7 Derrick Alternatives That Won't Eat Your Credits
B2B contact data decays at roughly 30% per year. If your enrichment tool is also burning credits on failed lookups and clawing back the rest when you cancel, you're losing data from both ends. And if you've already gone looking for Derrick alternatives, you know half the results are oil & gas pipeline software and web scraping APIs. None of that helps you find verified B2B emails.
Derrick does enrichment workflows inside Google Sheets - and the concept is genuinely clever. But the credit economics and billing complaints are pushing teams elsewhere. Here are seven alternatives worth your time, plus a DIY option for the tinkerers.
Our Picks (TL;DR)
| Pick | Best For | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|
| Prospeo | Verified emails + mobiles, no Sheets lock-in | Free; ~$0.01/email |
| Hunter.io | Pure email finding, unlimited users | Free; $49/mo paid |
| Lusha | Quick individual lookups | Free (70 credits/mo) |
What Derrick Does (and Why People Leave)
Derrick is a Google Sheets add-on with modular lead and company workflows - email finding, phone finding, company insights, website/tech lookups, and AI-powered functions - all without leaving your spreadsheet. For Sheets-native workflows, it's genuinely convenient.
The problem isn't the concept. It's the credit math.
Derrick's $9/month Solo plan gives you 4,000 credits. A single phone lookup costs 150 credits, which means roughly 26 phone numbers per month. Email finding runs 5 credits each, so you'd get 800 emails. Phone-heavy teams hit the ceiling fast. In a benchmark test of 100 French corporate leads, Derrick found 93 phone numbers at $0.32 each - competitive on accuracy, but not cheap. That test was run by Derrick's founder, so take the framing with appropriate skepticism.
Derrick offers unused credit rollover while you're subscribed, but multiple Trustpilot reviewers report remaining credits vanish the moment you cancel. The review picture is thin: a 4.0 on Trustpilot from just 11 reviews and a 5.0 on GetApp from only 2 reviews. The complaints that do exist repeat the same patterns: credits removed on cancellation, billing continuing after cancellation, and credits consumed without results paired with slow support.
Quick Comparison Table
| Tool | Starting Price | Best For | Key Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter.io | Free; $49/mo | Email finding | Unlimited users on all plans |
| Lusha | Free (70 credits/mo) | Quick lookups | Simple UI, rollover up to 2x |
| Apollo.io | Free; ~$49/user/mo | All-in-one outbound | Large database + sequences |
| Enrich.so | $20/user/mo | Enrichment workflows | 4.7/5 Capterra (53 reviews) |
| LinkFinder AI | $29/mo | Post-engagement leads | Standalone web app + API |
| Cognism | ~$15K+/year | Enterprise / EU compliance | Phone-verified mobiles, GDPR |
Derrick charges 150 credits for a single phone number. Prospeo gives you 125M+ verified mobiles, 143M+ emails at 98% accuracy, and a 7-day data refresh - all without locking you into Google Sheets. Credits don't vanish when you cancel.
Stop losing credits. Start finding contacts that actually pick up.
Best Enrichment Tools to Replace Derrick
Prospeo
Use this if you need verified emails and direct dials on a platform that isn't chained to Google Sheets - and you want credits that don't disappear when you cancel.
Prospeo's database covers 300M+ professional profiles, 143M+ verified emails, and 125M+ verified mobile numbers. Email accuracy sits at 98%, and in our experience, that number holds up in production across regions and industries - it's not a cherry-picked benchmark. Data refreshes every 7 days, compared to the roughly 6-week cycle most competitors run, so your lists don't go stale between campaigns.
The Chrome extension (40,000+ users) works across company websites, professional profiles, and CRMs - not just inside a spreadsheet. The API delivers a 92% match rate, and native integrations push directly into Salesforce, HubSpot, Lemlist, Instantly, and Clay. No CSV export/import dance.
Here's the thing: Prospeo directly solves the three Derrick pain points that actually matter. No Sheets dependency - you get a standalone platform, API, and extension. The credit policy is transparent, and you keep credits until your billing period ends. At ~$0.01 per email, the unit economics are clear before you commit. Free tier includes 75 emails and 100 Chrome extension credits per month. No contracts.
If you’re comparing broader options beyond Derrick, start with data enrichment services and then narrow down by workflow.
Skip this if you specifically need a Sheets-native add-on and nothing else.
Hunter.io
Use this if your team only needs email finding and you want every seat covered without per-user fees.
Hunter runs unlimited users on every plan - Free through Enterprise. That's unusual and genuinely valuable for growing teams. Starter ($49/mo) gets you 2,000 credits, Growth ($149/mo) bumps to 10,000, and Scale ($299/mo) hits 25,000. Annual billing drops those by about 30%.
We've found Hunter reliable for email-only workflows, and the free tier gives you 50 credits/month to test before committing. The focus is narrow by design: email finding and verification. That's it. If you need phones, pair it with a dedicated mobile finder.
If you want more tools in this category, see our breakdown of Hunter alternatives.
Skip this if phone numbers are a hard requirement.
Lusha
Lusha's free plan offers 70 credits per month, which sounds generous until you look at credit costs. Emails run 1 credit each, but a phone number costs 10 - so that free tier covers either 70 emails or 7 phone numbers. The rollover policy is fair: unused credits accumulate up to 2x your plan limit on monthly plans, and credits remain available until your billing period ends if you cancel. That alone makes it friendlier than Derrick for teams worried about losing credits mid-cycle.
SDRs love the dead-simple UI for quick one-off lookups. But if you're running bulk enrichment, the per-credit cost adds up faster than you'd expect - especially once you start tracking lead enrichment fill rates.
Apollo.io
Apollo bundles database, sequences, dialer, and analytics into one platform. The free tier is surprisingly usable, and paid plans start around $49/user/month, scaling up to roughly $119/user/month for higher tiers. The database covers 275M+ contacts.
Fair warning: Apollo's credit model is also "use it or lose it" for many teams. Credits are commonly treated as monthly and don't roll over, which creates the same pressure that frustrates Derrick users. If you want an all-in-one platform, it's solid. If you just need enrichment, it's more tool than you need.
If you’re building a full outbound stack, it helps to compare it against other SDR tools first.
Enrich.so
Enrich.so starts at $20/user/month and carries a 4.7/5 rating on Capterra across 53 reviews with 100% positive sentiment. A focused enrichment tool without the bloat. Worth a look if you want something lightweight that doesn't try to be your entire sales stack.
LinkFinder AI
LinkFinder AI runs $29/month for its starter plan with 95%+ claimed data accuracy. It's a standalone web app with API access and bulk CSV processing - no Sheets dependency. Still a newer entrant with limited independent validation, so test before committing volume.
If you’re also evaluating scraping-based workflows, compare approaches in our guide to web scraping lead generation.
Cognism
Cognism is enterprise-grade enrichment with phone-verified mobile numbers and strong GDPR compliance. Pricing starts around $15,000/year as a platform fee plus roughly $1,500/user/year for Platinum.
Let's be honest: most teams searching for Derrick app competitors have an ACV under $20K and a team of fewer than five reps. If that's you, Cognism will burn more budget on the contract negotiation than you'll save on better data. Start self-serve, upgrade when the pipeline justifies it.
If you’re moving upmarket, align your process with enterprise B2B sales realities before signing long contracts.
Your enrichment tool shouldn't eat credits on failed lookups. Prospeo's 92% API match rate and 83% enrichment fill rate mean you pay for data that's actually there - at ~$0.01/email with no contracts and no Sheets dependency.
Replace Derrick's credit drain with transparent pricing and better data.
The DIY Option
If you're technically comfortable, there's a growing community building enrichment pipelines with n8n or Make, using Apify for scraping and Icypeas for email finding. Teams frustrated by credit-based pricing at tools like Clay and Airscale are building their own - the consensus on r/SaaS is that basic flows cost $0.01-$0.02 per lead.
The tradeoff is real, though. You're maintaining your own infrastructure, debugging API failures at 11 PM, and handling data quality yourself. Great for tinkerers with time. Not great for teams that need to ship campaigns this week.
If you go DIY, make sure you still have a plan for email deliverability and list hygiene.
How to Pick the Right Tool
Four questions that narrow this down fast:
Sheets-native or standalone? If your entire workflow lives in Google Sheets, Derrick or a DIY add-on makes sense. Otherwise, a standalone platform gives you more flexibility and won't break when Google changes their add-on policies.
Self-serve or enterprise? If you don't want to talk to sales, cross off Cognism immediately.
Credit policy? Check what happens to credits on cancellation. This is the single biggest complaint driving people away from Derrick, and it's the easiest thing to verify before you sign up.
For a tighter outbound motion, pair your tool choice with proven sales prospecting techniques.
FAQ
Is Derrick App free?
Derrick offers a free tier with 200 credits per month, but a single phone lookup costs 150 credits - so the free plan covers roughly one phone number. Email finding at 5 credits each gives you 40 emails. Paid plans start at $9/month.
Does Derrick work outside Google Sheets?
No. Derrick runs exclusively inside Google Sheets. If you need a standalone platform with API access and CRM integrations, tools like Prospeo, Apollo, and LinkFinder AI all work independently.
What happens to Derrick credits after cancellation?
Multiple Trustpilot reviewers report that Derrick removes all remaining credits immediately upon cancellation. By contrast, Lusha lets you keep credits until your billing period ends, and Prospeo maintains transparent credit policies with no surprise clawbacks.
Which Derrick alternative has the best email accuracy?
Prospeo delivers 98% verified email accuracy across 143M+ emails, backed by a 7-day data refresh cycle. Most competitors refresh on roughly a 6-week cycle, which means more bounces accumulate between updates. For teams where deliverability directly impacts pipeline, that gap matters.