An Outscraper alternative without surprise bills
Prepaid funds: spend on results, keep the rest forever.
Where Outscraper is strong
Outscraper covers a lot of ground: Google Maps, Google reviews, and scrapers for many other sites, all under one account, with a web interface for non-coders. If your project needs data from five different platforms, Outscraper is a fair pick.
CrustAPI is narrower on purpose: two sources, Google and public LinkedIn, done simply and fast. If that is the data you need, keep reading.
Where Outscraper bills surprise you
Outscraper bills the way a utility does: you use services through the month, and the charge lands at the end. The complaint that keeps showing up on review sites is a month-end charge the customer did not expect.
CrustAPI uses a prepaid balance. Successful data subtracts the endpoint’s applicable price. When available funds cannot cover a request, it stops. Optional auto-reload runs only if you enable it.
Two more rules keep the math clear. You are charged only when a query returns results, so failed and empty queries cost nothing. And paid funds never expire, so a pack bought for one project waits for the next one.
One request, real response
The response is synchronous JSON; about 1 second is typical for maps. Set limit up to 100 businesses per search, or add stars=true for the 1-to-5 review histogram per place.
Outscraper vs CrustAPI
Outscraper's side is described in plain terms from their public site and public reviews; check their pricing page for current rates. Our side uses our published numbers.
| Outscraper | CrustAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Pay as you go, invoiced at the end of the month | Prepaid deposits, add funds when needed |
| Surprise-bill risk | The bill lands after the spend; month-end charge complaints are common on review sites | Requests stop at zero balance. There is nothing to invoice later |
| Pricing unit | Per record, with rates that differ by service and volume tier | Google Search per successful request; Maps per business returned |
| Queries that return nothing | See their per-service pricing | Free. You are charged only when results come back |
| Balance expiry | Postpaid, so no credits to expire | Paid funds never expire |
| Coverage | Wide: Google plus many other sites and services | Google (12 search types) and public LinkedIn (people search in beta, profiles, companies, jobs, posts) |
| Speed | Many jobs run as queued tasks, built for big batches | Synchronous JSON: maps ~1s, reviews ~0.3s, web search p50 ~1.2s |
| Free tier | Free monthly usage on many services | $6 of free usage each month |
| Who answers support | A support team | Dawson, the founder. Mail to support@crustapi.com lands in his inbox |
Checked July 17, 2026. We keep the Outscraper column qualitative on purpose: their rates vary by service and change over time, and we would rather send you to their pricing page than quote a stale number.
A few of those punch above their weight. type=images returns about 97 images per request. type=reviews answers in roughly 0.3 seconds. And the LinkedIn people results can carry a verified work email, which the next section explains.
How much does CrustAPI cost?
Maps bills the Maps rate per business returned; other Google types bill per successful request. LinkedIn uses its own listed endpoint rates. Empty searches are free. Deposit prices are below:
| Deposit | Google Search / 1,000 requests | Maps / 1,000 businesses | LinkedIn reads / 1,000 requests | People, Jobs, Refresh / 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10+ | $1.00 | $1.96 | $6.00 | $1.96 |
| $149+ | $0.76 | $1.49 | $4.50 | $1.49 |
| $549+ | $0.56 | $1.10 | $3.30 | $1.10 |
| $1,999+ | $0.41 | $0.80 | $2.45 | $0.80 |
| $6,500+ | $0.33 | $0.65 | $1.95 | $0.65 |
| $27,500+ | $0.28 | $0.55 | $1.65 | $0.55 |
| $50,000+ | $0.26 | $0.50 | $1.50 | $0.50 |
| $100,000+ | $0.20 | $0.40 | $1.50 | $0.40 |
Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent; paid funds never expire. People and Jobs bill per successful search, Refresh per accessible profile. Full profiles in People use the read rate per full profile. See all billing details.
Larger deposits unlock lower endpoint prices. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent. See the full deposit table on the pricing page. Prices in USD, ex-tax.
Everything is prepaid and self-serve, and paid funds never expire. You can try it free with no card, so you can test the data before spending a dollar.
How do you get started?
No task queue, no invoice. From zero to a CSV in about two minutes:
- 1
Create a free account. Try it free, no card needed.
- 2
Type a search in the playground. Something like plumbers in Denver. The results land in a table.
- 3
Export the CSV, or copy your key and run the curl above. Same data, as JSON.
Where do emails come from?
Not from Maps. Google Maps listings do not show email addresses, so no maps record includes them. If a tool promises emails straight from a maps listing, ask where those emails actually come from.
On CrustAPI, verified emails come from the LinkedIn people endpoints. People search is in beta: search by title, company, or keyword; when a work address passes verification you get it, and when it does not, the field returns null instead of a guess.
Pair the two and you get a clean loop: pull the businesses with the Google Maps scraper API, then find the people behind them with the LinkedIn people search API (beta).
Who switches from Outscraper?
- Lead gen teams. Pull every business in a metro with phone and website, then export the CSV the same day.
- Agencies. Track map rank, ratings, and review counts for client niches, city by city.
- Ops and no-code builders. Run searches from the playground, n8n, or Clay with zero invoice risk.
- Developers. One GET request, synchronous JSON, and a prepaid balance that can never overrun.
Related: Google Reviews API · Google Places API alternative · SerpApi alternative
When Outscraper is the better pick: your project needs platforms we do not cover (their menu goes well past Google), you want emails harvested from business websites at scale, or you prefer scheduled batch tasks in a web UI. Those are real jobs. Our pitch is for people whose data lives in Google or public LinkedIn and who want prepaid, no-surprise billing.
Common questions
You spend from a prepaid balance. Requests stop when available funds cannot cover them. Optional auto-reload adds the amount you chose only when enabled. Empty and failed requests are free.
No. Outscraper scrapes many platforms; CrustAPI covers two sources. Google, with 12 search types (web, maps, places, reviews, news, shopping, images, videos, scholar, patents, autocomplete, webpage), and public LinkedIn (people search in beta, profiles, companies, jobs, posts). If your data lives outside those two, Outscraper or another tool is the right call.
You spend from a prepaid balance. Requests stop when available funds cannot cover them. Optional auto-reload adds the amount you chose only when enabled. Empty and failed requests are free.
No, because Google Maps listings do not show emails. A maps record includes name, address, phone, website, rating, review count, categories, and hours. Verified emails come from the LinkedIn people endpoints, where each address is checked before it is returned; addresses that fail come back null.
Paid funds never expire. Deposits start at $10, and larger deposits get lower endpoint prices. Each deposit keeps those prices until spent.
No. There is a playground at /app where you run searches and export the results, and the API plugs into n8n, Clay, LangChain, CrewAI, and MCP. Developers get one GET request with an x-api-key header; docs are at /docs.
Clay
Load a pack once. Spend it whenever.
Start on the free tier, run a real search, and read the JSON that comes back. No card, and never an invoice.
Try for free