# Local business leads, with the emails on their own websites

> Local business leads from 67 kinds of business on OpenStreetMap, with the emails each site publishes, added to your campaigns. No credits. Try it.

Canonical: https://ballast.to/local-business-leads
Last updated: 2026-11-09

Lead finder · Every plan

Pick a kind of business and a city. Ballast finds them on OpenStreetMap, reads each website for the email addresses it publishes, and adds them as leads you can write to. No credits per lead, on every plan.

[Read the guide](https://ballast.to/docs/lead-finder)

Ballast is cold email software with every feature on every plan. Connect unlimited mailboxes, send sequences at a pace your domains survive, and handle replies in one inbox, priced by the emails you send.

How it works

## From a map search to a lead list in a few minutes

1. 01
   ### Pick a kind of business and a place
   Choose from 67 kinds, from accountants to yoga studios, or search by name. Type a city or move the map. One search covers up to 2,500 km² and returns up to 1,000 businesses with their address, phone and website.
2. 02
   ### Ballast reads their websites
   Click Find emails and BallastBot reads each homepage plus up to 6 pages that list contacts (contact, about, team, imprint), like a visitor would. It keeps the addresses the site publishes and marks each one Company (info@, office@) or Personal. A site whose robots.txt says no is left alone.
3. 03
   ### Add them as leads, then write
   Each business with an address becomes a lead, company addresses first, in a list named after the search. It goes through the same checks as an import: duplicates, your suppression list, invalid addresses, the email provider, and your verifier if you connected one.

What you get

## One lead per business

Businesses have no first name, so open with `{{company}}` or give `{{first_name}}` a fallback. The launch checklist warns you about a variable with no value.

| Field | What goes in it |
| --- | --- |
| Company | The business name, as listed on the map |
| Email | The best address the site publishes, company addresses first |
| Website and phone | From the listing or the site itself |
| Country and time zone | From the business's location, so emails go out in its working hours |
| Custom fields | City, street address, category and the OpenStreetMap id, for your copy or your CRM |

Google Maps

## Why it doesn't scrape Google Maps

Google knows the most businesses, so most lead tools point a script at Google Maps. Google's [terms of service](https://policies.google.com/terms) forbid automated access that ignores its robots.txt, and the [Maps Platform terms](https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms) say a customer "will not export, extract, or otherwise scrape Google Maps Content". Ballast reads [OpenStreetMap](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright), open data anyone may use, and offers Google Places through Google's own API on your key.

|  | A Google Maps scraper | Ballast lead finder |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Where the businesses come from | A script reads Google Maps pages | OpenStreetMap, or Google Places through Google's API on your own key |
| Google's terms | Google's terms of service forbid automated access that ignores its robots.txt | OpenStreetMap is open data. Places API calls run on your key, under Google's terms |
| Where the emails come from | Depends on the tool | Each business's own site: homepage and up to 6 contact pages, robots.txt honored |
| Guessed or probed addresses | Depends on the tool | Never. No name patterns, no asking mail servers whether an address exists |
| What happens next | Export a CSV, clean it, import it into your sending tool | Leads in your workspace, checked like an import, ready for a campaign |

Google's terms read on November 9, 2026. Site owners can see what BallastBot reads and how to opt out on [ballast.to/bot](https://ballast.to/bot).

When it's the wrong tool

## Businesses, not people

- You need named decision makers. The lead finder returns businesses and the addresses they publish. For people with titles, pull your lists from Apollo or Clay through [lead sources](https://ballast.to/docs/integrations#lead-sources).
- Your town is barely mapped. OpenStreetMap is kept up by volunteers. Connect Google Places on your own key, or bring a list you already have.
- You want to blast every business in a city. A short list you have a reason to write to replies better and keeps your domain out of spam. Read [cold email vs spam](https://ballast.to/cold-email-vs-spam) first.

## Questions

### Is this a Google Maps scraper?

No. Ballast searches OpenStreetMap, which anyone may use under its open license, or Google Places through Google's own API on your key. It never reads Google Maps pages with a script: Google's Maps Platform terms say a customer will not export, extract or scrape Google Maps content.

### How much does it cost?

It's on every plan, from $19 a month, with no credits per search or per lead. Leads you add count toward your plan's active contacts like any other. If you connect Google Places, Google bills your Google Cloud project for those searches at its own prices.

### How many businesses can I find?

Up to 1,000 businesses per search over 2,500 km² at most, 30 searches an hour and 2,000 website reads a day per workspace. A big city is searched around its center: zoom in or pick a narrower kind to go further.

### Does it find an email for every business?

No. It only keeps addresses a business publishes on its own site or its map listing. Businesses without a website, or whose site lists no address, are left out, and the page tells you how many. It never guesses an address from a name.

### Which countries does it cover?

Any country on OpenStreetMap. It's kept up by volunteers, so coverage varies by town: cities in Europe and North America are usually well mapped. Where it's thin, Google Places on your own key usually knows more businesses.

### Can I email the businesses it finds?

Writing to a business's published address is common B2B practice, but the rules are the recipient country's. Germany, for one, asks for consent even between businesses. Keep it one-to-one and relevant, and every email carries a one-click unsubscribe that Ballast honors everywhere.

[Every plan includes the lead finder: see pricing](https://ballast.to/pricing)