Comparison · Pricing checked October 2026
LeadMerlin vs Outscraper
Both can help you build lead lists, but they are different kinds of tools. Outscraper is a pay-as-you-go Google Maps scraper with add-on enrichment. LeadMerlin is a live local-business search with a full enrichment pipeline on every lead, built to be called from an API or an AI agent.
Verdict
Pick Outscraper for: Teams that want raw Google Maps data at volume and will run their own enrichment steps.
Pick LeadMerlin for: enriched local business leads — owner names, labelled emails, phone line types and tech stack — at one price per lead.
Side by side
| Feature | Outscraper | LeadMerlin |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Pay-as-you-go credits (reported) | Monthly plans, 100 free leads to start |
| Google Maps listings | Yes | Yes, live at search time |
| Emails from websites | Separate task | Included on every lead |
| Email verification label | Add-on (reported) | Included (verified / catch-all / invalid / unverified) |
| Phone line type + carrier | Phone lookup add-on (reported) | Main number, within a monthly allowance (1,000–4,000) |
| Owner name extraction | Not listed | Included when the website states it |
| Tech stack detection | Reported as a separate service; we could not confirm on their site | Included (from crawled pages) |
| Agent skill file | Not listed | Yes |
Pricing checked October 2026. “Not listed” means we could not find it on Outscraper’s public pages — it may still exist.
What Outscraper is
Outscraper is a pay-as-you-go platform for scraping Google Maps and other sources, with emails & contacts and verification sold as separate tasks.
- Google Maps search scraping, plus an Emails & Contacts scraper that finds emails, phones and social links from business domains. [3]
- Optional add-ons reported to include email verification, phone lookup and company insights. [2]
- Reported: REST API with SDKs and webhook support. [3]
Outscraper pricing
- Reported free tier of 500 Google Maps records, then about $3 per 1,000 records (dropping to about $1 per 1,000 above 100k). [1]
- Reported: the headline per-1,000 rate covers raw listings; email finding, verification and other enrichment are separate paid tasks. [2]
- Reported: pay-as-you-go prepaid credits, no monthly fee. [3]
LeadMerlin pricing
- Free — $0, 100 leads to start
- Starter — $39/mo ($29/mo yearly), 10,000 leads/mo
- Pro — $49/mo ($39/mo yearly), 20,000 leads/mo
- Agency — $97/mo ($79/mo yearly), 50,000 leads/mo
- That works out to about $1.94–$3.90 per 1,000 enriched leads at full plan usage, with the full pipeline on every lead.
How LeadMerlin credits work
- 1 lead credit per business that has a website to enrich.
- Listings without a website are never charged (counted as skipped, not returned in results).
- Off-niche listings removed by the niche filter are never charged.
- Failed enrichments are refunded automatically.
- A search charges only what your balance covers: with 40 credits left, it enriches the 40 top-ranked matches. Set max_leads to cap any search.
- Locations, niche suggestions, polling and demo endpoints are free.
- Phone line-type lookups have a monthly allowance: 100 on the free start, 1,000 Starter, 2,000 Pro, 4,000 Agency. Numbers looked up before are free. Past the allowance, phones still come back without a line type.
Where Outscraper is better
- Pay-as-you-go with no subscription — good for occasional, one-off pulls.
- Broad catalogue of other scrapers (reviews and other Google data) beyond lead lists.
- Mature platform for very high volumes of raw listings.
Where LeadMerlin is better
- One price per lead covers the whole pipeline — crawl, email verification, phone line type, tech stack and owner extraction — instead of separate tasks.
- LLM niche filter drops keyword-coincidence listings before you are charged.
- Built to be driven by AI agents: a ready-made skill file plus a demo API with no key.
Choose Outscraper if…
- You only need raw listings or reviews and no enrichment.
- Your usage is irregular and you would rather prepay credits than subscribe.
- You need data sources LeadMerlin does not cover.
Choose LeadMerlin if…
- You want owner names, verified emails and phone line types in the same result, not as add-on jobs.
- You work from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or an automation tool and want one API call flow.
- You prefer a predictable monthly plan.
Sources
- https://us.fitgap.com/products/017023/outscraper
- https://syncgtm.com/blog/outscraper-review-2026
- https://thegtmdirectory.com/tools/outscraper/md
Checked on 2026-10-18. Competitor pricing and features change often — confirm on outscraper.com before deciding. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
Shopping around? See our Outscraper alternative page.
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Your first 100 enriched leads are free. No credit card. Run it from the dashboard, the API, or your AI agent.