Clay vs. ZoomInfo: Which Sales Intelligence Platform is Better? [2024]

Clay and ZoomInfo are two popular sales intelligence platforms revolutionizing the sales and marketing industry. With many features available, it’s challenging to select the right tool for your business. 

While both tools are effective for prospecting, data enrichment, and outreach, their operations differ slightly. In this in-depth comparison, we’ll explore Clay and ZoomInfo's core features, pricing, and other relevant details. Let’s get started.

Clay vs ZoomInfo: A Quick Glance

Here is the summary: 

• Clay is a perfect choice for a sales intelligence platform that offers prospecting, accurate data enrichment, AI personalization, and multiple integrations. 
• ZoomInfo is ideal for users who prefer access to an extensive database, data enrichment, multichannel outreach, and integrations. 

Let’s compare both sales platforms further to help you make informed decisions. 

What’s Clay?

Clay is a sales intelligence platform that offers accurate, actionable insights to accelerate your business’s revenue growth. What sets this platform apart from other sales solutions is its AI-driven approach to scaling various sales operations and boosting outreach efforts.

For instance, the platform scans over ten sources to find the ideal buyers that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). You can also enrich your lead list with valid contact information, enabling you to reach your ideal buyers. 

Clay also doubles as a sales engagement platform with an AI email builder. You can draft personalized emails at scale and push them forward to your preferred cold email platform to launch the outbound campaign in seconds. 

Additionally, Clay integrates with various third-party platforms to streamline your sales workflow and optimize your sales efforts. Whether it’s CRMs, cold email platforms, AI technologies, or data enrichment platforms, you can get accurate sales intelligence about your ideal buyers, boosting your outreach efforts and increasing conversions. 

What’s ZoomInfo?

ZoomInfo is another leading sales intelligence solution with a comprehensive suite of tools to optimize your marketing and sales operations. With an extensive B2B contact database, you can find and connect with your potential customers. The platform also highly values accurate data, providing the right contact information (email addresses and phone numbers) to reach decision-makers directly. 

ZoomInfo is also renowned for its intent data, enabling you to understand your potential customers. With these signals, you can tailor your outreach campaign to fit your prospect’s needs and interests, allowing a more focused sales strategy. 

Sales engagement is another top reason to use ZoomInfo. You can connect with your ideal buyers with the right message through various channels such as emails, phone calls, and other social connections. This approach allows you to reach your prospects on their preferred channel, expanding your outreach efforts. 

Clay vs. ZoomInfo: Core Features Compared

Clay and ZoomInfo have some key features to enhance your overall sales process. Although they are similar, these features work differently. Nonetheless, let’s explore some of these features in this section: 

• User Experience
• Data Quality and Coverage
• Lead Qualification Capabilities
• Data Enrichment
• Sales Engagement
• Integrations

User Experience

Before adopting a new tool, usability is paramount for adoption and enhancing your sales process. Clay and ZoomInfo offer intuitive interfaces that allow users to easily navigate the platforms. 

Clay’s clean and user-friendly interface makes navigating the solution’s capabilities easy, whether prospecting or data enrichment. The platform facilitates onboarding for new users with its shorter learning curve while offering flexible customization to enhance workflow for existing users. 

Similarly, ZoomInfo grants quick access to its database, enabling users to find targeted company data quickly. However, some advanced features, though robust, can be overwhelming for users. They require a steeper learning curve, prompting users to upskill before usage. As a result, mastery often requires onboarding guidance or using the platform’s 24/7 support system. 

Data Quality and Coverage

The foundation of any sales and marketing platform lies in its ability to provide quality data to enhance its users’ prospecting and outreach efforts. Clay and ZoomInfo offer a robust contact and company search feature, allowing users to access quality information about their ideal buyers and boosting their lead generation efforts. 

Clay’s TAM sourcing feature remains perfect for any user seeking to build a quality lead list. The feature searches at least 10 different sources to provide accurate and up-to-date contact information about your ideal buyers — individuals or companies. Whether it’s a CSV file, CRM, Google Maps, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or another source, you can easily extract information to build your ideal lead list. 

On the other hand, ZoomInfo’s massive B2B contact database makes prospecting easy. With access to over 65 million contact data, you can identify and connect with ideal buyers. The platform provides access to your prospect’s professional profile, providing key information such as their job title, work experience, education history, and more. 

Lead Qualification Capabilities

Clay and ZoomInfo offer an advanced filtering option to sift through your existing B2B data and prioritize your most promising leads.

Clay provides intent signals about your ideal buyers so you can reach them at the right moment. It tracks and alerts your sales team on various buying signals across the market to capture the right opportunity. With this information, you can identify and prioritize your most promising leads and devise strategies for reaching them appropriately. 

Conversely, ZoomInfo’s advanced intent data algorithm allows you to identify high-priority leads to boost your sales effort. With features such as “Buyer Intent” and “Company Signals,” you can identify and reach buyers searching for solutions like yours. This approach enables you to target the most qualified prospects needing your company’s solution.

Data Enrichment

After identifying your ideal buyers, the next step is to reach and engage them effectively. However, this becomes impossible if you don’t have your prospect’s contact information, whether email address or phone number. Clay and ZoomInfo offer a data enrichment feature that can help you obtain accurate data which you can use to reach your prospects seamlessly. 

Clay utilizes waterfall enrichment to find your prospect’s valid contact information. Unlike traditional data sources that rely on a single contact database, waterfall enrichment platforms sequentially search multiple data sources until they find your prospect’s contact details, whether their valid email address or phone numbers. 

The sales intelligence platform scans over 75 data vendors such as Prospeo, Hunter, Datagma, DropContact, and more to perform this operation seamlessly. This allows you to identify and pitch more decision-makers, boosting your outreach efforts.

ZoomInfo also offers a B2B data enrichment process to provide your prospect’s contact information. It constantly updates your lead list, ensuring you get accurate contact data to boost your outreach efforts. However, unlike Clay’s AI-driven approach, ZoomInfo relies on manual processes, which may not be the ideal solution for someone working with hundreds or thousands of leads. 

Sales Engagement

Your sales process isn’t complete without engaging your prospects. A sales solution with engagement features has a built-in communication tool for creating and sending personalized emails, cold calling prospects, or interacting with them across key social media platforms. Fortunately, Clay and ZoomInfo offer built-in engagement features to perform these activities and boost your outreach effort. 

Clay’s AI message writer allows you to draft personalized outreach messages that resonate with your prospects. With a simple prompt or an AI template, you can personalize specific elements such as the prospect’s name, job titles, company mission, and more. Once this is done, Clay pushes your cold emails to your preferred outreach platform for launch. 

On the other hand, ZoomInfo automates your engagement process with Salesflow, a multi-channel prospecting campaign initiated based on intent signals and aligns with your business. This process allows you to reach and engage with your prospect on their preferred channel such as emails, cold calls, or social interactions. Plus, the intent data helps to create tailored conversations, enabling you to personalize your interactions with prospects.

Integrations

Clay integrates with varieties of third-party platforms including CRMs, AI, and other third-party platforms such as HubSpot, Salesforce, Claude AI, Open AI, Smartlead, Outreach, and more. Integrating with these platforms streamlines your sales team’s workflow and enhances their productivity. 

ZoomInfo also integrates with a wide array of tools including CRMs, sales enablement platforms, video conferencing tools, and more. Common integrations include Aircall, HubSpot, Oracle, Outreach, TrustRadius, and more. 

How Much Does Clay Cost? 

Clay offers a free plan to explore features such as people or company searches, AI agents, integrations, and more. However, its paid plans grant you access to more features such as phone number enrichment, email sequencing integrations, and more. These paid versions include: 

• Starter plan for $134 per month
• Explorer plan for $314 per month
• Pro plan for $720 per month
• Enterprise plan that requires a custom quote.

How Much Does ZoomInfo Cost? 

ZoomInfo’s custom pricing details aren’t available on its website. You must fill out a form or talk to a sales expert to get a quote. This opaque pricing structure makes it quite difficult for sales teams to budget and plan effectively, as they could encounter unforeseen expenses when scaling their operations. 

However, research revealed that a rough estimate of their service costs about $14,995 annually. The pricing varies and is based on different factors such as credit usage, features, and the number of licenses. 

Clay vs ZoomInfo: Pros and Cons

In this section, we will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Clay and ZoomInfo based on reviews from platforms like Reddit, G2, and Capterra. 

Clay Pros and Cons

Clay stands out for its user-friendly interface, waterfall enrichment, AI personalization, and seamless integrations. However, its credit system often deters users from using the sales intelligence platform. 

Clay Pros

• User-Friendly Interface: Clay’s dashboard features an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate, enabling new users to launch their sales processes effortlessly. Whether it’s prospecting, data enrichment, or integrating with other platforms, sales reps can easily adopt the tool in their operations. 

• Data Enrichment: Clay’s waterfall enrichment from multiple data providers is another reason users love the platform. With the right contact details, they can easily reach their ideal buyers, boosting their outbound efforts. 

• Integrations: Clay’s seamless integrations with various third-party platforms are another quick advantage of using the platform. Users can automate and streamline complex workflows while getting the most benefits from the platform. 

• Pricing: When compared to ZoomInfo on Reddit, users prefer Clay’s pricing plans. It’s budget-friendly and doesn't require a contract.

Clay Cons

• Credit system: Many users think Clay credits are expensive, especially if you don’t know how to use the platform with APIs and integration. 

ZoomInfo Pros and Cons

ZoomInfo sales is renowned for its ease of use, lead generation capabilities, and integrations. However, it faces issues with its data accuracy and pricing information.

ZoomInfo Pros

• Comprehensive Sales Platform: ZoomInfo is an excellent choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution. Its wide range of features caters to the needs of sales teams, making it a versatile option for users. 

• Lead Generation Capabilities: Users commend ZoomInfo for its large database that enhances their prospecting efforts. They can easily gather relevant information about targeted high-value accounts with which to build their lead list.

• Ease of Use: The platform is simple, yet intuitive and powerful. With a few clicks, you can gain valuable information about your prospects, enrich your lead list, and integrate with other tools. 

ZoomInfo Cons

• Inaccurate data: Many G2 users complain about the inaccurate data they receive from the sales intelligence platform. Since most of this information is outdated, it wastes time and effort, affecting their cold outreach campaigns.

• Learning Curve: Some advanced features require a steeper learning curve, making adoption quite challenging for users without prior experience. 

• Pricing: ZoomInfo’s pricing plans are more expensive than Clay’s which may be a disadvantage for small teams or businesses. 

Clay vs. ZoomInfo: Conclusion and Recommendations

After a thorough comparison of Clay and ZoomInfo, it’s clear both sales tools have their strengths and weaknesses. Choosing between them depends on your specific needs and business goals. 

Summary of Key Differences

Clay is a comprehensive sales intelligence platform offering a unique prospecting system, with a simple and more intuitive interface, waterfall enrichment, and AI personalization to scale your sales efforts. On the other hand, ZoomInfo offers a vast database with lead generation capabilities, data enrichment, and engagement tools, making it ideal for businesses seeking an all-in-one solution.

Recommendations

Based on your specific needs, here are some recommendations about the two tools to help you make informed decisions:

• For Sales Intelligence and Contact Verification: Clay is a better choice if your primary need is to find a robust platform that gathers relevant sales intel from multiple sources to make an informed decision. Plus, its ability to find and verify prospects’ contact information quickly and accurately makes it an excellent option for sales teams who don’t want their outreach efforts to go down the drain.

• For an All-in-One Solution: ZoomInfo is your go-to choice for supporting your sales and marketing efforts. Its large database, intent signals, and seamless integrations make it perfect for businesses seeking a comprehensive solution for their business goals. 

In conclusion, selecting the right sales platform for your business depends on your needs and goals. By understanding Clay and ZoomInfo’s strengths and weaknesses, you can make a credible decision that suits your needs and achieves your business goals. 

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