Sluice vs PhantomBuster
PhantomBuster is an extraction and automation tool: you run ready-made scripts that pull lists, such as everyone who liked a LinkedIn post, into a spreadsheet, billed by execution time from a reported $56 to $69 a month. Sluice takes the same kind of source and returns people already identified, scored 0 to 100 against your customer profile, and ranked.
What PhantomBuster is good at
PhantomBuster is a general-purpose automation toolkit. It has ready-made scripts for many sites and tasks, from extracting post engagers and search results to scheduled actions, and the output lands in a spreadsheet you control. If you can describe a repetitive data-collection job, there is a good chance it already has a script for it. For a growth marketer who likes building their own pipeline, that flexibility is worth a lot, and Sluice does not try to match it.
Use PhantomBuster if: Choose PhantomBuster if you want raw data to work with yourself, you are comfortable cleaning and enriching spreadsheets, you need automations Sluice does not offer, or you are building a pipeline from several tools and want a flexible extraction step at the front of it.
| PhantomBuster | Sluice | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Raw rows in a spreadsheet | People identified, scored and ranked |
| Price | Reported $56–69/mo entry (third-party) | $9/mo, monthly |
| Billing unit | Execution hours (reported) | Credits, 1 cent each; worst case shown before each run |
| Scope | Many automations across many sites | One job: find, score, rank, draft |
| Who is worth contacting | Your call, in the spreadsheet | Fit 0 to 100; 70 is the line |
| Email finding | Limited email credits by plan (reported) | Waterfall across suppliers; misses not billed; bounces refunded |
| Outreach | Automations you configure | Drafts from their words; sends only what you approve |
| Setup effort | Choose scripts, connect accounts, clean output | Describe your customer, paste a post |
The 400-row spreadsheet problem
Here is the most common PhantomBuster job in sales: a competitor's founder posts on LinkedIn, the post does well, and you extract everyone who liked or commented. It works. You get a spreadsheet of a few hundred names and profile links.
Then the real work starts. In that sheet are prospects, but also the founder's colleagues, investors, recruiters, students, other vendors and friends. Somebody has to read the rows, decide who fits, find emails for the ones who do, and work out what to say. On a 400-row sheet that is an afternoon, every time.
PhantomBuster is good at the extraction. Sluice exists for the afternoon that follows.
What Sluice does with the same post
- You paste the LinkedIn post URL.
- The people who engaged are collected and each is matched to a name, employer, title and location where possible.
- Each is scored against your customer profile: fit from 0 to 100, whether they are worth approaching, and whether what they wrote suggests the problem is live now.
- Previews are free. People who score 70 or more are revealed with a verified work email where one exists.
- A first message is drafted from their comment, then scored with a reason before you can queue it.
You do not get the colleagues and recruiters, because they do not score. The same approach works for posts on Reddit, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. More on the method in LinkedIn post engagers as leads.
How do the costs compare?
PhantomBuster's prices are reported, not confirmed by us on its own page: third-party reviews in 2026 put Starter at $69 a month ($56 annually) with 20 execution hours and a small allowance of email credits. You pay for the time scripts run, whatever is in the output.
Sluice charges for outcomes. Worked example: a post with 400 engagers, of whom 60 fit your profile.
| Step | PhantomBuster | Sluice |
|---|---|---|
| Extract 400 engagers | Execution time on your plan | Included in the pass |
| Decide who fits | You, by hand | Scored automatically |
| Contacts revealed | All 400 rows, unqualified | 60 who scored 70+, at 5 cents each = $3 |
| Emails | Plan email credits or another tool | Waterfall; a miss is not billed |
| Bounces | Your problem | Refunded exactly what they cost |
Sluice shows the worst-case price of each pass before it runs. A single pass is capped (25 people enriched by default), so large posts take several passes. That is slower than one big extraction, and deliberate.
Where PhantomBuster is better
- Breadth. It automates many tasks on many sites. Sluice does not automate arbitrary browsing.
- Raw data ownership. You get every row and decide what to do with it, which suits people who like to build their own scoring.
- Bulk. One extraction can pull a large list in one go.
- Maturity. It has been around for years and is widely documented. Sluice is new and has no public reviews yet.
Where Sluice is better
- Judgement included. A ranked list with a reason beside each name, instead of a sheet you have to read.
- Paying for results. Lookups that return nothing usable are not billed.
- Contacting people safely. Messages go only through accounts you connect, only when you approve them, and sequences stop on a reply, a "no" or a bounce. If you send on LinkedIn, read LinkedIn sending limits first.
- Not pitching customers. With HubSpot connected, existing customers and open deals are never cold-pitched.
Can you use both?
Yes, if you need PhantomBuster's automations for something Sluice does not do. For the specific job of turning a post's engagers into people worth messaging, running both is paying twice for the extraction. If you are leaving PhantomBuster for that reason, our PhantomBuster alternatives page covers other options too.
The decision
If you want raw data and a flexible toolkit, PhantomBuster. If you want the people from a post who fit your customer, already ranked and reachable, paste one into Sluice on the $9 plan and compare the list to your last spreadsheet.
Questions people ask
- How much does PhantomBuster cost?
- Third-party reviews in 2026 report Starter at $69 a month ($56 billed annually), Pro at $159 and Team at $439, with plans sized by execution hours. We could not confirm these on PhantomBuster's own page, so treat them as reported.
- Does PhantomBuster score or qualify leads?
- Not in the sense of ranking people against your customer profile. It extracts and automates; deciding who on the list is worth contacting is left to you or another tool.
- Can Sluice extract LinkedIn post engagers?
- Yes. Paste a LinkedIn post and the people who engaged with it become leads, each scored against your profile with a link back to the post. Only those who score 70 or more are revealed.
- Is PhantomBuster more flexible than Sluice?
- Yes. It is a general automation toolkit with scripts for many sites and tasks. Sluice does one job: find, score and rank people, then draft messages.
Sources
Try it on your own market
Sluice quotes the worst-case price before anything runs and charges only for lookups that found something, so finding out costs close to nothing.
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