B2B Data Providers, Compared
Six providers side by side, with current pricing and where each wins.
The six providers, side by side
B2B data providers all promise the same thing, accurate contacts and company records, but they charge in very different ways. Here are six worth knowing in 2026, with what each is good at and where the bill grows.
| Provider | Pricing model | Self-serve | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZoomInfo | Quote-based, annual, 3-seat minimum | No | Deep firmographics + intent |
| Apollo | Per seat, from about $49/user/mo | Yes | Prospecting + email sequences |
| Lusha | Per seat + credits, from about $37/mo | Yes | Fast in-browser contact reveals |
| Clearbit | Inside HubSpot (Breeze), credits reset monthly | Via HubSpot only | Enrichment for HubSpot users |
| Bright Data | Per record, from $250 per 100k | Partly | Huge prebuilt datasets + proxies |
| CrustAPI | Per successful result, paid funds never expire | Yes | Public Google + LinkedIn on one API |
Competitor figures verified July 2026 via vendr.com, apollo.io, lusha.com, cleanlist.ai, and brightdata.com. Prices change, so check each provider's page before you buy.
Each one, briefly
Where each provider is strong, and the part that tends to surprise people on the invoice.
ZoomInfo. The biggest name in B2B data: deep firmographics, org charts, and intent signals few others match. The catch is the buying process: pricing is quote-based, contracts are annual, and every tier has a three-seat minimum.
Vendr reports a median ZoomInfo contract around $31,875 per year across more than 1,300 verified purchases, and teams that add intent data land near $54,000. If you want the coverage without the annual commitment, see our ZoomInfo alternative breakdown.
Apollo. The friendliest place to start: published pricing, a real free tier, and finding, sequencing, and dialing bundled in one tool. Paid plans run about $49, $79, and $119 per user per month on annual billing (higher month to month), per apollo.io.
The trade-off: credits are allotted per seat and reset monthly, so unused ones do not carry forward, and data accuracy varies by contact.
Lusha. Built for a rep grabbing a phone number mid-task. The browser extension is quick and the entry price is low, starting around $37 per month on annual billing.
Watch the credit math: salesmotion.io and cleanlist.ai report phone reveals cost more credits than email reveals, so a headline credit count stretches further for emails than for direct dials.
Clearbit. HubSpot bought Clearbit and rebranded it Breeze Intelligence. If your team lives in HubSpot, enrichment is tidy and native.
If you do not, this one is off the table: the free tools shut down in April 2024, there is no standalone purchase, and credits reset every 30 days with no rollover, per cleanlist.ai and cognism.com.
Bright Data. The heavyweight for bulk. It sells prebuilt datasets from $250 per 100k records (about $0.0025 each) on brightdata.com, including a LinkedIn set listed at 895.8M+ records and a global Google Maps set around 159.9M records.
It is strong and broad. The model is delivery of records at volume rather than a light live query for a handful of leads.
CrustAPI. One API over public Google and public LinkedIn. You call GET /v1/search?type= for web, maps, news, reviews, and more, plus LinkedIn profile, company, posts, jobs, and people search (beta). A profile lookup returns a verified work email.
Google Search starts at $1.00 per 1,000 successful requests, Maps at $1.96 per 1,000 businesses, LinkedIn reads at $6.00 per 1,000 successful requests, and People, Jobs and Refresh at $1.96 per 1,000 billing units. Full profiles in People use the LinkedIn read rate per full profile. Each deposit saves its own prices until spent. Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly; paid funds never expire.
What data do you get?
A people search (beta) feeds into a profile lookup that returns a verified work email. Here is a CSV of what comes back (sample rows).
The verified email comes only from the LinkedIn person and profile endpoints, one per person. Google Maps listings have no email field, so no Maps-sourced record from any provider includes an email. What Maps does return is everything else about a business:
Related: B2B database · business leads database
How much does B2B data cost?
Most providers here charge per seat or per credit whether or not a lookup is useful. CrustAPI charges the applicable price per successful result and bills nothing when a search returns zero.
| Deposit | Google Search / 1,000 requests | Maps / 1,000 businesses | LinkedIn reads / 1,000 requests | People, Jobs, Refresh / 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10+ | $1.00 | $1.96 | $6.00 | $1.96 |
| $149+ | $0.76 | $1.49 | $4.50 | $1.49 |
| $549+ | $0.56 | $1.10 | $3.30 | $1.10 |
| $1,999+ | $0.41 | $0.80 | $2.45 | $0.80 |
| $6,500+ | $0.33 | $0.65 | $1.95 | $0.65 |
| $27,500+ | $0.28 | $0.55 | $1.65 | $0.55 |
| $50,000+ | $0.26 | $0.50 | $1.50 | $0.50 |
| $100,000+ | $0.20 | $0.40 | $1.50 | $0.40 |
Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent; paid funds never expire. People and Jobs bill per successful search, Refresh per accessible profile. Full profiles in People use the read rate per full profile. See all billing details.
Larger deposits unlock lower endpoint prices. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent. See the full deposit table on the pricing page. Prices in USD, ex-tax.
Google Search starts at $1.00 per 1,000 successful requests, Maps at $1.96 per 1,000 businesses, LinkedIn reads at $6.00 per 1,000 successful requests, and People, Jobs and Refresh at $1.96 per 1,000 billing units. Full profiles in People use the LinkedIn read rate per full profile. Each deposit saves its own prices until spent. Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly; paid funds never expire.
Bright Data's per-record dataset pricing is the closest comparison at volume; ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha, and Clearbit price by seats and credits instead.
How do you get started?
No sales call and no contract. From zero to your first rows in about two minutes:
- 1
Create a free account. Try it free, no card needed.
- 2
Type a search in the playground. A Maps query like marketing agencies in Denver, or a LinkedIn profile URL.
- 3
Click export. Download the CSV, or copy your key and run the same query as an API call.
Who uses CrustAPI?
- Teams priced out of ZoomInfo. Get contacts and company records per result, with no seats and no annual contract.
- Agencies with many clients. Buy one pack and spend it across every client list, since paid funds never expire.
- Ops builders. Wire it into Clay, n8n, or LangChain as the enrichment step that only bills on hits.
- Founders doing first outbound. The free tier covers a real prospect list before you pay anything.
When a competitor is the right call
CrustAPI is a lean, self-serve API over public data. It is not the answer for every job.
Pick ZoomInfo when you need buyer intent signals, org charts, and a large sales team all working the same enriched CRM, and a five-figure annual contract fits the budget.
Pick Apollo or Lusha when reps want to find a contact and email or dial them inside one tool, with a built-in sequencer and a dialer, not a raw data feed.
Pick Bright Data when you want a massive prebuilt dataset delivered on a refresh schedule, like the full 159.9M-record Google Maps set, rather than live per-query lookups.
Pick Clearbit when your whole workflow already lives in HubSpot and native enrichment on existing records is all you need.
Related: ZoomInfo alternative · B2B database · business leads database
Common questions
Apollo has a free tier and paid plans from about $49 per user per month, and Lusha starts around $37 per month, both per their pricing pages. CrustAPI is free to try with no card and bills only when a search returns a result. ZoomInfo is quote-based with annual contracts, so there is no cheap self-serve entry.
CrustAPI charges only for successful data. Empty and failed requests cost nothing. The billing unit depends on the endpoint: a request, a business or a full profile.
CrustAPI's verified work email comes from the LinkedIn person and profile endpoints, one email per person. Google Maps listings have no email field, so no Maps-sourced data from any provider on this list includes emails.
Logged-out, public-only collection has repeatedly defeated computer-fraud and contract claims, while a site's terms restrict automated access on their side. We handle the collection; what you get is data that is public for anyone to see. We do not claim any GDPR or SOC2 certification.
Bright Data sells prebuilt datasets, including LinkedIn and Google Maps sets, from $250 per 100k records per brightdata.com. CrustAPI is a live self-serve API you query on demand rather than a bulk dataset download.
CrustAPI's prepaid funds never expire. Apollo, Lusha, and Clearbit credits are typically allotted per seat and reset every month or 30 days with no rollover, so unused ones are lost.
Clay
One API instead of six contracts
Public Google and LinkedIn data, no seats, no annual contract, no expiring credits. Start free and pay only for the results you get.
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