8 Disruptive ZoomInfo Alternatives & Competitors to Consider in 2024

In the 2010s, amidst ZoomInfo’s undisputed leadership in the sales intelligence space, outbound was different.

One-off emails worked relatively well. Sales reps could create massive, unsegmented lead lists, blast their prospects with automated messaging, and still get decent returns.  

But today, sales reps are sending a higher volume of emails than ever, but emails are declining in reply rates by 10% year over year.

Sales leaders who are focused on building scalable outbound are taking notice and questioning fragmented solutions that once provided results.

Budgets are too tight and markets are too competitive to pay for a tool that offers anything less than:

• The most accurate data possible
• Comprehensive integrations
• An easy-to-use interface
• Tools that help you execute the entire sales cycle — from prospecting to close — all in one place (hello, tech consolidation!)

If you’re knee deep in sales software shopping and curious what ZoomInfo alternatives exist out there, we’ve pulled together the comprehensive list, complete with feature breakdowns and price points.

To be transparent, we legitimately believe we’re your best option — we’re not going to sugarcoat it. But to mitigate some of our own bias, we’re relying heavily on real examples, opinions, and feedback from actual users and practitioners.

Don’t take just our word for it. Take theirs.

Table of Contents

• #1: Apollo.io
• #2: Salesloft
• #3: Outreach
• #4: Lusha
• #5: Clearbit
• #6: Instantly
• #7: Seamless.ai
• #8: Clay

1. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is the leading go-to-market solution for revenue teams, providing salespeople and marketers with one of the largest verified contact databases on the market—275 million B2B contacts across 73 million companies — plus a suite of sales enablement tools that cater to the entire sales lifecycle.

Key features

• 275M+ contact database with 65+ filters to refine searches and find relevant prospects that align with your ICP
• A free Apollo Chrome Extension that layers prospecting data on top of LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce, Gmail, and company websites
• Lead scoring and signaling tools that identify your active buyers
• Sales sequences for building outreach campaigns of automated and manual touch points across email, cold calls, LinkedIn, and action items
• Out-of-the-box automated workflows and plays that trigger sales actions based on conditions you set
• AI-powered conversational intelligence that transcribes, analyzes, and extracts insights from your team’s calls
• An Analytics hub with pre-built reports and dashboards to analyze individual and team performance against your goals
• CRM data enrichment that automatically fixes duplicate, stale, or missing data
• Hundreds of integrations to unite your most important sales tools in one platform plus an Open API to build your own (which companies like Leadium use to 3x annual revenue 👀)

Why choose Apollo over ZoomInfo?

In their search for a software solution, the Census team put Apollo’s data quality to the test with a straightforward experiment: find all of the top sales intelligence platforms available and compare them head-to-head in a “data duel”, benchmarking ZoomInfo versus Apollo, Clearbit, Lusha, and Seamless.

Here’s what they found.

“Ultimately Apollo won on all fronts, especially in enrichment,” says Head of Growth and Operations at Census, Sylvain Giuliani, “Higher quality than ZoomInfo, greater breadth than Clearbit.”

In addition to the quality of its database, Apollo’s sales engagement features are what sets it apart from run-of-the-mill sales intelligence tools.

Within Apollo, you can instantly engage your newly-sourced leads with personalized sequences, AI-powered dialer, and automatic plays, consolidating your outbound process into one tool.

Pricing

Apollo is free to use — forever!

On a free plan Apollo users can:

• Get full access to an extensive database of 275M+ contacts and filter for granular searches
• Build a library of sequences and activate up to two of them at a time
• Receive unlimited email credits and send up to 250 emails/day
• Use up to 150 minutes of conversational intelligence
• Integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot
• Leverage Buying Intent data and track website visitors

You can sign up for Apollo for free here and try it for yourself.

For sales teams who are looking to make Apollo core to their process and ramp up their usage, there are three, customizable pricing plans:

• Basic: $59 per user/month + a 14-day free trial
• Professional: $99 per user/month + a 14-day free trial
• Organization: $149 per user/month

Who is Apollo best suited for? 

If you are looking for an end-to-end sales platform (verified contact data, enrichment, workflow automation, etc.) that doesn’t nickel and dime you for paid add-ons, Apollo is the best solution. It’s one of the only platforms on the market that’s truly accessible to an SMB or founder-led organization.

While Apollo is good for small and medium sized businesses of all types, ZoomInfo is admittedly better for large enterprises.

What do Apollo customers say?

With over 7,200 reviews on G2, Apollo tops the charts at a 4.8/5 user rating. Most reviews praise data accuracy, easy-to-use user interface, and automated systems that have a direct impact on closed deals.

“We're getting higher reply rates, open rates are doubled, meetings are up, speed to book is cut in half...it's the platform for people who want to do more.” — Collin Stewart, CEO at Predictable Revenue

“Apollo’s data quality is unmatched, the simplicity of the platform makes it easy to use…it integrates perfectly with HubSpot and all sequences are easily implemented…I would recommend this to anyone.” — Zakirah P., Client Success Lead, G2 reviewer

Apollo or ZoomInfo? Here’s the full breakdown.

2. Salesloft

Salesloft is a sales engagement platform that helps revenue teams connect with customers, build pipeline, and manage deals. 

The platform is built for deep engagement and pipeline nurturing, an area where ZoomInfo falls noticeably short. However, Salesloft is not a database tool. For prospecting and list building, you’ll need to look elsewhere and/or integrate with a data provider.

Key features

• Sales engagement tools like email tracking, call logging, and sequence management
• CRM integrations that connect with systems like Salesforce
• Analytics and reporting for tracking performance metrics, sales activities, and engagement levels
• Includes tools for visualizing and managing sales pipelines, tracking deal stages, and forecasting sales performance
• AI-powered forecasting tools to help you predict future sales outcomes

Pricing

Salesloft offers three pricing packages: Essentials, Advanced, and Premier. Features like forecasting and AI-powered suggestions will cost you top dollar in the Premier plan.

The exact cost of Salesloft is unknown, but users report it’s about around $1,000 per year with a minimum of three seats. You’ll also need to pay an extra fee per year to use their dialer (usually around $30 per user/year).

Note: Salesloft does not offer a free account or free trials of paid accounts

Who is Salesloft best suited for?

Organizations that get the most out of Salesloft are larger sales teams (many say it’s too price-y for SMBs) that are focused on optimizing the bottom of the sales funnel. It’s a tool that will support you with conversation, but for lead generation, you’ll need another tool.

What do Salesloft customers say?

Over 4,000 users have reviewed Salesloft on G2, giving it an overall rating of 4.5/5 stars. Here's what its customers are saying.

“[With] Salesloft you can see everything, the recording, the transactions, and previous conversations. What I cannot see is some of the contact details of the customers, I need to edit it first or import it from salesforce.” — Angielika J., Enterprise Account Manager, G2 review

“I appreciate the standard functionality Salesloft offers around cadences and the analytics it provides, as well as the integrations offered. [But] Salesloft hasn't kept up with competitors who are making their software more flexible and easy to use.” — Mid-market customer, G2 review

See the Salesloft vs. Apollo side-by-side comparison here.

3. Outreach

Outreach stands out in the sales engagement space for its advanced automation, customizable workflows, and deep analytics.

It’s important to note that, like Salesloft, Outreach is solely an engagement tool. It can help you move deals through the pipeline to close, but to find workable leads, you’ll need another tool to layer on top of it.

That tool could be ZoomInfo, in theory. But unless you have a massive budget to throw at separate prospecting and engagement tools, you may need an all-in-one solution. 

💡Learn how Predictable Revenue cut costs by 50% by rolling the functionality of ZoomInfo, Outreach, and Salesforce into Apollo.

Key features

• Sales sequencing for automated and organized engagement
• AI-generated deal insights that make predictions on deal health and winnability
• Conversation intelligence for deeper cold call insights
• Pipeline management tools to measure the quality and maturity of your deals
• CRM integration with Salesforce
• Rep coaching tools like coach cards, bookmarks, notes, and summarized transcripts

Pricing

Outreach offers feature-based pricing and packaging per user, which means that teams need to pay to add on any additional features that exist outside their plan. 

Here’s a glimpse of how it’s laid out.

• Engage: Sequences, templates, snippets, etc.
• Call: Dialer, call monitoring, AI call summaries, etc.
• Meet: AI meeting assist, real-time recording, etc..
• Deal: AI deal assist, deal health and overview, etc.
• Forecast: Pipeline management, projections, etc. 

You’ll need to talk to sales for an exact quote but prices typically start at $140 per user/month for sales engagement capabilities, then an add-on of ~$10/month for dialer. Additionally, with their annual pricing only model, users sometimes have to pay thousands of dollars for implementation fees.

Note: Outreach does not offer a free account or free trials of any paid plan

Who is Outreach best suited for?

If you’re a large sales team or an enterprise with a complex sales process and a big budget, Outreach may be a good fit. 

Because of its lack of contact data and tools, sales and marketing teams with a strong inbound lead flow may find it fits more of their needs, as well. 

What do Outreach customers say?

Giving the platform a 4.3/5 star rating on G2, Outreach users love the automation capabilities of outreach, but cite some concerns around accessibility and data functionality. 

“The standout feature of Outreach is its robust automation of sales engagement processes. The software can be quite complex, which might be overwhelming for smaller teams or businesses…It is also on the pricier end of softwares.” — Mid-market, G2 review

“Metrics on campaign, means of contact, & number of steps before success gave great insight for future success…[but] the unified prospect database capabilities are not fully encompassing.” — Michael K., Mid-market Sr. Business Development Associate, G2 review

Compare Outreach with Apollo side-by-side here.

4. Lusha

Lusha is a B2B contact and company data provider for sales and marketing teams; in essence, it’s a prospecting tool. The software helps you target your ICP, build lists, and uncover personalized information for your messaging.

Lusha’s 135M contact database is smaller than other players’ like ZoomInfo and Apollo. With newly released, basic engagement features, there is very little customization or automation for sales outreach — but it may be a good alternative to ZoomInfo if you’re looking for something cheaper, easier to use, and more accessible.

Key features

• B2B contact data with search criteria filters like buying intent, job changes, and company technologies
• Chrome extension for LinkedIn and web prospecting
• Integrations with CRM platforms, plus data enrichment
• Basic sequencing feature
• Integrations with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach, plus an Open API
• Simple user interface

Pricing

You can start with Lusha for free, but you’re limited to just 50 email and 5 phone credits per month. 

When you need to upgrade, you have three plan options:

• Pro: $36 per user/per month (annual billing)
• Premium: $59 per user/per month (annual billing)
• Scale: Custom pricing

Who is Lusha best suited for?

Lusha can be used by companies of all sizes, but its credit limits, comparatively small database, and lack of engagement features, makes it best for smaller sales teams with simple processes.

As you scale your outbound, you’ll likely grow out of the tool.

What do Lusha customers say?

Sitting at a 4.3/5 star rating on G2, Lusha doesn't boast the strongest overall rating. Here's what users have to say.

“It gets me contact information when I need it and helps fill in missing information that ZoomInfo does not provide.” — Small business user, G2 review

“Lusha is a game-changer when it comes to leading my team and delivering high-quality prospects at scale….[but] the filter choices are pretty limited compared to the competition which greatly reduces its usability…additionally, our credits ran out pretty quickly.” — Nidhi S., VP of IT, G2 review

Curious how Lusha stacks up to Apollo? Get the side-by-side Apollo vs Lusha comparison here.

5. Clearbit

No sales software conversation is complete with a mention of Clearbit. 

Clearbit (recently acquired by HubSpot) is a B2B sales intelligence tool that helps sales teams find new leads and run lead-generation campaigns. 

With loads of integrations, reliable contact data, and a web extension, it’s a powerful tool for sourcing your most promising leads. However, since their HubSpot acquisition, they no longer enrich email addresses or direct directs, which makes it a poor fit for executing cold outreach.

Key Features

• Prospecting database of 300M+ contacts and search filters to narrow down your target audience
• Data enrichment to update and enhance CRM contact and company data
• Lead scoring based on buying intent signals
• Tools that help marketers track website visitors, manage campaigns, and generate leads

Pricing

Unlike other sales intelligence tools on this list, Clearbit pricing is based on the size of your company and database, monthly web traffic, and contact creation (rather than product usage, credits, or users).

Their specific pricing is vague, but some sources report plans starting at around $3,600 per year with limited volume, going up to $100,000+ for larger companies.

Note: Clearbit does provide a free option that gives you a 25 credit limit per month.

Who is Clearbit best suited for?

Other vendors on this list, like ZoomInfo and Apollo, are built with the productivity of sales reps in mind. Automated email sequences, call tracking, and task management help sellers get work done better and faster; this is not the primary focus of Clearbit.

Clearbit is geared towards marketers and is best suited for organizations that require enhanced data enrichment and highly-targeted marketing campaigns.

What do Clearbit customers say?

Only 625 people have reviewed Clearbit on G2, but its 4.4/5 star rating tells of users loving its lead capturing capabilities with some qualms around data accuracy and UX complexity.

“Clearbit has really great firmographic information, especially for larger or medium size orgs (primarily limited to the US, though). It’s been very easy to implement…[but] we've seen sporadic issues with inaccurate company info, especially smaller size orgs/niche companies.” — Mid-market user, Marketing and Advertising, G2 review

“From capturing leads to information capture and management, we are actually using Clearbit for everything. It runs super smoothly and responds with the right data when set-up well. As any data activation / data management intelligence software, you really need someone to be a pro at using it.” — User in iOS development, Capterra review

6. Instantly

Instantly is a software platform designed to enhance lead generation and cold email outreach for sales teams. It offers automated email sequences, personalization, and inbox warmup capabilities to help users efficiently manage and optimize their email campaigns.

Key features

• 160M contact lead database with filters like job positions, technology, and keywords
• Built in CRM to call and SMS from a browser (though may be less comprehensive than an external CRM)
• Unlimited inboxes to send emails from
• Email deliverability tools like email inbox warming and deliverability performance dashboards
• Instantly AI for lead analysis and personalized messaging
• Analytics and reporting

Pricing

Instantly has four basic pricing plans:

• Growth: $30 per user/month
• Hypergrowth: $77.60 per user/month
• Light speed: $283.30 per user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Their pricing is “built for businesses of all sizes”, but with prospecting and engagement features sold separately, many of their users report steep costs.

Note: Instantly does not offer a free plan but does offer a 14-day free trial of paid plans.

Who is Instantly best suited for?

Instantly doesn’t offer the same depth of CRM integration, advanced analytics, or multi-channel outreach capabilities as some larger competitors — making it less suitable for enterprises or sales teams with complex workflows.

For businesses primarily focused on efficient and effective cold email campaigns, Instantly is a fairly accessible solution. Especially if you’re an agency that manages outbound for multiple clients thanks to Instantly’s unlimited inbox and warmup offerings.

What do Instantly customers say?

Instantly ranks highly on G2 with a 4.9/5 star rating. Here's what users are saying.

“At a high level, the platform is incredibly intuitive. The Instantly accelerator has everything you need to get started. When you get more granular with usage of the platform, a lot of that intuitiveness is lost and requires a lot more self teaching…This is not a platform for someone who isn't willing to put in a lot of hours of work.” — Reagan N., Wealth Investor, SMB, G2 review

“Instantly is a great tool, it combines everything you will need to search potential leads, warm up your emails, contact those leads and follow-up with those leads.” — Wilson A., SMB founder, G2 review

7. Seamless.ai

How seamless is Seamless.ai?

Rated fifth in user satisfaction and third in popularity behind Apollo on G2’s Sales Intelligence software reports, Seamless is a B2B data provider that offers verified emails, phone numbers, and direct dials. 

It doesn’t offer engagement features, but with an integration to an external email sending tool, you can funnel its contact data and messaging intelligence into your outbound campaigns.

Key features

• 800M contact and 150M company prospecting database with real-time data verification
• AI-generated list building tool (called “Autopilot)
• Lead scoring and analysis with buyer intent data
• Data enrichment through CRM integration
• Offers an AI writing tool 
• Free Chrome Extension that works within Gmail, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and company websites
• Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach

Pricing

You can try Seamless without putting down your credit card with their free plan. However, its 50 credit limit won’t get you too far.

To upgrade, you have three plan options:

• Basic: $147 per user/month
• Pro: Custom pricing
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Seamless.ai pricing is based on business size. According to web sources, if your business has a headcount of 200, you could be paying anywhere from $15,800 per month without any extra add-ons or credits.

Who is Seamless best suited for?

With a larger database than Lusha at a clearer, more affordable price point than Clearbit, Seamless is a solid prospecting tool for sales professionals. But without sequencing, workflow automation, and other sales engagement features, the buck stops at lead generation.

If you already have an engagement tool you’re operating out of and are solely interested in reliable data, Seamless can give it to you (but keep in mind that consolidation may be inevitable as you scale).

What do Seamless customers say?

Seamless' 4.3/5 star G2 rating comes from customer's love for its data accuracy with a recognition of it's narrow use case as compared to competitors..

“I find it a very easy to use tool that, while it doesn't have too many fancy interfaces, it is just very good at finding accurate contact information…I guess having some additional capabilities might be valuable but I think it does what it does well.” — Ken G., Mid-Market Senior Director, G2 review

“ZoomInfo fell short in the accuracy department and had a sales price that exceeded its value…[Seamless] is a super accurate tool that has an attractive price tag that no growing business, consultant, or marketer can turn down.” — Matthew M., Telecommunications Consultant, Capterra review

8. Clay

Clay is a data and workflow tool for enrichment and research. The platform’s strength is leveraging personal connections, networks, and external databases.

They refer to themselves as “a home for your people”. 

Clay’s limitation is that you can’t send emails directly through the platform — you’ll have to export them to your chosen email sender.

Key features

• Integrations with 75+ tools (which is not only helpful, but necessary, as you can’t send email directly through the platform)
• “Waterfall” data enrichment that pulls from a variety of external databases
• AI-research assistant that scrapes the web for relevant data
• AI-message writer for creating personalized messages

Pricing

Clay offers a free plan with 100 credits. From there, you can upgrade to one of four paid options:

• Starter: $149/month
• Explorer: $349/month
• Pro: $800/month
• Enterprise: Custom

Note: Clay offers a 14-day free trial of all paid plans so you can try it before you buy it.

Who is Clay best suited for?

Clay doesn’t replace engagement tools or data providers; it integrates with them.

Clay is best suited for operations teams that are responsible for providing lists to sales, or lead gen agencies; not so much suited for individual sellers or the average sales team, as there's a steep learning curve.

What do Clay customers say?

Clay has a 4.9/5 star rating — but keep in mind, as a fairly new solution, only 140 users submitted reviews on G2. Here's what a few of them have to say.

“Imagine a spreadsheet connected to tons of data vendors, CRMs, sequencers, ChatGPT, and other tools, that lets you operate in the sheet to build lists and enrich records…it’s an early product that could always be improved, but there’s so much value.” — Evan D., SMB GTM Ambassador, G2 review

“Clay enables insanely targeted prospecting at scale…before Clay, companies had several bad options to build lists [such as] buy stale, inaccurate, and exorbitantly expensive data from vendors like Zoominfo.” — Jacob T., SMB G2 reviewer

The end of the ZoomInfo Era?

In a market of over 1,000 sales-specific tools, ZoomInfo is no longer the clear cut option; and there’s an argument to be made that its undisputed rein has toppled. 

According to the most recent G2 rankings, ZoomInfo ranks sixth for best sales software, behind Outreach, Salesloft, and Apollo (who is only bested by CRM market leaders Salesforce and HubSpot).

There are reasons that sales and marketing teams still use ZoomInfo; it’s a comprehensive, well-built product.

But as you future-proof your go-to-market strategy, it’s important to consider the reasons why many organizations are choosing not to:

• ZoomInfo is 54.3% more expensive than a more affordable solution like Apollo. With pricing plans that start at $10,000, it can be a huge hurdle for small businesses.
• ZoomInfo’s limited data contributory network affects its accuracy (unlike alternatives who use a contributor-fueled ecosystem).
• ZoomInfo also does not have a free plan.

Out of the 134 category criteria assessed by G2 reviewers, including data quality, task management, ease of use, and customer support, Apollo outperforms ZoomInfo in 109 of them.

If your one goal is comprehensive lead discovery and data sourcing, ZoomInfo might suffice. 

But if your mind is set on growth and your sights set on ramping up go-to-market with an all-in-one solution that combines lead discovery with engagement, expand your search to ZoomInfo alternatives.

Psst…you can start your software search by trying Apollo for free.