54% of marketers say that their biggest challenge is finding quality leads.
If you belong to the other 45%, it probably means that you’ve found the best lead generation database for you.
If you haven’t, keep reading and find out why you should use a database, and 13 very useful recommendations.
13 best lead generation databases
There are a ton of lead databases out there, but we’ve selected a list of 13 of our favorite lead databases for you to choose from.
| Lead database | Advanced filters (on all plans) | Database size | Enriched and verified data | Starting price (billed yearly) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lemlist | ✅ | +450M contacts | ✅ | $32/mo |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | ❌ | +750M contacts | ❌ | $79.99/mo |
| Taplio | ✅ | +3M contacts | ✅ | $149/mo |
| LimeLeads | ✅ | +20M contacts | ✅ | Unavailable |
| Apollo | ❌ | +275M contacts | ✅ | Free plan (but limited filters) |
| Zoominfo | ✅ | +321M contacts | ✅ | Unavalaible |
| UpLead | ✅ | +160M contacts | ✅ | Free plan (5 credit only, buyer intent available on the highest plan) |
| Snov.io | ✅ | +75M (companies) | ✅ | Free plan (no bulk searches) |
| Cognism | ✅ | +400M contacts | ✅ | Custom pricing |
| Hunter.io | ✅ | +107M conacts | ✅ (no phone numbers) | Free plan (very limited searches) |
| Salesforce | ✅ | +731M (records) | ✅ | Unavailable |
| Reply.io | ✅ | >1,000M | ✅ | Free plan (50 credits only) |
| AeroLeads | ❌ not advanced | +750M contacts | ✅ | $39/mo |
1. lemlist
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.5/5 (261 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (382 reviews)
Overview
lemlist is a comprehensive outreach software that covers everything from lead generation to cold emailing, and monitoring deliverability.
Let’s focus on its database.
lemlist’s database currently hosts data for +450M people.
You can gather leads’ emails, LinkedIn profiles, and phone numbers. All information has already been verified, however, you can use the built-in verifier, or enrich your leads with the push of a button.
With lemlist, you can use advanced filters including buyer intent and signals to make sure you reach your leads at the perfect time.
If you want more information on the lemlist database, check out the following video:
lemlist has recently added a separate database to find companies.
The database holds 63M companies you can find by using 17 advanced filters, and reach the decision maker in a company that much easier.
Pricing
lemlist offers 5 different pricing plans, and the databases are included in all of them.
With the free plan, you can access the entire database.
✅ Pros
- Extensive database
- Company database apart from lead database
- Advanced filters with buying signals
❌ Cons
- lemlist is currently working on the in-app CRM
- Less leads than LinkedIn Sales Navigator
2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.3/5 (1,943 reviews) | Capterra 4.5/5 (150 reviews)
Overview
LinkedIn has become the most popular professional networking platform which currently holds over a billion leads. One of their premium plans includes Sales Navigator.
Sales Navigator plays a major role in improving your LinkedIn lead generation with added features to help you hit your goals.
Some of these features include:
- Boolean Search
- Lead recommendations
- InMail messaging
- Integrates with several CRMs, including Salesforce
- More specific account insights
- Advanced search filters
Pricing
Although LinkedIn isn’t entirely transparent with their pricing plans, at lemlist, we’ve complied all of LinkedIn’s pricing plans.
| LinkedIn Basic | Sales Navigator Core | Sales Navigator Advanced | Sales Navigator Advanced Plus | Premium career | Premium Business | Learning Career | Learning Teams 2-20 users | Learning Teams +21 users | Recruiter Lite | Recruiter Corporate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | $79.99/mo | $130.68/mo | Under request | $29.99/mo | $59.99/mo | $39.99/mo | $379.88/seat/year | $203.88/seat/year | $1,680 single license | $10,800/seat/year |
✅ Pros
- Most extensive database
- Allows for in-app engagement and networking
❌ Cons
- LinkedIn Basic lacks advanced filters
- Pricing scales if you need to invest in premium plans
- Dependant on your LinkedIn activity
3. Taplio
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Product Hunt 4/5 (26 reviews)
Overview
Taplio is an All-in-One LinkedIn Tool that will help you create your personal brand and reach more leads through AI-generated content, automated engagement, and advances scheduling.
Although Taplio’s database currently holds only 3M leads, all of them have been verified and enriched.
Pricing
Taplio offers 3 different pricing plans ranging from $32 to $149 when billed annually.
This tool offers a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
However, the database is only available in the highest plan.
✅ Pros
- Most comprehensive LinkedIn lead generation tool
- Enriched and verified leads
- Many free tools
❌ Cons
- Limited database
- Steep pricing
4. LimeLeads
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4/5 (1 review) | Capterra 5/5 (1 review)
Overview
LimeLeads is a B2B lead database that offers verified data, including name, email address, company, job title, industry, etc. Additionally, it offers its own verification system to ensure your data is accurate.
LimeLead’s database holds over 20M contacts.
This tool seamlessly integrates with popular CRMs such as HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho.
It is designed primarily for sales teams and marketers, and offers advances filters with customizable searches.
Pricing
Although LimeLeads’ doesn’t openly disclose its pricing, we do know you only pay for verified data.
✅ Pros
- Verified contact information
- Advanced filters
- Clean UX
❌ Cons
- Not as extensive as other databases
- Doesn’t integrate with less popular CRMs
- Allegedly, pricing can scale quickly
5. Apollo
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.8/5 (7,538 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (346 reviews)
Overview
Apollo is a sales intelligence and engagement platform with many different features to streamline the sales process, including its lead and company databases.
The database offers 275M contacts and 63M companies, aside from data enrichment to enrich your leads easily from the app-
Among its advanced filters, you can find:
- Award or recognition
- New client signed
- New partnership
- Office expansion
- Cutting costs
- New product or service
- Merger or acquisition
- Recent funding
- Rapid growth
- High buying intent (Person)
- Opened 2+ emails in past week (Person)
- New role (Person)
Pricing
Apollo offers 4 affordable pricing plans ranging from $49 to $119 when billed annually, and a free plan.
The database is available in all plans, although the free plan doesn’t offer advanced filters such as technologies, nor does it include data enrichment.
✅ Pros
- Provides up-to-date contact information
- Offers phone numbers
❌ Cons
- Users mention the database lacks personal details
- Integrations could be improved
6. ZoomInfo
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.4/5 (8,650 reviews) | Capterra 4.1/5 (290 reviews)
Overview
ZoomInfo is a go-to-market software with a database that includes 321M contacts and several points of contact.
In the database, you can find your leads’ names, job titles, business email addresses, phone numbers, company revenue, employee count, location, and technology stack.
Among its filters, you can select Boolean search to create highly tailored lead lists and find very specific targets.
ZoomInfo’s database collects its data from several public sources and it goes through continuous updates to ensure your data is verified, therefore protecting your deliverability and overall success in your campaigns.
Aside from gathering information, you can also receive AI-generated insights to assess the next steps with your leads.
Pricing
ZoomInfo offers a 14-day free trial, however, it doesn’t disclose its pricing plans.
✅ Pros
- Provides data cleanup assistance
- Valuable intent data
- Strong CRM integrations
❌ Cons
- Filters could be improved
- Allegedly, pricing is expensive
- Steep learning curve
7. UpLead
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.7/5 (779 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (76 reviews)
Overview
UpLead is a B2B led generation tool that offers a lead database with 160M leads and 95% data accuracy.
The database has over 50 search filters including intent data, making it easier to narrow down your list of leads and reach them at exactly the right time.
The data you can extract from the database includes email and phone numbers. To ensure you get verified data, UpLead has included a real-time verification process.
UpLead also includes a company database.
Pricing
With UpLead, you can choose from 4 different pricing plans that start with a free plan, and continue with plans priced at $99 and $199 respectively.
The Professional plan has customized pricing that will depend on the number of credits and seats you wish to include.
Bear in mind that only with the Professional plan can you find Buyer Intent data.
✅ Pros
- Doesn’t charge invalid emails
- Easy to export data to CRMs
❌ Cons
- Difficult to edit saved searches
- Could use more integrations
8. Snov.io
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.6/5 (426 reviews) | Capterra 4.5/5 (211 reviews)
Overview
Snov.io is a sales platform packed with many features, including Email Finder, Email Warm-Up, Multichannel Campaigns, and a Lead Database with 75M companies and a 98% accuracy rate.
Snov.io offers real-time verification during the lead generation process to ensure you receive only verified data.
The database has many advanced filters and you can include up to 10 parameters per filter.
Pricing
Snov.io stands out for its affordable pricing ranging from $30 to $75 and a free plan.
Although the free plan offers limited credits and does not allow for bulk searches.
✅ Pros
- CRM included
- Competitive pricing
❌ Cons
- UI could be improved
- Is not the most extensive database
9. Cognism
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.6/5 (744 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (142 reviews)
Overview
Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence and lead generation platform, its database holds around 400M contacts and over 10M verified phone numbers. Phone numbers are verified with Diamond Data, which essentially has several points of verification.
When using Cognism, you can integrate with popular CRMs such as HubSpot, Outreach, or Salesforce.
Cognism collects its data with AI and uses advanced and constant verification to guarantee accurate contact information.
Among Cognism’s filters, you can select basic filters such as job title, location, revenue, etc., or more advanced filters such as intent data or technographic data.
With Cognism’s insights, you can receive buying signals and alerts from your leads so you can reach them at the right moment.
Pricing
Cognism doesn’t disclose its pricing plans as they are tailored to each account.
✅ Pros
- GDPR and CCPA-compliant
- Verified phone numbers
❌ Cons
- Although pricing lacks transparency, users have mentioned it as an expensive tool
- Limited contacts can be saved to your lists
10. Hunter.io
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.4/5 (554 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (631 reviews)
Overview
Hunter.io is a lead generation and email outreach tool that offers a solid database with 107M contacts among its many features.
Thanks to the built-in bulk verification tool, you’re guaranteed to protect your deliverability.
With Hunter’s database, you can search for email addresses associated with a specific domain, as the platform can identify and predict email patterns.
To increase credibility and transparency, Hunter.io provides source citations for every contact in the database.
This tool is a great option, particularly for start-ups and small businesses.
Pricing
Hunter.io offers 4 simple pricing plans ranging from $34 to $349 and a free plan.
The database is included in all plans.
✅ Pros
- Clean UI
- The tool includes other prospective features
❌ Cons
- Doesn’t provide phone numbers
- Limited contact information
11. Salesforce
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.5/5 (2,875 reviews) | Capterra 4.3/5 (331 reviews)
Overview
Salesforce stands as one of the most popular CRMs, with a separate Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud, and has introduced a Data Cloud with 731M data records.
As it’s native to the Salesforce CRM, all information gathered by any member of the team is unified in one platform. Data Cloud integrates with many other services so you can gather your data in one place.
Salesforce is best known as a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platform that offers a wide range of tools for sales, marketing, customer service, and more.
However, Salesforce also provides robust data and insights through its associated products and integrations, positioning it as a valuable resource for businesses looking for lead generation, sales prospecting, and customer data management.
Salesforce Einstein provides AI-driven insights, helping users identify patterns and gain deeper analytics from their data to improve decision-making and lead prioritization.
While its primary strength lies in its CRM and customer lifecycle management capabilities, Salesforce’s database can be enriched with various third-party data sources.
Pricing
Salesforce is considered as an expensive tool.
Pricing is broken down in many different tiers, which means not all features may be included in the pricing plan you select.
Sales Cloud pricing ranges from $165 to $500 per month, while pricing for the Data Cloud is not disclosed.
✅ Pros
- Highly customizable
- Many automation features
❌ Cons
- High learning curve
- Information is gathered by third-party tools
12. Reply.io
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4.6/5 (1,366 reviews) | Capterra 4.6/5 (96 reviews)
Overview
Reply.io is an AI-driven sale engagement platform with a database that offers 1 billion contacts with real-time data
Its 16 advanced filters include hiring intent and technologies used, multilingual job titles, and many more.
Some of the information you can extract from the database includes emails, LinkedIn URL, job titles, company profiles and company updates for an efficient and personalized outreach.
Among its CRM integrations you can find HubSpot, Salesforce, CloseCRM, Pipedrive, and Zoho.
Pricing
The Live Data database has to be paid for separately, meaning that if you wish to include prospective with Reply.io, your overall total can scale quickly.
However, there are some B2B data credits included with your Sales Engagement subscription.
✅ Pros
- User-friendly UI
- Advanced automation
❌ Cons
- Confusing pricing plans
- Lacks calendar integrations
13. AeroLeads
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 4/5 (62 reviews) | Capterra 4.5/5 (39 reviews)
Overview
AeroLeads is a lead generation tool with a database that offers +750M contacts and up to 60 data points. The data included in the database is collected from public sources.
With AeroLeads you can also enrich your leads easily as you select them.
Other features include:
- Chrome extension
- Email Finder and Verifier
- CRM integrations
- Bulk search
Pricing
AeroLeads offers 4 paid plans ranging from $39 to $249 on the disclosed pricing, however, the highest plan is disclosed upon request.
Although some users have mentioned it can be very expensive for smaller businesses.
✅ Pros
- GDPR compliant
- Real-time data
❌ Cons
- Basic filters and data
- Very limited in phone number finder
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process by which you gather potential clients for your business.
Leads can be people who meet the criteria of your ICP or your buyer persona, or people who have engaged with your business one way or another at any point.
Lead generation consists of 4 crucial steps:
Step 1: Attract attention
This is oriented toward an inbound lead generation approach, in which you make your business stand out so leads can come to you.
This can be done with:
→ An effective LinkedIn strategy
→ Hosting webinars
→ SEO content creation/blog
→ Podcasts and YouTube channels
Step 2: Lead qualification
Not every lead that comes your way will be valuable or qualified to continue to move down the sales funnel toward lead conversion.
Lead qualification consists of analyzing what leads are valuable to your business and which ones aren’t. This process will help you carry out a strategic and well-defined lead nurturing strategy.
Step 3: Gathering relevant data
To combine your inbound lead generation strategy with an outreach strategy, you’ll need to have accurate and up-to-date information on all of your leads.
This is where databases, lead enrichment, and lead capture forms play their role.
The main data you’re going to need to find are emails and phone numbers for data, and other relevant data for personalization.
Step 4: Lead engagement
Once you’ve qualified your leads and gathered their data, you’ll reach out to them.
You can use different approaches, such as cold, warm, or hot outreach.
At this point, it is crucial you have gathered enough data to engage your prospects with proper and in-depth personalization, and to have accurate contact info so you don’t run into deliverability issues during your campaigns.
What is a lead generation database?
A lead generation database is essentially a centralized platform where you can find a wide number of leads that you will be able to narrow down by using filters.
Lead databases collect contact information in a single place. Some of the information you can typically find includes:
- Name
- Phone number (sometimes)
- LinkedIn profile
- Company name
- Job titles
Lead databases are great places to carry out your data enrichment process or lead segmentation.
Although their best use case is to carry out an outbound lead generation approach.
By using a database that is incorporated into your outreach tool, you will be able to gather your information easily and not have to change from one platform to another to send out your campaigns.
Benefits of a lead generation database
Using a lead database can streamline the initial process of lead generation, not only by offering fast and simple data.
There are many other benefits that come from investing in this tool:
- Receive actualized and verified data
- Save money on hiring third-party verifiers
- If you pick a database that is incorporated with your outreach tool you save time and resources
- Build a solid list of leads
- Easier to avoid being scammed (as long as you do your research before hiring)
- Add data directly to your CRM
How to use a lead database
Starting to use a lead database is easy, but, like everything else, you should follow a few simple steps before diving in.
Step 1: Define your ICP
Before starting to look, you need to know who you’re looking for.
By defining your ICP (buyer persona), you’re creating a fictional character that meets all the criteria your ideal client would possess.
However, we know that having to map out every detail of your ideal buyer is terribly time-consuming. With the following lemlist free ICP generator, you will receive 3 examples of your ICP in seconds.
Step 2: Make sure the database is reliable
It goes without saying, but before you dive into scraping data like there’s no tomorrow or committing to a paid plan, make sure you’ve researched your chosen tool in review pages such as G2 and Capterra.
Step 3: Check filters, CRM integrations, and outreach software integrations
Not all databases will offer the filters you need.
So, once you’ve analyzed what filters fit the criteria of your ICP make sure you can access them with your chosen lead database.
Step 4: Start using your database
Use the advanced filters to narrow down your list of leads, select them, and push them to your desired campaigns or CRM.
What does a lead generation database need?
Not every lead database will be good enough to help you grow your business.
However, there are some features that every database should have in order for it to be a viable option.
Some of these features include:
- Advanced filters
- Verified contact information
- As much information as possible (not just emails)
- Compliant with GDPR and CAN-SPAM or other spam laws
- Scaleable
- Free trials
- Integrations with CRMs and outreach tools
Your lead generation database checklist!
In order to build an effective list of leads to grow your business, you clearly should invest in a quality database.
It is the quickest and safest way to gather leads’ contact information. Again, it is safe if you research it before committing and ensure the information is not outdated or invalid.
So, very quickly, what steps should you go through when using your database?
- Research databases
- Take into consideration the features offered
- Make use of free trials and free plans
- Define your ICP
- Start selecting
- Use a good outreach tool to engage with your leads
- Close deals!
Key Takeaways
Lead databases are ideal tools for your lead generation strategy. But there are so many on the market, it’s hard to choose the right one for your business.
So which one is the best lead database? lemlist is the best value option, with one of the largest lead databases available.
Try lemlist free for 14 days and start using the lead database now!
