Head to head
ContactOut vs Explorium
As a data enrichment API, Explorium rates higher on the APIbenchmarks Index, 77.4 to 55, a 22.4-point gap. Here is how they compare on each criterion.
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | ContactOut | Explorium |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | ||
| Reliability | ||
| Ecosystem & SDKs | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| APIbenchmarks Index | 55.0 | 77.4 |
Specifications
| ContactOut | Explorium | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | LinkedIn-based email and phone lookup for recruiters and sales | Agent-driven company and prospect enrichment |
| Free tier | 5 emails, 5 phones, 5 exports/day in the app; API not included | 100 free credits, valid 90 days (not recurring) |
| Pricing | Credits (search, email, phone) on a quoted API plan | Prepaid credit packages |
| Official SDKs | 4 languages | 7 languages |
Is ContactOut better than Explorium?
On the APIbenchmarks Index, Explorium rates higher (77.4 vs 55). It leads on the four weighted criteria, but price is reported separately, so the best choice still depends on your budget.
Verdict in one line
Explorium leads by 22.4 points (77.4 vs 55) and wins 4 of 4 criteria.
Winner by criterion
| Criterion | Winner | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | 70 | 82 | |
| Reliability | 58 | 70 | |
| Ecosystem & SDKs | 50 | 74 | |
| Accessibility | 35 | 84 |
Choose ContactOut if… / choose Explorium if…
- →your use case matches its focus: linkedin-based email and phone lookup for recruiters and sales
- →documentation & dx matters most to you (82 vs 70)
- →reliability matters most to you (70 vs 58)
- →ecosystem & sdks matters most to you (74 vs 50)
- →accessibility matters most to you (84 vs 35)
- →you need broad SDK coverage (7 official SDKs vs 4)
- →your use case matches its focus: agent-driven company and prospect enrichment
Pricing side by side
- Model
- Credits (search, email, phone) on a quoted API plan
- Free tier
- 5 emails, 5 phones, 5 exports/day in the app; API not included
- Free$0
- Email~$49-$99/mo (sources conflict)
- Email + Phone~$99-$199/mo (sources conflict)
- Team / APICustom quote
- Model
- Prepaid credit packages
- Free tier
- 100 free credits, valid 90 days (not recurring)
- Free trial$0
- Lite$29.99
- Starter$149.99
- Growth$749.99
- Scale$7,499.99
- EnterpriseCustom
Vendor-published pricing, verified 2026-10-07 (ContactOut) and 2026-10-07 (Explorium).
SDK and language coverage
Both · 1
REST API (token header auth)
Only ContactOut · 3
Webhooks for async bulk v2Third-party MCP via Composio and viaSocketNo official SDKs or OpenAPI spec found
Only Explorium · 6
OpenAPI specification (/openapi.json)AgentSource MCP server (remote, Bearer auth)explorium-mcp-server (Python, pip)Python MCP SDK, LangGraph and OpenAI implementation guidesllms.txt documentation indexNo first-party REST language SDKs
Strengths and weaknesses
- +Public API reference with auth, endpoint credit rules and per-endpoint rate limits
- +Bulk enrichment up to 1,000 profiles per v2 job with webhook delivery
- +Boolean search, decision-maker and company endpoints plus email and phone verification
- –API is not on self-serve plans; Team/API requires a custom quote
- –Free app plan (5/5/5 per day) does not include API access
- –962 outages tracked by StatusGator over the past year, with a minor outage on the verification date
- +Self-serve free account and public prepaid packages from $29.99, no sales call needed
- +OpenAPI spec and llms.txt published alongside the API reference
- +Documented rate limit (200 queries/min) with X-RateLimit-* headers and Retry-After
- –No public status page or independent uptime history found; 99.999% uptime is a vendor claim
- –No first-party REST language SDKs; Python path uses the generic MCP SDK
- –Free credits are a one-time 100-credit, 90-day grant
ContactOut vs Explorium: questions
- Which has better documentation, ContactOut or Explorium?
- Explorium scores higher on documentation and developer experience: 82 vs 70 out of 100.
- Which is more reliable, ContactOut or Explorium?
- Explorium scores higher on reliability: 70 vs 58 out of 100.
- Do ContactOut and Explorium have a free tier?
- ContactOut: yes (5 emails, 5 phones, 5 exports/day in the app; API not included). Explorium: yes (100 free credits, valid 90 days (not recurring)).
- How are ContactOut and Explorium priced?
- ContactOut: Credits (search, email, phone) on a quoted API plan. Explorium: Prepaid credit packages.
- Which has more official SDKs?
- Explorium lists 7 official SDKs, ContactOut lists 4.