is a UK industry intelligence platform that maps sectors using AI-driven classifications. They serve completely different buyers - sales teams vs. investors and policymakers.
Is The Data City worth the price?
At £8,000-£30,000/year, it's enterprise spend suited for investors and policymakers who need real-time UK sector mapping with 400+ RTICs. If you only need contact data for prospecting, it's the wrong tool entirely.
What's the best ContactOut alternative for email accuracy?
Prospeo delivers 98% email accuracy across 300M+ profiles with a 7-day refresh cycle. The free tier includes 75 emails per month, pricing runs about $0.01 per lead, and it's GDPR compliant with DPAs available - no contracts or sales calls required.