SalesQL vs SourceScrub: Honest Comparison (2026)
Comparing SalesQL to SourceScrub is like comparing a pocket knife to a backhoe. SalesQL is a browser extension for pulling emails and phone numbers from professional profiles, with paid plans starting at $39/month. SourceScrub is a PE deal sourcing platform that tracks 17M private companies and typically runs $15K-$60K+/year on an annual contract. They don't compete. They don't even share a buyer persona.
What Is SalesQL?
SalesQL is a browser extension that grabs emails and phone numbers directly from professional profile pages. Pricing tiers run Free (50 credits/mo), Starter ($39/mo), Professional ($79/mo), and Organization ($119/mo for up to 15 seats), making it one of the cheapest contact extractors on the market. Over 150,000 professionals across 189 countries use it, and it holds a 4.5/5 on G2 with 166 reviews.
Here's the thing, though. Its Capterra score sits at 3.8/5 across 46 reviews, and at least one reviewer there estimates 20-30% of emails marked "verified" fail third-party checks. On Reddit, SalesQL typically gets compared to tools like Apollo - not deal sourcing platforms - which tells you exactly where it sits in the market.
What Is SourceScrub?
SourceScrub crawls 290,000+ sources to surface 17M companies and 1.5B unique data points, with a strong focus on bootstrapped and founder-owned businesses that traditional databases miss entirely. It holds a 4.5/5 on G2 with 56 reviews, and 35 of the top 40 PE firms use it. The platform also publishes customer-reported outcomes from a 2024 UserEvidence survey: +50% direct sourcing, +36.8% deal pipeline, and +51.7% research productivity.
Pricing is quote-based across three tiers - Discovery Essentials, Sourcing Plus, and Winning - and you should expect $15K-$60K+/year depending on modules and seats. Critics note the discovery signals can lean on static lists like conference attendees, and the UI has a steep learning curve. We've seen firsthand that SourceScrub's email data is clearly a secondary feature; the platform's real value is company discovery, not contact accuracy.
SalesQL emails bounce 20-30%. SourceScrub users report 15% bounce rates. Prospeo's 5-step proprietary verification delivers 98% email accuracy with a 7-day data refresh - so you never sequence stale contacts that tank your domain reputation.
Stop paying for emails that bounce. Start with 75 free verified contacts.
Side-by-Side Feature Comparison
| SalesQL | SourceScrub | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Contact finder | PE deal sourcing |
| Target buyer | SDRs, recruiters | PE, corp dev, IB |
| Pricing | $0-$119/mo | ~$15K-$60K+/yr |
| Data type | Emails & phones | Companies & signals |
| G2 rating | 4.5/5 (166 reviews) | 4.5/5 (56 reviews) |
| Key strength | Cheap, fast extraction | Private company depth |
| Key weakness | Email accuracy gaps | Steep price + learning curve |
The Real Problem: Contact Data Accuracy
These tools fail in different places, but they share one risk: contact data quality.
SourceScrub users on Reddit describe the email data bluntly - "a lot of the emails are wrong." A practitioner roundup on SourceCoDeals pegged email bounce rates as high as 15%. On G2, "Data Inaccuracy" is the single most-mentioned negative tag with 13 appearances. That's rough for a platform at this price point.
SalesQL hits the same wall from a different angle. One Capterra reviewer estimates 20-30% of emails marked "verified" fail third-party checks. That's a painful discovery when you've already loaded a sequence and your domain reputation is tanking.
Let's be honest: for most outbound teams, the extraction tool matters far less than the verification layer behind it. A 98% accurate email from a platform with proprietary verification infrastructure beats a "verified" email that bounces 15-30% of the time. Every time.
Which Tool Do You Actually Need?
Your choice depends entirely on what you're building.
PE deal sourcing intelligence - go with SourceScrub, and evaluate Grata and PitchBook alongside it. This is a specialized category with specialized pricing. Skip SalesQL entirely here; it won't help you find companies.
Budget contact extraction from professional profiles - SalesQL works for this, but plan to run every email through a separate email verifier before sequencing. The credits are cheap. The re-work from bounces isn't.
Verified B2B contact data for outbound - this is where we'd point you to Prospeo. 300M+ profiles, 98% email accuracy, 125M+ verified mobiles, and a free tier that starts at 75 verified emails/month with no credit card required. Teams like Meritt saw bounce rates drop from 35% to under 4% after switching - that's what a proprietary 5-step verification pipeline actually changes in practice. Data refreshes every 7 days versus the 6-week industry average, so you're not sequencing stale contacts that wreck your sender reputation.
If you're building a broader outbound stack, it also helps to map this decision against your SDR tools and your sales prospecting techniques.
Why pay $15K+/year for SourceScrub's unreliable emails or gamble on SalesQL's unverified extractions? Prospeo gives you 300M+ profiles, 125M+ verified mobiles, and 98% email accuracy at roughly $0.01 per lead - no contracts, no sales calls.
Meritt cut bounce rates from 35% to under 4%. Your outbound deserves the same.
FAQ
Do SalesQL and SourceScrub actually compete?
No. SalesQL finds contact info from professional profiles for sales and recruiting teams. SourceScrub is a deal sourcing platform for private equity firms. Different buyers, different budgets, different jobs. The only overlap is that both databases contain some email addresses - but that's like saying a gas station and an oil refinery compete because they both handle fuel.
Which has better email accuracy?
Neither excels here. SourceScrub users cite bounce rates up to 15%, and SalesQL has Capterra feedback indicating 20-30% of "verified" emails fail third-party checks. For reliable outbound, run contacts through a dedicated verification tool or use a platform with built-in verification at 98%+ accuracy.
What's the cheapest way to get verified B2B contact data?
Prospeo offers 75 free verified emails per month at 98% accuracy. Paid plans run roughly $0.01 per email with no contracts and no sales calls required - significantly cheaper than SourceScrub's five-figure annual commitment and more reliable than SalesQL's unverified extractions.