You want every garage in a metro area, or every accounting firm in a region: name, address, phone, website, in a file you can actually use. Google Maps has the data but no export button. Outscraper is usually the first tool people find to close that gap — and the next question, almost always, is what else exists.
This page compares Google Maps extractors on what actually decides the choice: access mode, output format, data freshness, and how personal data is handled. Outsend appears as one option among several, with its limits stated plainly.
What Outscraper does, and how an alternative gets judged
Outscraper is a public-data extraction service covering Google Maps among other sources, usable through a web interface or an API. It is a solid generalist: its strength is the breadth of its source catalogue and the fact that you can drive it from your own code.
A Google Maps extractor is judged on five criteria, and no more than five:
- Access mode — web interface, browser extension, or API. An extension means keeping a tab open; an API means you need to code.
- Output format — CSV or XLSX you can use immediately, or JSON you have to reprocess.
- Fields actually filled — phone and website are usually present, email almost never is in Maps: that requires a separate enrichment step.
- Freshness — a frozen database ages; on-demand extraction reflects today's state.
- GDPR handling — the most frequently ignored criterion, and the only one that exposes you.
The alternatives, by use case
Apify is an automation platform where "actors" (scripts published by the community or the vendor) cover Google Maps. It suits technical profiles: highly configurable and orchestratable, but you have to accept platform logic and pick the right actor among several.
Phantombuster targets sequence automation and is historically strong on social networks. It can handle Maps, but that is not its home ground — if your need is purely local-listing extraction, the tool is oversized in a direction that does not serve you.
Lobstr and browser-extension Maps extractors aim at simplicity: run it, get a CSV. The trade-off is volume and resumability — an interrupted extraction rarely restarts where it stopped.
In-house scripts (Python, n8n, Make) remain a real option if you have the skill. You keep full control; you also inherit the maintenance, and Maps page selectors change without warning.
Outsend takes the pipeline angle rather than the standalone extractor: Google Maps extraction is one module, followed by modules that clean, deduplicate, verify emails and enrich the legal record. The output is a directly usable CSV. The product is in alpha — that is its honest limit: a narrower source catalogue than Outscraper, and none of Apify's maturity.
The criterion almost nobody checks: compliance
A Google Maps business listing holds public data — trading name, address, the establishment's phone number. Stay there and you are handling company data. But the moment a field identifies a natural person — a named manager, a nominative email, a personal mobile — you are inside GDPR scope, whatever the source it came from.
Data being publicly accessible is not a legal basis. You must still be able to say on what grounds you process it, inform the person, and honour an objection request. That is where tool choice matters: a tool that hands you a pile of JSON leaves that work entirely to you; a tool that traces the origin of each field does most of it for you.
On that specific point our stance is visible in the product: GDPR-compliant professional email lookup is a separate module from extraction, so that the step touching personal data is an explicit choice rather than a side effect.
Choosing, concretely
If you need source breadth and a mature API, Outscraper or Apify are the reasonable answers. If you want the shortest path from a Maps query to a clean file, an extension or Lobstr will do. If what you need is a genuinely usable prospecting file — deduplicated, verified emails, legal columns — then look at the whole pipeline, not the extractor alone.
One test separates everyone: run the same query on two tools and count not the rows, but the usable rows after cleaning. That is exactly what a Google Maps scraper with CSV export does when followed by a verification step: raw volume means nothing until duplicates and invalid numbers are removed.
FAQ — Outscraper alternatives
Is extracting data from Google Maps legal?
Extracting public company data is not unlawful in itself under French and EU law. Two limits still apply: the terms of service of whatever you query, and the GDPR as soon as the data identifies a natural person. The question is not "may I extract" but "on what grounds do I then process".
Can you get emails directly from Google Maps?
No, in the vast majority of cases: a Maps listing carries no email. Every tool that shows one has inferred it from another source, usually the business website. That is a separate enrichment step, and it is the one that triggers GDPR obligations.
What is the difference between an extractor and a pipeline?
An extractor produces a raw dump. A pipeline chains extraction, deduplication, verification and enrichment, and hands you a file ready to use. The difference is measured in reprocessing time — which is where most of the real cost sits.
Do you need to code to use these tools?
Not for web interfaces or extensions. Yes, as soon as you go through an API or in-house scripts. The deciding factor is less skill than repetition: a one-off extraction can be done by hand, a weekly one deserves automation.
How do you check that an extracted file is usable?
Count three things above all: the duplicate rate, the share of phone numbers in a valid format, and the share of websites that still respond. A large file with a third of its rows dead costs more than a smaller clean one.