PQ Intel vs Lusha

Lusha is a contact finder. It reveals emails and phone numbers from LinkedIn. PQ Intel is a signal engine that tells you who's actively discussing your market — and gives you the context to reach them intelligently.

PQ Intel from $29/mo — Lusha from $22/user/mo

18+

Platforms monitored

$29

PQ Intel starting price

$22+

Lusha per-user starting

Unlimited

Reveals on PQ Intel

Pricing

At-a-glance pricing comparison

Lusha looks cheaper at first glance — $22/user/mo vs PQ Intel's $29 — but credits transform the real cost. With credits, every contact you find costs extra. Without them, every contact you find costs nothing beyond the monthly subscription.

PQ Intel

$29

per month — no per-user pricing

Starter: $29/mo — signal monitoring, daily digest, ICP config
Growth: $99/mo — prospecting + enrichment + AI outreach
Pro: $249/mo — enterprise signals + API + unlimited
No credit system — unlimited prospect views per tier
Monthly billing, cancel anytime
Founding annual from $14.50/mo

Trade-off: Smaller contact database than Lusha. Stronger on signal intelligence — you don't just get a contact, you get context about why they're relevant right now.

Lusha

$22

per user per month — Pro plan

Free: 5 credits/mo — essentially a demo
Pro: $22/user/mo — 480 credits/yr + basic enrichment
Premium: $59/user/mo — 1,440 credits/yr + priority data
Scale: $99/user/mo — 3,600 credits/yr + API
Enterprise: Custom — volume pricing
Credit overages: $0.10-0.50 per extra credit

Hidden costs: Each contact reveal = minimum 1 credit (phone = 10 credits). On Pro ($22/user/mo, 480 credits/yr): that's $0.55 per credit. At 1 credit per email, you can reveal 40 emails/month. At 10 credits per phone, that's 4 phone numbers/month. Teams exceeding credits pay 2-5x per extra reveal.

Feature Comparison

How they actually compare

Lusha solves a real problem — finding contact data fast from LinkedIn. PQ Intel solves a different problem: knowing which contacts are worth reaching out to.

Feature	PQ Intel	Lusha
Signal monitoring	18+ platforms — real public discussions with full context	None — Lusha is a contact finder, not a signal engine
Contact-level intent	Yes — per-person: who, what platform, exact post, timestamp	No — Lusha reveals contacts without any intent context
Chrome extension	Not available	Excellent — industry-standard LinkedIn extension for fast reveals
Email discovery	Multi-stage waterfall with deliverability pre-check	Fast LinkedIn reveal — community-contributed + verified data
Phone numbers	Not a primary focus	Strong direct-dial coverage — one of Lusha's core features
Credit system	No credits — unlimited prospect views per tier	Yes — 1 credit per email, 10 credits per phone. Overages at $0.10-0.50/credit.
AI outreach drafts	Signal-anchored — references the specific post, platform, context	Limited — basic templates, no signal context
Outreach sequences	Multi-step, manual approval, reply classification	Available in Engage add-on — not core product
ICP scoring	Composite Hot/Warm/Cold — signal + keyword + platform	Basic — company fit only
Daily digest	Auto-delivered — new signals in your market each day	Not available
Contract flexibility	Monthly billing, cancel anytime	Monthly available — but Premium locks credits to annual billing
Data enrichment depth	Company data: funding, tech stack, recent hires, director chain	Contact-focused: email + phone + basic company data
CRM integration	API on Pro tier, native connectors coming	Native Salesforce, HubSpot — mature integration layer

Honest Assessment

Where each platform stands

Lusha and PQ Intel solve different problems. Choosing between them depends on whether your bottleneck is contact discovery or signal quality.

Where PQ Intel wins

Signal intelligence — Lusha can't tell you why a contact matters. PQ Intel surfaces the exact post, platform, and context that makes someone worth reaching out to.
No credit system — Lusha charges per reveal. A team doing 200 contacts/month on Pro pays $22/user for 480 credits/year = runs out in 2.5 months. Then it's $0.10-0.50 per extra reveal. PQ Intel charges a flat tier price — no overages.
Multi-platform coverage — 18+ platforms. Lusha only works on LinkedIn and web pages.
Outreach context — AI drafts that reference what the person actually said. This is the difference between "I saw your post about [topic]" and a signal-anchored reference that proves you understand their specific situation.
Predictable pricing — $29/$99/$249 total, not per user. A 3-person team pays $99 on Growth, not $66 + credit overages on Lusha.
Deliverability check — enrichment verifies email reachability before you compose. Fewer bounces, better reputation.

Where Lusha wins

Simplicity of contact discovery — install the Chrome extension, open a LinkedIn profile, click reveal, get email + phone. PQ Intel doesn't have a browser extension — its contact discovery is through the signal feed.
Phone data — direct dial coverage is genuinely strong. If calling is part of your motion, Lusha is better suited.
Community-contributed data — Lusha's community model means fresher phone data in some regions. PQ Intel relies on public signals + enrichment waterfalls.
CRM sync maturity — native connectors for Salesforce and HubSpot are well-established. PQ Intel's API-based approach is flexible but less turnkey.
Free tier — Lusha's 5-credit free tier is enough to evaluate the product. PQ Intel requires a $5 trial fee.
Price perception — $22/user/mo looks cheaper than $29/mo to a decision-maker who doesn't calculate credit math. The real cost comparison favors PQ Intel at scale.

FAQ

Common questions about PQ Intel and Lusha

Yes. Lusha is excellent for fast contact discovery when you already know who you want to reach. PQ Intel tells you who you should want to reach. Teams sometimes use Lusha as the contact-finding layer and PQ Intel as the signal-discovery layer — Lusha reveals the email, PQ Intel provides the context for the outreach.

Lusha Pro: $22/user/mo, 480 credits/year. One email = 1 credit, one phone = 10 credits. A single SDR doing 50 reveals/month (mix email + phone) = uses ~200 credits/month = $22/mo for 2.5 months, then credit overages kick in. Real monthly cost: $22 + ~$10-50 in overages. PQ Intel: $29/mo, unlimited reveals. No math needed.

If your goal is "find emails from LinkedIn profiles," Lusha is simpler. One extension, one click. If your goal is "find the right people to contact in the first place," PQ Intel's signal feed and ICP scoring give you a structured way to discover prospects you didn't know existed — which is more valuable than knowing how to reach someone who isn't a fit.

Not yet. PQ Intel's approach is different: instead of browsing LinkedIn and looking up contacts one by one, you define your ICP and the platform surfaces relevant people across 18+ platforms automatically. If LinkedIn-only contact lookup is your workflow, Lusha is currently the better fit.

Lusha's community-contribution model means phone numbers may be fresher in some regions. PQ Intel's enrichment uses a multi-stage waterfall (public sources + verified databases + deliverability check), which means email accuracy is high but phone coverage is intentionally deprioritised. Different trade-offs depending on your channel mix.