PeopleDB
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ContactOut Alternative

Contact enrichment
built for APIs, not browsers.

ContactOut is a recruiter tool: a Chrome extension, a search portal, and plans priced per user per month. PeopleDB is an API. Pass in a LinkedIn or GitHub identifier, get back emails and phone numbers. No browser required, no seats, no monthly caps.

Get 10 free credits → No card required.

ContactOut vs. PeopleDB

ContactOut PeopleDB
Product shape Chrome extension + search portal API
Pricing model $49–$99 per user / month Pay per lookup, 15¢ down to 6¢
Getting an API key Book a meeting with sales Self-serve, about 2 minutes
API pricing Not published Published on /pricing
Monthly volume caps Fair-use cap: 2,000 emails / mo None; buy exactly what you need
Credits Reset monthly Never expire
LinkedIn lookup Yes Yes
GitHub lookup No Yes
Phone numbers Yes (higher tier) Yes
Free tier 5 emails / day 10 credits, no card
Built for Recruiters and sales teams Developers

ContactOut details verified from their public pricing page, terms, and API documentation on August 27, 2026. Their lineup changes; check their site for current numbers. The 2,000-email cap is the fair-use limit their terms apply to "unlimited" plans.

Looking for the ContactOut API?

ContactOut does have an API, and the documentation is public. It covers LinkedIn enrichment, people search, company data, and email verification. If you need those things and you're happy to go through a sales process, it may serve you well.

What it doesn't have is a published price or a self-serve key. The API tier on their pricing page says "Contact us", and the docs tell you to book a meeting to get a key. That's a fine model for enterprise contracts. It's a poor fit if you want to test an endpoint this afternoon.

PeopleDB takes the opposite position: the API reference is public, pricing is published down to the cent, and a new account has a working API key and 10 free credits before a sales call could even be scheduled. The API is narrower on purpose: one endpoint that resolves a LinkedIn or GitHub identifier to emails, phones, and social profiles, and one that verifies email addresses over SMTP.

When PeopleDB makes more sense

You're building a pipeline, not clicking through profiles
ContactOut is optimized for a recruiter sitting in LinkedIn, revealing contacts one profile at a time. If you're enriching a list, running a background job, or building an internal tool, you need an API with a key you can get today, not a browser extension with an API behind a sales call.
You don't want to pay for seats or lose unused volume
ContactOut's self-serve plans are priced per user per month, with monthly export caps and a fair-use ceiling on "unlimited" emails. If your usage is bursty (heavy one week, nothing the next), a subscription charges you either way. PeopleDB bills per successful lookup, the key is shared, and credits sit there until you need them.
You have GitHub identifiers to work with
If your data starts with a GitHub username or ID, ContactOut won't help; its inputs are LinkedIn profiles and its search portal. PeopleDB resolves contact information directly from a GitHub login. Useful for developer tools, open source outreach, or any pipeline that starts with a commit. (Here's how hard that problem actually is.)

When ContactOut is the better fit

Fair is fair. If you're a recruiter who lives inside LinkedIn all day, ContactOut's extension, search portal, and email campaigns are built for exactly that, and a flat monthly price for steady high volume can beat per-lookup billing. If you need people search by filters (title, company, location) rather than lookups by identifier, that's their territory too; PeopleDB doesn't do discovery, only resolution. Choose by where your workflow starts: a search box, or a database column full of identifiers.

The API

GET /api/v1/people 
# A lookup ContactOut can't do: start from a GitHub login
curl "https://peopledb.co/api/v1/people?github_login=wycats" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

// ←
{
  "github_login": "wycats",
  "linkedin_public_identifier": "yehuda-katz-…",
  "email_addresses": ["wycats@…"],
  "personal_email_addresses": ["wycats@…"],
  "work_email_addresses": [],
  "phone_numbers": []
}

Common questions

Does ContactOut have an API?

Yes, with public documentation covering LinkedIn enrichment, people search, and email verification. Getting a key requires booking a meeting with their team, and API pricing isn't published (verified August 27, 2026).

How much does the ContactOut API cost?

They don't say publicly. The API tier reads "Contact us". PeopleDB's equivalent answer fits in one line: 15¢ per lookup at the smallest tier, 6¢ at volume, only charged when a lookup returns an email.

Can I migrate gradually?

There's nothing to migrate. PeopleDB is an HTTP endpoint with 10 free credits attached; run it next to whatever you use today and compare results on your own data before spending anything.

What does PeopleDB not do?

Discovery. There's no search portal, no filters, no list building, no campaigns, no extension. You bring an identifier; it returns the contact record. If you need to find people rather than resolve them, pair it with a discovery tool or use ContactOut.
Pricing
100 credits — $15 (15¢ / lookup)
500 credits — $60 (12¢ / lookup)
2,000 credits — $200 (10¢ / lookup)
10,000 credits — $750 (7.5¢ / lookup)
50,000 credits — $3,000 (6¢ / lookup)
Get started → 10 free credits. No card required.

Comparing more tools? See the seven-vendor round-up, or the head-to-heads: vs. Clearbit, vs. Apollo, and vs. Hunter.