Rodok
Abderrazzak AbouyaalaA B2B data provider sells information about companies and the people who work at them: job titles, work emails, phone numbers, company size, industry and tech stack. You search or upload a list, pay by seat or by credit, and get records you can reach and qualify. The best provider for you is the one that's accurate in your market, not the one with the biggest database.
Every vendor claims big numbers, so those figures tell you little. What matters is how many of the people you'd sell to they cover, how many emails reach an inbox, and how the price behaves when you use it. This guide covers provider types, a comparison with prices from vendor sites, a 20-account accuracy test, pricing models and compliance basics.
What do B2B data providers sell?
Most providers sell some mix of these:
- Contact data: name, title, seniority, work email, direct phone or mobile, LinkedIn URL.
- Company data (firmographics): website, industry, employee count, revenue range, headquarters.
- Technographics: which tools a company uses.
- Intent and signals: hiring, funding, job changes, or content research. Quality here varies a lot. For the difference, see intent signals vs buying signals.
It reaches you through a web app and Chrome extension, a sync into your CRM, a file export or an API. For the fields worth buying and what they cost, see lead enrichment.
Types of B2B data providers
| Type | How it works | Examples | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large databases | You search a maintained database and reveal contacts with credits or seats | ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism, Lusha | Building lists fast; teams that call and email a lot |
| Waterfall and aggregators | One tool asks several providers in order until one returns the field | Clay, FullEnrich | Higher find rates, mixed or international lists |
| APIs and licensed data | You query or license raw person and company data to build into a product | People Data Labs | Developers and data teams |
| CRM-native enrichment | Enrichment built into your CRM | HubSpot's Breeze Intelligence (formerly Clearbit) | Teams already on that CRM |
B2B data providers compared
Prices and claims are from each vendor's own site, checked on November 1, 2026. They change, so check before you buy.
| Provider | What it is | Claimed scale | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZoomInfo | Large US-centric database with sales and marketing plans | 500M+ contacts and 100M+ companies (site) | By quote; cost depends on features, number of licenses and credit usage; free trial on sales plans (pricing) |
| Apollo | Database plus sequences, dialer and signals | 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts (site) | Free plan; Basic, Professional and Custom tiers, amounts not shown on the page; credits are pooled across the team and don't roll over (pricing) |
| Cognism | Contact data with a focus on Europe and phone-verified mobiles | No count on its site; cites Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe (site) | By quote; Standard and Pro plans include 5 seats; one credit per revealed contact; Pro adds intent data via Bombora and on-demand mobile verification (pricing) |
| Lusha | Quick email and phone lookups | Check their site | Free 40 credits/month; Starter $49.90/month ($37.45 billed annually) for 400 credits; Professional $69.90 ($52.45) for 600; Premium $399.90 ($299.95) for 3,400. An email costs 1 credit, a phone 5 (pricing) |
| Clay | A workspace over 200+ data and AI vendors, not a database | 200+ vendors in its marketplace (site) | Free; Launch $185/month ($167 annual) for 2,500 data credits; Growth $495/month ($446 annual) for 6,000. Waterfalls on every plan (pricing) |
| FullEnrich | Waterfall across 25+ sources | 25+ sources (pricing) | Free trial with 50 credits; a work email costs 1 credit, a mobile 10; about $0.055 a credit on Pro |
| People Data Labs | Person, company and job-posting data by API or licensed feed | Check their site | Free up to 100 credits/month with contact data obscured; Pro from $98/month for 350 credits (pricing) |
| HubSpot Breeze Intelligence | HubSpot's data enrichment, from the Clearbit acquisition | 200M+ company and buyer profiles (HubSpot) | Requires HubSpot; check HubSpot's current pricing, since sources disagree on how credits apply |
Three things to know about this table.
- Clearbit now lives inside HubSpot. HubSpot acquired Clearbit in December 2023, positions Breeze Intelligence as the successor for enrichment, and retired several of Clearbit's free tools (Clearbit's announcement). If you're not on HubSpot, check whether it still fits before you plan around it.
- Claimed record counts aren't comparable. Neither number says how fresh a record is.
- Rodok starts from signals, not a database. It fills in the people its trackers find (company, website, LinkedIn page, industry, size) and the lead finder usually returns a work email. If you need a big searchable database or high-volume mobile numbers, the tools above are built for that.
For cheaper alternatives to the largest names, see ZoomInfo alternatives, Apollo alternatives and Clay alternatives. For the wider market, see best sales intelligence tools.
How to test a B2B data provider's accuracy: the 20-account test
A demo uses the vendor's best examples. Run your own test before you sign anything, and run it on every provider on your shortlist with the same list. Most offer a free plan or trial for this.
- Build a list of 20 accounts. Use 10 accounts where you already know the right contact (customers, open deals, people you've emailed) and 10 target accounts you don't know. Include at least a few in each market you sell to: for example the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
- Run the same list through each provider. Ask for the same fields: title, work email, LinkedIn URL and, if you call, a mobile number.
- Score each record against a source of truth. For the 10 known contacts, you know the answer. For the others, check the person's current LinkedIn profile by hand.
- Verify the emails. Run them through an email verifier, and if you plan to send, send a small batch and watch for bounces. Count how many bounce.
- Record cost per usable result. Divide what you spent by the number of correct, reachable contacts, not by the number of records returned.
Score it on one page:
| Measure | How to calculate |
|---|---|
| Find rate | Contacts returned / contacts you asked for |
| Title accuracy | Contacts with the right current title and company / contacts returned |
| Email deliverability | Emails that didn't bounce / emails returned |
| Coverage in your market | Find rate in each country you sell to |
| Cost per usable contact | Total spend / correct, reachable contacts |
Twenty accounts is a smoke test, not a statistical sample. Its job is to eliminate providers that are clearly weak for your market and to show where a second source would help. If one provider finds 14 of your 20 and another finds 12 but different ones, that's the case for combining them.
How B2B data providers price
| Model | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Seats plus credits | A price per user and a pool of credits for revealing contacts | Credits that don't roll over (Apollo says its credits reset each billing cycle) |
| Credits only | You buy credits and spend them per email, phone or enrichment | Phones cost several times an email: 5 credits vs 1 at Lusha, 10 vs 1 at FullEnrich |
| Quote and annual contract | No public price; a package of seats and credits | Cost drivers beyond seats: ZoomInfo says features, licenses and credit usage all affect the price |
Two habits keep costs down. Enrich the company first, and disqualify on cheap firmographic fields before paying for emails and phones. And price your real list: multiply the cost per reveal by the contacts you'll pull in a quarter, not by the plan's headline number.
Compliance basics for B2B contact data
This isn't legal advice, and the rules differ by country. Cold B2B email is legal in many places, with conditions. The conditions are what get teams into trouble.
- United States (CAN-SPAM). The law has no exception for B2B email. Headers and subject lines must be accurate, commercial messages must be identified as ads, you need a valid postal address, you must give a clear way to opt out, and you must honor opt-outs within 10 business days. Each violating email can carry penalties of up to $53,088 (FTC guide).
- Canada (CASL). The law asks businesses to get consent before sending commercial electronic messages (Government of Canada). Look up the details of express and implied consent with counsel before emailing Canadian contacts.
- EU and UK (GDPR). You need a legal basis, which for B2B prospecting is usually legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f). When you got the data from somewhere other than the person, Article 14 says to tell them within a reasonable time and at the latest within one month, or at the latest at your first message if you use it to contact them. The UK has its own version of these rules plus separate rules for electronic marketing; the regulator's guidance says UK GDPR still applies to B2B marketing when you hold the name of an individual (ICO).
- Australia (Spam Act 2003). The regulator's guidance is that commercial messages need consent (express or inferred), must identify the sender and must include a working unsubscribe (ACMA).
In every country: ask the provider how it sources data and handles opt-outs, keep the source and date of every record, honor unsubscribes across all your tools, and store only what you use. Calling has separate rules, including do-not-call registries, so check before you dial.
Static data tells you who. Signals tell you when.
A good provider gives you the right people. It doesn't tell you which of them is ready to listen this month. That is why teams pair a data source with signals: a new leader, a hiring push, a post about the problem you solve. A record plus a reason to write now is much easier to turn into a meeting than a record alone. See buying signals.
How to choose a B2B data provider
| Your situation | Where to look first |
|---|---|
| US-centric, mid-market or enterprise, need breadth | ZoomInfo or Apollo; run the 20-account test on both |
| Selling in Europe, calling mobiles | Cognism, and test mobile quality in the countries you sell to |
| Small team, light usage, want to pay by credit | Lusha or a waterfall tool such as FullEnrich |
| Mixed or international lists and someone to build workflows | Clay (see GTM engineer for the people side) |
| Building data into your own product | An API provider such as People Data Labs |
| Already on HubSpot | Breeze Intelligence, tested against another source |
| You want signals, outreach and a CRM, not a database | Rodok, with a data provider alongside if you need bulk contact data |
Frequently asked questions
What is a B2B data provider?
A B2B data provider sells information about companies and their employees, such as job titles, work emails, phone numbers, company size and industry. You use it to build lead lists, enrich records and reach decision-makers, and you pay by seat, credit or contract.
Which B2B data provider is the most accurate?
It depends on your market, and no vendor's claim settles it. Accuracy varies by country, industry and seniority. Run a 20-account test on your shortlist with the same list, and compare find rate, title accuracy and email deliverability.
How much does B2B contact data cost?
It ranges from free plans to quoted enterprise contracts. Lusha lists paid plans from $49.90 a month for 400 credits, with an email costing 1 credit and a phone 5. ZoomInfo and Cognism price by quote. Phone numbers cost the most, so enrich them only for leads you'll call. Prices checked November 1, 2026.
What are the best B2B data providers?
ZoomInfo and Apollo for broad databases, Cognism for European data and mobiles, Lusha for quick lookups, Clay and FullEnrich for waterfall enrichment, and People Data Labs for API access. The best one is whichever scores highest in your own test.
Is it legal to buy and use B2B contact data?
Often yes, with conditions. In the US, CAN-SPAM applies to B2B email, and you must offer an opt-out and honor it within 10 business days. Canada asks for consent before commercial electronic messages. GDPR needs a legal basis and notice if you contact people in the EU or UK. Ask counsel about your case.
What happened to Clearbit?
HubSpot acquired Clearbit in December 2023 and folded its enrichment into HubSpot as Breeze Intelligence, retiring several of Clearbit's free tools. If you're not on HubSpot, compare it with other providers using the 20-account test.
