You've tried Lobstr.io, or you're comparing before paying. The real question isn't "which tool scrapes Google Maps best" — several do it well, Lobstr included. It's a question of rhythm: is your extraction need steady enough to consume credits every month, or occasional enough that you'd lose them? The answer picks the tool for you.
What Lobstr.io's credit model means in practice
Lobstr.io is a serious French no-code platform: more than twenty ready-made scrapers (Google Maps first, but other platforms too), runs schedulable from every few minutes to once a month, and unusually deep Maps fields — business status, price range, review counts broken down by star rating, opening hours, popular times. For a team feeding a data pipeline continuously, it's a well-built machine.
The billing model, however, shapes everything: 1 credit = 1 unique result, credits refresh monthly and do not roll over. The free plan caps every export at 30 rows, with no scheduling. Paid plans start, according to the vendor, around $20 per month. A month without a campaign and that month's credits are gone; a prospecting spike and you need a higher tier.
Three profiles, three answers
You extract weekly, from several sources, at predictable volume. Monthly credits suit you: you consume what you pay for, and Lobstr's fine-grained scheduling does the work overnight. Stay on Lobstr — an alternative wouldn't buy you much.
You prospect in campaigns, a few times a quarter. This is where monthly credits work against you. A one-off extraction of a few hundred businesses in one area, followed by six weeks of outreach, doesn't justify a subscription that recharges every month. You need a tool usable at campaign time, without a meter expiring in between.
Your target is specifically French companies, with legal data needs. A general-purpose scraper gives you the starting point (name, address, phone, website), but qualification comes after: SIRET number, legal form, directors, active-or-struck-off status. With Lobstr as with most scrapers, that step happens in a second tool. outsend runs the whole chain in one pass — extracting an area from Google Maps, automatic SIRET/VAT/RCS enrichment, legal records and directors, email verification — free during the alpha, on application.
The comparison table
| Criterion | Lobstr.io | outsend |
|---|---|---|
| Sources covered | Google Maps + other platforms (20+ scrapers) | Google Maps worldwide + French company registries (Sirene) |
| Model | Monthly credit subscription, no rollover | Free alpha on application, no commitment |
| Free plan | 30 rows per export, 7-day retention | Full alpha access on application |
| Recurring scheduling | Yes, near-real-time to monthly | No — campaign-oriented |
| French legal enrichment (SIRET, directors) | Via third-party tools | Built in |
| Email verification | Depends on scraper and plan | Built in |
Two rows of this table deserve to be turned against us: if you need to extract anything other than company data — listings, social profiles, content — Lobstr covers sources outsend doesn't touch. And if your flow must run daily at a fixed time, Lobstr's scheduler is exactly what you need.
Frequently asked questions
Does Lobstr.io have a usable free tier?
Yes, for evaluation: most scrapers are accessible, but every export is capped at 30 rows, scheduling is locked and data is kept 7 days. It's a test bench, not a production tool.
Do unused Lobstr.io credits expire?
Yes. The vendor's pricing page states credits refresh each monthly cycle with no rollover. Check that against your real prospecting rhythm before subscribing.
How good is Lobstr.io specifically on Google Maps?
It's one of its strong points: detailed fields (status, price range, reviews broken down by rating, hours, popular times) and schedulable runs. If your need stops at recurring raw Maps data, staying on it is a legitimate choice.
When is outsend the better pick?
Campaign-based prospecting of French companies: extract an area, enrich with legal data (SIRET, legal form, directors), verify emails — in one pass, free during the alpha. For continuous multi-platform scraping, Lobstr or a similar tool remains the better fit.