Short answer: B2B data providers sell company and contact data in four shapes: an all-in-one database with outreach built in (Apollo), an enterprise database sold on contract (ZoomInfo, Cognism), a credit-based lookup tool (Lusha, UpLead) and a raw data API (People Data Labs). Clay sits on top, querying 150+ providers in turn. On the vendors’ own pages in October 2026, the cheapest paid plans ran from $37.45 a month (Lusha, billed yearly) to $185 (Clay), and ZoomInfo and Cognism published no price at all. The one third-party accuracy test with a method found 65% to 71% of exported emails were valid. Pick by the price per contact you will use and a test on your own list.
A note on the sources. When we checked Google for “b2b data providers” in October 2026, the top results were written by companies that sell data, outbound or verification, and several ranked their own product first. Prices were often undated or estimated. Every price and coverage figure below was read on the vendor’s own site on October 25, 2026. We left out the vendors’ own accuracy percentages and used only a third-party test that publishes its method.
What types of B2B data providers are there?
Four, and the type matters more than the brand, because it decides how you pay and who on your team does the work.
| Type | Examples | How you pay | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Database with outreach built in | Apollo | Per seat, with credits pooled across the team | Small teams that want to find contacts and send sequences in one tool |
| Enterprise database | ZoomInfo, Cognism | Annual contract, priced on a call | Teams that call a lot and sell into mid-market and enterprise accounts |
| Credit-based lookup | Lusha, UpLead | Monthly or yearly plan with a set number of credits | Sellers who look up contacts one at a time, often from a browser extension |
| Data API | People Data Labs | Per record retrieved | Teams with an engineer who builds their own enrichment or product |
| Waterfall layer (not a database) | Clay | Actions and data credits | Teams with someone who can build and maintain data workflows |
How do the main B2B data providers compare on price and coverage?
Read on each vendor’s site on October 25, 2026. Coverage figures are the vendors’ own counts.
| Provider | Entry paid price (vendor’s page) | What the credits buy | Coverage the vendor claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo | Basic $49 per seat per month, billed annually; Professional $79; Custom priced on request | Basic: 30,000 credits per seat per year. An email costs 1 credit, a phone number 8 | 240M contacts and 30M companies |
| ZoomInfo | Not published: priced on features, licenses and credits | A credit is used when a profile is exported | 500M+ professional profiles, 122M+ company records, 135M+ direct dials, 300M+ verified emails |
| Cognism | Not published: Standard and Pro packages, 5 seats included | 1 credit per revealed contact; a credit is used again only if the contact changes jobs | Phone-verified mobile numbers and European B2B data; no database size published |
| Lusha | Starter $37.45 a month billed yearly; Pro $52.45; Premium $299.95 | Starter: 4,800 credits a year. Free plan: 40 credits a month | No database size on the pricing page |
| UpLead | Essentials $99 a month; Plus $199 | Essentials: 170 credits a month. 1 credit is 1 contact, with email and mobile | No database size on the pricing page |
| People Data Labs | Pro from $98 a month | From 350 records a month; free plan up to 100 | Person, company and job posting datasets, by API or data feed |
| Clay | Launch $185 a month, or $167 billed annually | Actions and data credits, spent on lookups across 150+ providers | No database of its own |
The vendors that publish a price sell to small teams and individual sellers; the two that do not, ZoomInfo and Cognism, sell annual contracts to larger teams. The credit units differ so much that the plan price tells you little until you convert it to a price per contact.
What does a contact cost from each provider?
Our arithmetic from the published plans above, at the entry paid tier, assuming you use every credit.
| Plan | Price a month | Contacts a month | Price per email | Price per contact with phone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo Basic, 1 seat (annual) | $49 | 2,500 credits | About $0.02 | About $0.16 (8 credits) |
| People Data Labs Pro | $98 | 350 records | About $0.28 per record | Depends on the fields returned |
| UpLead Essentials | $99 | 170 contacts | About $0.58, email and mobile together | About $0.58 |
| Lusha Starter (yearly) | $37.45 | 400 credits | About $0.09 per credit | Lusha did not show credits per phone on its pricing page |
Apollo is the cheapest per email by a wide margin if you send mostly email. Phone numbers change the order: they cost eight times an email on Apollo, while UpLead charges one credit for a contact with both. If your team calls, price the phone numbers, not the emails.
How accurate is B2B contact data?
Less accurate than vendor pages suggest, and the gap is largest at small companies. Vendors publish their own accuracy rates, which we left out. The one third-party test we found with a full method was run by BounceZero, an email verification company, and published in July 2026:
- Method. About 16,600 contacts each exported from paid Apollo, ZoomInfo and Lusha accounts between May 12 and June 2, 2026, matched on 12 industries, four company-size bands and seniority. Each email was checked within 72 hours with SMTP, catch-all and spam-trap checks. No emails were sent, and phone numbers were not tested.
- Valid emails. ZoomInfo 71.2%, Lusha 66.4%, Apollo 64.9%. Catch-all addresses, which cannot be confirmed either way, were another 15.6% to 18.2%.
- Invalid emails. 9.3% for ZoomInfo, 12.1% for Lusha, 12.8% for Apollo.
- Small companies. At companies with 1 to 50 employees, valid rates fell to 57.8% (Apollo), 61.5% (Lusha) and 63.1% (ZoomInfo).
Read it with the source in mind: BounceZero sells verification, its own checker decided which emails were valid, and it published no raw data, so a result showing every provider needs a checker suits it. The method is still the most detailed public one, and the direction is consistent: about one email in three from any of the three tools was not confirmed valid, and one in ten was invalid. Verify before you send.
How do you choose a B2B data provider?
Answer these in order:
- Where are your buyers? US-heavy lists suit most providers. If you sell into Europe, ask each vendor for coverage of your list, not of the whole region. Cognism positions itself on European data.
- Email, phone or both? If your sellers call, price phone numbers and test a sample by calling. Format checks are not enough.
- How many contacts a month will you export? Multiply by the price per contact above, at month three volume, not the trial.
- Do you need intent signals? Some providers sell them as add-ons. Our entry on intent data covers what they measure.
- Who keeps the data clean? A second data system needs an owner. If no one will run data enrichment on your CRM each quarter, buy the simplest tool that covers your list.
- One provider or a waterfall? If one database covers 80% of your list, stop there. If gaps cost you deals, a waterfall layer such as Clay fills them. Our Clay vs Apollo comparison covers when that is worth it.
Then test the two finalists on your own accounts. Our Apollo vs ZoomInfo comparison lays out a 200-account test that takes an afternoon. If you are replacing ZoomInfo at renewal, our ZoomInfo alternatives guide covers the contract terms and an exit timeline.
What does a data provider cost for a small outbound team?
Illustrative, not a benchmark. The company is fictional.
Kestrel Payroll sells payroll software to US companies with 50 to 500 employees. Two sellers email about 300 new contacts a month and call the 100 who open twice.
| Option | What 300 emails and 100 phone numbers a month cost | Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo Basic, 2 seats | $98 a month: 300 emails (300 credits) and 100 phones (800 credits) fit inside the 5,000 credits a month the two seats share | Email sequences are included in the same tool |
| UpLead Plus | $199 a month for 400 contacts with email and mobile | Covers both, with headroom for 100 more |
| ZoomInfo | Priced on a call | More than Kestrel needs at this volume |
Before choosing, Kestrel exports 200 of its target accounts from the two finalists and runs the emails through a separate checker. One tool returns more valid emails at companies under 100 employees, which is most of Kestrel’s market. That tool wins, whatever its database size.
Where does Growigami fit?
We do not sell data or resell any provider. Our ABM and outbound service runs on the data tool you already pay for: each week agents research your target accounts for a reason to talk now, draft a message for each contact, and our team reviews the drafts before your seller approves and sends them. Replies reach your sellers the same day. If you want that run for you, see our cold email agency page.
Frequently asked
What is a B2B data provider?
A company that sells information about businesses and the people who work at them: company size, industry and technology, plus contacts' names, job titles, work emails and phone numbers. Sales and marketing teams use it to build target lists, fill in CRM records and reach buyers. Some providers also sell intent signals, and some sell the data through an API instead of an app.
What is a data vendor?
Any company that sells data it has collected, licensed or compiled. In B2B sales, 'data vendor' usually means a contact and company database such as ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism or Lusha, or a data API such as People Data Labs. A tool like Clay is not a vendor in that sense: it queries many vendors for you.
How much does B2B data cost?
From free tiers to five-figure annual contracts. On the vendors' own pages in October 2026, Apollo's paid plans started at $49 per seat per month billed annually, Lusha's at $37.45 a month billed yearly, UpLead's at $99 a month and People Data Labs' API at $98 a month. ZoomInfo and Cognism do not publish prices. Compare the price per contact you will actually export, since most plans are sold in credits.
Which B2B data provider is most accurate?
No independent test covers them all. The one third-party test we found with a published method, by the email verification company BounceZero in 2026, checked about 16,600 exported emails each from Apollo, ZoomInfo and Lusha. 71.2% of ZoomInfo's emails were valid, 66.4% of Lusha's and 64.9% of Apollo's. Results were lower at small companies for all three. Test on your own list before you sign.
How do I get company contacts for outreach?
Start from a defined list of target accounts, then pull contacts for the two or three roles that buy, from one provider or several. Verify the emails with a separate checker before sending, and keep only contacts with a reason to hear from you now. Sending to an unverified, untargeted list hurts your domain's reputation faster than it books meetings.
Should you use one data provider or several?
One is enough for a small team that sends mostly email to one region. Several, through a waterfall tool such as Clay, raise coverage when one provider has no result for a contact, but each lookup costs credits and someone has to choose the order of providers. Many teams start with one database and add a second source only for the gaps.
