If you're looking to turn Google Maps into leads, you've probably seen tools like Outscraper and SphereScout.
They both let you find businesses by location and category. One gives you raw data that needs work. The other gives you email-ready contacts you can use immediately.
What Outscraper Offers
Outscraper is a Google Maps scraping tool that extracts business data from local listings: names, addresses, phone numbers, categories, ratings, and websites when available. You can then run email enrichment on the collected websites.
It works globally, has a straightforward UI, and lets you filter by reviews, categories, and open hours. For custom data projects, it's solid.
But if you're trying to build an email list, here's where it gets expensive:
The result estimates are unreliable. They often show inflated, generic counts that don't reflect what you'll actually get. Postal code targeting sounds precise but can be too broad, pulling in businesses far outside your target area. And here's the real problem: only about 30% of Google Maps listings include a website. No website means no way to find an email.
So if you want 15,000 emails, you need to scrape roughly 50,000 businesses. That's $150 in scraping costs. Then you pay another $45 to enrich those 15,000 domains and extract emails. Total cost: around $200. And you still won't know your final email count until you've paid for both steps.
Outscraper works for developers building data pipelines. But if you just need a clean list of contacts with emails, it's inefficient.
What Makes SphereScout Different
SphereScout skips the scraping entirely. It's a prebuilt contact database where the hard work is already done.
You filter by business category and location. The system shows you exactly how many contacts match your criteria before you pay. Every contact includes an email. You export to CSV or Excel and start your outreach.
There are tradeoffs. Geographic coverage is currently limited to France and the US, with more countries being added. You can't do radius targeting or scrape individual listings. It's less flexible than a scraper because it's not meant to be a scraper—it's meant to give you leads fast.
The Real Cost Difference
Here's what it takes to get 15,000 contacts with emails:
Outscraper approach: Scrape 50,000 businesses because only 30% will have websites. Pay $150 for the scrape. Run email enrichment on roughly 15,000 domains for another $150-200. Hope your enrichment tool has a good success rate. Final cost: $200 for 15,000 emails if everything goes well.
SphereScout approach: Filter to show only contacts with emails. See that 15,000 contacts match. Pay $49 for the Starter plan. Download all 15,000.
|
What you want |
Outscraper |
SphereScout |
|---|---|---|
|
15,000 emails |
Scrape ~50K businesses + enrichment |
Filter and export |
|
Total cost |
$200 |
$49 |
|
Know the count before paying? |
No |
Yes |
|
Manual work required |
Yes (scrape, then enrich) |
No |
You're paying roughly 6-7 times more with Outscraper, and the final email count is still uncertain until both steps are complete.
Which One Makes Sense for You?
SphereScout works if you need emails, not raw data. If you're targeting businesses in France or the US and want predictable pricing with zero setup, it's the faster path.
Outscraper makes sense if you need global coverage outside those markets, or if you're building custom data workflows beyond simple lead generation.
Test SphereScout Free
100 contacts with emails, no credit card required. Filter by category and location, export, and see if the quality works for your campaigns.