For most startups, agencies and small to mid-size sales teams, Apollo is the best B2B data provider in 2026: a large database, built-in email sequences and a dialer at a published per-seat price. ZoomInfo and Cognism are better fits for enterprise teams and Europe-heavy prospecting, Clay is the pick for building custom enrichment workflows, and Hunter is the simplest option for finding emails by domain.
Some tool links here are affiliate links (disclosure). Nerdy Joe is a certified Apollo.io Managed Services Partner, so we know Apollo well, and we say plainly below where other providers beat it. If you want to see the data on your own market first, start on Apollo's free plan.
Quick picks
- Best overall for SMB and agencies: Apollo. Data, enrichment, sequences and dialer in one tool.
- Best for enterprise sales teams: ZoomInfo. Deep company intelligence and intent, sold on annual contracts.
- Best for European prospecting: Cognism. Europe-first positioning and phone-verified mobiles.
- Best for quick contact lookups: Lusha. Simple browser extension and a permanent free plan.
- Best for custom enrichment workflows: Clay. Pulls from 150+ providers in one table.
- Best for real-time research on a budget: Seamless.AI. Free sign-up and its own outreach module.
- Best for individual lookups across many roles: RocketReach.
- Best for small teams that want a credit-per-contact model: UpLead.
- Best for finding emails by company domain: Hunter.
Comparison table
All prices are as of October 2026 and change often. Check each vendor's page before you buy.
| Provider | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Database claim (vendor's own) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo | SMB, agencies, founders | Yes | About $49/user/mo annual (third-party reviews) | 240M+ contacts, 30M+ accounts |
| ZoomInfo | Enterprise | Free trial on some plans | Not published | 500M+ contacts, 100M+ companies |
| Lusha | Quick lookups | Yes, 40 credits/mo | Not shown on pricing page | 515M+ contacts, 29M+ companies |
| Cognism | Europe, mobile numbers | No | Not published | No contact count published |
| Clay | Custom enrichment | Yes | Launch from $54/mo annual (smallest setting) | Data from 150+ providers |
| Seamless.AI | Real-time research | Yes (free sign-up) | Not published | 1.8B+ verified business emails |
| RocketReach | Individual lookups | Limited | Not confirmed on its site | 700M+ professionals |
| UpLead | Small teams, per-contact credits | 7-day trial | $74/mo annual, $99 monthly | No count published |
| Hunter | Email by domain | Yes, 50 credits/mo | $34/mo annual, $49 monthly | Not stated as a contact count |
A note on those database numbers: vendors count different things ("contacts," "professionals," "verified emails," "researched"), so a bigger number does not mean better coverage of your market. Treat every count and accuracy figure in this article as the vendor's claim.
How we chose these providers
We did not run a lab test of every database. Instead, we compared what each vendor publishes: pricing, plan limits, credit rules, features, compliance statements and help documentation, checked in October 2026.
We weighed four things that matter most when you are buying data for outbound:
- Cost per usable contact, not just the sticker price. Credits for phone numbers often cost far more than emails.
- What you can do with the data once you have it: sequences, dialer, CRM sync, enrichment.
- Fit by region and segment. A provider can be strong in US tech and thin in European manufacturing.
- Contract risk. Annual-only contracts with long notice windows cost more if the data does not fit.
The 9 best B2B data providers, reviewed
1. Apollo: best overall for startups, agencies and SMB teams
Apollo combines a B2B contact and company database with the tools to act on it. You search with filters, reveal emails and phone numbers, enrich your CRM, then run email sequences, calls and LinkedIn tasks from the same workspace. On its homepage, Apollo says it has 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts.
What stands out
- All-in-one prospecting. Search, enrichment, sequences, a dialer, meetings and CRM sync live in one login. Most providers on this list sell data only.
- Published pricing. Apollo's pricing page lists Free, Basic, Professional and Custom plans. Third-party pricing reviews from 2026 put Basic at about $49 per user per month billed annually and Professional at about $79, with monthly billing costing more.
- Verification and refunds. Apollo says its verified emails have a 91% accuracy rate and that it refunds the email credit if a verified email bounces within 30 days.
- Deliverability tooling. Apollo's help center describes mailbox and domain purchase, automatic SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup for domains bought through Apollo, warmup and inbox placement tests.
Where it falls short
- Phone credits add up. 2026 pricing reviews report a mobile number costs 8 credits versus 1 for an email, so phone-heavy teams burn through allowances fast.
- Data quality varies by region and title. Like every provider, it is stronger in some markets than others. Filter to verified emails and re-verify before sending at volume.
- Not built for huge sending volume. Apollo's own guidance starts mailboxes at 50 emails a day. Teams sending tens of thousands of cold emails a month usually pair Apollo data with a dedicated sender.
Best for: founders, agencies and sales teams of 2 to 20 reps who want one tool for data and outreach. Read our full Apollo.io review for plan details and credit math, or try Apollo free.
2. ZoomInfo: best for enterprise sales teams
ZoomInfo is the enterprise standard for B2B data. Its homepage claims verified data on 500M+ contacts and 100M+ companies, says 300+ human researchers verify records, and lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and other certifications. Its pricing page shows tiers called ZoomInfo Professional, Copilot Advanced and Copilot Enterprise, with intent signals, website visitor data and AI account summaries on the higher tiers.
What stands out: depth of company intelligence, intent data, compliance credentials and dedicated support on enterprise plans. For a large team selling into enterprise accounts, that depth can be worth the price.
Where it falls short: ZoomInfo does not publish prices. Saleshandy (a competing vendor) reported in October 2026 that third-party ranges for Professional run about $15,000 to $18,000 a year, with reviewers describing annual terms and 60 to 90 day cancellation notice windows. That is a big commitment for a small team.
Best for: enterprise and upper mid-market teams with a data budget and a RevOps owner. See our head-to-head Apollo vs ZoomInfo comparison for the full breakdown. ZoomInfo website
3. Lusha: best for quick contact lookups
Lusha is known for its browser extension: open a profile or company site, reveal an email or phone number, and push it to your CRM. Its homepage claims 515M+ verified contacts and 29M+ companies, and its FAQ says "98% email accuracy and 85% US / 86% global phone accuracy across the full database." Those are Lusha's own figures.
What stands out: a permanent free plan with 40 credits a month, simple credit rules (1 credit for a verified email, 5 for a phone number per its pricing page), and rollover of unused credits on monthly plans. Lusha also lists GDPR and CCPA compliance and SOC 2 Type II.
Where it falls short: the pricing page we checked did not show dollar figures for its Starter, Pro and Premium tiers, and teams larger than five users must contact sales. It is a data and enrichment tool, so you will need a separate tool for sequences.
Best for: individual reps and small teams who mainly need contact details on demand. Lusha website
4. Cognism: best for European prospecting and mobile numbers
Cognism positions itself as "Europe's most trusted B2B data for growing pipeline." Its homepage highlights phone-verified mobiles, claims "up to 3x higher connect rates," cites Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe, and says decision-maker data is refreshed every 30 days.
What stands out: a Europe-first focus with compliance messaging around GDPR and CCPA, and intent data on its Pro package from Bombora's Company Surge. Its pricing page says 1 credit equals 1 revealed contact, and credits are reused only when a contact changes jobs.
Where it falls short: no published prices. Cognism says pricing is "tailored," and both packages (Standard and Pro) list five seats included, which suggests it is built for teams rather than solo buyers. There is no free plan.
Best for: teams calling into the UK and Europe who care most about reachable mobile numbers. Cognism website
5. Clay: best for custom enrichment workflows
Clay is not a single database. It is a spreadsheet-style workspace that pulls data from many sources and runs waterfall enrichment, where it checks one provider after another until it finds a match. Its pricing page says you can "find and enrich data from 150+ providers," and includes multi-provider waterfalls on every plan, including Free.
What stands out: flexibility. You can combine providers, AI research (Claygent), signals such as job changes, and CRM sync into one workflow. For RevOps teams and agencies building highly specific lists, nothing else on this list is as configurable.
Where it falls short: pricing and setup are more complex than anything else here. Clay prices on a slider of actions and data credits; as of October 2026 its page showed Launch from $54 a month and Growth from $185 a month billed annually at the lowest settings, with data credits priced separately. It also has a learning curve, and it does not replace a sequencing tool for most teams.
Best for: technical growth teams and agencies that want to build their own enrichment logic. Read Apollo vs Clay if you are deciding between the two. Clay website
6. Seamless.AI: best for real-time research on a budget
Seamless.AI says it uses AI to "crawl the web and search publicly available data in real time." Its homepage claims "1.8B+ verified business emails and 414M+ phone numbers," and its FAQ page says its B2B contact data is 90% accurate on average. It also offers a Chrome extension, buyer intent, an AI writing assistant and Seamless Connect, an outreach module that its help center says is included free with a Seamless account.
What stands out: a free sign-up (its FAQ says new users get 50 free credits) and a single workspace for search plus basic multichannel campaigns.
Where it falls short: paid plans are not priced publicly. Docket, a third-party research site, reported in April 2026 that cancellation requires 60 days' notice before renewal and that users report auto-renewal for another 12 months if they miss the window. Calling in Connect requires a separate Twilio subscription, per Seamless's help center.
Best for: sellers who want quick lookups and are comfortable negotiating a sales-led contract. Our Apollo vs Seamless.AI comparison goes deeper. Seamless.AI website
7. RocketReach: best for individual lookups across many roles
RocketReach says it finds email, phone and social profiles for 700M+ professionals. It is widely used by recruiters and PR teams as well as sales, because it covers roles outside classic B2B buying committees.
What stands out: broad coverage of individual professionals and a simple lookup model.
Where it falls short: RocketReach's pricing page did not show plan details when we checked it in October 2026, so we cannot confirm its prices from the vendor. Emelia, a competing vendor, reported in August 2026 that Essentials was $39 a month on monthly billing and that phone numbers start on the Pro plan. Verify on RocketReach's site before buying. There is no built-in sequencing comparable to Apollo's.
Best for: recruiters, PR teams and sellers who look up specific people rather than building large lists. RocketReach website
8. UpLead: best for small teams that want a simple credit model
UpLead keeps pricing simple and public. Its pricing page lists Essentials at $99 a month (or $74 a month billed annually) with 170 credits a month, and Plus at $199 a month (or $149 annually) with 400 credits a month. One credit reveals one contact, including email and mobile direct dial where available.
What stands out: UpLead says "we verify email addresses with a data accuracy rate of 95%," and its monthly plans have no long-term contract. Technographic filters (16,000+ technologies) come with Plus.
Where it falls short: credit allowances are small relative to price. At 170 credits for $99, cost per contact is far higher than Apollo's annual allowances. Buyer intent and full API access sit on the custom Professional tier.
Best for: small teams that pull a few hundred highly targeted contacts a month. UpLead website
9. Hunter: best for finding emails by company domain
Hunter started as a domain search tool: enter a company website and see the email addresses and patterns it has found. It now includes an email finder, a verifier, AI-assisted search (Discover) and Sequences for outreach. Its pricing page lists a free plan with 50 credits a month and Starter at $49 a month (or $34 a month billed annually) with 2,000 credits a month.
What stands out: clear credit rules (1 credit per email found, 0.5 per verification), unlimited team members on every plan and a well-known verifier. Hunter says more than 7,000,000 professionals use it.
Where it falls short: it is email-focused. If you need direct dials, deep firmographic filters or intent data, look elsewhere. Its outreach features are lighter than Apollo's sequences and dialer.
Best for: founders, marketers and link builders who know which companies they want and need the right email. Our guide on how to find anyone's email address covers this workflow. Hunter website
How to choose the right B2B data provider
Start with your use case, then your budget, then your region. Here is a short decision guide.
| If you need | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One tool for data plus outreach on a small budget | Apollo | Data, sequences and dialer at published per-seat prices |
| Enterprise depth, intent and compliance paperwork | ZoomInfo | Built for large teams with RevOps support |
| Reachable mobile numbers in Europe | Cognism | Europe-first, phone-verified mobiles |
| A browser extension for one-off lookups | Lusha | Free plan and simple credit rules |
| Custom enrichment from many sources | Clay | Waterfall enrichment across 150+ providers |
| Emails by company domain | Hunter | Domain search plus verifier |
Calculate cost per usable contact
Do not compare plans by monthly price alone. Divide the price by the number of contacts you will actually use after filtering out unverified emails, catch-alls and wrong titles. A tool with a higher list price and a larger allowance often wins on this math.
Test on your own market before you commit
Every provider's coverage is uneven. Pull 100 to 200 contacts that match your ideal customer profile from two providers, run them through an email verifier, and compare how many are valid and on target. Free plans from Apollo, Lusha, Clay and Hunter make this cheap to do.
Watch the contract terms
Sales-led providers (ZoomInfo, Cognism, Seamless.AI paid plans) usually sell annual contracts. Ask about notice windows, renewal increases and seat reductions before you sign, and get the renewal price in writing.
Vendor accuracy claims: how to read them
Here is what each vendor says about its own data, side by side. None of these are independent audits, and they measure different things.
| Provider | Vendor claim | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo | Verified emails have an accuracy rate of 91%; credit refunded if a verified email bounces within 30 days | Apollo help center |
| Lusha | 98% email accuracy, 85% US and 86% global phone accuracy | Lusha FAQ |
| UpLead | 95% data accuracy rate for verified emails | UpLead pricing page |
| Seamless.AI | B2B contact data 90% accurate on average | Seamless.AI FAQ page |
| Cognism | Phone-verified mobiles with "up to 3x higher connect rates" | Cognism homepage |
| ZoomInfo | 300+ human researchers verify records | ZoomInfo homepage |
Whatever you buy, verify before you send. Bounces damage sender reputation fast, and a second verification pass is cheap insurance. Our roundup of the best email verification tools covers the options.
Data is half the job: pairing it with a sender
A great list does nothing if your emails land in spam. Apollo can send sequences itself, and for many small teams that is enough. Once you scale to many mailboxes and domains, most teams keep Apollo as the data layer and send from a dedicated cold email platform.
- Smartlead is built for high volume across many mailboxes. As of October 2026, plans start at $39 a month (Base, 6,000 sends).
- Instantly includes unlimited email accounts and warmup on every Outreach plan, starting at $47 a month (Growth, 5,000 emails).
- PlusVibe starts at $37 a month (Personal, 25,000 emails). Placement testing is a separate paid add-on.
Our cold email infrastructure guide explains how to set up domains, mailboxes and warmup so your data actually reaches inboxes.
Rather not run it yourself?
Buying data, cleaning it, writing sequences and protecting deliverability is a lot of work for a small team. Koldify is a done-for-you cold email agency that builds lists and runs campaigns on PlusVibe, Smartlead and Email Bison. If you would rather hand it off, book a 30-minute call with David at Koldify.
The verdict
For most buyers reading this, Apollo is the best place to start: a free plan to test the data, published pricing, and sequences plus a dialer in the same tool. Choose ZoomInfo if you are an enterprise team that needs deep intelligence and has the budget for an annual contract, and Cognism if your pipeline depends on European mobile numbers.
Clay is the right call when you want to build custom enrichment across many sources, Lusha and RocketReach suit quick lookups, UpLead suits small, targeted pulls, and Hunter is the simplest way to find emails by domain. Whatever you choose, test it on your own market first. Start with Apollo's free plan and compare it against one alternative before you commit.
Sources
- Apollo pricing: https://www.apollo.io/pricing
- Apollo, How Apollo Verifies Emails: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/10826699994381-How-Apollo-Verifies-Emails
- Apollo, What Are Credits: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/9527776320781-What-Are-Credits-
- Apollo, Manage Mailboxes and Domains: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/39530186410125-Manage-Mailboxes-and-Domains-on-Apollo
- Apollo, Email Sending Limits Overview: https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409233349005-Email-Sending-Limits-Overview
- Valley, Apollo pricing and credits explained (Oct 2026): https://www.joinvalley.co/blog/apollo-pricing-and-credits-explained-2026
- Saleshandy, Apollo.io pricing (Sept 2026): https://www.saleshandy.com/blog/apolloio-pricing/
- ZoomInfo homepage: https://www.zoominfo.com/
- ZoomInfo pricing: https://www.zoominfo.com/pricing
- Saleshandy, ZoomInfo pricing (Oct 2026): https://www.saleshandy.com/blog/zoominfo-pricing/
- Lusha homepage: https://www.lusha.com/
- Lusha pricing: https://www.lusha.com/pricing/
- Cognism homepage: https://www.cognism.com/
- Cognism pricing: https://www.cognism.com/pricing
- Clay pricing: https://www.clay.com/pricing
- Seamless.AI homepage: https://seamless.ai/
- Seamless.AI FAQ page: https://seamless.ai/lp/faq
- Seamless Connect FAQ: https://seamless.ai/customers/education/articles/seamless-ai-connect-frequently-asked-questions-faq
- Docket, Seamless.AI pricing: https://www.docket.io/resources/research/seamlessai-pricing
- RocketReach pricing: https://rocketreach.co/pricing
- Emelia, RocketReach pricing (Aug 2026): https://emelia.io/hub/rocketreach-pricing
- UpLead pricing: https://www.uplead.com/pricing/
- Hunter pricing: https://hunter.io/pricing
- Smartlead pricing: https://www.smartlead.ai/pricing
- Instantly pricing: https://instantly.ai/pricing
- PlusVibe pricing: https://plusvibe.ai/pricing
Frequently asked questions
What is the most accurate B2B data provider?
No independent, current benchmark covers every provider, so any single answer is a guess. Every vendor publishes its own accuracy figure (Apollo says 91% for verified emails, UpLead says 95%, Lusha says 98% for emails), and the only reliable test is a sample of your own target accounts run through a verification tool.
Is there a free B2B contact database?
Several providers have permanent free plans with small monthly allowances, including Apollo, Lusha, Clay and Hunter. They are enough to test data quality on your market, but not to run outbound at volume.
How much does B2B data cost?
As of October 2026, self-serve tools such as Apollo, Hunter and UpLead start between roughly $34 and $99 per user per month depending on billing. Enterprise providers such as ZoomInfo and Cognism do not publish prices and sell annual contracts that third-party reports put in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Is ZoomInfo better than Apollo?
ZoomInfo is the stronger choice for large enterprises that want deep company intelligence, intent data and a dedicated account team. Apollo is the better value for startups, agencies and small to mid-size teams because it bundles data, sequences and a dialer at published per-seat prices.
Is it legal to buy B2B contact data for cold email?
In the US, B2B cold email is generally allowed under CAN-SPAM if you identify yourself, include a physical address and honor opt-outs. In the EU, UK and Canada the rules are stricter, so check GDPR, PECR or CASL requirements and your provider's compliance documentation before you send.
What is waterfall enrichment?
Waterfall enrichment checks several data sources in sequence until one returns a valid email or phone number for a contact. Clay is built around it, and Apollo also offers waterfall enrichment inside its platform.