1. ZoomInfo

Best for: Enterprise-grade sales and marketing teams

Overview: One of the most well-known and robust B2B data platforms, offering detailed firmographic, technographic, and intent data with deep integrations into major CRMs and marketing platforms.

‍ZoomInfo is a go-to-market (GTM) intelligence platform designed to provide sales, marketing, and recruiting teams with a massive database of B2B contacts and companies. Think of it as an online data-driven directory that lets you find the right people in the right companies at the right time. 

ZoomInfo collects, validates, and delivers contact data, company info, and intent signals into one platform, allowing you to connect with ideal decision-makers and grow your pipeline faster. 

It’s suitable for:

• Sales teams who intend to reach the prospects at the right time
• Marketing teams that run ABM campaigns
• Recruiters who want to hire top talent for companies. 

What sets ZoomInfo apart is its accurate data, which is sourced in real-time. It goes beyond basic contact details, as it delivers intent signals, firmographic, and technographic data that shows companies are actively researching your solutions. That’s not raw data you can overlook — they are real opportunities delivered straight into your pipeline. 

2. Apollo.io

Best for: Startups and mid-sized sales teams on a budget

Overview: Combines a large B2B contact database with a sales engagement platform, allowing users to prospect, email, and track directly within one interface.

Key Differentiators: Built-in email automation, free plan with generous usage, Chrome extension for LinkedIn prospecting.

Apollo is a comprehensive sales intelligence platform that helps sales teams to prospect, engage, and close deals. With its extensive B2B database, sales teams can connect with their ideal decision-maker and drive revenue growth.

Apollo transforms how SDRs approach their sales process with verified contact data, buying signals, and engagement tools to find qualified leads faster. It’s perfect for sales teams, marketing, and growth teams who are tired of paying for leads and want to scale their outbound efforts. 

Apollo stands out for providing data and outreach features to find and engage your prospects effectively. It’s an all-in-one prospecting solution, so you don’t have to jump between databases and outreach tools. 

3. Lusha

Best for: B2B sales reps who prospect via LinkedIn

Overview: A lightweight, easy-to-use tool for finding direct dials and emails of professionals, often used alongside LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Key Differentiators: Browser extension, user-friendly UI, fast contact lookup, focus on compliance (GDPR, CCPA).

Lusha is a B2B contact database provider that allows sales and marketing professionals to obtain relevant information about ideal prospects, whether individual contacts or companies. With its Chrome extension, you can find prospects’ details on LinkedIn and other websites. 

Lusha provides verified information — email addresses, phone numbers, and company data — on decision-makers across companies. It integrates with various third-party tools so you can pull data in real-time when you’re prospecting. It helps SDRs, marketing teams, and RevOps to connect directly with prospects. 

Unlike other tools, the AI sales prospecting tool stands apart for its accurate data, which undergoes a triple verification process to ensure you’re not working with outdated information. Besides, it seamlessly integrates into your existing workflow, driving efficiency. 

4. Clearbit

Best for: B2B marketers who want data-driven personalization

Overview: Offers real-time firmographic enrichment for website visitors and leads, enabling smarter targeting and segmentation in marketing workflows.

Key Differentiators: Real-time API, Reveal product for IP-based company identification, strong Salesforce and HubSpot integrations.

Owned by HubSpot, Clearbit is another B2B data intelligence platform designed to help sales teams identify and connect with their ideal buyers. It provides a full picture of your prospects, allowing you to target and segment leads effectively. 

Clearbit collects and processes data from diverse sources like CRMs, websites, and marketing tools to obtain real-time data about your leads. This allows your sales teams to tailor their efforts where it matters most. 

Clearbit stands out for its real-time, enriched data that provides full context about your ideal buyers. Besides, its API-first approach allows you to integrate with a third-party system, enhancing your sales workflow. 

5. Cognism

Best for: GDPR-compliant prospecting in Europe and North America

Overview: Offers a compliant contact database with intent and technographic data, focused on enabling outbound sales across strict data privacy environments.

Key Differentiators: GDPR-first database, mobile numbers at scale, Diamond Data® verified contacts, compliance guarantees.

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that provides quality, up-to-date data, seeking to advance their prospecting efforts. It’s particularly useful for companies seeking to expand into the European market. 

Powered by its AI technology and machine learning algorithm, Cognism grants access to a database of verified contact and company information. They escape and verify data from different sources so you can reach your ideal prospects. They are useful for sales teams, revenue leaders, or demand generation marketers. 

Cognism not only stands out for its data quality, but also compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This makes their data easy to use without having legal issues. 

6. Lead411

Best for: SMBs looking for verified leads and intent data

Overview: Affordable alternative to ZoomInfo offering verified emails, phone numbers, and intent triggers for U.S. companies.

Key Differentiators: Human-verified data, buyer intent alerts, email automation features, strong customer support.

Next on the list is Lead411. The sales intelligence platform is designed to help sales teams fuel their pipeline with qualified leads. It offers verified contact and company data to scale your outbound sales efforts. 

The AI-powered sales prospecting tool delivers accurate contact information, company data, and sales triggers to build relationships and close deals with potential customers. 

Lead411 stands out for its buyer intent data that allows you to prioritize prospects who are most likely to convert. It focuses on what matters — helping businesses build stronger relationships and closing deals. 

7. UpLead

Best for: Teams that prioritize data accuracy and transparency

Overview: B2B contact and company data with a strong emphasis on 95%+ accuracy and easy filtering.

Key Differentiators: No-contact-no-credit policy, technographics, data enrichment tools, competitive pricing.

UpLead is a B2B lead generation platform that provides various features to advance your prospecting efforts. Whether it’s an extensive database, verified contact information, or intent signals, these tools provide all you need to connect with your decision maker.

Uplead connects you with your ideal buyers by providing detailed information about them or signals to seize the right opportunity. Sales teams can leverage the tool to obtain verified contact information and reach their prospects. 

What sets Uplead apart is its real-time email verification that provides up-to-date information without wasting your outreach efforts. 

8. SalesIntel

Best for: Teams needing human-verified B2B contact data

Overview: Combines machine-sourced data with manual verification by a research team, with high match rates and deep firmographics.

Key Differentiators: Research-on-demand, intent data integrations (Bombora), quality over volume approach.

SalesIntel is another B2B database provider that helps marketing and sales teams find accurate, actionable leads. Their goal is to connect you with decision-makers who can add more value to your pipeline. 

With its powerful AI technology, SalesIntel provides accurate B2B lead data – email addresses, phone numbers, and buying signals. They help you avoid all the guesswork and enable you to focus on one thing – selling smarter and faster. It’s perfect for sales and RevOps teams that want to prospect effectively and focus on sales performance. 

What makes SalesIntel is its verification process. Rather than relying on data scraping and guesswork, they verify the data manually. This prevents you from wasting your efforts and focusing on what truly matters – closing deals. 

9. Adapt.io

Best for: Basic contact data for sales prospecting

Overview: A simple contact database with an emphasis on affordability, Chrome extension functionality, and CRM syncing.

Key Differentiators: Easy-to-use platform, focus on lead generation, good fit for smaller teams.

Adapt.io is a B2B database provider that provides sales teams with actionable contact information to boost their outbound sales efforts. See it as a secret weapon you can use to reach decision makers faster. 

The AI lead generation tool provides human-verified information — email addresses, phone numbers, job titles, company data — right into your workflow. It helps SDRs, marketers, and recruiters connect with the right people at the right time. 

The B2B vendor is a solid platform that sales teams can leverage to obtain accurate data without wasting their time and resources. It’s great for smaller teams who can’t afford the heavy fees while scaling their operations.

10. Slintel (now part of 6sense)

Best for: Intent-based marketing and technographic segmentation

Overview: Focuses on analyzing buyer intent and technology stack data to help go-to-market teams prioritize accounts and leads.

Key Differentiators: Integration with 6sense, strong technographic data, predictive lead scoring based on buyer journey signals.

Our final option on the list is Slintel. The intent-based marketing platform offers real-time data on prospects who are actually ready to buy from you. 

Slintel combines technographic data with buyer intent signals to identify prospects actively searching for solutions like yours. They help sales teams, revenue leaders, and account executives boost their sales efforts. 

Slintel is renowned for its technographic intelligence that shows your prospect’s sales tech stack. It’s also known for its buyer intent data that allows sales teams to tailor their efforts to those who are more likely to buy.

1. Data accuracy and recency

Inaccurate data will mislead and waste your sales efforts. As a result, you need accurate and recent data to scale through. Consider the vendor’s collection methods, sources, and verification process to determine the quality of the data. Look for vendors who offer accurate, recent, and reliable data. This ensures you’re targeting the right prospects and not wasting time and resources chasing the wrong leads.

2. GDPR and CCPA compliance

Before you choose a data vendor, verify whether they’re compliant with data regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA. Look for indicators that show whether they’re compliant. Check if they:

• Have a compliance certification 
• Comply with data security standards like SOC 2 Type II
• Adhere to industry best practices
• Have a transparent privacy policy.

Verifying their compliance status helps to prevent some legal sanctions that could impact your business.  

3. Depth and breadth of firmographic/technographic data

Most B2B data providers go beyond providing intent data for customers. They also provide in-depth firmographic and technographic data to ensure the prospects align with your business. As a result, make sure to have a clear understanding of the kind of data a vendor provides to determine whether they have what you need. Also, ensure that these data cover the breadth and depth that you need.

4. Integrations with CRMs and sales tools

A B2B data vendor that doesn’t integrate seamlessly with existing systems will disrupt your workflow. Due to this, make sure to consider whether they integrate with your current tech stack, like CRMs, outreach tools, and other tech you use. Smooth integration helps to drive efficiency in your sales process.

5. Customer support 

If your desired B2B data vendor doesn’t have customer support, chances are you won’t resolve your queries when issues arise. As a result, find a reliable vendor that offers excellent customer support to answer your questions and solve any issues that may arise when using the products. 

6. Pricing transparency and scalability

Reviewing the cost offered by B2B data vendors is essential to determine whether the cost meets your budget. If their fees aren’t publicly displayed, check for hidden fees that you may incur in the budget. Also, select a vendor that allows scalability and accommodates future changes as you grow your business.

1. Using free trials and demos effectively

Many B2B data vendors offer a free trial for their services. Leverage this opportunity to check out the features and determine whether it fits your needs. For instance, you may check whether it integrates with your tech stack. 

3. Questions to ask sales reps

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Before you choose a B2B database provider, you may want to clarify some concerns with a sales representative. Here are some questions you want to ask sales representatives:

• What industries or company sizes do you specialize in? Are there any gaps in coverage?
• How often do you update your database? What’s your verification process
• Can you share case studies from companies similar to mine?
• How do you handle data compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA?
• Beyond the basic subscription, what additional costs can we incur?

Asking these questions will provide valuable answers that help you determine whether you should choose the database provider. 

4. Strategies for running a pilot program

Making a full commitment without running a pilot program can waste resources and increase risk. For instance, the database provider could become incompatible with your existing system, creating disruption in your sales workflow. However, running a pilot program helps to foresee these risks and avoid any problems that may arise. 

Here are some strategies for running a pilot program:

• Establish clear goals and objectives that you wish to learn from the pilot
• Start with a limited scope to manage complexity and define a timeframe to carry out the pilot, e.g,. 30 days.
• Choose 2-3 vendors that fit your requirements
• Create identical test cases for each provider
• Gather quantitative and qualitative feedback to measure performance
• Evaluate the total cost of ownership, including any hidden fees.
• Consider exiting if the provider doesn’t meet your expectations.
• Design an implementation strategy for a successful pilot.

1. What Is a B2B Database Provider?

A B2B database provider is a company that gathers and sells business-related information to help other businesses find, connect, and engage with potential customers. These pieces of information include company details, buying signals, contact information, and relevant industry insights. 

2. Why B2B data vendors matter

B2B data vendors are crucial for gathering relevant data from private and public sources to help companies connect and engage with their ideal buyers, ultimately building genuine relationships and driving revenue growth.

3. How can the value of B2B data vendors be maximised?

To maximize the value of B2B data vendors, make sure you select the right vendor that aligns with your needs, integrates seamlessly with existing systems, and leverages the insights to build a targeted lead list for your cold campaigns.

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