Clay
ZoomInfo
| Feature | Clay | ZoomInfo |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $149/mo | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.6 / 5 | 4.2 / 5 |
| Best For | sales-teams, growth-teams, agencies, outbound-heavy-companies | enterprise-sales, marketing-teams, recruiting, account-based-marketing |
| Founded | 2017 | 2000 |
| Data Enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Research | ✓ | ✗ |
| Waterfall Enrichment | ✓ | ✗ |
| Outreach Personalization | ✓ | ✗ |
| Crm Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| List Building | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Messaging | ✓ | ✗ |
| Contact Database | ✗ | ✓ |
| Intent Data | ✗ | ✓ |
| Company Insights | ✗ | ✓ |
| Website Visitors | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflow Automation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Territory Planning | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Clay Pros
- Aggregates 75+ data sources in one waterfall enrichment
- AI research agent writes personalized outreach copy
- Flexible spreadsheet-like interface for data manipulation
- Integrates with all major CRMs and sequencing tools
✗ Clay Cons
- Expensive for small teams (starter at $149/mo)
- Learning curve for advanced data workflows
- Credit system can be confusing to predict costs
✓ ZoomInfo Pros
- Largest B2B contact database (100M+ business profiles)
- Real-time buying intent signals from 300K+ sources
- Website visitor identification for target accounts
- Strong data accuracy with AI verification
✗ ZoomInfo Cons
- Very expensive (typically $15K-50K+ annually)
- Contact data accuracy varies by region/industry
- Long-term contracts with difficult cancellation
The Verdict
Clay is built for sales teams and growth teams, with a focus on data-enrichment and ai-research. ZoomInfo targets enterprise sales and marketing teams and leads with contact-database and intent-data.
ZoomInfo uses custom enterprise pricing, while Clay starts at $149/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Clay has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. ZoomInfo requires a paid subscription from day one.
Clay edges out on user ratings (4.6 vs 4.2). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Bottom line: Clay has a slight overall edge — but if largest b2b contact database (100m+ business profiles) matters most to you, ZoomInfo may still be the right call.