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The Ultimate List of 10 Cognism Alternatives (Tried and Tested)

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Cognism is a great platform if you want accurate phone numbers, there’s no denying that, but it falls short when it comes to having data for small and medium-sized businesses.

Moreover, Cognism has stated on its own website that it isn’t ideal for:

  • Startups or sole traders looking for B2C or SMB data.
  • Anyone looking for freelancers.
  • Enterprises looking for an all-in-one prospecting and outreach solution.

So, I compiled a list of 10 Cognism Alternatives that will provide you with SMB data and even contact details of prospects from niche industries.

Plus, several of these tools double as all-in-one prospecting and outreach platforms.

So, let’s jump in and find the right platform for your prospecting needs!

TL;DR of the Best Cognism Alternatives

  • Saleshandy B2B Lead Finder – An all-in-one platform with a massive database, affordable pricing, and built-in outreach tools, great for businesses of all sizes.
  • Apollo.io – A solid tool for prospecting with lead scoring and AI insights, suitable for SMBs and startups looking to consolidate sales efforts.
  • ZoomInfo – The best enterprise-level solution with advanced automation, intent data, and real-time CRM enrichment.
  • UpLead – A smaller, frequently updated database with many technographic filters, making it ideal for finding companies in the tech industry.
  • Snov.io – Perfect for email prospecting, offering GDPR-compliant data, bulk email finding, and powerful LinkedIn/email verification tools.

Cognism Alternatives: Table of Contents

My List of Top 10 Cognism Alternatives

To make this list, I’ve included the 10 best tools that stood out to me after I personally used different Cognism alternatives.

I used the following factors to make up my mind about which Cognism alternatives to include:

  • Size of the database
  • Accuracy
  • User Reviews
  • Pricing
  • Unique Features and Capabilities

Here’s my list of Cognism’s Alternatives

  1. Saleshandy B2B Lead Finder
  2. Apollo.io
  3. ZoomInfo
  4. RocketReach
  5. Lusha
  6. Lead411
  7. UpLead
  8. ContactOut
  9. Seamless.ai
  10. Snov.io

Let’s dive into the list:

1. Saleshandy B2B Lead Finder

If you’re looking for a bigger and updated database to find prospects in niche industries, you can check out Saleshandy.

Here’s what you get:

First, you get access to a vast database of 700M+ professional B2B contacts from 60M+ companies globally.

So, no matter your niche or SMB focus, you’ll find the data you need.

You can use Lead Finder to prospect and find the right leads in Saleshandy
Saleshandy – Lead Finder

You can use the advanced demographic, firmographic, and technographic filters to drill down and find prospects that match your ICP and buyer persona.

Second, you get highly flexible pricing models. This makes it ideal for startups and small, medium, and even enterprise-size businesses.

Third, and the best part, unlike Cognism, Saleshandy is an all-in-one prospecting and outreach platform.

You don’t have to juggle between multiple platforms – prospecting in one and then exporting your prospect list to another platform for outreach.

Saleshandy B2B Lead Finder- the best Cognism alternative
Saleshandy – Personalized Cold Email Campaigns

With Saleshandy, you can create highly personalized cold email campaigns and directly add your newly found prospects to immediately engage with them.

Pros:

  • Bulk Reveal up to 10,000 contacts in one go.
  • Multi-step email verification process for high accuracy and lower bounce rates.
  • You get advanced cold emailing capabilities – rich features, high deliverability, and more.
  • Comes with rich Native integrations for CRM platforms like Hubspot, Zoho, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.

Read our Saleshandy Review blog to know more.

Cons:

  • The free trial only comes with five free leads.

Pricing

Saleshandy comes with two pricing models:

  1. Get just email addresses of your prospects.
  2. Get email addresses and phone numbers.

The basic plan, Lead Starter costs $24/month for only email addresses and $32/month for email and phone numbers.

2. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is the second all-in-one alternative to Cognism.

It has database of 210M+ professional contacts and 35M+ company profiles.

Apollo- the alternative to Cognism

In Apollo.io, you can take a multichannel outreach approach – cold emails, LinkedIn and calls.

Moreover, you can use the lead scoring feature and AI- recommendations to quickly find prospects for faster conversion.

So, if you’re looking for a Cognism competitor that has slightly higher database size with multichannel outreach capabilities then Apollo is your tool.

Here’s what I found when I used Apollo.io:

Pros:

  • The Deal Management feature assists sales teams in closing deals by analyzing deal performance.
  • With Conversation Intelligence, you can schedule, make and record sales calls, while Apollo.io provides you with AI-powered insights into these conversations.
  • Helps you automate inbound sales and consolidate multiple sales channels in one place.
  • Comes with a forever-free plan.

Cons:

  • Dual credit system where users are charged once for email and once for phone numbers of the same prospects.
  • Direct Dials are only included in more expensive packages.

Pricing (Billed Annually)

  • Free: $0
  • Basic: $39/user/mo
  • Professional: $79/user/mo
  • Custom: Custom pricing for enterprise-level requirements

Also Read: 10 Best Seamless.AI Alternatives and Competitors for 2025

3. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo makes to my list of Cognism alternatives as an Enterprise-level solution for finding verified B2B leads and talent acquisition.

So, if you’re looking for a lead finder tool that lets you engage prospects and build marketing campaigns on a single platform,  ZoomInfo might be your ideal solution.

While it offers dedicated services for marketing, talent acquisition and business operations, ZoomInfo’s Sales service most closely resembles the functionality of a prospecting tool.

ZoomInfo- one of the cognism alternative

Through it, you can get verified and accurate contact information of the decision-makers of prospects based on your Ideal Customer Profile. 

ZoomInfo’s core strength is its ability to automate workflows. From finding leads to engaging, converting, and monitoring them, it provides all these features in one place.

Recently, ZoomInfo has launched a platform called CoPilot that provides users with AI-driven insights on their prospects and alerts about their latest moves.

The insights are delivered directly to users’ Slack profiles and can be shared across multiple channels. 

Pros:

  • Helps you automate ICPs based on existing CRM Data.
  • Provides real-time buying signals based on the intent data of your leads.
  • Enriches existing CRM data by cleansing outdated information and appending missing data in real time.
  • Automates sales flows based on market signals: takes care of tasks like setting up calls, email outreach, and social networking.

Cons:

  • ZoomInfo plans are too expensive for SMBs, solopreneurs, and startups.

Pricing Plans (Billed Annually)

  • ZoomInfo provides users with custom pricing plans.

4. RocketReach

Next on my list of Cognism alternatives is RocketReach.

It is a lead intelligence platform that provides accurate B2B sales data for 700M+ professionals and 60M+ companies.

One of RocketReach’s standout features for me is its extensive coverage of small and medium businesses, which can be hard to find elsewhere.

Further, it specializes in compiling accurate contact data of company founders, healthcare professionals, software engineers, and professors.

RocketReach an alternative to Cognism

So, if you’re working in any of these industries or fields, RocketReach definitely deserves a shot.

RocketReach also gives you intent data on B2B prospects, and its AI-powered algorithm recommends profiles based on your search history.

Plus, it also acts as an outreach platform so you can write and automate emails directly from your prospecting platform.

Here’s an overview of my experience with RocketReach:

Pros:

  • Build prospect lists enriched with contact information by uploading the LinkedIn URLs of your prospects.
  • RocketReach gives AI-powered lead recommendations that match your ICP by analyzing companies with similar professional information.
  • Gives GDPR-compliant intent data powered by Foundry to deliver insights based on the real-time interests, preferences and behavior of prospects.
  • Provides custom pricing for bulk leads and large prospect lists.

Cons:

  • Intent data is only available with the more expensive plans. 
  • Users have reported a clunky UI experience.

Pricing (Billed Annually)

  • Essentials: $39/mo
  • Pro: – $99/mo
  • Ultimate: $249/mo

5. Lusha

Lusha is the next on my list of Cognism competitors.

It is a good option if you’re looking for a comprehensive database for US and European markets, with 100M+ professional contacts.

It provides users with GDPR-compliant data and also has a Community Program that allows users to voluntarily contribute contact information.

Lusha- alternative to Cognism

Lusha gets its data from crowd sources, user insights, public sources, and data partners and compiles its database using quality verification, AI algorithms, and compliance filters.

So, if you’re a small business, a solopreneur, or a startup looking for a prospecting tool, I’d say Lusha is worth a shot. However, it also works well for enterprises looking to scale their prospecting efforts.

Here’s what I found when I used Lusha:

Pros:

  • Buyer Intelligence feature helps your sales teams identify prospects who are looking for the solutions you offer.
  • Offers you a list of decision-makers from every prospective company so you know exactly who to reach.
  • Has recently launched the Gen-AI Email Sequences feature to simplify and automate outreach for a variety of scenarios.

Cons:

  • Lusha’s average accuracy rate is only 80%.
  • Its database is smaller compared to other B2B sales intelligence platforms.

Pricing (Billed Annually)

  • Free: $0/user/mo
  • Pro: $29/user/mo
  • Premium – $51/user/mo
  • Scale – Custom

6. Lead411

Lead411 is an alternative for sales teams looking for an unlimited B2B data provider that rivals Cognism’s lead generation capabilities.

It provides direct dials and email addresses of 450M+ professional contacts and 20M+ company profiles.

Its prospecting services are supplemented by lead scoring and intent data.

Lead411 The best Cognism alternative

So, you can sort your leads by specific indicators, such as companies that have just hired a new sales executive or received a new round of funding.

Lead411 is thus ideal for enterprises that need very specific prospects and want to build highly targeted databases for their sales teams.

Here’s what stood out for me when I used Lead411:

Pros:

  • Lead411 provides its users with unlimited B2B data without any hidden export fees.
  • You can contact Lead411 to get a one-off prospect list or build a custom lead database that suits your requirements.
  • Its CRM enhancer function helps you eliminate outdated data from your database and integrates with 25+ CRM platforms like Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive.

Cons:

  • Lead411’s cheapest plan starts at $899/user/year.
  • Intent data is only available with a plan of $2500/seat/year.

Pricing

Lead411 provides custom pricing plans; it’s best to contact the sales team for a quote.

7. UpLead

UpLead offers highly accurate B2B data that is verified in real-time and ranked by the prospect’s “freshness.”

Here’s what makes UpLead one of the best Cognism alternatives: it follows a different model compared to other prospecting tools. It focuses on building a smaller but more accurate B2B database.

UpLead- Cognism alternative

As a result, it offers a database of 160M+ B2B contacts but guarantees up to 95% accuracy.

UpLead is the ideal prospecting platform for SaaS companies. It provides a host of technographic data on prospects so you can find out which companies are working with the tech you specialize in.

Here’s what you need to know about UpLead:

Pros:

  • UpLead verifies email addresses right before you download them.
  • The Chrome extension helps you scrap information from company websites you visit.
  • 30k+ searchable technologies so you can see which prospect is looking for the SaaS or tech expertise you offer.

Cons:

  • Has a very low number of credits, even with paid plans.
  • The technographic data is only available with the more expensive plan.

Pricing (Billed Monthly)

  • Essentials: $99/mo
  • Plus: $199/mo
  • Professional: Custom pricing

Also Read: 7 Best UpLead Alternatives: My Top Picks

8. ContactOut

ContactOut is a prospecting tool dedicated to sales personnel and talent acquisition teams.

It boasts a database of 150M+ personal emails, 200M+ work emails, and 100M+ direct dials.

ContactOut lets you network and prospect extensively through LinkedIn. You can use its Chrome extension to save contacts directly to your prospect list.

ContactOut- the best Cognism alternative

One of its unique features that struck me is that its extension also works on GitHub: this makes it very useful for SaaS or tech startups.

Plus, when it comes to finding contact information, ContactOut spares no effort.

It goes through common channels, social media networks, job portals, website crawlers, market research, publicly available information, crowd sources, data partners, SEC filings…you get the idea.

Here’s what stands out from my experience with ContactOut:

Pros:

  • Has special filters to help recruiters and sales teams make highly targeted prospect lists.
  • Triple-verifies its data and ensures that the data is collected through CCPA and GDPR compliance requirements.
  • Its Chrome extension is among the most powerful prospecting extensions on the market.
  • Comes with a forever-free plan (with limited credits).

Cons:

  • The best features (bulk reveal, integrations, account management) are only available with the enterprise plan.

Pricing (Billed Monthly)

  • Free: $0
  • Email: $25/user/mo
  • Email and Phone: $49/user/mo
  • Team/API Plan: Custom pricing

9. Seamless.ai

Seamless.AI is an enterprise-level alternative to Cognism. Its database is one of the largest B2B databases on the market, with 1.3B+ business contacts and 121M companies.

It offers you 100+ search filters so you can create targeted prospect lists supplemented with buyer intent, job change alerts, and enrichment of existing data.

Seamless.ai- a cognism alternative

Seamless.AI also provides dedicated solutions suited to recruiters, marketers, sales teams, and executives.

From building a prospect list and automating workflows to converting prospects and managing portfolios, Seamless.AI is an all-in-one prospecting solution.

Here’s what struck me when I used Seamless.AI:

Pros:

  • True to its name, Seamless.AI uses artificial intelligence to verify the phone numbers and email addresses of prospects to deliver highly accurate data.
  • Lets you build rich prospect lists with the help of AI based on your desired criteria.
  • The Pitch Intelligence feature helps you automate sales cycles with AI-powered sales copies and choose from multiple sales prompts.

Cons:

  • Seamless.AI charges you extra for intent data, sales Autopilot, Job Change alerts, and other premium features on top of your existing plans.
  • Its plans might be too expensive for solopreneurs, SMBs, and startups.

Pricing

  • Custom Pricing

10. Snov.io

Snov.io is an email prospecting tool with extensive email outreach capabilities.

It’s a two-in-one solution for sales teams: a GDPR-compliant platform that collects your prospects’ email addresses and an email outreach platform that helps you engage your sales targets.

Snov the Cognism alternative

So, if you’re looking for a Cognism alternative to help you engage prospects via email outreach campaigns, I strongly recommend that you try Snov.io.

It also comes with LinkedIn and email verifier extensions: the first helps you retrieve prospects’ email IDs directly from LinkedIn, and the second lets you instantly verify any email address on the go.

Here’s how Snov.io shapes up as a Cognism alternative:

Pros:

  • Gets you the email IDs of your prospects individually or in bulk through their LinkedIn profiles, personal blogs, company websites, Google SERP, and other sources.
  • Aids your fundraising efforts through contacts of potential investors and partners via their AngelList, Crunchbase, or LinkedIn profiles.
  • Has powerful email outreach capabilities, an in-built CRM tool, and provides integration with over 5,000 applications.

Cons:

  • Doesn’t give you access to phone numbers.

Pricing (Billed Monthly)

  • Starter – $39/mo
  • Pro – $99/mo
  • Pro Custom – Custom Pricing

Choose Your Cognism Alternative Wisely

That’s how my list of Cognism alternatives stacks up!

As we’ve seen, each tool is suited to different market segments, has unique capabilities, and comes with its own pros and cons.

To reiterate, the best Cognism alternative is the one that compensates for all three of its drawbacks: contacts for sole traders, outreach to freelancers, and prospecting and outreach capabilities.

Personally, I recommend you give Saleshandy a shot because it seamlessly solves all three problems in one go.

It could be the only Cognism alternative you need to try…

And if not, I hope that our discussion helped you in your journey to find the right alternative to Cognism.

Happy prospecting!

Cognism Alternatives: FAQs

1. Who Are Cognism’s Competitors?

Cognism competitors include Saleshandy, Apollo.io, Lusha, Uplead and Lead411. Of these, Saleshandy is one of the best because of its flexible pricing plans, vast B2B database, and in-build outreach capabilities.

2. Which Is the Best Cognism Alternative?

Saleshandy is the best alternative to Cognism if you’re looking for a vast B2B database with sophisticated filtered search capabilities, an in-built outreach solution, and powerful integrations with CRM platforms.

3. 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

4. Is Cognism Free to Use?

No, Cognism isn’t free to use, but it comes with a free trial that you can activate after contacting the company. The free trial offers 25 targeted B2B leads.

5. Does Anyone Have a Bigger Database Than Cognism?

Yes, platforms like Saleshandy, Apollo.io, and ZoomInfo have much larger databases with professional contacts, direct dials, and company profiles compared to Cognism.

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