PursueApp vs SalesQL: They Do Different Jobs - Here's What to Buy
Comparing PursueApp vs SalesQL is like comparing a mailbox to a phone book. One sends emails. The other finds contact data. They sit at completely different stages of your outbound workflow, and picking between them misses the point - you probably need both, and you definitely need better data underneath them.
30-Second Verdict
- Pick SalesQL if your bottleneck is finding emails and phone numbers from professional profiles. It's a credit-based contact-sourcing tool with a Chrome extension and solid business email coverage.
- Pick PursueApp if you need a bare-bones cold email sender on a shoestring budget. Sequences, triggers, and built-in verification (100 addresses on the $19/mo plan).
- Skip both if stale data is tanking your deliverability. Pair a dedicated verification layer with any sender and your bounce rate drops overnight.
These Tools Do Different Jobs
SalesQL is a contact-finding tool. You browse professional profiles, click the Chrome extension, and it pulls back work emails and sometimes phone numbers. You pay in credits - one credit reveals work emails, direct emails, and phone numbers for one profile. It doesn't send a single email.
PursueApp is a cold email platform. You import contacts from a CSV or Zapier, build sequences with triggers, and send campaigns through Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, or any SMTP provider. It doesn't find contacts for you.
The workflow makes sense together: source with SalesQL, send with PursueApp. Cold email runs $0.01-$0.05 per contact at scale, so splitting the stack is fine if each piece works. The real question is whether each piece actually works well enough.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | SalesQL | PursueApp | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary function | Contact finding | Cold email sending | Depends on need |
| Email finding | Yes (70-80% hit rate) | No | SalesQL |
| Phone finding | Yes (~10-20% of profiles) | No | SalesQL |
| Email sending | No | Yes (sequences + triggers) | PursueApp |
| Verification | Email validation exists, but accuracy is inconsistent | Built-in verification, limited by plan | Neither - use a dedicated tool |
| Chrome extension | Yes | No | SalesQL |
| Integrations | Zapier, CSV, API | Zapier + CSV; connects to Gmail/Workspace, Outlook/Exchange, SMTP | Tie |
| API access | Yes (600 calls/day on monthly plans) | - | SalesQL |
Here's the thing: SalesQL's email validation has been called "completely inaccurate" by reviewers on Software Advice, and PursueApp's verification is too lightweight for serious volume. Neither tool solves data quality on its own. We'd run every contact through an external verifier before loading a single sequence (see email verification alternatives if you're comparing tools).
SalesQL's validation has been called 'completely inaccurate' by reviewers. PursueApp's verification caps at 1,000 emails. Prospeo delivers 98% email accuracy across 143M+ verified addresses on a 7-day refresh cycle - at roughly $0.01 per email. It's the data layer that makes your entire sourcing-and-sending stack actually work.
Stop gambling your domain reputation on unverified contacts.
Pricing Breakdown
SalesQL runs on credits - one credit pulls emails and phone data for one profile.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per mo) | Credits | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 100 | 1 |
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2,000 (24K/yr) | 1 |
| Professional | $79 | $59 | 5,000 (60K/yr) | 3 |
| Organization | $119 | $89 | 12,000 (144K/yr) | 15 |
Current pricing on salesql.com
PursueApp runs on daily send limits and lead caps.
| Plan | Price | Daily emails | Leads | Users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elite Monthly | $19/mo | 100 | 500 | 1 |
| Elite Yearly | $67/yr | 3,000 | 5,000 | 2 |
The yearly plan isn't just cheaper - it's 30x the daily send volume, 10x the leads, and unlocks multi-trigger support plus more campaigns, more mailout accounts, and more included verifications. That's an unusual jump. Elite Monthly includes verification for 100 addresses, while Elite Yearly bumps that to 1,000 verified emails, 5 mailout accounts, up to 15 campaigns, and snippet support.
A solo user running both pays $58/mo (SalesQL Basic + PursueApp Monthly) for a basic sourcing-and-sending stack. Cheap - if the data holds up.
Risks and Gotchas
SalesQL holds 4.5/5 across 166 G2 reviews but drops to 3.8/5 on Software Advice - support scores just 3.3/5. One reviewer wrote: "Refund was not possible... they blocked me and my account." Test the free tier thoroughly before committing. On Reddit, recruiters call SalesQL "cheap and effective" for profile-based sourcing - one noted it outperformed Seamless.AI in a head-to-head test - but the consensus is to always validate emails externally (more on email bounce rate and why it spikes).
PursueApp has essentially zero review footprint. No G2 reviews. An empty Capterra profile. The parent company, Teknikforce, ships a large catalog of marketing tools, but Woodpecker's review flags the site as "outdated and salesy." Not a death sentence, but a yellow flag. If you're spending real money on outbound, we'd want to see more social proof than this.
Look - if your average deal size is under $5K, PursueApp's $19/mo tier is honestly fine for sending. But I wouldn't trust either tool's built-in verification with my domain reputation. The cost of a burned domain dwarfs any subscription savings (and if you're troubleshooting, start with an email deliverability guide before changing tools).
Better Data Makes Either Tool Work
The most common failure in cold outbound isn't the sender or the sourcing tool. It's bad data creating bounces that torch your domain. We've seen this pattern dozens of times: a team buys a perfectly good sender, loads unverified contacts, and watches their inbox placement crater within two weeks.
Prospeo covers 300M+ profiles with 143M+ verified emails at 98% accuracy on a 7-day refresh cycle. At roughly $0.01 per email, it's the verification layer that makes any sender actually perform. Meritt tripled their pipeline from $100K to $300K/week after switching - bounce rates dropped from 35% to under 4%. The free tier gives you 75 emails and 100 Chrome extension credits to test before committing anything (pair this with lead enrichment if you're standardizing fields).
Meritt ran the same playbook - source contacts, load sequences, send. After switching to Prospeo's verified data, their bounce rate dropped from 35% to under 4% and pipeline tripled to $300K/week. Same team, same sender, better data underneath.
Your sender isn't the problem. Your data is. Fix it for free.
Other Alternatives Worth Knowing
If neither PursueApp nor SalesQL fits, Apollo.io is the most popular all-in-one alternative - 210M+ contacts with built-in sequencing, so you get sourcing and sending in one platform. Free tier available; paid plans start around $49/mo (if you're evaluating stacks, compare against other outbound lead generation tools too).
Lusha and RocketReach offer similar contact-finding at different price points. Lusha typically starts around $30+/mo, RocketReach around $40+/mo. UpLead focuses on technographic filters and typically starts around $70+/mo. For teams that need volume and accuracy without enterprise pricing, Prospeo's self-serve model and credit-based pricing tend to be the most cost-effective option in this tier (see more data enrichment services if you're combining sources).
FAQ
Why do I see different SalesQL credit numbers online?
SalesQL updated its plans in recent years. Legacy plans stay active until canceled but can't be restored after switching. The current pricing page is the only reliable source - ignore outdated blog screenshots.
Does SalesQL include phone numbers on the free plan?
No. Phone numbers require a paid plan, and even then SalesQL retrieves mobiles for only ~10-20% of profiles. If direct dials are critical, Prospeo's mobile finder covers 125M+ verified numbers with a 30% pickup rate - significantly higher coverage.