Clay is a tool that helps businesses find potential customers, gather intelligence and data about them, and send personalized messages to drive outbound sales.
It’s become pretty popular in the last couple of years because of its ability to integrate with multiple tools and streamline the data enrichment process.
However, for many businesses, these promises haven’t delivered the expected value because setting it up is complicated, it feels clunky to use, and it’s pricey for most teams. Customers often rely on Clay partners for implementation and support, and many sales teams struggle to adopt it. In fact, Clay customers say that salespeople don’t really use it, even when they have access because it is quite difficult to use.
So if you’re in the market for a tool to improve GTM workflows and enhance data enrichment, you could consider one of the many Clay alternatives that offer better value. You will benefit from reading this guide even if you have already bought Clay, because there are many other competitors that could add more value to your tech stack.
Why should you consider switching from Clay or buy other Clay alternatives?
Here are some common complaints about Clay, because of which you could consider other Clay competitors and switch to an alternative.
Complex and cumbersome to use
By virtue of being a configurable tool, Clay becomes a cumbersome tool to actually implement and use.
“It’s not always very user-friendly. I have needed help on actions that should, simply put, be a lot easier to navigate and implement. In short, it feels like you need to be a spreadsheet expert to get the full worth of your investment, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Steep learning curve
Users report that the product isn’t very user-friendly and that not many sales reps actually use the tool even though they have access to it.
“There can be a learning curve with Clay. We have had some salespeople struggle to quickly get up to speed with the tool.”
Need for Clay partners
Implementing and using Clay requires businesses to work with third-party solutioning partners.
Expensive
Clay offers a basic free plan, but its feature-rich packages are quite pricey with the cheapest plan priced at $134/month.
B2B companies are hungry for tools like Clay, and there are now several alternatives that deliver better data enrichment, deeper prospect insights, and a more intuitive, user-friendly platform—all at a fraction of Clay’s cost.
But it is important to evaluate them and understand their offerings before deciding which ones to choose.
This checklist will help you make sure that the product you finally choose to buy gives you everything your business needs:
- Accurate data enrichment: Many sales intelligence tools have a large database but a lot of the contact information and firmographic data about the contact could be outdated. But a GTM tool that you consider as an alternative to Clay should ideally have first-party data and get real-time updates.
- Comprehensive integration options: It is essential for any GTM tool to have easy, seamless integrations with other tools, and work with minimal switching or manual data sync between the different products.
- Automation capabilities for enhanced efficiency: In the era of AI and GenAI, being AI-native is non-negotiable for any B2B product. The product you choose must give you the luxury of being able to automate as many pieces of work as possible so as to reduce the time taken to get tasks completed efficiently.
- Advanced lead generation tools: Data enrichment is only one part of the process. What adds value to your tech stack is a tool that helps with identifying and filtering ICP leads in addition to enriching them with email ids and phone numbers.
- Intelligent analytics and AI insights: While evaluating the features and functionalities, make sure you also have access to AI analytics and insights as these will provide a solid foundation for your detailed analysis so you can iterate your processes and workflows for maximum efficiency.
- Flexible customization and scalability: Every B2B company has its unique workflows and processes depending on the industry they are in, the team size, etc. The product you buy should be flexible and customizable and should be built to scale and evolve with your team as your business grows.
- Data privacy and compliance: Given that people’s data and personal information are at the core of sales intelligence, it is critical to maintain basic privacy and compliance standards and be ethical even outside of legal and regulatory requirements. Highperformr, for instance, only uses publicly available data and content available on social media to curate a well-rounded picture of the contact.
He’s a list of products that you could explore if you’re looking for a Clay alternative:
Highperformr
Highperformr is an AI-native social lead-gen and GTM workflow platform that helps users identify and enrich ICP leads based on first-party data, use social signals and insight for precise outreach, and spearfish leads to make outbound sales more efficient.
The platform enables users to manage their entire GTM workflow – from identifying leads that match their ICP, building lists of contacts based on different kinds of intent data, enriching leads with contact information and social insight, and reaching out to high-potential leads based on their recent social activity.
Highperformr is the best Clay alternative in the market today, because unlike Clay that only manages lists and workflows, Highperformr helps users identify leads and build contacts lists that match their ICP and then move the lists into their GTM workflow. Users can build, consolidate, and organize their lead lists, enrich the lists with over 50 fields of information about the contact and provide them with real-time social insight to help with precise outreach that could increase response rates.
Here’s what you can do with Highperformr:
- Identify ICP leads from social media
- Identity ICP leads using keyword search
- Build contacts lists of all ICP contacts from a single target account
- Get real-time insight on job changes, promotions, event participation, or other activity
- Get weekly/monthly reports on a contact’s new connections on LinkedIn
- Enrich leads with contact information, firmographic information, social intent signals, social activity insight, and other publicly available data.
Highperformr vs Clay: How Highperformr is better than Clay
- First-party data: Highperformr has real-time access to LinkedIn data that can help you find just not the contact details of the person but also get insight on how active they are, what topics they talk about, who their recent LinkedIn connections are, etc. Clay on the other hand relies on LinkedIn Sales Navigator data to enrich your contacts.
- Quick time-to-value: Unlike Clay that has a steep learning curve and requires users to work with the product for some time before figuring out the best way to work with it, Highperformr promises quick time to value. Highperformr’s in-house solutioning and onboarding expert makes it easy for users to hit the ground running and see value from Highperformr in just days after configuring the leadgen and enrichment module.
- White-glove onboarding and Applied AI solutioning: Clay can only be implemented through third-party Clay Partners while Highperformr provides every customer with white-glove onboarding and implementation with the help of an Applied AI Engineer who can work with you to use Highperformr to find the right kind of leads and book meetings effectively.
- Similarity search: With Highperformr, you can find contacts similar to an ICP contact you have, and find companies similar to accounts you’re targeting.
- Build lead lists: Highperformr enables you to build lead lists that match your ICP based on event or tradeshow participation, keyword search, social media engagements and audience, competitor audience analysis, etc.
- Intuitive and easy to use: Highperformr has been built to be a simple, self-serve platform that revops leaders, sales folks, lead development representatives (LDRs) and market research teams, can use to enrich and filter leads easily. Clay has been known to be complex to configure and use with not many account executives (AEs) and SDRs (sales development representatives) using the tool regularly.
- Rollover of unused credits: Highperformr works on a very flexible credits model and allows users to carry over unused credits to the next month. Customers are free to use as many credits as they like, and purchase credits for as low as $10.
Key features:
- Find and build lead lists: Highperformr enables you to build lead lists that match your ICP based on event or tradeshow participation, keyword search, social media engagements and audience, competitor audience analysis, etc. Essentially, Highperformr helps you identify ICP contactsin addition to enrichment of leads you already have.
- Intuitive and easy to use: Highperformr has been built to be a simple, self-serve platform that revops leaders, sales folks, lead development representatives (LDRs) and market research teams, can use to enrich and filter leads easily.
- Integrations: Highperformr fits seamlessly into your existing sales and marketing techstack and has be connected with 50+ products.
- Job change tracking: Highperformr enables you to track any career moves of key contacts or prospects. You can get real-time updates on job changes, promotions, or additional responsibilities of your contacts.
- Chrome plugin: The Highperformr Chrome extension can be used to easily and quickly add contacts or posts from LinkedIn to your Highperformr dashboard.
Pros:
- Leadgen + contact enrichment: Highperformr is a leadgen platform in addition to being a source for contact information enrichment. Users can manage their GTM workflow on Highperformr – all you need to do is to define and configure your ICP and Highperformr enables you to find contacts, enrich them, get social intent signals, refine your list, prioritize leads, and reach out to the high-potential ones to increase response rates.
- Social media management: Highperformr comes with a GenAI-native social media management platform which you can use to create and publish posts on social media, track the audience engaging with the posts, and identify leads from among your social audience.
Cons:
- No free plan: The leadgen features are not available on the free plan. Users have to purchase credits to be able to access the audience analytics and leadgen functionality.
Pricing:
- Highperformr offers a simple, free product designed for individual users. For teams and larger enterprises, there’s a 14-day free trial to explore advanced features. Paid plans start at $59 for lifetime access, with optional credit add-ons available starting at $10 for 1,000 credits.
FullContact
FullContact provides customers data and intelligence required to accurately identify people and optimize experiences. The company differentiates itself from other Clay alternatives by emphasising its focus on putting privacy and security first.
Key features:
- Real-time data updates: FullContact claims to get 200M+ updates per day, giving users access to the most accurate contact data.
- Website visitor tracking: The platform enables users to identify site visitors to reveal high intent leads. It helps unify customer and prospect data and recognize website visitors.
Pros:
- Reliable data: Many users call FullContact “reliable” and say that the service works well even at scale.
Cons:
- Pricey product: Several users have mentioned on online reviews that the product is a little costly and that the search credits get consumed quite quickly.
Pricing:
- FullContact offers a 14-day trial and has packages that start at $99 per month.
Seamless AI
Seamless AI is a platform that helps businesses find contact information, get buyer intent data, and track job changes to identify leads. Seamless AI has several AI tools that customers can use to research contacts, write sales pitches, and automate sales and marketing workflows.
Key features:
- Large contact database: Users have access to over 1.3 billion business contacts and 121 million companies.
- Intent data: Seamless.AI identifies prospects actively researching topics relevant to your offerings.
- AI email writing: Customers also have access to an AI copywriting tool that generates tailored sales emails, helping sales reps craft outreach messages.
- Job change tracking: The product helps identify new opportunities and maintain relationships when contacts or prospects switch jobs.
- Chrome extension: This lets users create lead lists directly from the internet.
Pros:
- Intuitive: Customer reviews online indicate that Seamless.ai’s interface is user-friendly, even for those new to sales intelligence tools, making it accessible to all team members without much training or a learning curve.
- Integrations: The platform integrates with tools like Salesforce and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
- Search features: Users also highlight the auto-suggestion feature which helps save time while working on multiple contacts.
Cons:
- Customer support: Customers have reported poor customer service, with delays in response times.
- Inconsistent data: While the product has a large database, customers say that the information is outdated or inaccurate.
- Aggressive sales and billing practices: The platform’s yearly auto-renewal policy has drawn criticism, with some users complaining that they’re locked into contracts they no longer want.
Pricing:
- Seamless AI’s website does not mention the pricing plans available. It only highlights the three broad options and the set of add-ons available for purchase.
Lusha
Lusha is a sales intelligence platform that offers B2B salespeople accurate and accessible data with which users can identify, engage and close prospects.
Key features:
- Advanced search filters: You your ideal customers using an advanced search that filters for intent, job changes, company technologies, funding, and more.
- Automated emails: The tool enables users to add prospects from lists to personalized and automated email sequences.
- Intent data: The platform helps identify potential buyers and target potential accounts that are actively looking for a solution.
- Job change alerts: The feature is built to notify you when your prospect makes a change that influences their buying potential.
Pros:
- Customer support: Customers report that the sales and customer-facing teams are quick to respond and are efficient in solving issues.
Cons:
- Costly: Some users say that the product is more expensive than similar players in the market.
- Limited features on the free plan: The free version has limited access to data, according to user
Pricing:
Lusha offers a basic free version, and the plans with richer features start at $37/month for 3 seats. Larger teams get tailored solutions and custom pricing based on the requirements.
Clearbit - Hubspot Breeze
Clearbit is a data provider that was acquired by Hubspot in December 2023. The product, now called HubSpot Breeze, is part of the Hubspot platform and can be a competitor to Clay’s data enrichment offering as Clearbit also provides contact and company information.
Key features:
- Optimize forms: One of the key features is the ability to shorten information forms. After using the tool, users can ideally remove fields that Clearbit can enrich, and create the forms to collect prospect data that can be more useful for sales teams.
- Visitor insights: Hubspot Breeze, formerly Clearbit, has a feature that helps track which companies visit your website over hours, days, weeks, or months. The platform also makes it easy to identify prospects visiting high-intent pages (like pricing) and cross-check if they’re already in HubSpot.
Pros:
- Firmographic data: Clearbit provides detailed company data for companies of all sizes
- Free version: The free plan allows users to define Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), track audiences, and monitor website visits, making it accessible even for smaller teams with limited budgets.
Cons:
- UX changes: Users note that since Clearbit has gone through a number of UX changes recently, the usability has been impacted. “Their most recent visitor report, in particular, is much more difficult to read and use,” a user said on a G2 review.
- Credit issues: The credit-based system feels limiting, and many users report running out of credits quickly, sometimes even within a day.
- Contact enrichment: The names and titles in their enrichment data aren’t always relevant for certain audiences.
Pricing:
Since Clearbit is now part of Hubspot, the products and services that Clearbit used to offer are part of the other services and packages that Hubspot offers and the pricing can vary based on the combination of products you use from the Hubspot platform.
Apollo
Apollo.io is a sales intelligence platform that provides users with a database of contact information and enables them to manage sales activities such as filtering contact information, creating and scheduling emails, automating parts of the workflow, tracking analytics, etc.
Key features:
- Massive database: Users can access over 210M contacts and 35M companies.
- Email automation: The feature is built to help with sales outreach, and automate tasks such as email sequences, A/B testing, and performance tracking.
- Advanced filtering: This features helps search for contacts using 65+ filters, including job title, industry, and company size.
- CRM integration: The tool integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other tools.
- Analytics: The feature helps salespeople track key metrics like open rates, reply rates, and meeting bookings.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface: The platform is intuitive and makes it easy for teams to get started without steep learning curves.
- Extensive and reliable database: Users like the fact that Apollo combines a large contact database with sales engagement tools.
Cons:
- Customer support: Users report delays in customer support responses. “We have spend more time trying to get their support to help fix their issues then we have been using the product,” a user said in a review on the G2 website.
- Limited features in lower-priced plans: Some customers have complained about the feature set provided as part of Apollo’s free or lower-priced plans.
Pricing:
- Apollo offers a free plan, and has multiple packages starting from $49 per user billed annually for a Basic version to $119 for larger organizations. Email credits are at the centre of Apollo’s pricing plans and users can purchase more credits as per their needs.
Cognism
Cognism provides companies with B2B contact information and intent data. The platform offers unrestricted access to person and company-level data, and data from across the world, including the European region.
Key features:
- AI search: The feature helps you find and enrich contact details using an AI-driven search functionality.
- Scheduled enrichment: This interesting feature keeps your CRM or database accurate with automated data updates that you can schedule.
- Intent insights: Cognism helps you identify accounts actively searching for your product or service – and target key decision-makers when they’re ready to buy.
Pros:
- GDPR compliance: The product offers reliable data that’s perfect for targeting prospects in Europe, including the DACH region.
- Easy to use: The platform’s UI and pop-out bar make it user-friendly and customers call the platform “very modern and sleek, easy to use.”
- Customer support: Users appreciate the responsive support team, which builds confidence in the tool.
Cons:
- Pricing: Some features, while valuable, come with additional costs.
- List management: One major drawback customers highlight is that the tool does not allow for users to save contacts as lists, which limits the use and flexibility.
Pricing:
Cognism doesn't highlight its pricing plans on the website but clarifies that its tailored packages include a flat platform access fee which covers data maintenance, set up, onboarding and 24-7 live chat support.
ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is a legacy player in the contact enrichment space and provides users access to a large B2B contact database. Customers can also use ZoomInfo to get buyer intent data and for website visitor tracking.
Key features:
- Massive contact database: ZoomInfo provides users access to over 70M direct dial phone numbers and more than 174M verified email addresses.
- Account-based marketing (ABM): The platform helps you run display and social ad campaigns that target customers who have signaled high intent to purchase. You can create targeted, automated campaigns using buyer signals.
Pros:
- Ease of use: Many users say that ZoomInfo is easy to use and implement for finding relevant prospect information. “I've never had a need to reach out to customer support because the UI is very user friendly,” a customer said on a G2 review.
- Integrations: ZoomInfo integrates with CRMs, making it easy to manage and helping sales teams save time.
Cons:
- High costs: Zoominfo's pricing is often seen as expensive, making it less accessible for smaller businesses or startups.
- Data accuracy: Users frequently report that the data provided is outdated or inaccurate, leading to inefficiencies in lead generation and outreach.
- Poor customer support: Complaints about subpar customer service and lack of responsiveness are common.
Pricing:
- ZoomInfo doesn’t reveal its pricing packages on its website – just highlights that users can choose packages based on their use case, such as sales, marketing, or recruitment (talent).
If ZoomInfo is too expensive or the data quality is questionable, have a look at other great ZoomInfo competitors offering similar functionality but with better performance.
Instantly
Instantly is a lead intelligence and sales tool that helps businesses with automated outreach, sales engagement, and email campaigns.
Key features:
- Unified inbox: The feature enables users to manage tens or hundreds of inboxes simultaneously, mark leads as positive or negative, forward or respond to them to book meetings and close deals from one inbox.
- Search for leads: The tool gives you access to a database of 160M contacts that you can filter and search for ideal contacts.
- Email deliverability: The platform comes with an automated network tool that keeps your emails out of spam.
- Identify website visitors: The product enables you to identify and contact your website visitors and push all visitors into an outreach campaign automatically.
Pros:
- Ease of use: Many users and online reviewers speak highly of the user-friendly interface.
Cons:
- Unreliable email deliverability feature: Several customers have said that the email deliverability feature doesn't work as promised.
- Expensive: Many users online say that the lower-priced plans don't offer as many features and aren't worth the money.
Pricing:
- Instantly doesn't offer a free version and pricing plans start at $30/month with basic features designed for small teams, and offers custom pricing and tailored packages for large companies and enterprises.
Datanyze
Datanyze is a sales intelligence platform that helps users get contact information of B2B sales prospects.
Key features:
- Chrome extension: This makes it easy to get contact information directly from LinkedIn profiles and company websites.
- Conversation starters: The platform also provides salespeople with icebreakers that can be used to have more meaningful conversations.
Pros:
- Refund policy: The Datanyze data guarantee promises a refund for any inaccuracies within the database.
Cons:
- Poor customer service: Many online reviews indicate that the company’s customer support is inaccessible and unresponsive.
Pricing:
- The company offers a 90-day free trial after which users can choose from the paid packages that start at $29/month for 80 credits.
Owler
Owler is slightly different from other Clay alternatives and sales intelligence providers because it focuses on giving data and intelligence about companies rather than leads. Owler provides users company and industry insights and help businesses find competitors, leads, and relevant news.
Key features:
- Competitor data: Owler gives customers insight on direct and indirect competitors with Owler's exclusive competitor graph.
- Search functionality: You can search for private and public company data for over 20 million companies and access data on revenue, employee count, funding history, acquisitions, news, etc.
- AI email functionality: The platform offers the Owler AI feature that helps craft emails that incorporate the latest news and insights.
Pros:
- News updates: Customers find value in the real-time news updates. “It's like having a personalized newsfeed tailored specifically to our business needs delivered right to my inbox,” a user said in a review on G2. Customers say that this helps them with ice breakers and conversation starters about the company.
Cons:
- Limited product packages: The company has just 3 plans and many users have recommended multiple plans with different features across the tiers.
Pricing:
- Owler offers a free version for occasional research. Regular use would require purchase of the basic plan priced at $39 per month, or buy a customized package with features and access tailored to your requirements.
LeadIQ
LeadIQ is a sales intelligence and prospecting platform that offers access to a B2B contact database. It allows for data capture from sources like LinkedIn using a Chrome extension, integrates with CRM systems, and includes an AI-powered email generator, Scribe, to assist in crafting personalized outreach messages.
Key Features:
- LinkedIn integration: The feature enables you to capture lead information directly from LinkedIn using a Chrome extension.
- AI email generation: Create personalized, contextually relevant email templates with the AI Scribe.
- Job change monitoring: Track job changes, promotions, and other events to identify new opportunities within accounts.
- Integration : Sync data directly with Salesforce or HubSpot.
Pros:
- Ease of use: Many users say that perhaps the best feature is the Chrome extension makes it simple to capture and manage leads directly from web platforms like LinkedIn.
- Email personalization: The AI email generation tool helps create tailored messages quickly.
Cons:
- Inaccurate data: Users have reported issues with outdated or incorrect contact information, which can hurt outreach efforts.
- Pricing: Credit-based pricing often exhausts limits quickly, even when the data retrieved is incomplete.
Pricing:
- LeadIQ offers a free plan, and has a couple of packages starting from $36 a month per user, and has custom pricing for larger enterprises that want a wider range of features.
Kaspr
Kaspr.io is a unique one among all sales intelligence tools because they focus on European contact data. Given the GDPR and restrictions around data collection, many sales intelligence providers don't promise accuracy or extensive access to data on European companies or contacts but Kaspr claims to be GDPR aligned and promises access to over 200M profiles. This makes it an interesting platform to consider if your business has a lot of customers in the Europe region or is targeting European prospects.
Key features:
- European data: The company focuses on GDPR-compliant contact data for over 200 million European profiles, ideal for businesses targeting EU markets.
- Chrome extension: It features a Chrome plugin to pull contact information from LinkedIn profiles.
Pros:
- GDPR compliance: Kaspr ensures data privacy and legality, making it a trusted option for EU-focused campaigns.
- Easy to use: Customer reviews online indicate that the platform is simple to navigate and integrate into any sales workflow.
Cons:
- Expensive: Pricing can be steep for startups or small businesses.
- Limited integrations: Kaspr has limited compatibility with other tools and this may hinder advanced workflows.
Pricing:
The company offers a basic free plan, and the paid version start at 45€ per user per month, and goes up to 99€ for larger organizations.
Highperformr has been built to simplify GTM workflows and enable sales teams to spearfish ICP leads that are enriched with contact information and social signals. It is clearly the best Clay alternative, filling all the gaps and addressing all issues that the other competitors have. To learn more about Highperformr, sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo today!
