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B2B Data Providers in 2026: 14 Business Data Providers Compared

B2B and business data providers sell records about companies and their people, or events at those companies. The best one depends on the data you need. For contact data, shortlist ZoomInfo, Apollo, MoltSets (contact data by API or MCP), Lusha and Cognism. For company records, Dun & Bradstreet and Crunchbase. For intent, Bombora and 6sense. For dated account events by API, the Autobound Signal API. The table compares all 14 on data type, delivery, API and pricing.

Updated

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Short answer

Which B2B data provider for which job

Start from the job, not the vendor. A common stack is a contact database for who to reach, company data for fit and a signal feed for timing, joined on the company domain and the work email.

Which B2B data provider type to start with, by job
A list of people to prospect intoContact databaseZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha, CognismTest match rate and accuracy on your own ICP first.
Verified emails and mobiles by API or from ClaudeContact data APIMoltSetsData only, no app: pair it with your outreach tool and CRM.
Clean company records and hierarchies in the CRMCompany (firmographic) dataDun & Bradstreet, Clearbit inside HubSpot, Crunchbase for funding researchHierarchies matter for territories and parent-child roll-ups.
Person and company records inside your own productAPI-first recordsPeople Data Labs, CoresignalCheck rate limits, bulk files and resale rights.
A list of accounts that research your topicsIntent dataBombora, 6senseAsk where the research activity comes from before you sign.
A reason to reach out this week, with a sourceSignal (event) dataThe Autobound Signal APIFilter by signal type and date, then send to the CRM or an AI agent.

Filling gaps with a second or third vendor in order is called waterfall enrichment. It raises match rates, but only if every vendor returns the same join keys.

Comparison

14 B2B data providers compared

One row per vendor. A price or plan fact appears only with a public source link, and the date we checked it. “Not verified” means we found no source we could cite.

  • ZoomInfoContact databaseAPI

    Contacts, company records, org charts, technographics and intent in one platform.

    Covers
    Contact and company
    Delivery
    Web app, CRM integrations, API, MCP
    Pricing
    Free to start, then consumption credits based on usage. accessed Sep 29, 2026
    Best for
    Sales teams that want one large contact and company database
  • ApolloContacts + engagementAPI: Custom plans

    Contacts, emails, phone numbers and company data, with email sequencing built in.

    Covers
    Contact and company
    Delivery
    Web app, Chrome extension, CRM integrations, API
    Pricing
    Free plan and paid plans accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    SMB and mid-market teams that want data and sequencing in one tool
  • MoltSetsContact dataAPI

    Verified business and personal emails, mobile numbers and business profiles, plus people and company search. MoltSets

    Covers
    Contact and company
    Delivery
    API, MCP server, CLI, Chrome extension
    Pricing
    Free plan. Flat monthly plans from $27 accessed Nov 3, 2026
    Best for
    Teams that want verified contact data by API or from Claude, with no app UI
  • Dun & BradstreetCompany dataAPI

    Company records keyed by the D-U-N-S Number, corporate family trees, firmographics and risk data. D&B Direct+

    Covers
    Company
    Delivery
    Platform, data files, API
    Pricing
    Not verified
    Best for
    Master data, account hierarchies and credit or risk checks
  • Clearbit (HubSpot)EnrichmentAPI: Via HubSpot

    Firmographic, technographic and contact enrichment, now sold inside HubSpot.

    Covers
    Company and contact
    Delivery
    Inside HubSpot
    Pricing
    Sold through HubSpot. HubSpot states that data enrichment does not consume HubSpot Credits. accessed Sep 29, 2026
    Best for
    HubSpot users who want enrichment inside the CRM
  • People Data LabsAPI-firstAPI

    Person profiles with work history, and company records, built for developers.

    Covers
    Person and company
    Delivery
    API, bulk data files
    Pricing
    Free plan at $0/mo, Pro from $98/mo, Enterprise at custom pricing. Volume discounts as usage grows. accessed Sep 29, 2026
    Best for
    Data teams that build enrichment into a product
  • LushaContact dataAPI

    Emails and direct dials for named prospects, from a browser extension or web app.

    Covers
    Contact
    Delivery
    Web app, Chrome extension, CRM integrations, API, MCP
    Pricing
    Free plan (40 credits a month). Paid credit plans accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Reps who need emails and phone numbers for named prospects
  • CognismContact dataAPI

    Emails, mobile numbers and company data, with a focus on Europe as well as North America.

    Covers
    Contact and company
    Delivery
    Web app, Chrome extension, CRM integrations, API, MCP
    Pricing
    Quote. Standard and Pro plans accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Teams that sell into Europe as well as North America
  • CoresignalRaw web dataAPI

    Company, employee and job posting records collected from the public web.

    Covers
    Company and person
    Delivery
    API, data files
    Pricing
    API plans from $49 a month. 7-day free trial accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Data teams that model and clean raw records themselves
  • CrunchbaseCompany + fundingAPI

    Company profiles, funding rounds, investors and people at private companies.

    Covers
    Company
    Delivery
    Web app, API
    Pricing
    Free plan. Pro $49 to $99 a month syncgtm, accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Research on private companies, funding and investors
  • OwlerCompany newsAPI: Enterprise plan

    Company profiles, news and competitor lists, with email alerts.

    Covers
    Company
    Delivery
    Web app, email alerts
    Pricing
    Free plan follows up to 5 companies UpLead, accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Light monitoring of a short account list
  • BomboraIntent co-opAPI: Not verified

    Company Surge: topic research across a co-op of B2B publisher sites. Bombora

    Covers
    Company
    Delivery
    Partner platforms and integrations
    Pricing
    No public price accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    ABM teams that rank accounts by research topic
  • 6senseABM platformAPI

    Account intent, predictive scores and ad orchestration in one platform. 6sense

    Covers
    Account
    Delivery
    6sense platform, integrations, API, MCP
    Pricing
    Quote only accessed Nov 5, 2026
    Best for
    Enterprise marketing teams that want intent and ads in one platform
  • AutoboundSignal APIAPI

    Dated, sourced events across 35 signal types and 700+ subtypes: news, SEC filings, hiring, job changes, funding, reviews, posts. Topic intent by API.

    Covers
    Company and contact
    Delivery
    REST API, MCP, GCS, flat file
    Pricing
    Credits per result. 1,000 free on signup Pricing
    Best for
    Teams, platforms and AI agents that need account events by API

How we picked

  • We included the vendors buyers name when they search for “best business data providers”, “firmographic data providers” and “company data providers”.
  • Rows summarize what each vendor sells. They are not tests of data quality. Vendor database sizes are not comparable, so we do not print them.
  • Plan facts come from public pricing pages. We first checked them in late September 2026, and checked most again on November 5, 2026. Each cell shows its own date. The Crunchbase and Owler cells cite a third-party review, because we could not load those vendors' own pricing pages. Plans change, so confirm with each vendor.
  • Autobound is in this table. Our row uses our published pricing and Signal API facts.

Contact data only? See the best B2B contact database providers. Intent vendors only? See 15 intent data providers compared. Sales tools? See the best sales intelligence tools. Enrichment by API? See B2B data enrichment APIs compared, or our company enrichment API and contact enrichment API. Event vendors only? See signal data providers compared.

What they sell

What are B2B data providers? Five kinds of data

A B2B data provider collects, cleans and sells data about companies, the people who work there and what those companies do. The term covers five different products. Each one answers one question, and most teams need two or three.

Who should we reach?

Contact data

Names, titles, emails and phone numbers. The base of any outbound motion.

Contact database providers →

What does the company look like?

Company and firmographic data

Industry, size, location, ownership, hierarchy and funding. Used for fit, territories and segments.

Data enrichment APIs compared →

Who researches our category?

Intent data

Research activity on publisher networks, review sites or your own site, rolled up to the account.

Intent providers compared →

What just happened there?

Signal and event data

Dated events with a source link: funding, filings, new executives, hiring, reviews and posts.

Browse the signal catalog →

What tools do they use?

Technographic data

Installed software and recent changes. Used to sell into, or against, a named technology.

What technographic data is →

Under the hood

How B2B data providers build their data

Two vendors can sell the same field built in very different ways. The method decides how fresh it is, how often it is wrong and what privacy duties come with it. Most vendors mix these four.

Crawled from the public web

Company sites, job boards, news and public profiles, parsed into records.

AskHow often is each source crawled, and when was this field last seen?

Contributed by users

Some vendors build contact data from what their users share, for example through email or browser plugins.

AskWhich fields come from contributors, and how do people opt out?

Verified by people

Research teams call or email to check phone numbers, titles and emails.

AskWhich fields are human-verified, and on what date?

Official records

Company registries, SEC filings and government contract data. Slow to change, easy to cite.

AskWhich registries, and how soon after filing does a record appear?

The rules follow the person, not the vendor. In the UK, marketing emails to limited companies do not need consent under PECR, but sole traders count as individuals (ICO). Under GDPR you still need a lawful basis and must honor opt-outs.

California lets people delete in one request. Data brokers must register every year, and since January 2026 residents can send one deletion request to all registered brokers (CPPA). Expect some records to drop out, and ask your vendor how it processes those requests.

B2B database vs data provider

B2B database, data provider or signal feed?

A B2B database is the product: a searchable set of company and contact records that you filter and export. A B2B data provider is the company that builds and sells it. Many providers also sell intent scores, event data or delivery by API and files. Business database providers such as ZoomInfo, Apollo and Cognism answer one question: who exists in my market, and how do I reach them?

Signal data answers a different question: what changed at this account, and when? A database record describes a company or a person, and it goes out of date when they change. A signal is a dated event with a source, such as a Form D funding filing, a hiring push or a job change. The two work best together, joined on the company domain.

Contact database + signal enrichment

ZoomInfo or Apollo, plus the Signal API

Keep the database for emails, phones and titles. Enrich the same accounts by company domain to add dated events, then sort the CRM list by what changed.

Warehouse + signal files

Snowflake or BigQuery, plus GCS or flat file delivery

Load signal files next to your firmographic and contact tables. Join on the company domain and build your own scores in SQL or dbt.

AI agent + live signals

Your agent, plus the Signal API or MCP server

The agent asks for recent events before it writes or scores, and cites the source of each event it uses.

For the AI agent setup, see the Autobound MCP server. For files, see the Signal API delivery options.

Evaluation

How to test a B2B data provider before you buy

Run the same twelve checks on every vendor on your shortlist. Most take an afternoon with a CRM export and a trial account.

Coverage and accuracy

  • What is the match rate on our own records?

    Send 500 accounts and contacts from your CRM, including closed-won and lost. Vendor demo lists are chosen to look good.

  • Is a match also correct?

    Check titles, emails and company size by hand on a sample. A returned record is not a right record.

    Red flag: The vendor quotes one accuracy number for every field and region.

  • Does coverage hold in our regions and segments?

    Ask for results split by country and company size.

Freshness

  • When was each field last verified?

    A date per field or per record, not only a "refreshed monthly" claim.

  • How are job changes handled?

    People move roles all the time. Ask how fast a changed title or employer shows up.

  • For events: is every record dated and sourced?

    An event date, a detected date and a link to the source.

Delivery

  • Can we test the delivery we will use?

    Test the API, CRM sync or file drop you will run in production, not only the web app.

  • What are the limits?

    Rate limits, records per call, bulk export rules and seats, in writing.

  • Can records join our other data?

    A company domain on every account record, and a work email or LinkedIn URL on every person.

Compliance and contract

  • Where does personal data come from, and how do people opt out?

    A named source per field, a data processing agreement and an opt-out process.

  • Is the vendor registered where the law requires it?

    For example, California's data broker registry, and a process for deletion requests.

  • What do credits, renewals and data rights look like?

    Credit expiry, renewal notice, and whether you may keep, resell or embed the data.

    Red flag: Data you must delete when the contract ends, discovered after you built on it.

Side-by-side pages: ZoomInfo, Apollo, People Data Labs, Bombora, 6sense and Demandbase.

Where Autobound fits

Signal data: the events layer on top of your contact data

Contact databases tell you who to reach. Signal data tells you what just happened at the account. The Autobound Signal API returns dated, sourced events across 35 signal types and 700+ subtypes, by company domain or by contact, with 270M+ contacts to search.

You call one API and filter by signal_types. Each page below shows the request for one signal type.

  • API key

    Call the Signal API

    Sign up and get 1,000 free credits. You pay per result, and a call with no results is free.

    Start Free

  • MCP server

    Ask from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

    Add the Autobound MCP server and sign in with the same account. Your AI assistant can then search signals and intent for you.

    Use it in Claude via MCP

  • No key needed

    Browse free lists

    See the data before you sign up: lists of recent funding rounds, layoffs, executive changes and SEC filings, built from the same feeds.

    Open free data

FAQ

B2B data providers: questions

What are the best B2B data providers in 2026?
It depends on the kind of data you need. For contact data, teams usually shortlist ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha and Cognism, or MoltSets for contact data by API or MCP. For company records, Dun & Bradstreet and Crunchbase. For intent, Bombora and 6sense. For dated events by API, the Autobound Signal API (35 signal types). The table on this page compares 14 providers by what you get, delivery, pricing model and API access.
What do business database providers sell?
Business database providers sell records about companies and the people who work there. Contact databases sell names, titles, emails and phone numbers. Company databases sell firmographics such as industry, size, location and corporate hierarchy. Some vendors also sell intent scores or event data on top of those records.
What are firmographic data providers?
Firmographic data providers sell company attributes: industry, employee count, revenue range, location and ownership. In this table, Dun & Bradstreet, ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, Coresignal and Clearbit sell firmographics. Autobound does not sell a firmographic lookup. Its company endpoints return a company's signals, and firmographic fields in that response are often empty.
Where do B2B data providers get their data?
From four places: the public web (company sites, job boards, news and public profiles), contributions from their own users, research teams who verify fields by phone or email, and official records such as company registries and SEC filings. Most vendors mix them. Ask which method backs each field you buy, and when that field was last verified.
How do B2B data providers charge?
Three models are common: annual contracts with seats, usage or credit pricing, and data licenses for bulk files. Apollo and Lusha list free plans, MoltSets lists a free plan and flat monthly plans, Coresignal lists self-serve API plans, and Cognism quotes its Standard and Pro plans. For several other vendors we found no public price, so the table says "Not verified". Autobound publishes its credit prices, charges per result, and gives new accounts 1,000 free credits.
Is buying B2B contact data legal under GDPR?
It can be, but the buyer carries duties too. You need a lawful basis, usually legitimate interest, you must tell people where you got their data, and you must honor opt-outs. In the UK, the ICO says marketing emails to limited companies do not need consent under PECR, but sole traders count as individuals. Ask each vendor for its data processing agreement and opt-out process.
What are the best People Data Labs alternatives?
People Data Labs sells person data through APIs, bulk data and licenses. For contact data by API, compare Coresignal (company, employee and job data as APIs and datasets), Cognism (contact data with API and MCP access) and Apollo (API access on Custom plans). For dated events on a company or a person, rather than profile fields, use the Autobound Signal API. Our People Data Labs alternatives page compares them with sourced facts.
Which B2B data providers have an API?
See the API column. ZoomInfo, MoltSets, Dun & Bradstreet, People Data Labs, Lusha, Cognism, Coresignal, Crunchbase and 6sense offer APIs. Apollo lists API access on Custom plans, and Owler on Enterprise. Clearbit data is used through HubSpot. Autobound is API-first: one Signal API with search and enrich endpoints, plus an MCP server for AI assistants, GCS and flat file delivery.
What is a B2B database?
A B2B database is a searchable set of company records (industry, size, location) and contact records (names, titles, emails, phone numbers). Business database providers such as ZoomInfo, Apollo and Cognism sell access by subscription or credits. A database answers one question: who exists in my market, and how do I reach them?
Can I use signal data without a B2B database?
Yes. The Autobound Signal API searches companies and contacts by signal type and date, so you can find accounts with a recent event without a separate database. Most teams still pair the two: the database gives the email or phone number, and the signal gives the reason and the timing.

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