Comparison · QD vs UpLead
A credit back on a bounce. Or a list that doesn’t bounce.
UpLead publishes an accuracy figure and refunds the credit when a record bounces. So do we, in our own way. This page sets the two side by side on what each guarantee returns, when the check runs and what it costs — with a source and a date on every figure.
- 92%+
- Deliverability target
- Stated guarantee · 2026
- 750
- Verified leads, Pilot
- 250 companies · 3 contacts each · 2026
- 5–7d
- Turnaround
- From a confirmed brief · 2026
The difference
Two guarantees. What each one gives back.
| Measure | UpLead | Qualified Deals |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A platform with a monthly credit allowance. You search their database, then spend credits to reveal the contacts you want. uplead.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | A research project. You brief a senior analyst once, and a finished file comes back. Pilot scope · 2026 |
| Accuracy, as stated | “We verify email addresses with a data accuracy rate of 95%” — their wording, on their own pricing page. uplead.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | We target 92%+ deliverability. Their published figure is higher than ours, and both are stated rather than audited. Stated guarantee · 2026 |
| What the guarantee returns | A credit. UpLead refunds the credit for any verified bounce, which puts the risk on them rather than on your team. UpLead published claims · 18 Aug 2026 | A record. Above an 8% hard-bounce rate inside 7 days, every bounced record is replaced with a re-verified one from the same company, within 5 working days. Stated guarantee · 2026 |
| When the check happens | When you spend the credit, against the record their database holds at that moment. uplead.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | Before delivery. A researcher confirms the name, the exact title and the current employer against LinkedIn and the company website, and dates that check on the row. Delivery SOP stages 1–5 · 2026 |
| What you receive | Contacts revealed against your allowance — 170 credits a month on Essentials, 400 on Plus. uplead.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | 750 verified leads across 250 companies, as XLSX and a CSV that imports cleanly, 5–7 days from a confirmed brief. A deliverable, not an allowance. Pilot scope · 2026 |
This is the closest comparison on this site, and it is worth being straight about why. UpLead publishes a number and attaches a remedy to it, which is exactly what we do. On a per-record basis theirs is the more generous trigger: they refund on any single verified bounce, we act above 8%. What differs is when the check runs and what comes back — a credit you spend again, after the send, against a re-verified record from the same company.
Both figures above are stated rather than audited, theirs and ours alike. We have not tested UpLead’s data and publish no measurement of it; their 95% is their published claim, quoted as they word it.
How we verify
Brief, Source, Verify, QA and deliver.
| Stage | What happens | Artifact produced |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Brief | A 30-minute Project Brief call with a senior analyst — not an SDR — to scope the ICP, territory, titles, volume and timeline. Ten fields, all required before research begins. If the brief shows we are not a fit, we say so before any work starts. | The signed research brief |
| 02 Source | Analysts map the territory across twenty-plus sources — ZoomInfo, Apollo, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Cognism, Lusha, Crunchbase, PitchBook and company websites — triangulated rather than exported. Accounts outside the brief are dropped here. | The raw master source sheet |
| 03 Verify | Every contact is cross-checked by a person against LinkedIn and the company website: current role confirmed, employer matched, email format validated. The date of that check is recorded on the row. SMTP-only verification is the floor, not the ceiling. | The LinkedIn cross-check log |
| 04 QA and deliver | A 10% spot-check by a second person, with zero QA failures permitted — anything that fails goes back to the analyst. Records that cannot be confirmed are removed, not shipped as Pending. Then a CRM-ready XLSX and CSV with a count summary. | The QA spot-check sheet |
What you receive
One workbook, four sheets, and a CSV that imports cleanly.
Delivered as QD_[Client]_[Package]_[YYYYMMDD].xlsx with a matching UTF-8 CSV for direct CRM import. Phone columns are formatted as text, so long numbers do not arrive as scientific notation.
1 · Read Me
Client, package, ICP summary, delivery date, record counts, the verification method, and the guarantee stated verbatim.
2 · Verified Leads
One row per person. Company, contact, exact title, LinkedIn URL, verified email, confirmation date, status.
3 · Companies
One row per company. Domain, employee band, HQ country, sector, and the accounts we excluded.
4 · Method
Sources used, the verification steps applied, the exclusions, and the QA sample size.
| Company | Contact | Title | Confirmed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N•••••• Systems | D. R••••• | VP Engineering | 2026-07-28 | Verified |
| C•••••• Labs | R. M••••• | Head of Infrastructure | 2026-07-29 | Verified |
| A••••••• Digital | S. T••••• | Director, Service Delivery | 2026-07-29 | Verified |
| V•••••• Cloud | J. P••••• | Chief Technology Officer | 2026-07-30 | Verified |
If you are weighing UpLead
Three things buyers say first.
UpLead guarantees 95% accuracy with credit-back.
The credit comes after the bounce
It is a real guarantee and a fair one — better than most on this page, and better than ours on a per-record trigger. But the credit arrives once the email has already bounced. The send went out short, the domain took the hit, and you spend the credit again. Our check runs before delivery, so the bad contact never reaches the file.
UpLead’s credits cover email and phone in one pull.
An allowance, not a deliverable
They do, and that is efficient. But credits are a monthly budget you draw against — 170 on Essentials, 400 on Plus — and a refunded credit is a credit, not a replacement contact. A Pilot is 750 finished records handed over once, with nothing to meter, top up or plan around.
We’re a small team — UpLead’s entry tier is affordable.
It is, until the second rep
Their entry tier is genuinely cheap, and for one person doing occasional lookups it is hard to argue with. Above Plus their own pricing goes straight to Professional with nothing in between, so the next step up is a custom quote rather than a bigger plan. A Pilot is priced per project, not per seat.
Cost
An allowance you top up, against a project you finish.
UpLead’s figures are their published rate card for annual billing, read on 18 August 2026. Monthly billing is priced higher, at $99 and $199, and they offer a 7-day trial with 5 credits. Professional is custom-priced. Ours is the published Pilot price. Both sides publish a rate card here, which is not true of every comparison on this site. Both rows exclude tax.
Figures outside USD are converted at the mid-market rates recorded for 16 August 2026. Our own prices are unchanged from the pricing page.
FAQ
What buyers ask when they are weighing UpLead.
Is Qualified Deals an UpLead alternative, or a complement to it?
Either, and this is the closest call among the comparisons on this site. UpLead does the same core job we do — accurate contacts, with a remedy attached when one is wrong — as a self-serve platform with a monthly credit allowance. If your team wants to search and pull contacts themselves, that is a real option and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We are the better fit when you would rather brief the requirement once and receive a finished file, checked person by person before it arrives.
How does UpLead’s credit-back differ from Qualified Deals’ bounce replacement?
Two things: what comes back, and when. UpLead refunds the credit for any verified bounce — a lower trigger than ours, since we act above an 8% hard-bounce rate rather than on a single record. But a credit is spending power, not a contact: the email already bounced, the campaign already went out short, and you spend the credit again to try. Our replacement returns a re-verified record from the same company, within 5 working days, and the check that should have caught it ran before the file was delivered rather than after the send.
What happens to unused UpLead credits?
UpLead publishes that credits roll over monthly, so an unused allowance is not simply lost. The thing worth planning around is not expiry but shape: credits are a recurring budget your team draws against and tops up, which suits steady prospecting and fits less well around campaigns that run in bursts. A Pilot is 750 records delivered once, with no allowance to manage between projects.
Can I use UpLead for lookups and Qualified Deals for a bulk verified list?
Yes, and it is a sensible division. Keep the seat for the contact a rep needs in the moment; commission a project when a campaign needs a list that holds at volume. Delivery is a CRM-ready XLSX plus a UTF-8 CSV with a BOM, with field mapping agreed before delivery, so it imports alongside whatever your seat already feeds.
Related comparisons
Weighing more than one of these.
- An annual term
- A per-seat platform bought for a year, against one project that finishes. Commitment, verification, and what the first year costs either way.
- A year of credits, quoted
- Their paid tiers are annual credit packages priced on a call. The page credits what they do well — real-time search, an automatic credit refund — and asks what a refunded credit gets back.
Book a project brief
Verify before the send, not after it. Tell us who you sell to.
A senior researcher reads every brief and replies from a named address.