6 Best Cognism Alternatives and Competitors for Lead Data in 2025

Data accuracy issues • Expensive pricing • Regional data coverage gaps

These are some of the most common reasons users start looking for Cognism alternatives.

And if you rely heavily on cold outreach, there’s a good chance Cognism will leave you dealing with problems like:

• Emails that bounce.
• Phone numbers that lead nowhere.
• Expensive, locked-in plans with no flexibility.
• Limited data once you move outside Europe—especially in the US or APAC.

It’s not that Cognism is a bad tool—it just might not be the right one for you.

So, if your use case doesn’t align with what Cognism does best, it’s worth exploring other options.

I’ve put together this list of 6 Cognism alternatives to help you find a better fit for your goals, region, and budget in 2025.

TL;DR – 3 Best Cognism Alternatives on My List

1. Saleshandy – Overall best Cognism alternative for teams looking for a reliable B2B contact database with solid global coverage and cold email outreach automation.
2. ZoomInfo – Best suited for enterprise teams needing a comprehensive marketing and sales solution with access to a large contact database and advanced intent data.
3. Apollo.io – Cognism alternative if you’re focused on U.S.-based prospecting. You get strong filtering options, technographic data, and built-in outreach features.

My List of 6 Best Cognism Competitors That Are Simply Better

I’ve tested multiple B2B contact databases to see how they stack up against Cognism — focusing on data accuracy, regional coverage, filtering options, and overall value for money.

Here are the 6 Cognism alternatives that stood out:

1. Saleshandy
2. ZoomInfo
3. Apollo.io
4. Lusha
5. UpLead
6. ContactOut

Let’s dive into the list:

1. Saleshandy Lead Finder

Saleshandy Lead Finder is by far the most accurate and cost-effective Cognism alternative for B2B prospecting.

What stood out about Salshandy is the database size and global data coverage.

While Cognism mainly covers Europe, with Saleshandy, you get access to over 700M professional contacts from more than 60M companies worldwide.

Along with its advanced filters, you will be able to narrow down and instantly build a highly targeted list of prospects.

In addition to all this, Saleshandy also has advanced inbuilt cold email outreach capabilities.

Overall, Saleshandy works both as a B2B prospecting alternative to Cognism and as a complete platform for finding and reaching out to leads.

You can read more in my detailed review of Saleshandy.

Key Features That Make Saleshandy Lead Finder A Better Alternative To Cognism

• Real-time email verification.
• 98% accuracy on grade-A emails (highest of any B2B database).
• Your credits are refunded if Saleshandy Lead Finder can’t find a verified email. 
• Unused credits roll over to the next billing cycle.
• Advanced filters to help you find targeted prospects
• AI Lead Finder will give you a curated list of prospects based on text prompts.
• Chrome Extension helps you prospect directly on LinkedIn.
• Advanced native cold email automation and deliverability features.

Pricing

Saleshandy starts at $24/month for 1,0000 monthly credits, making it THE MOST cost-effective Cognism competitor on this list.

You also have the flexibility to buy additional Lead Finder credits based on your prospecting needs.

What Users Are Saying About Saleshandy

• G2 – 4.6/5 ⭐ (745+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 4.4/5 ⭐ (370+ Reviews)

Saleshandy Lead Finder has mostly positive reviews across G2 and TrustPilot. 

Users have praised the ease of use, customer support, and affordable pricing. 

Here’s what Denise had to say about her Saleshandy experience:

“I have tried Apollo, salesforce and sooo many other CRM/lead generator and email campaign software but it was almost a whole new job just to learn them !!! Then googling I found Saleshandy and wowzer – 100% honest it really user friendly !!! I(t) was easy to setup…”

To find out more, check out the full review on G2.

2. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a go-to-market intelligence platform that gives you comprehensive information on companies and prospects. 

You can use it primarily for three things: 

• Finding contact, firmographic, and intent data on prospects.
• Enriching your CRM or CSV prospect database.
• Creating cross-channel sales sequences.

ZoomInfo’s unique feature is that it has everything you need to create and execute a sales cycle – B2B database, intent data, built-in dialer, predictive modeling, and more!

The downside? All these features come at extremely hefty prices – just the basic features could cost you more than $15,000 (for just three seats).

To find out if it’s actually worth the price, check out this detailed ZoomInfo review!

Key Features That Make ZoomInfo A Better Alternative To Cognism

• Conversation Intelligence that records and analyzes sales calls.
• 260M+ professional contacts, 135M+ verified phone numbers.
• GDPR, CCPA, and CRPA compliant.
• Helps you track website visitors. 
• Offers detailed technographic and firmographic (org charts, titles) data.

ZoomInfo Pricing

ZoomInfo doesn’t offer transparent pricing. From what I found, even basic access to contact data can cost thousands per year.

And if you need extras like intent data, enrichment, recruiter tools, or advanced integrations – the price climbs fast!

So, if you like ZoomInfo’s features but not its pricing, check out this list of ZoomInfo alternatives to find one that aligns with your requirements and your budget!

What Users Are Saying About ZoomInfo

• G2 – 4.5/5 ⭐ (8.8K+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 1.6/5 ⭐ (230+ Reviews)

ZoomInfo has positive reviews on G2 – users have praised its advanced search capabilities, integration features, and sales workflow builder.

Here’s what Boaz said about ZoomInfo: 

“The Chrome extension is fast and convenient, and the Salesforce (SFDC) integration is smooth. Pushing leads/accounts into SFDC with the right fields mapped is simple and reliable, which saves time in day-to-day prospecting and list building. Data accuracy is inconsistent…”

To find out more about Boaz’s experience, check out the full review on G2.

3. Apollo.io

Another Cognism alternative is Apollo.io.

It is a sales intelligence platform with a B2B database of 210M+ professional contacts and company profiles.

If you’re frustrated by Cognism’s EU-centric contact database, Apollo.io is a great alternative you can explore.

It has a very good B2B database for non-European contacts with a decent accuracy of nearly 90%.

Apart from prospecting, you can also use Apollo.io to create AI-powered sales campaigns. 

With just a few clicks, you can generate multi-channel outreach sequences across cold emailing, cold calling, LinkedIn, and more.

Key Features That Make Apollo.io A Better Alternative To Cognism

• Comprehensive data enrichment workflows.
• Scores your prospects and leads based on your ICP and prospects you’ve previously converted.
• AI helps you discover leads based on your CRM data.
• Detailed intent data on prospects.
• GDPR, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 compliant tool.
• Built-in multi-channel outreach automation.

Apollo.io Pricing

Apollo.io’s pricing bundles both prospecting and outreach features into every plan – meaning you pay for both, even if you only need one.

Moreover, as I mentioned above, you’re charged per user, which can add up quickly for larger teams.

Plans start at $49/user/month with higher tiers offering more credits and advanced features:

• Professional – $79/user/month
• Organization – $119/user/month

If you’re looking for a platform that offers similar capabilities to Apollo.io, but at a more cost-effective price, check out this list of 12 Apollo.io alternatives.

What Users Are Saying About Apollo.io

• G2 – 4.7/5 ⭐ (9K+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 2.3/5 ⭐ (816+ Reviews)

Apollo.io has mostly positive reviews on G2 – users have praised its data coverage, search capabilities, and cross-platform integration.

Here’s what Sachin said about Apollo.io: 

“The best thing about Apollo.io is how easy it is to find the right contacts and companies in one place. The Chrome extension and integrations with LinkedIn save a ton of time, and the sequences feature makes outreach consistent…”

To find out more, check out the full G2 review.

4. Lusha

Lusha is an AI-powered sales intelligence platform that specializes in providing contact data for the North American and European markets.

What I like most about Lusha is definitely its AI prospecting feature – it generates contact lists based on text queries like “Find CMOs of shipping companies in California”.

The only problem with Lusha is that its coverage for niche markets is pretty limited. 

So, it’s good for basic prospecting in the regions for which it specializes (NAM & EU). For other use cases, I suggest exploring this list of Lusha alternatives.

Key Features That Make Lusha A Better Alternative To Cognism

• Database of 150M+ professional contacts. 
• Comes with a forever-free plan (with limited capabilities).
• Chrome Extension works on both LinkedIn and company websites.
• Automatically builds prospect lists & ICP based on your CRM data.
• Complies with GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, and ISO 27701 regulations.
• Integrates with all major CRM platforms.

Lusha Pricing

Lusha charges you per user, which can get expensive as your team grows—especially if you’re scaling outreach across multiple reps.

• Free plan – 50 credits/month
• Premium – $22.45/month
• Scale – Custom

You also get a forever-free plan that you can use to test the tool and see if it aligns with your needs.

What Users Are Saying About Lusha

• G2 – 4.3/5 ⭐ (1.5K+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 1.4/5 ⭐ (680+ Reviews)

Lusha has largely positive reviews on G2, where users have praised its ease of use, Chrome Extension, and comprehensive data coverage.

Here’s a balanced review from Donna on G2: 

“What i like best about Lusha is its ability to provide results based on the filters I set such as industry and job title. It can also be integrated with my CRM which is Salesforce easily.

It has certain limitations on the data it gives, particularly invalid emails or contact numbers, as sometimes they are inaccurate. Outreach success is a challenge in this case.”

5. UpLead

UpLead is a tech-centric B2B data provider with 160M+ professional contacts and company profiles.

You can use UpLead to create highly targeted prospect lists with 50+ search filters.

The best part about UpLead is that it verifies email addresses right before you download them.

The problem with UpLead? Its database is smaller compared to other Cognism alternatives. So, while its accuracy is definitely very high, you might not be able to find a lot of prospects in your niche!

Key Features That Make UpLead A Better Alternative To Cognism

• Tracks companies based on the tech they use (27K+ technologies tracked).
• Offers Bombora-powered intent data.
• Integrates with CRM and email outreach platforms via API.
• You can verify and clean the email lists you already have.

UpLead Pricing

UpLead’s pricing starts at $99 per month, which is quite expensive.

This is one of the main reasons why its users look for other alternatives to UpLead.

Even though their pricing is high, their features justify real-time email verification and technographics.

What Users Are Saying About UpLead

• G2 – 4.7/5 ⭐ (800+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 4.1/5 ⭐ (65+ Reviews)

UpLead has positive user ratings on both G2 and TrustPilot. Users have praised its customer support, data coverage, and detailed search filters.

However, I also noticed a lot of reviewers complaining about its pricing and poor user interface.

Here’s what a small business owner said about UpLead on G2:

“I used them quite a bit to search for contacts and to get and use the contact info like phone numbers and emails. They were very good about crediting back if they supplied a bad email or phone number that I used credits for to get.

At the time I used it, Uplead was pretty limited as to what it could do. I moved to another service that was similarly priced but much more robust.”

6. ContactOut

Last on my list of Cognism alternatives is ContactOut – an email and phone number finder tool with a database of 300M+ professional contacts.

ContactOut also supports data enrichment for CSV files, Google Sheets, and CRM platforms.

One thing I found very concerning about ContactOut was its monthly credit limit.

On the pricing page, it says that you can view unlimited emails and phones with the paid plan, subject to the “fair use policy”. 

But the fair use policy says you can view just 2,000 emails/month and 1,000 phones/month. 

For $99/month? That’s extremely limiting!

Key Features That Make ContactOut A Better Alternative To Cognism

• You can find companies based on technocentric filters.
• Triple-verifies email addresses and phone numbers.
• Comes with basic email outreach capabilities.
• The Chrome Extension works on LinkedIn + company websites.
• GDPR and CCPA-compliant database. 

ContactOut Pricing

ContactOut uses a region-based pricing model that gives you flexibility based on your prospecting needs.

You can choose between two data access tiers:

• Global (Excluding US/UK/Canada) – Offers access to all countries except the US, UK, and Canada, at nearly half the price.
• Full Global Access (Including US/UK/Canada) – Covers contact data worldwide, including major markets.

However, both plans are quite expensive for what they offer.

If you think ContactOut fits your needs but want something less expensive, check out these 9 ContactOut alternatives I tested.

What Users Are Saying About ContactOut

• G2 – 4.6/5 ⭐ (730+ Reviews)
• TrustPilot – 1.5/5 ⭐ (100+ Reviews)

ContactOut has positive reviews on G2 – users have praised its data accuracy and strong integration with other tools.

Here’s what a verified mid-market user said about ContactOut:

“ContactOut gives me accurate, up-to-date contact details that save me hours in prospecting. I especially like how easy it is to use — the Chrome extension works seamlessly with LinkedIn, so I can grab verified emails and phone numbers in just one click...”

Check out the full review on G2.

Choose Your Cognism Alternative Wisely

I’ve shared with you the 6 best Cognism alternatives on the market in 2025. 

But which one of them is the best? 

When it comes to prospecting and B2B data, the answer is definitely Saleshandy Lead Finder! 

With it, you get:

• A database with 700M+ professional contacts and 60M+ company profiles. 
• An industry-leading 98% accuracy for email addresses.
• Text-based AI prospecting capabilities.
• Advanced native outreach and integration features.

The best part? You get all this for less than $24/month (annual billing)!

If you’re still not sure about which alternative to try first, just take a free trial with Saleshandy, see if it’s got the data you need, and then decide if it’s for you.

Cognism Alternatives: FAQs

1. What Is Cognism Good for?

Cognism is good for finding direct dials of European prospects/contacts – it has a GDPR-compliant contact database with 10M+ human-verified phone numbers and 200M+ B2B emails.

2. Why Should You Consider Looking for Alternatives to Cognism?

You should consider looking for Cognism alternatives because: 

• Its data coverage is limited to the EU and North American regions.
• The database itself is pretty small compared to other tools.
• The pricing is not transparent and is quite expensive. 

3. How Much Does Cognism Cost?

While Cognism hasn’t made its pricing public on its website, its Capterra profile suggests that the pricing starts at around $1,000/year. Similarly, a Reddit user said that their annual Cognism contract for 10 users came to €20,000!

4. Which Is the Best Cognism Alternative if You Want Accurate Contact Data Outside the EU?

Saleshandy is the best Cognism alternative if you want accurate contact data outside the EU region. Its global B2B database has 700M+ professional contacts and 60M+ company profiles. 

5. What Factors Should You Consider When Choosing an Alternative to Cognism?

When evaluating a Cognism alternative, consider the following factors:

• Size of the database
• Accuracy of the data
• Pricing models
• Unique features
• Integration with CRM and other platforms
• User-friendliness