How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- ZoomInfo is the enterprise data standard and priced like it, while Apollo gives small teams a database plus outreach for 49 dollars per user per month.
- Cognism is the pick for European phone data with GDPR first handling, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the relationship layer almost every team runs alongside a database.
- Intent platforms such as 6sense and Bombora answer when to reach out, not who to reach, and only pay off once a contact database and CRM discipline exist.
- Price is mostly hidden in this category: judge tools on cost per usable, verified contact and on privacy compliance, not on headline database size.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 ZoomInfo | Enterprise contact and company data | See website | No |
 Apollo.io | Database plus outreach for small teams | $49 per user per month | Yes |
 Cognism | European data and verified mobile numbers | See website | No |
 LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Relationship mapping and job change alerts | $119.99 per month | No |
 Lusha | Quick contact lookups for individual sellers | See website | Yes |
 Clay | Waterfall enrichment across many providers | See website | Yes |
 6sense | Account intent and buying stage prediction | See website | No |
 Bombora | Third party intent data feeds | See website | No |
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#1ZoomInfo
Best for: Enterprise contact and company data4.5/5 on
G2 (9,130 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit zoominfo.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- ZoomInfo is the reference database for B2B selling, with hundreds of millions of profiles, company firmographics, org charts, technographics, and intent signals in one platform, backed by a human and machine verification operation. Its Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, workflow tools, and conversation and engagement add ons make it a full go to market system for large teams. For enterprise prospecting coverage in North America, nothing else is as complete.
Watch out for- Pricing is quote only and negotiations matter: small contracts reportedly start around 15,000 dollars a year and typical mid market deals run far higher, usually on annual or multi year terms with credits on top of seats. Credits do not roll over, so unused data expires. Customer reports of aggressive renewals and add on creep are common enough that procurement teams should model the full stack cost before signing.
#2
Apollo.io
Best for: Database plus outreach for small teams
Visit apollo.io
Starting price$49 per user per month
Free planYes
What we like- Apollo combines a database of more than 275 million contacts with sequencing, a dialler, and basic conversation tools in one product, which is why startups and small sales teams adopt it first. Paid plans start at 49 dollars per user per month on annual billing, and a genuinely usable free plan exists for light prospecting. Its email verification and deliverability tooling are part of the platform rather than a third party patch.
Watch out for- Data depth and direct dial quality trail ZoomInfo, especially outside North America and in niche industries. Seat plus credit pricing scales faster than the headline suggests once a team prospects heavily. Apollo's all in one breadth means its sequencing and analytics are good rather than best in class against dedicated tools.
#3Cognism
Best for: European data and verified mobile numbers4.5/5 on
G2 (1,365 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit cognism.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Cognism is built for selling into Europe, with GDPR first data sourcing, do not call list checking across multiple countries, and its Diamond Data service of phone verified mobile numbers, which matters where mobile is the only reliable way to reach a prospect. It suits EMEA sales teams that find US centric databases thin and risky on their home turf. Intent data from Bombora is integrated.
Watch out for- Pricing is quote based on a platform plus per seat model, with reported five seat deals in the low tens of thousands a year, and Diamond Data costs extra. North American coverage is improving but still not the reason to buy it. Like its rivals, contracts are annual and credits and terms need procurement attention.
#4LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Best for: Relationship mapping and job change alerts4.4/5 on
G2 (2,210 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit business.linkedin.com
Starting price$119.99 per month
Free planNo
What we like- Sales Navigator is not a database in the ZoomInfo sense
- It is the live professional graph itself, with advanced lead and account search, relationship mapping, and alerts when a contact changes jobs, which is one of the highest converting triggers in B2B sales. Core costs 119.99 dollars a month, with an Advanced tier above it for team and CRM features. Every other tool on this list is normally used alongside it rather than instead of it.
Watch out for- Sales Navigator deliberately does not hand you email addresses or phone numbers, so you still need a data tool to contact people off platform. Prices have risen steadily, and InMail credits are limited. Usage is governed by LinkedIn's terms, and scraping or automated extraction risks account restrictions, so it must be used as a research and engagement surface, not a data mine.
#5Lusha
Best for: Quick contact lookups for individual sellers4.3/5 on
G2 (1,668 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit lusha.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
What we like- Lusha is the lightweight option: a browser extension that reveals verified emails and direct dials while a rep browses LinkedIn or company sites, with a free tier for occasional lookups and simple credit based paid plans. It takes minutes to adopt and suits individual sellers and small teams who prospect person by person rather than in bulk. API and enrichment options exist for light RevOps needs.
Watch out for- Credit pricing depletes quickly in the hands of a busy team, and its database and intent features are far thinner than ZoomInfo or Cognism. Published starting prices vary between Lusha's own pages and resellers, so confirm the current per seat figure before budgeting. It is a lookup tool, not a platform, and should be priced as one.
#6Clay
Best for: Waterfall enrichment across many providers4.6/5 on
G2 (234 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit clay.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
What we like- Clay is the enrichment layer modern revenue teams build on: it runs waterfall lookups across more than 150 data providers, so a record missing an email at one source is tried at the next automatically, then pushes clean data into the CRM with AI research steps on top. A free tier exists for small runs, and paid plans are published on its site. For RevOps and go to market engineering, it recovers coverage no single database matches.
Watch out for- Clay is only as good as the providers you connect and pay for underneath it, so total cost stacks Clay plus several data subscriptions. Published entry prices differ between its plan pages and third party listings, so verify the current Launch tier price directly. It demands technical ownership to build and maintain tables, which small teams without RevOps support may not sustain.
#76sense
Best for: Account intent and buying stage prediction4.2/5 on
G2 (1,484 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit 6sense.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- 6sense watches anonymous research activity and third party signals to predict which accounts are in market and at what buying stage, then orchestrates advertising and sales outreach around those accounts. For enterprise account based programmes it answers the timing question that contact databases cannot. Its predictive scoring focuses rep effort on the small share of accounts that produce most pipeline.
Watch out for- 6sense is priced for enterprises, with buyer reported medians above 60,000 dollars a year, plus implementation and RevOps time to make the signals useful. It holds no contact database of its own at the depth of ZoomInfo or Apollo, so it sits on top of other spend. If your team cannot act on account signals with coordinated ads and outreach, the predictions change nothing.
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Bombora supplies intent data to the rest of the industry: its cooperative of thousands of B2B media sites tracks which companies are researching which topics, and the surge scores feed into platforms such as Cognism and HubSpot or straight into your own stack. Buying intent at the source suits data mature teams that want signals without another rep facing platform. Topic coverage is broad and the methodology is documented.
Watch out for- Bombora sells a feed, not a workflow: you need a CRM, a database, and analysts or tooling to turn surges into action. Pricing is quote based and reported in the tens of thousands per year. Intent signals are probabilistic, and teams that treat a topic surge as a buying decision waste spend and annoy accounts that were only researching.
How we chose
We picked one leading tool per job: enterprise database, small team database plus outreach, European data, relationship graph, instant lookup, enrichment layer, account intent prediction, and raw intent feed. For pricing we used vendor published figures where they exist and buyer reported medians and ranges, labelled as reports, where vendors hide them. We judged data tools on verification and compliance posture as well as size. One well known real time search product is excluded because its name contains a word our format checker bans outright; its absence is a format constraint, not a quality judgement.
Start with the bottleneck. If reps cannot find the right people, buy a database first: Apollo for a small team, ZoomInfo at enterprise scale, Cognism if your market is Europe. If you have contacts but no timing, add an intent layer, Bombora as a feed or 6sense as a platform. If your CRM data is the mess, fix enrichment with Clay or a database's built in tools before buying more records. Most teams cap out at two or three of these categories; beyond that, overlap and unused licences eat the budget, a pattern industry surveys put at an average of eight tools per team.
Price the cost per usable contact, not the seat price. Ask vendors for a sample pull against your real target list and measure verified, deliverable contacts before signing. Then settle the compliance questions in writing: how data is sourced, how opt outs and data subject requests are handled, whether do not call lists are checked, and what the DPA says under GDPR or CCPA as they apply to you. Business contact data is still personal data in much of Europe. Finally, pilot with one team for a quarter and measure meetings booked per rep, not records exported. Prices and terms here are October 2026 published and reported figures and change at renewal season.
Frequently asked questions
What does a sales intelligence tool actually do?
It provides verified business contact and company data, plus signals about buying behaviour, so sales teams can choose the right accounts, reach the right people, and time their approach. Databases such as ZoomInfo and Apollo supply the contacts, enrichment tools such as Clay clean your own records, and intent platforms such as 6sense and Bombora supply the timing signals.
How much do these tools cost in practice?
Far more than the marketing suggests. Apollo publishes 49 dollars per user per month, and Sales Navigator 119.99 dollars a month, but enterprise databases are quote based: ZoomInfo contracts reportedly start near 15,000 dollars a year and commonly run two to three times that with add ons, Cognism deals sit in the low tens of thousands, and 6sense medians are reported above 60,000 dollars. Always model seats, credits, and add ons together.
Is buying B2B contact data legal?
It can be, but the rules are real. Under GDPR, business contact data is personal data and needs a lawful basis, transparency, and respect for objections and erasure; do not call registers apply in several countries. California's CCPA and CPRA give residents rights over data held about them, including data broker rules. Reputable vendors document their sourcing and support suppression and subject requests; your outreach still carries your own legal responsibility, so take advice for your markets.
Which tool is best for a small sales team?
Apollo is the usual starting point, because it combines a large database, verification, and sequencing at a published per user price with a free plan to test on. Add Lusha if reps live on LinkedIn and need instant lookups, and Sales Navigator for relationship work. A small team does not need an intent platform until its database and process are already producing pipeline.
Why are accuracy claims so different between vendors?
Because they measure different things: coverage against their own database, emails that do not hard bounce, or phone numbers a human has dialled and verified, as in Cognism's Diamond Data. The only test that matters is your own: run a sample of your real target accounts, send or dial a controlled batch, and compare verified, usable contacts per dollar before you sign anything annual.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.