Compare B2B data providers on the job you are hiring them for: deliverable work emails for the right current people at your target accounts. That comes down to five checks: when each email is verified, how many of your accounts the provider returns people for, whether it matches each person to their current employer and role, what you pay per valid email, and how many tools it takes to get from an account list to a send-ready list.
Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha and Clay all sell prospecting data, but they are built for different buyers. The rest of this guide turns those five checks into questions you can ask any vendor, summarizes how the major providers position themselves, and shows how to test them side by side on a sample of your real accounts.
What Should You Compare B2B Data Providers On?
Compare them on the outcome you need, not on platform breadth. If your goal is outreach, a provider is only as good as the number of verified emails it returns for the people who actually buy at the companies you care about. These five criteria cover that.
| Criterion | Question to ask the vendor | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
| Verification timing | Is each email verified when I get it, or verified once and stored? | Verified at find time, catch-alls included |
| Coverage at your accounts | How many of my target accounts return the roles I need? | Proven on your own sample, not a headline count |
| Role and employer match | Is the email at the person's current company, for the role I searched? | Current role resolved before the email is found |
| Buying model | Do I pay per seat, per export, per reveal, or per valid result? | A model you can turn into cost per valid email |
| Workflow | How do I get from an account list to people to verified emails? | One flow, no second verification tool |
Verification timing deserves the most weight. People change jobs constantly, so an email that was valid when a record was saved can bounce by the time you send. We cover why in our guide to B2B contact data accuracy, and catch-all domains add a second trap: many tools mark those addresses "risky" and leave the decision to you.
Apollo vs ZoomInfo: Which Is Better for Verified Work Emails?
Neither Apollo nor ZoomInfo positions itself mainly as a verified email finder, so the better choice depends on what else you need from the platform. Apollo bundles contact data with sales engagement. ZoomInfo is enterprise sales intelligence. For verified emails specifically, ask both the same verification and catch-all questions, then test them.
Apollo
- Contact database plus sequences, a dialer, domain warming and CRM sync in one product
- Free plan to evaluate the workflow; paid plans are priced by seat
- Confirm how catch-all addresses are handled before you send
ZoomInfo
- Enterprise sales intelligence: buyer intent, website visitor tracking, conversation intelligence
- Free Lite tier; its pricing guide describes paid plans as custom-quoted annual subscriptions with seat minimums
- Confirm the verification workflow that fits your sending process
If you already run outreach in Apollo or depend on ZoomInfo's intent data, that breadth is a real reason to choose them. If the job is a valid email list for target accounts, breadth matters less than the five criteria above. Our Enrichley vs Apollo and Enrichley vs ZoomInfo pages go deeper on each, with sources. Vendor details here reflect their public pricing and product pages as of September to November 2026, so confirm current terms before buying.
How Do Cognism, Lusha and Clay Compare?
Cognism, Lusha and Clay each solve a different part of the prospecting problem. Cognism leads with phone-verified mobile numbers, Lusha with quick contact reveals, and Clay with orchestrating many data sources in one workspace. Here is how they line up against the buying-model and email-handling criteria.
| Provider | Buying model | Email handling | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cognism | Tailored subscriptions; Standard and Pro include five seats | Emails and mobiles on contact records; Pro adds on-demand mobile verification | Teams that need phone-verified mobiles and intent |
| Lusha | Free plan plus credit-based paid plans | Verified email reveals at 1 credit; phone reveals at 5 credits | Reps revealing contacts from an extension or workspace |
| Clay | Free plan plus usage-based plans metering Actions and Data Credits | Depends on the providers and steps you configure | Ops teams building custom multi-source workflows |
| Enrichley | Published monthly plans, one credit pool, no seats; People Search and optional Company Lookalike billed separately from Finder | Verified at find time, catch-alls included; Finder step costs 3 credits per valid email | Teams that need verified emails for target accounts |
Clay's pricing page (checked November 2, 2026) separates Actions, which execute workflow steps, from Data Credits, which purchase data. Budget for both. Clay says it connects to 150+ data providers and can run multi-provider waterfalls, so its email quality depends on which sources and checks you chain together. It is a strong choice if you want to build that pipeline yourself, and Enrichley results can be pushed into Clay if you do. For Cognism and Lusha, our Enrichley vs Cognism and Enrichley vs Lusha pages list the sources behind each claim. If you are leaving one vendor, the Apollo alternatives and ZoomInfo alternatives roundups compare the field from that starting point.
How Do You Test a Provider on Your Own Target Accounts?
Run the same sample of your real target accounts through every provider and count the verified emails you get for the right people. A provider's headline record count tells you nothing about your accounts; a side-by-side test on your own list does.
Pick a sample of real target accounts
Use accounts from your actual list, including some where you already know the right contact. Those known contacts are your answer key.
Define the roles you need at each account
Write down title, seniority and department before you start, the same way you would find decision-makers for a live campaign, so every provider is judged on the same target.
Run each provider on a trial or free tier
Record how many accounts returned the right current person, how many emails came back, and what the run cost in credits, reveals or seat time.
Check deliverability the same way for every result
Run every returned address through one verification step so the comparison is fair, and note how many were catch-all addresses left as "risky".
Compute cost per valid email
Divide each provider's spend by the deliverable emails it returned for the right people. That single number is the fairest way to compare different buying models.
Watch the answer key
If a provider returns a former employer or an outdated title for contacts you already know, expect the same on the ones you do not. A wrong-person email that passes verification still reaches the wrong inbox.
Why Does Cost per Valid Email Matter More Than Price per Contact?
Cost per valid email matters more because a contact you cannot email is not a lead. Price per seat, per export or per reveal hides the records that turn out stale, wrong or undeliverable, and you often pay again to verify the list before sending.
Paying per record
Every exported or revealed contact costs the same, whether the email is deliverable or not. Invalid and unverifiable results are part of the bill, plus any separate verification you run afterwards.
Paying per valid email
Enrichley's Email Finder step costs 3 credits only when a verified, deliverable address comes back. Finder misses cost nothing. People Search and any Company Lookalike step are billed separately, so include them in the full workflow cost.
As an illustration: if a provider bills for 1,000 exported contacts and only 700 of those emails pass verification, your cost per valid email is (contact/export spend + verification spend) ÷ 700 valid emails. Seat-based plans add one more variable, because the cost also depends on how many people on your team need access.
Only pay for valid emails
Enrichley Email Finder costs 3 credits per valid email. Not-found, skipped and errored Finder lookups cost nothing. People Search and any Company Lookalike step are billed separately. Plans start at $59 per month for 5,000 credits with no seats.
See pricingWhere Does Enrichley Fit?
Enrichley fits when the job is verified work emails for people at target accounts and you do not need a sequencer, dialer or intent platform bundled in. It runs the whole flow in one place: find the accounts, find the people, find and verify their emails.
Accounts from your best customers
Company Lookalike ranks companies by fit to the customers you already win, so your test sample and your real list start from accounts that look like closed-won deals. See how to build a target account list from customers.
People searched live, by role
People Search filters by title, seniority and department and searches live rather than reading from a stale list, so the person you get is matched to their current company.
Emails verified at find time, catch-alls included
Email Finder matches each person to the role you searched, finds the email at that employer, and verifies it with Enrichley's own verification before it reaches you. Only confirmed-deliverable emails come back, so there is no second verification tool.
One credit pool, no seats
Company Lookalike, People Search, Email Finder and email verification draw from the same credits. API and MCP access are on every paid plan, and verified results export to CSV or Clay, or to HubSpot on Professional plans and up.
Enrichley does not replace a sales engagement platform or enterprise intent data. If you need those, keep them and use Enrichley for the list. For a look at finder tools alone, see our roundup of the best email finder tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I compare Apollo, ZoomInfo and other B2B data providers when I need verified work emails?
Is Apollo or ZoomInfo better for verified work emails?
What is the best way to test a B2B data provider before buying?
Why does cost per valid email matter more than price per contact?
Do I need a separate email verifier on top of a B2B data provider?
How does Enrichley charge for verified work emails?
Test Enrichley on Your Own Target Accounts
Find the decision-makers at the accounts you care about and get their work emails verified at find time, with the Email Finder step charged only for valid results. People Search and any Company Lookalike step are billed separately.
Get verified emails