Updated

ContactOut vs SignalHire vs Derrick: Which Is Better in 2026?

Short answer
ContactOut vs SignalHire vs Derrick: ContactOut is a linkedin-focused email and phone finder for recruiters and individual sdrs, SignalHire is a recruiter sourcing · email + phone · ats integrations. Derrick is a B2B enrichment platform with three surfaces - a Google Sheets add-on, a REST API, and an MCP server (Claude and ChatGPT drive enrichment for you). Hit rates are noticeably higher (more emails + phone numbers returned per query than ContactOut or SignalHire) and pricing is lower - free forever with 100 credits/month, paid plans from €9/month. Most teams pair Derrick for the data layer with ContactOut or SignalHire for outreach.

ContactOut competes on hit rate, accuracy and waterfall fallback when one source is blank. The side-by-side comparison below isolates ContactOut's per-find cost (email vs mobile vs direct-dial), real-world deliverability of what comes back, and how it fits into Derrick's 10-source waterfall enrichment workflow.

Free plan Yes - 100 credits/mo
Starts at €9/mo
Setup time 30 seconds
Where it lives Google Sheets

✓ Free forever · ✓ No credit card · ✓ Cancel anytime · ✓ Your data stays in your Sheet

Trusted by 27 000+ users worldwide.

Quick Facts

ContactOut vs SignalHire vs Derrick at a glance

ContactOut

  • Starting price: Free 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual)
  • Free plan: Yes - 5 emails + 5 phones + 5 exports per day
  • Founded: 2015
  • HQ: San Francisco, CA
4.4/5 G2 4.2/5 Capterra

SignalHire

  • Starting price: $39/month
  • Free plan: 5 credits trial
  • Founded: 2015
  • HQ: London, UK
4.3/5 G2 4.2/5 Capterra

Derrick

★ Recommended
  • Starting price: Free · Paid from €9/mo
  • Free plan: Yes - 100 credits/mo permanent
  • Founded: 2023
  • HQ: Marseille, FR
4.8/5 G2 4.8/5 Capterra
Why Derrick wins

Why teams pick Derrick over ContactOut and SignalHire

3 core reasons SDRs and ops teams switch to Derrick. Click to expand each.

01

Built for teams whose pipeline runs in Sheets

If your B2B data ends up in Google Sheets anyway (most teams' do), running it through ContactOut or SignalHire first means two unnecessary hops : platform → CSV → Sheets. Derrick removes both hops. One add-on, one formula, results in the next column. The unit-of-work shrinks from "run the export" to "drag the formula down".

02

Transparent $10/mo : no credit caps, no seat fees

ContactOut starts at Free 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual) ; SignalHire starts at $39/month. Both stack credits, seats, and feature unlocks per tier — your actual bill depends on usage you can't always predict upfront. Derrick is $10/month flat, unlimited rows enriched. That's the entire pricing page : one tier, one number, no overage exposure.

03

MCP-ready for AI workflows in 2026

The AI-agent stack in 2026 looks different : Claude calls MCP-enabled tools directly, no glue code. Derrick was built MCP-native from day one. Pairing ContactOut or SignalHire with an AI agent still means setting up Zapier flows, parsing JSON responses, and handling rate limits manually.

Honest Comparison

What each tool does better

We're upfront - every tool has strengths. Here's where ContactOut, SignalHire, and Derrick each genuinely win.

What ContactOut does better

  • Best personal email coverage in the category
  • Dead-simple Chrome extension UX
  • Triple email verification reduces bounces
Read full ContactOut review →

What SignalHire does better

  • Multi-platform coverage beyond LinkedIn
  • ATS integrations actually handle candidate stages
  • Bulk LinkedIn extraction with reasonable rate limits
Read full SignalHire review →
Real Annual Cost

True cost over 12 months

Headline pricing rarely tells the whole story. Here's the real cost of running each tool for a year.

ContactOut SignalHire Derrick
Starting price (monthly) Free 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual) $39/month €0 (free) · €9/mo paid
Annual cost (base) ~€48/yr ~€468/yr €0/yr free · ~€108/yr paid
Free plan? Yes - 5 emails + 5 phones + 5 exports per day 5 credits trial ✓ Forever - 100 credits/mo
Setup cost Hours to days Hours to days 30 seconds via Marketplace
Switching cost CSV export + retraining CSV export + retraining Zero - works alongside any stack

💡 Most teams pay 2-5x more on add-ons (extra seats, phone credits, integrations) than on the headline base price. Derrick keeps everything in one transparent tier.

Feature-by-Feature

ContactOut vs SignalHire vs Derrick: full feature comparison

ContactOut Derrick App SignalHire
Entry priceFree 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual)$10/mo flat$39/month
Free planYes (limited)14-day full trial5 credits trial
Best forRecruiters needing personal emails from LinkedIn at scaleSheet-native enrichmentTech + sales recruiters
Category positioningLinkedIn Recruiter Email + Phone FinderSpreadsheet-native B2B dataB2B contact data
G2 rating4.4/54.3/5
Founded201520222015
Email accuracy / verificationBest in categoryReal-time, includedStandard
Phone-number coverageAvailable via providersVia integrated providers30-45% on tech roles
Works natively in Google Sheets
Per-row pricing (no credit caps)
MCP-ready for AI / LLM agents
Pricing in a nutshell

ContactOut vs SignalHire vs Derrick pricing breakdown

LinkedIn Recruiter Email + Phone Finder

ContactOut

Free 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual)

Best for: Recruiters needing personal emails from LinkedIn at scale

LinkedIn Recruiter Email + Phone Finder category : ContactOut entry tier is Free 4 emails/day · Email $49/mo (annual). Best-for : recruiters needing personal emails from linkedin at scale. See the complete ContactOut pricing page for tier comparison, credit cap behaviour, and annual-vs-monthly delta.

Migration Guide

How to switch from ContactOut to Derrick in 3 steps

Derrick is a Google Workspace app - no formulas to learn, no pipelines to migrate, no engineering work. Add it to Google Sheets and you're enriching in under a minute.

1
~30 sec

Install Derrick from Google Workspace Marketplace

Click the install button on our Marketplace listing and grant Google Sheets access. No credit card required - you start with 100 free credits per month.

2
~30 sec

Open any Google Sheet → Extensions → Derrick

Open a Sheet with your prospect list (paste a CSV from ContactOut, scrape from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or import from your CRM). Click Extensions → Derrick and the sidebar opens with all enrichment features ready to use.

3
~1 min

Enrich your list with one click

Select the column with names, LinkedIn URLs, or company domains. Pick what you want - emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn data, company info, tech stack - and click "Enrich". Derrick fills the columns directly in your Sheet. No exports, no pipelines, no waiting.

Install Derrick free →

100 free credits / month · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Decision in 60 seconds

Which one is right for you?

Pick ContactOut if…

  • You specifically need recruiters needing personal emails from linkedin at scale
  • Best personal email coverage in the category
  • Dead-simple Chrome extension UX
  • You're already invested in the ContactOut ecosystem
Read full ContactOut review →

Pick SignalHire if…

  • You specifically need tech + sales recruiters
  • Multi-platform coverage beyond LinkedIn
  • ATS integrations actually handle candidate stages
  • You're already invested in the SignalHire ecosystem
Read full SignalHire review →

Pick Derrick if…

  • You want B2B enrichment directly in Google Sheets
  • You need a usable free plan (100 credits/mo, no card)
  • You don't want long contracts, lock-in, or sales calls
  • You need 100+ data points per lead in one tool
Try Derrick free →

What teams say after switching from ContactOut vs SignalHire

See what our customers say about Derrick.

"This app saved me so much time and effort. Great for anyone looking to build a contact list or network at scale quickly. As a start-up it's been invaluable."

Alex Clark

Director | SaaS GTM Leader

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"Working pretty nifty compared to Snov.Io. Price wise it does give a fair shake, and IMO better interface since it's google sheets."

David Sire

Mortgage Broker at Zero Point Mortgage

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"Derrick is a very simple and user-friendly app to enrich your contacts database. Best thing: you can test it for free. And then the price is so low, it's a no brainer."

Etienne Grange

CEO Form'actions

Reviewed on Capterra

"Super easy to enrich linkedin urls using this tool. Both personal and company url data can be easily enriched with a click of a button."

Zaid Bilal

RevOps Professional

Reviewed on Capterra

"Amazing Tool, I would like to advocate this to my colleagues. So that you can get more users. Keep it Up. 5 Stars!"

Asif Hanzala

Lead Generation Specialist at IdeaPeel

Reviewed on Capterra

"This app is fantastic. Brilliantly created to help small and mid sized businesses."

Dan Hughes

Founder/CEO, AlmanacIO

Reviewed on Product Hunt

"I have been using other expensive apps or freemium like phantombuster, but Derrick has replaced them all. I love the simplicity of the Google sheet add-in, but what is best is the efficiency it delivers."

Julien Walon Cohen

CEO & Co-founder @ Diffly | B2B Sales Advisor

Reviewed on G2

"The LinkedIn scraping and email finder combo is incredibly powerful. I can build a complete prospect list with contact info in under an hour. Absolute must-have for outbound."

Michael Kim

SDR Team Lead at CloudScale

Reviewed on Capterra

"Have tested over 10+ LI scraper apps, Derrick beats them all. Simple to use, accurate data, and affordable price."

AJ Alexander

Opportunity Prospector

Reviewed on Capterra

Frequently Asked Questions

ContactOut vs SignalHire: when does each fit best?

+
ContactOut is positioned as linkedin recruiter email + phone finder for recruiters needing personal emails from linkedin at scale. SignalHire is positioned as b2b contact data for tech + sales recruiters. These are different category bets — ContactOut for its niche, SignalHire for B2B contact data. Most teams either pick one based on primary use case or stack both for adjacent workflows. G2 reviewers rate ContactOut at 4.4/5 and SignalHire at 4.3/5 — both products work, the deciding factor is workflow fit, not product quality.

How do ContactOut and SignalHire pricing actually compare in 2026?

+
ContactOut entry-paid tier : Email (Sales annual) at $49/mo (annual) / $79 monthly. Next tier up is Email + Phone ($99/mo (annual)). ContactOut's free tier : Yes - 5 emails + 5 phones + 5 exports per day. SignalHire entry-paid tier : Lead Generation at $39/month. Next tier up is Recruiter Pro ($79/month). SignalHire's free tier : 5 credits trial. For comparison : Derrick App skips the credit + seat model entirely with $10/month for unlimited enrichment, billed directly in the Sheet.

What's the biggest reason to pick ContactOut over SignalHire?

+
Best personal email coverage in the category. Recruiting teams on r/Recruitment specifically picked ContactOut over Apollo, Lusha, RocketReach, Cognism and Airscale for personal email coverage and lower bounce rates. Personal Gmail/Outlook addresses are notoriously hard to find at scale; ContactOut's data acquisition has built genuine differentiation here. (Source : Verified G2 user, Talent Acquisition Lead, G2 review (Q1 2026).) If this single capability maps to a real pain in your sales motion, ContactOut is the right pick over SignalHire.

What's the biggest reason to pick SignalHire over ContactOut?

+
Multi-platform coverage beyond LinkedIn. GitHub, AngelList, Stack Overflow, and personal websites are all supported in the Chrome extension. For technical recruiters sourcing engineers, this materially expands the addressable pool — most candidates' best public signal lives outside LinkedIn. (Source : Mei C., Technical Recruiter, G2 review (Feb 2026).) If this is the differentiator that matters most for your stack, SignalHire is the right pick over ContactOut.

Can Derrick replace both ContactOut and SignalHire?

+
ContactOut (linkedin recruiter email + phone finder) and SignalHire (b2b contact data) cover different category needs, so the question depends on which one Derrick maps against. Derrick is a Sheets-native enrichment + search layer at $10/mo flat — it directly substitutes for the data layer of either tool. For the platform-specific features (sequencing, intent, automation), Derrick complements ContactOut and SignalHire rather than replacing them outright.

Beyond ContactOut and SignalHire, what other tools should I evaluate?

+
Four other tools in the same competitive set worth evaluating : RocketReach, Lusha, Apollo, Hunter. Each has its own positioning trade-off versus ContactOut and SignalHire — RocketReach typically appears as a direct competitor on G2 review pages, with Lusha, Apollo, Hunter as adjacent picks for different team sizes or use cases. Each tool's full review on this site has the deep trade-off matrix — start there before shortlisting.
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