Lusha vs Mattermark: One Shut Down, the Other Has Problems
This comparison doesn't work the way you'd expect. One was a company intelligence platform that shut down in 2017 and sold for less than a million dollars. The other is a contact lookup tool with solid email data and widely-criticized phone numbers. They were never competitors - they served different buying needs entirely.
Here's the thing: if you're searching this comparison, you probably don't need either tool. You need verified contact data for outbound, and both options fail that test for different reasons.
30-Second Verdict
For company intelligence (funding data, growth signals, firmographics): Mattermark's relaunch is unproven. Use Crunchbase or PitchBook.
What Happened to Mattermark
Mattermark launched in 2012 as a company intelligence platform - growth signals, funding rounds, and firmographic data across 80+ fields per company. It raised $17M+ in funding before shutting down in December 2017 and selling to FullContact for under $1M in cash and stock. A company that raised $17M sold for pennies on the dollar.
FullContact absorbed the customer base, pivoted to identity resolution (Resolve and Enrich products - a completely different category), then got acquired by Ziff Davis in Q4 2024. Now mattermark.com claims it has "re-launched as an independent company" with 4M companies and 20M contacts. The data may exist, but provenance is murky after passing through two acquisitions and years of dormancy. Who's behind it, when it relaunched, and whether the data is fresh remain open questions.
Where Lusha Falls Short
Use Lusha if you need a fast, lightweight contact lookup tool. The browser extension is genuinely easy to use, CRM integrations work smoothly, and email data is generally reliable. It carries a 4.3/5 on G2 across 1,600+ reviews, and 2.6M+ users worldwide speaks to real adoption.
Skip Lusha if you need phone numbers at scale. The consensus on r/sales is brutal - one user called the phone data "hot garbage, awful numbers," noting that emails are "most of the time accurate" but mobiles are a different story. G2 review themes echo this: "outdated contacts" and "data inaccuracy" appear repeatedly in negative reviews. We've heard the same from teams who've come to us after burning through Lusha credits on disconnected numbers.
The credit mechanics make bad data expensive. A commonly-cited Pro plan is around $29.90/user/month for 250 credits. Phone reveals cost 10 credits each - that's 25 numbers maximum, assuming you spend zero credits on anything else. When a meaningful chunk of those numbers are disconnected or wrong, you're paying premium prices for dead air.
Lusha charges 10 credits per phone reveal - and users call the numbers "hot garbage." Prospeo's 125M+ verified mobiles hit a 30% pickup rate, and emails land at 98% accuracy on a 7-day refresh cycle. Meritt switched and tripled pipeline from $100K to $300K/week while cutting bounce rates from 35% to under 4%.
Stop burning credits on disconnected numbers.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Mattermark | Lusha | Prospeo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Company intelligence | Contact data | Contact data |
| Database | 4M companies, 20M contacts | 135M+ profiles | 300M+ profiles |
| Starting price | 14-day free trial; $49/user/mo | Free; Pro ~$30/user/mo | Free; ~$0.01/email |
| Key strength | Growth signals, firmographics | Fast email lookups | 98% email accuracy |
| Key weakness | Unproven relaunch | Phone data quality | No company intel features |
| Best for | Company research (if real) | Quick contact lookups | Outbound at scale |
What to Use Instead
Two distinct paths. Mixing them up is how teams waste budget.
For company intelligence, Crunchbase at $49-99/mo is the most direct Mattermark replacement. PitchBook ($12K-70K+/yr) serves enterprise teams needing deeper private market data. The relaunched Mattermark might be worth a 14-day trial, but we wouldn't bet a workflow on it - especially if you rely on firmographic data to drive targeting.
For contact data, the phone number problem is what kills most outbound stacks. Meritt went from 35% bounce rates to under 4% within the first month of switching to Prospeo, and their pipeline tripled from $100K to $300K per week. With 125M+ verified mobile numbers and a 30% pickup rate, it solves the exact phone data problem that plagues Lusha. Apollo ($49-119/user/mo) is a solid runner-up if you want a built-in sequencer. Lusha still works for occasional quick lookups, but at scale, the credit burn and phone data quality make it hard to justify - especially if you’re trying to fix sales pipeline challenges caused by bad data.
Bottom Line
Lusha and Mattermark aren't competitors. They never were. Mattermark was company intelligence that shut down in 2017 and may or may not be back. Lusha is a contact lookup tool that works for emails but struggles with phone data. If you're comparing these two for outbound pipeline, neither is the answer - you need verified contact data with fresh, accurate phone numbers and emails that don't bounce.
If you’re building lists from scratch, it also helps to understand lead enrichment and how it differs from simple lookups.
Mattermark is a question mark. Lusha works for quick email lookups but breaks at scale. If you're building outbound pipeline in 2026, you need 300M+ profiles with 98% email accuracy and verified mobiles - at ~$0.01/email, not $0.12/credit. No contracts, no sales calls.
Replace both tools with one that actually works at scale.
FAQ
Is Mattermark still active in 2026?
Mattermark's website claims it relaunched as an independent company after shutting down in 2017 and being acquired by FullContact for under $1M. It lists 4M companies and offers a 14-day free trial. Details about the relaunch timeline, team, and data freshness are scarce - test carefully before committing budget.
Does Lusha have accurate phone numbers?
Lusha's email data is reliable, but phone number quality is a consistent complaint across Reddit and G2 reviews. Users describe the mobile data as "hot garbage" and "hit or miss depending on region." With phone reveals costing 10 credits each, bad numbers drain your monthly allocation fast.
What's a good free alternative to Lusha?
Prospeo's free tier includes 75 email credits and 100 Chrome extension credits per month - more generous than Lusha's free plan for teams running real outbound. It delivers 98% email accuracy on a 7-day data refresh cycle, compared to the 4-6 week industry average. Apollo also offers a limited free tier worth testing.
What replaced Mattermark for company research?
Crunchbase ($49-99/mo) is the most direct replacement for startup and funding research. PitchBook ($12K-70K+/yr) serves enterprise teams needing deep private market data. CB Insights and Dealroom are other options - company intelligence data is expensive to maintain, which is partly why Mattermark couldn't survive.