AstroFabric vs Lusha: the contact database with a reveal button or the agents that build the record

Lusha is one of the most widely used contact databases in B2B sales: a browser extension that reveals an email or a phone number while a rep reads a profile, a workspace for searching the database directly, and in the last year an API, an MCP server and a set of automations that push the same data into a CRM or a sequence. The unit of value is the reveal. AstroFabric starts from a different unit: the objective. Describe the accounts and people you need, and the agents discover them, fill every field from a waterfall of sources with the provenance recorded, verify the contacts, keep watching for signals and deliver the finished list into the systems you run, with an approval on every write. The comparison is between a database you query record by record and an agent layer that builds the record for you. Public information as of September 2026; verify current numbers on their pricing page.

⟨ KEY TAKEAWAYS ⟩

Lusha is a contact and company database first: its site describes 290 million plus contacts and 29 million plus companies, confidence tiers on every email, and a data community in which members contribute contacts in exchange for credits.
Published pricing in September 2026: Free with 40 credits a month; Starter at $49.90 a month or $37.45 on annual billing with 400 credits; Professional at $69.90 or $52.45 annual with 600 credits; Premium at $399.90 or $299.95 annual with 3,400 credits; and a custom Scale plan. One credit reveals an email, five reveal a phone.
Lusha's 2026 additions matter: an MCP server on every plan including Free, a Claude plugin, a natural-language workspace, AI recommendations and trigger-based automations, all built around the reveal.
AstroFabric is objective-driven across the chain: discovery, waterfall enrichment with per-field provenance, verification before any send, standing signal monitoring, matched audiences and delivery into CRM, sheets, sequencers and ad accounts.
Governance is the structural difference: approval gates on every external write, an audit log, credit ceilings on every run, and rows that must carry the source the platform observed.
The deciding question is whether your team wants to look contacts up, one reveal at a time, or wants the whole dataset built, checked and delivered by agents.

The short version

Lusha gives a rep a fast, compliant reveal of an email or phone while they work, and gives a developer the same data over an API and MCP. AstroFabric gives a team the finished dataset: accounts found, fields filled with sources, contacts verified, signals watched, audiences built and everything delivered under approvals. A database with a reveal button versus agents that build the record: that is the whole comparison.

What Lusha actually is

Lusha's core loop is the reveal: a rep opens a profile or a company page, the extension matches it against the database, and a credit buys the email or the phone. Around that core sit a workspace with natural-language search and saved searches that refresh, an enrichment and prospecting API, an MCP server with a couple of dozen tools that its site says works on any plan including Free, a Claude plugin, weekly signal alerts covering job changes, hiring and headcount growth, automations that turn an ideal-customer definition into live lists pushed to a CRM or a sequence, and Engage, a free email sequencer. The data itself is described on its site as 290 million plus contacts and 29 million plus companies with 78 static fields and 26 signals per record, emails graded in confidence tiers, and sources that include a member community contributing contacts, licensed partners and public scanning, under GDPR and CCPA certifications, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II. Pricing, as published in September 2026: Free with 40 credits a month; Starter at $49.90 a month, or $37.45 a month billed annually, with 400 credits; Professional at $69.90 monthly or $52.45 annual with 600 credits; Premium at $399.90 monthly or $299.95 annual with 3,400 credits; and Scale by contact for larger teams, where per-user credit limits and deeper CRM sync live. One credit reveals a verified email, five reveal a phone number, and monthly plans roll unused credits over up to twice the allowance. The honest read: for reps who prospect by hand on LinkedIn and need a compliant number or email right now, Lusha is quick, inexpensive to start and easy to adopt, and its MCP server makes the same reveal available to any agent a developer writes.

What AstroFabric actually is

AstroFabric does not sell reveals. It runs missions. The prospecting agent discovers accounts by firmographics, technology, hiring, funding, location or similarity to your customers; the enrichment agent fills each field source by source, so a contact record is assembled from several indexes rather than looked up in one, with the source recorded on every value; the verification agent applies email checks, dedupe and suppression before anything reaches a sequence; the signals agent keeps standing watches on hiring, funding, technology change and intent; and the audience agent turns the rows into matched audiences on LinkedIn, Meta and Reddit. Every row an agent adds to a list has to carry a source reference the platform observed. Delivery goes into the CRM, sheets, outreach tools and ad accounts you already run, through the console or through REST, MCP and the CLI, and every external write passes an approval gate with an audit entry. Pricing is credits with no seats: Starter at $65 a month with 1,000 credits, Growth at $149 with 3,000, Scale by agreement, and a three-day trial with 200 credits, with enrichment charged only when a source answers. The trade against Lusha is explicit: no browser extension for a rep reading a profile, in exchange for the whole dataset built and delivered, a source on every field, and agents that run the motion every week.

Side by side

ASTROFABRIC VS LUSHA, AS OF SEPTEMBER 2026

Dimension	Lusha	AstroFabric
Interaction model	Rep reveals contacts in the extension or workspace; automations and MCP for the same lookups	Objective in, mission out; agents plan, execute, verify and deliver
Data model	One proprietary database with community, partner and public sources	Waterfall across several sources per field, with provenance on every value
Evidence	Email confidence tiers and an update date per record	Source reference required on every row; per-field provenance on enrichment
Verification	Verified emails by tier; phone reveal at five credits	Verification agent: email checks, dedupe and suppression before delivery
Signals	Weekly alerts and a signals API: job changes, hiring, headcount growth, news	Standing watches on hiring, funding, technology change and intent, with alerts to Slack, Telegram and email
Pricing (published)	Free with 40 credits; Starter $49.90/mo ($37.45 annual) with 400 credits; Professional $69.90 ($52.45 annual) with 600; Premium $399.90 ($299.95 annual) with 3,400; Scale by contact; 1 credit per email, 5 per phone	Starter $65/mo with 1,000 credits; Growth $149/mo with 3,000; Scale by agreement; 3-day trial with 200 credits; no seats
Surfaces	Browser extension, workspace, REST API, MCP server, Claude plugin, Engage sequences	Console, REST API, MCP, CLI, Slack, Telegram, email
Governance	Per-user credit limits on Scale; approval gates and audit logs not mentioned on its site	Approval gate on every external write, audit log, credit ceilings per run

Choose Lusha if

Choose Lusha if your reps prospect by hand and the thing they need most is a compliant email or phone while they read a profile. The extension is the fastest version of that motion, the free tier and low entry price make adoption trivial, and the MCP server means the same reveal is a tool call away for anyone building their own agent. Teams with a settled prospecting workflow who simply need better contact coverage inside it are its natural owners.

Choose AstroFabric if

The one-question test

Where does the list come from? If reps already know who to call and only need the number, a reveal is exactly the right unit to buy. If the harder work is finding the accounts in the first place, proving why each one is on the list, and keeping the list alive in the CRM and the ad account week after week, then the unit you need is the mission, and the agents that run it.

Choose AstroFabric if you want the dataset built rather than looked up: accounts discovered from an executable ideal customer profile, fields filled with a source on each, contacts verified before a send, signals watched, audiences matched and everything delivered into your systems under approval gates with an audit log. Some teams keep a reveal tool for the odd manual lookup while agents run the standing programs; the platform imports any CSV and enriches, verifies and delivers from there.

Frequently asked questions

Is AstroFabric a Lusha alternative?

For the outcome, verified company and person records delivered into your CRM and outreach tools, yes. The models differ: Lusha is a database you query one reveal at a time, through an extension, a workspace, an API or MCP. AstroFabric’s agents build the record from an objective, across several sources, with provenance on every field, and deliver it under approval gates.

How does pricing compare?

Lusha publishes Free with 40 credits, Starter at $49.90 a month or $37.45 annual with 400 credits, Professional at $69.90 or $52.45 annual with 600, Premium at $399.90 or $299.95 annual with 3,400, and a custom Scale plan, at one credit per email and five per phone. AstroFabric is $65 a month with 1,000 credits, $149 with 3,000 and Scale by agreement, with no seats and a three-day trial. Which is cheaper depends on whether you are buying reveals for reps or finished datasets for a program.

Does AstroFabric have a browser extension?

No. AstroFabric runs through the console, the REST API, MCP, the CLI and messaging channels, and delivers finished lists into the CRM, sheets, sequencers and ad accounts your team already works in. The workflow is objective-first rather than profile-first.

Can I use Lusha and AstroFabric together?

Yes. Export a Lusha list as CSV and import it into an AstroFabric list, or keep the extension for manual lookups while agents run the standing motions. Any imported row is enriched, verified and delivered with the same provenance rules as rows the agents found.

Sources

⟨ RUN IT INSTEAD OF READING IT ⟩

Every playbook on this blog ships as a runnable mission.

Open a workspace and the playbook library is waiting - describe the outcome and the agents carry it end to end, on your plan's monthly credits.

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