Comparison · Pricing checked October 2026

LeadMerlin vs PhantomBuster

Both can help you build lead lists, but they are different kinds of tools. PhantomBuster is a cloud automation platform (“Phantoms”) for scraping and outreach. 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 PhantomBuster for: Growth teams automating LinkedIn and other social platforms who also want some Maps data.

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	PhantomBuster	LeadMerlin
Focus	Multi-platform automation	Local business leads + enrichment
Google Maps export	Yes, CSV	Yes, JSON + CSV
Proxy needed for location	Recommended	No
Email verification label	Not listed	Included
Phone line type + carrier	Not listed	Main number, within a monthly allowance (1,000–4,000)

Pricing checked October 2026. “Not listed” means we could not find it on PhantomBuster’s public pages — it may still exist.

What PhantomBuster is

PhantomBuster runs cloud automations across platforms like LinkedIn and Google Maps. Its Google Maps Search Export automation exports search results to CSV.

Google Maps Search Export scrapes a Google Maps search into a CSV with contact, social media and website data from each location, and runs on 1 slot. [2]
PhantomBuster recommends a proxy near your target location, because Google Maps results vary by location. [2]

PhantomBuster pricing

Subscription plans priced by execution time, automation slots and credits. We could not load the official pricing page, so we do not quote prices — check phantombuster.com/pricing. [1]

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 PhantomBuster is better

Automations across many platforms, especially LinkedIn.
Multi-step workflows that chain scraping and outreach.

Where LeadMerlin is better

Owner extraction, email verification labels and tech stack on every lead, plus phone line type within a monthly allowance.
No proxies or browser sessions to manage — location targeting is a location code.
Credits only for enriched businesses; off-niche and website-less listings are free.

Choose PhantomBuster if…

LinkedIn and social automation are your main channels.
You want one tool for many platform automations.

Choose LeadMerlin if…

Local business leads are the main thing you need.
You want enrichment and verification without building workflows.
You drive lead gen from an AI agent or code.

Sources

Checked on 2026-10-18. Competitor pricing and features change often — confirm on phantombuster.com before deciding. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.

Shopping around? See our PhantomBuster alternative page.

More comparisons

Try LeadMerlin free.

Your first 100 enriched leads are free. No credit card. Run it from the dashboard, the API, or your AI agent.

Start free Read the API docs