12 Best B2B Data Providers in 2026, Compared by Cost per Email

B2B data providers sell verified contact records, mainly work emails and mobile numbers, plus the company data behind them, so a sales team can reach buyers without building every list by hand. We compared 12 of them on the price each one charges for a single email on its cheapest paid plan, and the spread runs from about 1 cent at AI Ark to 58 cents at UpLead, with ZoomInfo and Cognism publishing no price at all.

Key Findings

• On monthly billing, the cheapest list price per email is AI Ark at about $0.01, then Icypeas at $0.019, LeadMagic at $0.020 and Prospeo at $0.025. Prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page on September 30, 2026.
• The price gap between the cheapest and the most expensive provider is roughly 60x: $0.58 per contact on UpLead Essentials against about a cent on AI Ark.
• Mobile numbers cost 5 to 10 times an email on most credit plans. Apollo charges 8 credits, Lusha 5, Prospeo, Findymail and BetterContact 10.
• ZoomInfo and Cognism quote every contract through sales, and ZoomInfo sells paid plans only as annual subscriptions.
• No single provider covers a full list. Reachly runs Icypeas, then Prospeo, then BetterContact inside Clay, which takes a list from about 60% matched to the 90s.
• Test any provider on 500 of your own rows before you sign, or let a managed outbound team run the sourcing for you.

What is a B2B data provider?

A B2B data provider is a company that collects, verifies and sells business contact and company records. You pay in credits, and a credit usually buys one revealed email, while a mobile number costs more. The providers in this list fall into three groups, and the group matters more than the brand when you pick one.

Contact databases

A contact database holds its own records and lets you search them with filters such as title, industry, headcount and location. Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, UpLead and AI Ark work this way. You get search and the data in one place, and most add a Chrome extension, intent topics or a sequencer on top.

Waterfall platforms

A waterfall platform owns little data itself. It sends each record to one provider, then passes the misses to the next, and charges only when one of them returns a verified result. Clay and BetterContact are the two in this list.

Email finders

An email finder takes a name and a company domain and returns a verified work email. Prospeo, Icypeas, Findymail and LeadMagic sit here. They are the cheapest per email and the easiest to plug into a waterfall, but you bring the list yourself.

Enrichment, which fills in missing fields on records you already hold, is a related job with its own tools. We cover it in our comparison of data enrichment platforms.

How did we compare these B2B data providers?

We read every price on the vendor's own pricing page on September 30, 2026, clicking the monthly and annual toggles where a page loads its prices with JavaScript. Third-party price estimates are labeled as such, and none of them appear in the chart.

How cost per email is calculated

Cost per email is the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan divided by the number of emails its credits buy. It is a list price, and your real cost per verified email moves with your hit rate. Six of the twelve charge only when they find a result, so their figure is the most you pay. Apollo, Lusha and UpLead charge per reveal. UpLead's credit also includes the mobile number, which is part of why its figure sits so high.

Our relationship with these tools

Reachly is a Clay Solutions Partner and has partner agreements with AI Ark, Icypeas and BetterContact, and some links to Prospeo, Findymail and LeadMagic are affiliate links. Those links are marked as sponsored or nofollow. The ranking in the chart is set by the published prices, so a partner sits wherever its price puts it.

Which B2B data provider costs the least per email?

AI Ark is cheapest on list price, at $49 for 5,000 credits where one credit covers a profile and a verified email. The four email finders and Apollo cluster between 2 and 5 cents. Lusha and UpLead cost several times more because their plans are built around a smaller number of full contact reveals.

"

Usually those data platforms have a LOT of catch-all emails AND the data is quite stale. If a list is more than 30 days old, it's very likely there'll be a lot of waste in it, resulting in poor reply rates and high bounce rates. That's why I love working with AI Ark, as they refresh their data every 30 days.

Thibault GarciaFounder, Reachly

Annual billing lowers every published price by 10 to 25%. On annual plans Apollo drops to $0.020 per email, Prospeo to $0.018, Icypeas to $0.016 and LeadMagic to $0.017, and the order barely changes.

What are the 12 best B2B data providers in 2026?

The first six are contact databases, the next two are waterfall platforms and the last four are email finders. Database sizes and accuracy figures are the vendors' own claims.

1. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a contact database with a sequencer and dialer built in. It lists 240M+ contacts and 30M+ companies on its own site, and the free plan gives each seat 75 credits a month.

Pricing: Basic is $65 a seat a month for 2,500 credits, or $49 a seat billed annually. One email is 1 credit and a phone number is 8, per the live pricing page, though an older Apollo help page still says 1.

Best for: small teams that want list building and sending in one login. We compare it with Clay in Clay vs Apollo.

Watch for: unused credits expire each billing cycle, and annual plans cannot be downgraded mid-term.

2. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is the long-standing US sales database, claiming 410M+ contact profiles and 203M+ company records, with intent signals and 300+ search filters.

Pricing: ZoomInfo does not publish prices. Its own blog says every paid contract is scoped to usage and sold as an annual subscription. Vendr, a software buying platform, reports a median contract of $33,500 a year across 1,012 deals, which is a third-party figure.

Best for: larger US sales teams that will use intent data and the filters every day.

Watch for: the annual commitment. If you want to compare options first, see our ZoomInfo alternatives.

3. Cognism

Cognism is the Europe-first database here. It sells phone-verified mobile numbers under the name Diamond Data, with 10M+ phone-verified contacts, and adds Bombora intent topics on its Pro plan.

Pricing: both plans, Standard and Pro, include 5 seats and are priced through sales. One credit reveals one contact, email and mobile together, so phones cost no extra.

Best for: teams selling into the UK and EU who need to call, not just email.

Watch for: there is no free plan or self-serve trial, and the 5-seat base is large for a small team.

4. Lusha

Lusha is a self-serve database best known for its Chrome extension, which reveals contacts on LinkedIn, in a CRM or on any website. It claims 290M+ contacts, 117M+ direct dials and 87.8M contacts in the US.

Pricing: Starter is $49.90 a month for 400 credits, or $37.45 a month billed yearly. An email is 1 credit and a phone is 5. The free plan gives 40 credits a month.

Best for: reps who prospect one contact at a time from LinkedIn.

Watch for: the per-email cost is five times the email finders below, so it gets expensive on bulk lists.

5. UpLead

UpLead verifies each email at the moment you reveal it and backs its data with a 95% accuracy guarantee. It lists 200M+ contacts with email addresses.

Pricing: Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, and one credit reveals the email and mobile together. The 7-day trial includes 5 credits.

Best for: small, high-value lists where every record needs a phone number and a checked email.

Watch for: at $0.58 a contact it is the most expensive per record here, and monthly plans are single-user.

6. AI Ark

AI Ark is a contact database with AI lookalike and semantic search. It claims 400M+ profiles and 70M+ companies, refreshed every 30 days, and verifies each email at export.

Pricing: $49 a month buys 5,000 credits. A profile with a verified email costs 1 credit, a profile with no email found costs 0.5, and a verified mobile costs 5. The free plan gives 100 credits a month.

Best for: teams building large lists who want search and cheap verified emails in one place.

Watch for: AI Ark publishes GDPR and CCPA compliance but no SOC 2 or ISO certificate.

7. Clay

Clay is a workspace that pulls data from 150+ providers and runs them as a waterfall, so each record tries the next provider only when the last one misses. It also runs AI web research and signal tracking on the same table.

Pricing: Launch starts at $185 a month for 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions. Clay's own docs price an email lookup at about 0.5 data credits, which works out near $0.037 per email, but the real figure depends on which providers run.

Best for: teams that want to combine several providers and score accounts before anyone sends. Reachly builds its lists here.

Watch for: two meters, data credits and actions, make the monthly bill harder to predict.

8. BetterContact

BetterContact is a waterfall in a single subscription, querying 20+ providers and verifying every email before it charges. It reports that 36.3% of the data it receives from providers fails its own verification.

Pricing: Starter is $15 a month for 200 credits. An email is 1 credit and a mobile is 10, and you pay only when valid data comes back.

Best for: the last step of a waterfall, and for mobile numbers, where its phone scoring flags which numbers are most likely to connect.

Watch for: the Starter plan is small. The 1,000-credit Pro tier at $49 brings the email price down to $0.049.

9. Prospeo

Prospeo is an email and mobile finder with its own search. It claims 143M verified email addresses, 125M+ verified mobiles and 98% accuracy, and refreshes its data weekly.

Pricing: Starter is $49 a month for 2,000 credits. An email is 1 credit, a mobile is 10, and nothing is charged when no email is found. Unused credits roll over.

Best for: a second step in a waterfall, and teams who want a Chrome extension with a real free tier.

Watch for: Prospeo claims GDPR compliance but does not publish a SOC 2 report on its site.

10. Icypeas

Icypeas is an email finder and verifier that checks catch-all addresses on every plan. It claims a billion-plus record database refreshed every month.

Pricing: Basic is $19 a month for 1,000 credits, plus VAT, and one found email costs one credit. Credits roll over with no cap and never expire.

Best for: the first step in a waterfall, where the cheapest finder should see every record. It is the first provider Reachly runs.

Watch for: there is no phone finder yet, so pair it with a mobile source.

11. Findymail

Findymail finds and verifies emails in real time, catch-all addresses included, and guarantees a bounce rate under 5% or refunds the credits. It is the only email finder here that states SOC 2 Type 2 compliance.

Pricing: Basic is $49 a month for 1,000 credits. An email is 1 credit and a phone is 10, and a miss costs nothing. Findymail does not return phone numbers for EU contacts.

Best for: teams where deliverability is the main risk and a written bounce guarantee matters.

Watch for: it holds no searchable database, so the list has to come from elsewhere.

12. LeadMagic

LeadMagic is an email and mobile finder with free people and company search on paid plans. It lists 400M+ people and 25M+ companies, and charges only for valid results.

Pricing: Essential is $99 a month for 5,000 credits, so $0.020 an email. A mobile costs 5 credits, half what most finders charge.

Best for: API-heavy teams that want cheap mobiles and search without paying per query.

Watch for: there is no free tier, and LeadMagic states on its security page that it holds no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification.

Why does one B2B data provider never cover your whole list?

Every provider builds its records from different sources, so each one misses a different slice of your list. On Reachly's own outbound stack page, querying one provider and accepting the misses gives about a 60% match rate. Running three in sequence, and paying only for the hit, takes the same list into the 90s.

"

We source data in different ways depending on the ICP. Brick and mortar businesses and white collar workers get different workflows, with a waterfall of data providers, to get the valid email fill rate as high as possible.

Thibault GarciaFounder, Reachly

The order Reachly runs

Reachly holds the list in Clay, where it runs the waterfall and scores each account before it is sent. Icypeas goes first and sees every record, and it is also the cheapest of the three per email. Prospeo gets only the records Icypeas missed, and BetterContact gets what is left.

Why the waterfall costs less

Each later provider sees a shorter list, and the finders in the chain charge only on a hit. So the second and third lookups are paid on a fraction of the rows, and the cost per verified contact ends up below what a single source charges for a worse match rate.

How do you test a B2B data provider before you buy?

Run a real sample of your own ICP through the free tier or trial, and include records you already know are correct so you can measure accuracy as well as coverage. This is the method on Reachly's outbound stack page.

A verification pass costs a fraction of a cent per record, and a burned sending domain costs weeks. Our guide to email verification for cold email covers that step.

Which B2B data provider fits your team?

A founder or one rep starting outbound

Start on a free tier. Apollo, AI Ark and Prospeo all give monthly credits with no card, which is enough to run the 500-row test and send a first campaign.

A team sending thousands of emails a month

Pair a cheap database for search, such as AI Ark or Apollo, with two email finders in a waterfall. That is the setup that moves a match rate from about 60% into the 90s.

A team selling into Europe that needs to call

Cognism is the database built around phone-verified EU mobiles. Findymail returns no phone numbers for EU contacts, so plan for a separate mobile source if you use it.

An enterprise team in North America

ZoomInfo pairs a US-heavy database with 300+ filters and intent signals, sold on an annual contract. Price it against a waterfall built on Clay before you sign.

If you would rather not run any of this in-house, Reachly's outbound lead generation service includes TAM mapping, contact sourcing and verification in one monthly retainer from $3,500.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does B2B data cost?

Self-serve plans start between $15 and $185 a month, which works out to 1 to 58 cents per email on the cheapest paid tier. Enterprise contracts sit in a different band: buyers on Vendr report a median ZoomInfo deal of $33,500 a year. Budget for mobile numbers on top, since most plans charge 5 to 10 credits for each one.

What is the best B2B contact database right now?

It depends on where your buyers are. For North American coverage and filters, ZoomInfo is the reference point, and Lusha states 87.8M US contacts. For the UK and EU, Cognism is the one that sells phone-verified mobiles. On price per record, AI Ark is the lowest of the databases we checked.

Where can I find free B2B contact information?

Several providers give monthly credits at no cost: AI Ark and Prospeo each give 100, Apollo gives 75 a seat and Lusha gives 40. Clay's free plan adds 100 data credits and 500 actions but caps a table at 200 rows. A company's own team page and its LinkedIn company page are free sources you can check by hand.

Is data brokering illegal?

Selling B2B contact data is legal in the US and the EU when the seller follows privacy law. In the EU, providers such as AI Ark rely on legitimate interest under GDPR Article 6(1)(f), and people can object or ask to be deleted. California requires data brokers to register with the state, and Cognism is on that registry. Cold calling also means checking numbers against Do Not Call lists.

Which B2B database providers are available in the USA?

All 12 providers here sell to US teams and price in US dollars, and Icypeas also prices in euros and adds VAT. Findymail and BetterContact host their data in the EU, which does not stop US teams using them. Findymail returns no phone numbers for EU contacts, which matters only if your list crosses the Atlantic.