B2B Lead Generation Tools: 8 Compared by Job and Price
Eight B2B lead generation tools compared by the job they do, the data they list and whether they charge per seat, per credit or by quote.
Robbert Veer, Founder
14 min read
B2B lead generation tools do one of three jobs. ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, UpLead and Apollo sell contact and company data. Clay combines data from other providers. Smartlead and Expandi send the outreach, by email and on LinkedIn. Pick by the job you lack and by how the tool charges, per seat, per credit or by quote. Leadodo fits a web design or marketing agency when a prospect's website decides who you contact.
The eight tools below are compared on what their own websites said on Nov 10, 2026. Nothing is ranked. The label covers more kinds of tool than these, and our guide to what each kind of lead generation software does sorts them. The method behind the tools is in B2B lead generation for agencies.
How do the eight B2B lead generation tools compare?
Five of the eight sell data, one combines data from other sellers and two send messages. Apollo does two of the jobs, because it also sends email and places calls.
| Tool | Job | Data it lists | How prospects are qualified | Channels it sends | What you still do by hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZoomInfo | Sell data | "100M companies and 500M professional profiles" | Agents that find the audience and write the opener | None stated. Drafts go to your own email sequencer | Send through a sequencer you already run |
| Cognism | Sell data | No count on the pages we read | Intent data and technographics | None. It supplies data | Write and send in another tool |
| Lusha | Sell data | "515M+ Contacts" and "29M+ Companies" | Lead scoring, lookalikes and buying signals | None described. Its pricing page lists email sequences as a plan feature | Write the outreach, and check what its email sequences cover |
| UpLead | Sell data | "+200M" contacts with email addresses | "+50 search filters", technographics and intent data | None. It supplies data | Write and send, or buy its managed email service |
| Apollo | Sell data and send | "240M+ global contacts" | "65+ filters" and a lead scoring function | Email and phone | Decide which companies have a reason to hear from you |
| Clay | Combine data | No count. The data comes from providers in its marketplace | Account and lead scoring, and Claygent AI research agents | Build the workflow and keep it running | |
| Smartlead | Send | "300M+ verified business profiles" in its lead finder | AI research through its SmartAgents | Email and phone calls | Bring the reason to write |
| Expandi | Send | No contact database named | The pages we read name no scoring step | LinkedIn and email | Choose who to contact and write the messages |
| Leadodo | Find, score and run outreach | A Google Maps scraper and a database of 460M+ contacts | Twip AI scores each website out of 100 across 10 domains | Post, email and LinkedIn, through your Outbound Machine | Pick the trade and area, review what goes out if you choose to, answer the replies |
The counts are each product's own claim. The last column is our reading of what each tool leaves open.
How does each tool charge?
Three of the eight showed a price with clear billing words on Nov 10, 2026. Two show no prices at all. For the other three the table points to the pricing page, because the figures left the billing period or the unit open. Each row carries at most one price, that of the lowest paid plan.
| Tool | Lowest paid plan | Price and billing words on Nov 10, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| ZoomInfo | No price shown for any plan | Pricing on request |
| Cognism | Standard | Pricing on request |
| Lusha | Starter | $37.45 a month, billed yearly |
| UpLead | Essentials | $99 per month on monthly billing |
| Apollo | Basic | $49 per seat per month, billed annually |
| Clay | Launch | The page shows two figures. See its pricing page |
| Smartlead | Base | The billing period is not labeled. See its pricing page |
| Expandi | Business | See its pricing page |
| Leadodo | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
A plan price tells you little until you know the unit behind it. Three of the databases say what a credit buys, and it buys a different thing in each one.
| Tool | An email address | A phone number | Seats on the lowest paid plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo | 1 credit | 8 credits | Priced per seat |
| Lusha | 1 credit | 5 credits | 1 seat included |
| UpLead | 1 credit covers the contact's email and mobile direct dial | Included in the same credit | 1 user |
| Cognism | Not shown | Not shown | "5 seats included" |
| ZoomInfo | Not shown | Not shown | Its FAQ lists the number of licenses as one of three pricing criteria |
Which tools sell the contact data?
ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, UpLead and Apollo sell contact and company data. The first four supply records that you export or sync to another tool. Apollo also sends. Our guide to what is inside a B2B database explains what a record holds and how it ages, and our roundup of sales intelligence tools for small teams compares four of these five by the signals they name.
ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo sells company and contact data with workspaces and agents on top. Its homepage calls it "the intelligence layer beneath every GTM motion". The outbound prospecting page says it holds "100M companies and 500M professional profiles, verified in real-time." On that page, agents find the audience and write the opener, and the drafts go to your own email sequencer. The pages we read state no channel that ZoomInfo sends on itself.
The pages address go-to-market teams and state no company size. The homepage says ZoomInfo enables "go-to-market for over half the Fortune 500".
Pricing is on request. On Nov 10, 2026 the ZoomInfo pricing page named three Sales plans and showed no price for any of them. Its FAQ says pricing depends on features, the number of licenses and credit usage. Each plan showed a "Start free trial" button, with no trial length.
ZoomInfo suits you better than Leadodo when you have a sales team that already runs its own email sequencer and wants data and agents to feed it. We cover more options in ZoomInfo alternatives for small agencies.
Cognism
Cognism sells B2B company and contact data under the name Sales Intelligence. Its product page says it connects teams to decision-makers "With account buying signals and verified mobile numbers". The site names phone-verified mobile numbers, intent data, technographics and a browser extension that "works over LinkedIn and websites". Cognism supplies data and sends nothing itself.
The pages we read give no count of contacts or companies. The data page says contacts at Director level and above are refreshed every 30 days.
The homepage says Cognism is used by "Enterprise and mid-market sales, marketing and revenue operations teams working in B2B markets." It adds that "Teams with at least 5 salespeople often see the most value, especially those prospecting into Europe".
Pricing is on request. The Cognism pricing page names two plans, Standard and Pro, each with "5 seats included", and shows no price. The pages we read mention no free plan and no trial.
Cognism suits you better than Leadodo when you have five or more salespeople who want mobile numbers for prospects, above all in Europe.
Lusha
Lusha is a contact and company database. You search it with Lusha Search or a Chrome extension, enrich records and sync them to Salesforce, HubSpot, monday or Zoho. The site also names lead scoring, lookalikes and buying signals.
The data page lists "515M+ Contacts", "29M+ Companies" and "132M+ contacts in the United States". It says the database combines "first-party contributions, community-sourced updates, and trusted vendors", and that contact fields refresh weekly. The pages we read do not describe Lusha sending outreach itself, though its pricing page lists email sequences among the plan features.
The homepage names "revenue teams of all sizes", and its FAQ also names recruiting teams.
On Nov 10, 2026 the Lusha pricing page showed the Starter plan at $37.45 a month, billed yearly, with 1 seat included. A Free plan gives 40 credits a month.
Lusha suits you better than Leadodo when you need emails and phone numbers for named contacts and already have a way to reach them.
UpLead
UpLead is a contact database that checks an email address at the moment of export. Its data page says it scores and verifies emails on the spot when you export a lead. The Prospector searches with "+50 search filters". The site also names data enrichment, mobile direct dials, technographics, intent data, a Chrome extension and an API. UpLead supplies data. It also sells Done-for-You Cold Email, a managed service "built and managed by UpLead experts".
The data page lists "+200M" B2B contacts with email addresses and "+19M" global company profiles. The pages we read name no audience beyond sales teams.
On Nov 10, 2026 the UpLead pricing page showed the Essentials plan at $99 per month on monthly billing, with 170 credits and 1 user. The page says "One credit equals one contact." A 7-day free trial comes with 5 credits.
UpLead suits you better than Leadodo when you want a fixed number of contacts each month for sequences you already run, or when you would hand cold email to a managed service.
Apollo
Apollo is a database that also sends. Its site describes a contact and company database with a workspace "for prospecting, outreach, and dialing". The data page lists "240M+ global contacts" and "30M+ global companies". It names its sources, among them a network of "2M+ data contributors", third-party data providers, public web data and local business data from Google Maps. The site says the data is "regularly updated" and gives no interval.
The homepage title reads "The AI GTM System for Go-to-Market Teams".
The Apollo pricing page listed Basic at $49 per seat per month, billed annually, on Nov 10, 2026. That plan holds 30,000 credits per seat per year. The page also shows a Free plan and a 14-day trial.
Apollo suits you better than Leadodo when you want a database, email and calls under one login and you sell to roles inside companies.
Which tool combines data from other providers?
Clay does. The pages we read give no count of contacts or companies for it. It sells data from other providers through its marketplace and lets you shape it.
Clay
Clay is a workflow tool that buys data from other providers and enriches your records with it. The pricing page says "Find and enrich data from 150+ providers", and the homepage says "One contract to buy data from 200+ data and AI vendors in Clay's marketplace." Its tools include waterfall enrichment, Claygent AI research agents, the Sculptor workflow builder and CRM enrichment. Paid plans can launch email campaigns in Clay or through other email tools.
The pricing page says Launch is "For small teams building and automating prospecting workflows" and Enterprise is "For organizations building GTM systems at scale."
Clay charges in two units. Data Credits pay for data bought in its marketplace, and each plan also holds a number of actions. The page shows no per-seat price. The Clay pricing page showed two figures for the Launch plan on Nov 10, 2026 and put no billing label on the card price, so see its pricing page for the amount. There is a Free plan.
Clay suits you better than Leadodo when no single database covers your market and someone on your team will build and maintain the workflows.
Which tools send the outreach?
Smartlead and Expandi send the outreach. Smartlead sends email and places calls. Expandi sends on LinkedIn and follows up by email. For tools grouped by channel, post included, see lead generation tools for agencies.
Smartlead
Smartlead is cold email software. Its home page title reads "Cold Email Software for Sales Teams That Run Outbound at Scale". It sends email campaigns with sender rotation across connected email accounts, with warm-up and a Master Inbox for replies. SmartDialer adds calls, and the home page says "Make calls and send emails from a single dashboard". The pages we read do not mention LinkedIn.
Its lead finder, SmartProspect, lists "300M+ verified business profiles" from "multiple data providers" that the page does not name.
The FAQ names small businesses and solopreneurs, growing marketers, lead generation agencies and large enterprises. Whitelabel client workspaces can be added from the Pro plan up.
The Smartlead pricing page showed one amount per plan on Nov 10, 2026 and did not label it as monthly or yearly billing, so see its pricing page for the amount. The FAQ says "All plans come with a free trial and no credit card is required to get started."
Smartlead suits you better than Leadodo when email is your channel, you send for several clients and you want each client in its own workspace.
Expandi
Expandi is a LinkedIn automation tool that also sends email follow-ups. It runs in the cloud. On LinkedIn it sends connection requests, messages, InMails and event invites, and email goes out through an email provider you connect. Its smart sequences combine "10 different actions and 10 conditions in one sequence". The site names no contact database. It says you can "Collect consented prospect data from groups, events, and posts on professional networks".
The site names sales teams, lead generation agencies, recruiters and business owners. It calls its Business plan "Better suited for small sales teams."
For the price of its Business plan, see the Expandi pricing page. A 7-day free trial gives access to all features.
Expandi suits you better than Leadodo when your buyers answer on LinkedIn and you want to build your own sequences with conditions there.
Where does Leadodo fit among B2B lead generation software?
Leadodo is B2B lead generation software for one kind of seller, the web design or marketing agency. It joins a business search, a website score and a sequence that starts with a posted letter. It is built for one job, finding businesses with weak websites and starting the conversation.
- Find. Leadodo finds businesses with a Google Maps scraper and a database of 460M+ contacts. You search by industry, area and company size, plus 20+ more filters. Lead Discovery can also filter for businesses that have no website.
- Score. Twip AI scores every website in a search out of 100 across 10 domains. Lower means a weaker website and a better lead, and sites that score below 40 form the shortlist.
- Send. Your Outbound Machine runs six steps over 19 working days. A posted letter arrives on day 1, emails follow on days 4, 7 and 11, and LinkedIn steps on days 15 and 19. The sequence stops for a business the moment it replies.
Two things set it apart from the eight tools above. The score comes from the prospect's own website, and Twip's findings become the opening line of each letter and email. The first step is a letter. On the pages we read, none of the eight sends post.
Leadodo never contacts anyone itself. You send, under your own name. Cold calling is a tool of its own in Leadodo, and a call is not one of the six steps.
The tools above do the other jobs, and three kinds of team should pick one of them. A team with at least 5 salespeople that prospects into Europe matches what Cognism says about its own customers. A team that wants a database, email and calls under one login is closer to Apollo. A seller whose buyers answer on LinkedIn is closer to Expandi. Keep your CRM for what follows the first conversation.
Do B2B lead generation tools cover local businesses?
Some do, and you have to check before you pay. Most of the eight describe their buyers as sales, marketing and revenue teams. A local business is often one owner and one phone number.
The sites give three clues. Apollo's data page names local business data from Google Maps among its sources. Cognism says teams with at least 5 salespeople often see the most value. ZoomInfo's homepage speaks of the Fortune 500. None of that tells you how many roofers in your county are in a given database. Five checks do.
- Ask for a sample. Request 50 records in your own trade and area.
- Count the usable rows. Note how many hold an owner's name and a direct email.
- Price a usable row. Work out how many credits one complete contact costs you, phone number included.
- List the channels. Write down which of email, phone, LinkedIn and post the tool sends, and which you would add.
- Name your signal. Decide what tells you a business is worth a message. For an agency, the prospect's own website holds that answer.
Questions
What are B2B lead generation tools?
B2B lead generation tools are software that helps a company find other companies that might buy from it and contact the people in them. On this page they do three jobs. They sell contact data, combine data from several sellers or send the outreach.
What are the best B2B lead generation tools?
There is no single answer, and this page does not rank the eight. People who search for the best B2B lead generation tools usually need one job done. Start with that job, then compare the tools in that group on data coverage, channels and the unit you pay for.
Which B2B lead generation tools show their prices?
On Nov 10, 2026 Apollo, Lusha and UpLead showed a price with clear billing words. Clay, Smartlead and Expandi showed figures that left the billing period or the unit open, so see their pricing pages. ZoomInfo and Cognism showed no prices and ask you to talk to sales.
Which of these tools have a free plan or a trial?
Apollo, Lusha and Clay each show a free plan. UpLead and Expandi each offer a 7-day free trial, and Smartlead's FAQ says all plans come with a free trial. ZoomInfo showed a "Start free trial" button with no length. The Cognism pages we read mention neither.
Do these tools send LinkedIn messages?
Expandi does. It sends connection requests, messages and InMails. Apollo's sequences name "networking platforms" and do not name LinkedIn. The pages we read for the other six name no LinkedIn sending. In Leadodo, your Outbound Machine has LinkedIn steps on days 15 and 19.
Checked on Nov 10, 2026. If a detail about your product is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Next step. Search one trade in one area and see every business with its website scored. See Lead Discovery.
