Apollo vs Lusha vs ContactOut: Candidate Email Finder Costs

Apollo, Lusha and ContactOut all sell access to candidate emails and phone numbers, but they bill in three different ways. As of September 2026, Apollo Basic costs $49 per seat per month on annual billing for 30,000 credits a year, Lusha starts at $49.90 a month for 400 credits, and ContactOut sells a flat $49 or $99 a month with a hard cap behind the word "unlimited".

None of them can find every candidate. The right pick depends on how many emails and phone numbers you reveal each month and how many people on your team need access. This post compares what each vendor publishes, with the arithmetic shown.

Which tool is cheapest per candidate email?

Apollo is cheapest per credit on list price, Lusha costs more per credit than Apollo, and ContactOut is a flat monthly price for one user. All prices below are list prices as of the dates shown, and several of the pricing write-ups come from competing vendors.

Apollo Basic on annual billing is $49 x 12 = $588 a year for 30,000 credits, or $0.0196 per credit (FullEnrich, 28 September 2026; Saleshandy, 12 October 2026). Lusha Starter on yearly billing is $37.45 x 12 = $449.40 for 4,800 credits a year (28 September 2026), or about $0.094 per credit. ContactOut Email + Phone is $99 a month (28 September 2026). If you used all of its 3,000 monthly credits ($99 / 3,000), that is about $0.033 per reveal, still above Apollo's $0.0196.

Apollo's phone figure of 8 credits comes from FullEnrich and Saleshandy. Apollo's own credits page says every verified number costs the same, whether mobile, direct or office extension.

How much does each tool cost for a recruiter revealing 300 emails and 100 phone numbers a month?

For that volume, Apollo Basic needs 1,100 credits a month and costs $588 a year per seat. Lusha's entry cards do not cover it, and ContactOut is $99 a month. This is arithmetic on list prices, not a test, and it assumes every lookup finds a contact.

• Apollo: 300 emails x 1 credit + 100 phones x 8 credits = 1,100 credits a month, or 13,200 a year. Basic includes 30,000 a year, so one seat fits with room to spare. Cost: $588 a year per seat on annual billing.
• Lusha: 300 x 1 + 100 x 5 = 800 credits a month. That is above the 400 on Starter and the 600 on Pro's entry card. The default Premium card has 3,400 credits a month at $399.90 monthly or $299.95 yearly. Pro and Premium also have credit sliders that raise the price, and the sliders' prices are not listed in the pricing write-ups cited here.
• ContactOut: 300 emails and 100 phones sit well inside the 2,000 and 1,000 monthly caps. Email + Phone is $99 a month, or $1,188 a year on monthly billing.

Add seats and the picture changes. Apollo's cost multiplies by seat. ContactOut self-serve is one user per company, so a team goes through sales. Lusha Pro includes two seats and Premium five.

What does "unlimited" mean at ContactOut?

It means 2,000 email credits and 1,000 phone credits per account per month. ContactOut's terms, section 10, set that limit unless you sign a separate agreement.

The pricing page tooltips only say unlimited use is "subject to our fair use policy", according to FullEnrich. The same source reports export caps of 300 a month on Email and 600 on Email + Phone, and says ContactOut does not publish what happens when you hit a cap. ContactOut's API is quoted by sales: the same source says a missed lookup on the API still costs one search credit.

ContactOut also shows a cheaper regional price for some visitors. Overloop reports $49 for Email + Phone without US and UK data, and FullEnrich says the exclusion also covers Canada. For a US-focused recruiter, that cheaper view is not the plan to buy.

How do Apollo credits and Lusha credits actually behave?

Apollo credits are pooled, granted upfront and expire at the end of the cycle. Lusha credits are cheaper to hold on monthly plans because unused ones roll over, up to a limit.

Apollo says it never charges more than 1 credit per contact for email and only charges for addresses it can verify. Its pricing FAQ says credits are pooled across the team, that purchased add-on credits expire too, and that downgrades take effect immediately with no refund for unused time. All seats on an account must be on the same plan. FullEnrich also reports that third-party waterfall lookups inside Apollo typically cost 8 to 25 credits for a phone number, so the 8-credit price is a floor.

On Lusha, revealing an email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 5, and re-viewing a contact you already revealed is free. Its docs say monthly plans roll unused credits over up to 2x the monthly allowance, annual plans get the full year upfront, and upgrading starts a new cycle with previous credits not carried over. Lusha's Workspace waterfall charges 0 credits for a not-found result, but an API request with no results costs at least 1 credit.

Which tool fits recruiters and agencies best?

ContactOut and Lusha both market directly to recruiters, while Apollo describes itself as a sales intelligence platform with a database of 240M contacts and 30M companies (company claim). That difference is about positioning, not proven fit. No independent hit-rate test for candidates is cited here.

If you run a small agency on a staffing ATS, check the integration list for your system before you commit. For the wider tool stack, see the HR tech stack a 100-person startup needs and Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby. Staffing ATS and CRM tools are in the same market as Sortinghat, which is why this post carries the disclosure.

Where do these tools get their data, and what is the legal risk?

Each vendor describes its sourcing differently, and the legal duty to send compliant outreach sits with you, not the vendor. The FTC says CAN-SPAM makes no exception for business-to-business email and sets penalties of up to $53,088 for each violating email.

Lusha's data sources page says it combines data shared by community members (email headers and signature blocks), affiliates, licensed third parties and public sources. It also says it completes email addresses from standard corporate email patterns, and that Lusha Systems Inc. is registered with the California Data Broker Registry. ContactOut says it scans the internet and claims GDPR and CCPA compliance. These are company statements.

The FTC lists the CAN-SPAM basics: accurate header information, a non-deceptive subject line, a clear ad disclosure, a valid postal address, an opt-out explanation, and honouring opt-outs within 10 business days. The FTC also says you cannot contract away responsibility by hiring another company to send. Whether a given job-outreach message counts as "commercial" under the law is a question for your counsel.

For EU and UK candidates, Recruitly's guidance says to publish a privacy notice, to have a data processing agreement with any third-party tool that holds candidate data, and to answer access requests within 30 days. That is vendor guidance, not a regulator's position. Get legal advice before you run EU outreach.

What should you check before you buy?

Check the miss rule, the cap, the seat limit and the contract term, because those drive the real cost. The same issues come up in hidden fees in HR software contracts.

1. Count credits, not dollars. Apollo charges 8 credits per phone number and Lusha 5, so phone-heavy work uses credits fast.
2. Ask what a miss costs. Apollo charges only for emails it can verify. Lusha's API charges at least 1 credit for an empty response. ContactOut's in-app rule is not published.
3. Check expiry. Apollo credits do not roll over. Lusha annual plans get the full year upfront with no monthly reset, and monthly rollover stops at 2x.
4. Check seats. Apollo bills per seat. ContactOut self-serve is one user per company. Lusha tiers bundle two or five seats.
5. Test on your own roles. Reveal a sample of 20 to 30 candidates for roles you actually fill, using the free plans, before paying. Compare how many emails come back and how many bounce.
6. Read the terms for resale limits. Apollo's plans are for internal use only.

If you also pay for LinkedIn, see LinkedIn Recruiter vs Indeed vs ZipRecruiter for how sourcing budgets compare.

What's still unclear?

The biggest gap is accuracy. Every accuracy and size figure in this comparison is a vendor claim, and this post cites no independent hit-rate or bounce-rate test for candidates.

• ContactOut's size: its own pages disagree, with 800M profiles on the data page and 700million+ on the pricing page.
• Apollo's plan names: Apollo's FAQ lists Free, Basic, Professional and Custom, while FullEnrich and Saleshandy report an Organization plan at $119 per seat with a 3-seat minimum.
• Pricing sources: the vendors' pricing pages do not print every dollar figure in text form, so the prices here come from write-ups by FullEnrich, Overloop, Saleshandy and Emailchaser. Several of them sell competing products. Confirm on each vendor's pricing page before buying.
• Lusha slider pricing: the cost of raising Pro or Premium credits above the default card was not available.
• Weakest point of this comparison: the 300-email scenario assumes every lookup returns a contact. Real costs depend on coverage for your roles and regions, which only a trial on your own searches can show.

Last checked: 15 October 2026.