Chrome Extensions can add a boost to your productivity, but if you are not using the right one for what you need, they can be a major time waster.

As you may know, Google Chrome is the most popular web browser. In fact, almost half of all users are using Chrome over Safari or Internet Explorer. That’s because it’s easy to use, syncs with most mobile devices, and is fast. But the other reason it is so popular is because of Chrome’s extension capability.

Of course, there can also be too much of a good thing. If you use too many Chrome Extensions, your computer can become clunky (at best), or completely non-responsive at worst. That is why you need to choose your extensions wisely.

This year, the Lusha team had a 3rd party company compare the eight (8) most popular chrome extensions used for finding contact information: Lusha, Connectifier, Prophet, Hunter, FindThatLead, Hiretual, Contactout and JobJet.

There are lots of tools that want to tell you that they are the best, but there are few that are willing to show you that they truly ARE the best. Lusha dared to compare and find out once and for all. Below you will find the Chrome Extension performance report.

A Comparison of the Top 8 Extensions to Find Contact Information

Overview

Browser extensions are a natural choice for most of us when trying to be more efficient and productive. However, with a slew of new extensions continually being created, it’s hard to weed out the really great ones.

Instead of cluttering your browser with tons of extensions, we decided to test the top extensions for finding contact information and see which came back with the most results. To see the complete results (including the info found for each), go here.

Lusha decided to research the best methods of getting in contact with potential applicants because many of their users have stated their dissatisfaction with the results they receive when using inMail. In fact, the Marks Group — an IT, Sales, and Marketing Recruiting firm — conducted a study and found that “The response rate is typically somewhere in the 15 percent realm. That’s only about 1 out of 7 responding! Doing the math, on average, people sending lots of InMails will spend more than $30 per response!”

So, since the results from using InMail are not great, we decided to test eight (8) extensions that can replace LinkedIn InMail as the best means of contact.

Methodology

We compared the top eight (8) extensions for finding contact information against 300 random LinkedIn profiles and recorded our results.

Search Criteria

We started by choosing three different job titles to search for — Investment Bankers in New York, Product Managers in San Francisco, and Corporate Lawyers in London. Then we picked a random sample of the first 100 people in each job category to perform the test on.

Search Categories

We choose to test the extensions to measure the following conditions:

  1. No results (The number of times the extension brought back zero results for a profile (not one piece of data among the four categories tested);
  2. Private emails;
  3. Work emails; and,
  4. Phone numbers (personal and corporate).

Sometimes, the extensions found more than one result per person, say, if the person has several numbers or emails, which is why some results in the following categories add up to more than 100: Private Emails, Work/Other Emails, and Phone Numbers.

Extensions Tested

Results

Chrome Extension Performance Report

Category Winners (Top 3):

  • Most Results Found: Lusha came back with the most results, finding 240 different contact information. Next came JobJet with 184 results found, and then comes Prophet, which found 106.
  • Private emails: JobJet found the most amount of private emails with 66 captured. Hiretual came in a close second with 62 private emails found, and, rounding out the top 3 is ContactOut with 58 emails found.
  • Work emails: Prophet found 101 work/other emails, making it the most successful. Next comes FindThatLead at 87 emails found, and in third is Lusha, with 80 emails found.
  • Phone numbers: Lusha came in first by far with 117 personal phone numbers found. Coming in second is JobJet with 42 numbers found, then ContactOut with five (5) phone numbers found.
  • No results: Lusha and Prophet are in the top spots at five (5) each with FindThatLead following next with 13 profiles.

Full Results:


Chrome Extension Performance Report 
 

Product Managers in San Francisco

Category Winners (Top 3):

  • Most Results Found: JobJet found the most results, returning a total of 229. A close second is Lusha with 228, followed by Connectifier with 163 found.
  • Private emails: JobJet came in first with 112 private emails found. Next, comes Hiretual with 91 results found. Then comes ContactOut with 81 emails found.
  • Work emails: Prophet found the most amount of work/other emails with 97 found. In a close second comes FindThatLead with 91 found. Next, comes Hunter with 89 emails found.
  • Phone numbers: Lusha came away the obvious winner with 115 phone numbers found. In a far away second is JobJet with 39 numbers found. Following in third is Hiretual, with 12 numbers found.
  • No results: Hiretual came in first because it found results for everything except for one profile. The next, with only eight profiles missing, is Lusha, and coming tied in third are Prophet and FindThatLead.

Full Results:


Chrome Extension Performance Report 

Corporate Lawyers in London

Category Winners (Top 3):

  • Most Results Found: Lusha came back with the most results at 208. Next, comes Prophet, which found a total of 114 results found, and following in third comes ContactOut, with 96 results returned.
  • Private emails: ContactOut found the most private emails with a total of 45 private emails found. A close second is Lusha with 42 numbers found. Next, comes JobJet with 35 private emails found.
  • Work emails: Prophet came in the lead with 103 work/other emails found. Next, comes FindThatLead with 83 found, followed by EmailHunter, which found 82 emails.
  • Phone numbers: Lusha came in first by a landslide with 94 phone numbers found. Next, comes JobJet with ten numbers found and in third place comes ContactOut with seven phone numbers found.
  • No results: Lusha found the most amount of profiles with only three not found. Next, comes Prophet with only four profiles not found, and following in third comes FindThatLead with 16 profiles missing.

Full Results:

Chrome Extension Performance Report

Conclusion

The plugin with the highest number of results is Lusha with 673 results found. Then comes JobJet with 417 results, followed by Prophet with 331 results found. Here are the best extensions by category:

  • Phone numbers — Lusha
  • Private emails — JobJet
  • Work emails — Prophet

Main Takeaway:

Since you can’t use all of these without cluttering your browser, the top three standouts that you should have on your browser are Lusha, Prophet, and JobJet.

Disclaimer: Yes, Lusha is one of the extensions listed, but we aimed to be as objective as possible; the findings have not been influenced or manipulated. In fact, we encourage users to compare the apps on their own. We will then publish the results in the document. We’re doing this open-source! The results are available Google Docs by clicking here.


Authors
Jackye Clayton

Jackye is an acclaimed thought leader and inspirational speaker on recruiting and DEIB topics. She brings years of experience recruiting across a variety of industries including tech, HR, legal, and finance. In her role as VP of Talent Acquisition and DEIB, she leads all related work at Textio, provides critical expertise to customers, and serves as a leading voice in the products Textio creates for the broader ecosystem. Jackye has been named one of the 9 Powerful Women in Business You Should Know by SDHR Consulting, one of the 15 Women in HR Tech to Follow by VidCruiter, and is on the Top 100 list of Human Resources Influencers by Human Resource Executive Magazine.