Lead Generation Tools for Agencies: 8 Compared by Job
Eight lead generation tools grouped by the job each one does for an agency, with what it leaves you to do by hand.
Robbert Veer, Founder
14 min read
Most lead generation tools do one of three jobs for an agency. Outscraper and D7 Lead Finder find businesses. Apollo, Hunter and Clay find the people inside them and their contact details. Instantly, HeyReach and Lob send the email, the LinkedIn message and the letter. Leadodo does the job in between. It scores each prospect's website before any outreach.
This page groups eight tools by job and says who each one is for, in its own site's words. It ranks nothing and makes no claim about quality. Every fact about a product comes from that product's own website, read on Nov 10, 2026. For the wider category, forms and chat widgets included, see what each kind of lead generation software does.
Which lead generation tools do which job?
Two of the eight find businesses, three find contacts and three exist to send messages. Leadodo sits in the last row because it joins the jobs and adds a website score between them.
| Tool | Job | Where the leads come from | How prospects are qualified | Channels it sends | What you still do by hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outscraper | Find businesses | Google Maps and other public sources | Exported fields such as category, rating and review count | None. It supplies data | Choose who to contact, then write and send |
| D7 Lead Finder | Find businesses | Its database, which the site puts at 65,000,000+ leads | Columns such as review scores, paid ads and mobile friendly | None. It supplies data | Choose who to contact, then write and send |
| Apollo | Find contacts | Its own contact and company database | "65+ filters" and a lead scoring function | Email and phone | Decide which companies have a reason to hear from you |
| Hunter | Find contacts | Email addresses indexed from public web sources | Email verification | Decide which companies to email, and cover other channels | |
| Clay | Find contacts | Data bought from providers in its marketplace | Account and lead scoring, and Claygent AI research agents | Build the workflow and keep it running | |
| Instantly | Reach | Its own lead database, or contacts you upload | 13 filters in the lead database | Bring the reason to write, and cover other channels | |
| HeyReach | Reach | Leads imported from other tools | The pages we read name no scoring step | Bring the leads and the LinkedIn accounts | |
| Lob | Reach | None. You bring the addresses | None. It supplies no contact data | Post | Bring the list and the letter |
| Leadodo | Find, score and reach | 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 last column is our own reading of what each tool leaves open.
What does each tool cost?
Six of the eight showed a price we could quote in the page's own billing words on Nov 10, 2026. For the other two the table points to the pricing page. Each row holds one price. For a tool with plans it is the lowest paid plan. For Outscraper it is the first paid tier of the Google Maps Scraper. For Lob it is one letter on the Developer plan, which has no subscription fee.
| Tool | Plan or tier | Price and billing words on Nov 10, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Outscraper | Google Maps Scraper, Medium Tier | $3 per 1,000 records, pay as you go |
| D7 Lead Finder | Starter | The price did not load. See its plan page |
| Apollo | Basic | $49 per seat per month, billed annually |
| Hunter | Starter | $34 per month, billed yearly |
| Clay | Launch | The page shows two figures. See its pricing page |
| Instantly | Growth | "$47/monthly", as the plan card reads |
| HeyReach | Growth | $79 per sender per month, billed monthly |
| Lob | Developer | $1.066 per letter in black and white, sent First Class. Covers print, postage and envelope |
| Leadodo | Pricing on request | Pricing on request |
Each section below links the page its price was read on.
Which tools find businesses?
Outscraper and D7 Lead Finder find businesses. Both return rows of local businesses for a category and a place, and neither sends a message. Our roundup of lead finder tools covers more tools of this kind.
Outscraper
Outscraper is a pay as you go scraping service for Google Maps and other public sources. Its Google Maps Scraper exports places to CSV, Excel, Parquet or JSON. Each row holds a name, category, phone, website and address, plus rating and review count. A second service, the Emails & Contacts Scraper, adds emails, phone numbers and social links for a domain. Outscraper sends nothing itself.
The pages we read give no count of businesses and no refresh interval. The Google Maps scraper page names digital marketers, data analysts, researchers, data scientists and developers as its users.
There is no monthly fee. On Nov 10, 2026 the Outscraper pricing page listed the Google Maps Scraper Medium Tier at $3 per 1,000 records, pay as you go. Before that tier, the first 500 businesses are free.
Outscraper suits you better than Leadodo when you want a file of the businesses in an area and you have your own way to sort and contact them.
D7 Lead Finder
D7 Lead Finder returns a list of businesses for a category and a place. Its homepage says "Up to 1200 Business Leads per search." A row holds the business name, email address, phone number, website link and postal address, where available. The feature list also names paid ads, review scores and whether a website is mobile friendly. A help article says reviews and the mobile friendly check come with the Professional plan. D7 Lead Finder sends nothing itself.
A help article says the data comes from over 150 sources and does not name them. The site names no user group. It says "Find B2B Leads for your business in any industry across all countries."
The plan page names Starter, Agency and Professional plans, billed monthly. Their prices did not load on Nov 10, 2026, so see its plan page. The homepage lists free basic use that cannot be exported.
D7 Lead Finder suits you better than Leadodo when you want a local list with advertising and review columns and plan to do the outreach in another tool.
Which tools find contacts?
Apollo, Hunter and Clay find contacts. Apollo searches its own database, Hunter finds and verifies email addresses, and Clay buys data from many providers and combines it.
Apollo
Apollo is a contact and company database with email sequences and a dialer. Its data page lists 240M+ global contacts and 30M+ global companies, searched with "65+ filters". Sequences run steps "across email, call, and networking platforms", and a parallel dialer logs calls to a CRM. Among its data sources, the data page names local business data from Google Maps.
The homepage names RevOps, sales leaders, sales reps, marketers, builders and developers. It names both "Small Business" and "Mid-market & Enterprise".
On Nov 10, 2026 the Apollo pricing page showed the Basic plan at $49 per seat per month, billed annually. There is a Free plan, and the Basic and Professional cards offer a 14-day trial.
Apollo suits you better than Leadodo when you sell to job titles inside companies, when you want calls in the same sequence as email, or when your pipeline lives in Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive, which Apollo syncs with.
Hunter
Hunter finds and verifies professional email addresses and sends cold email sequences. Domain Search returns the email addresses of a company. Email Finder returns one person's address, and Email Verifier checks whether an address is valid. Email is the only channel the pages we read name.
Its data page says it has 150M professional email addresses indexed. It also says it removes contact or company information that no longer has public sources after six months. Hunter says it helps "founders, marketers, sales teams, and product owners".
On Nov 10, 2026 the Hunter pricing page showed the Starter plan at $34 per month, billed yearly. Every plan lists unlimited team members, who share one pool of credits. A Free plan holds 50 credits per month.
Hunter suits you better than Leadodo when you already know which companies you want and only need the right address at each one.
Clay
Clay is a data enrichment and workflow tool. The pages we read give no count of contacts or companies. Clay sells data from other providers through its marketplace. The functions its site names include waterfall enrichment, Claygent AI research agents, account and lead scoring and an email sequencer.
The homepage says Clay is "Trusted by more than 500,000 leading GTM teams of all sizes." The pricing page aims its Launch plan at small teams and its Enterprise plan at "organizations building GTM systems at scale."
The Clay pricing page showed two figures for the Launch plan on Nov 10, 2026, one on the plan card and one in its FAQ. It did not label the billing period of the card price, so see its pricing page for the amount. There is a Free plan, and the plan cards carry a "Start 14-day trial" button.
Clay suits you better than Leadodo when someone on your team builds data workflows and wants to combine many sources in their own way.
Which tools reach the prospect?
Instantly, HeyReach and Lob each send on one channel. Instantly sends email, HeyReach sends LinkedIn messages and Lob prints and posts mail. We compare more tools of each kind in cold email software, LinkedIn automation tools and direct mail services.
Instantly
Instantly is a cold email sending tool with a B2B lead database and a CRM. It sends email campaigns from connected email accounts and includes email warmup. The pricing page lists a "Database of 450M+ B2B Leads" with 13 filters, paid for with Instantly credits. Its home page names no channel other than email.
The home page lists eight audiences, among them Sales, Marketing, Agencies, Freelancers and Founders.
On Nov 10, 2026 the Instantly pricing page showed the Growth outreach plan at "$47/monthly", as its card reads, with 5,000 emails monthly and unlimited email accounts. The page says "No credit card required." next to the signup form and gives no trial length.
Instantly suits you better than Leadodo when email is your only channel and you want to send from many mailboxes.
HeyReach
HeyReach is a LinkedIn automation tool. It connects many LinkedIn accounts, which it calls senders, and rotates sending between them. Its LinkedIn actions include connection requests, messages, InMails and voice notes. The site names no contact database. Leads are imported from Sales Navigator, Clay, HubSpot and other tools. Email goes out through integrations with Instantly, Smartlead and EmailBison.
The site calls it a "LinkedIn automation tool for agencies, sales teams, and GTM operators".
On Nov 10, 2026 the HeyReach pricing page showed the Growth plan at $79 per sender per month, billed monthly. Its FAQ says a sender is a LinkedIn account that you add. It also says HeyReach charges per LinkedIn sender and does not charge per user. The FAQ describes a 14-day test with 3 LinkedIn accounts and no card.
HeyReach suits you better than Leadodo when LinkedIn is your main channel and you run outreach from many LinkedIn accounts, for example across several clients.
Lob
Lob is a direct mail platform. A business creates mail in a dashboard or through an API, and Lob prints it and hands it to the postal service. The formats its print and mail page names include postcards, letters, self mailers and checks. It also verifies US and international addresses. Lob supplies no contact data, and the pages we read name no email, LinkedIn or phone sending.
The homepage says "For teams managing complex direct mail at scale." It lists in-house marketing, agencies and consultants, platforms and operations teams.
On Nov 10, 2026 the Lob pricing details page listed one letter on the Developer plan at $1.066, in black and white and sent First Class. The figure stands in the table headed 11/01/2026 and covers print, postage and the envelope. The Developer tier has no subscription fee, and each piece is still charged. The paid plans add a platform fee.
Lob suits you better than Leadodo when mail is the only step you need, or when a developer will trigger mail from your own systems through its API. One disclosure belongs here. The US letters your Outbound Machine sends are printed and posted by Lob.
Where does Leadodo fit, and where does it not?
Leadodo fits a web design or marketing agency that wants finding, scoring and outreach in one place. It is built for one job, finding businesses with weak websites and starting the conversation. For any other job, pick another tool on this page.
It lines up with the three jobs like this.
- Find businesses. 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.
- Score them. Twip AI scores every website in a search out of 100 across 10 domains. Lower means a weaker website and a better lead. Sites that score below 40 form the shortlist.
- Reach them. 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.
Twip's findings become the opening line of each letter and email. Leadodo never contacts anyone itself. You send, under your own name. A US letter costs about 86 cents, for one page in black and white, sent First Class. That covers printing, postage and the envelope.
The second step is where Leadodo differs from the other tools on this page. Apollo and Clay name lead scoring, and D7 Lead Finder flags whether a site is mobile friendly. On the pages we read, none of the eight describes a score for the prospect's website as a whole.
That step matters to us because of a test we ran. We scored 20,000 Dutch company websites and sent cold emails to three groups. Companies in the weakest 20% of websites were about 3.2 times more likely to reply positively than a random sample from the other 80%. The test covered Dutch companies and email only, and our write-up of the test holds the method.
Pick another tool when your job is a different one. If you sell to job titles inside companies, Apollo is the closer match on this page. If you want a file of businesses and nothing more, Outscraper or D7 Lead Finder does that job alone. If someone on your team builds data workflows, Clay is the workflow tool on this page. If you want one channel, Instantly, HeyReach and Lob each cover one. Keep your CRM for what follows the first conversation.
How do you pick lead gen tools for an agency?
Start with the job that costs you the most hours today, and add a tool only for a job that is still open. Five checks help when you compare lead gen tools.
- Name the job. Find businesses, find contacts or reach them. Buy for one job at a time.
- Check the data against your buyers. Ask for a sample in your own trade and area. A four-person plumbing firm has an owner and a phone number, and few job titles.
- Decide how you will choose. A list of 1,000 businesses is 1,000 names. Write down what makes one of them worth a message before you send anything.
- Count the channels. On this page Apollo, Hunter, Clay and Instantly send email, HeyReach sends on LinkedIn and Lob sends post. Covering all three channels takes at least three of those six.
- Count the handovers. Every export from one tool into the next is work somebody does each week. List the handovers before you add up the prices.
Questions
What are lead generation tools?
Lead generation tools are software that finds potential customers, finds their contact details or contacts them. This page groups them by those three jobs. Some tools do one job, such as Outscraper for finding businesses. Others join two or three, such as Apollo for contact data and email.
What are the best lead generation tools for an agency?
No single tool is best, because the tools do different jobs. People who search for the best lead generation tools usually need one job done. Name that job first. Then compare only the tools in that group on data coverage, channels and what stays manual.
Do I need more than one lead generation tool?
Often, yes. Finding businesses, finding contacts and reaching them are three jobs, and most tools on this page do one or two. A common stack is a list source, an email finder and a sending tool. A tool that joins the jobs removes the handovers between them.
Which lead generation tools have a free plan?
On Nov 10, 2026 Apollo, Hunter and Clay each showed a free plan. Outscraper lists the first 500 businesses on its Google Maps Scraper as free, and D7 Lead Finder lists free basic use that cannot be exported. Lob's Developer tier has no subscription fee, and each piece is still charged.
Can one tool find leads and contact them?
Yes. Apollo and Instantly each pair a database with email sending, and Hunter pairs an email finder with cold email sequences. Leadodo joins a business search, a website score and a sequence of post, email and LinkedIn steps.
Checked on Nov 10, 2026. If a detail about your product is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Next step. See how finding, scoring and outreach work together in one tool. See what Leadodo does.
