7 Best B2B Data Providers for Small Businesses (2026)

A B2B data provider sells verified contact and company records, by app, by API or both. Small businesses need one when the founder or a two-person sales team has outgrown copying names from LinkedIn.

The right pick depends on three things. How many records you pull a month, whether you pay per seat or per record, and whether code or an agent needs the data. Most small teams want a login and a price they can predict.

We ranked seven providers on those terms. Apollo is the usual first stop (Apollo alternatives), and people leave it when seats and credits stop adding up. Others leave Prospeo, Hunter, Lusha, RocketReach or UpLead over credit caps, seat counts or API gates. Prices below are list prices checked in September 2026.

TL;DR

What we evaluated

• Volume. What a month of records costs at 1,000, 10,000 and 1M, and where each plan stops.
• Price model. Per seat, per credit or flat, and whether credits expire at the end of the cycle.
• API. Which plans include it, which endpoints exist and what the rate limit is.
• Seats. Whether a second teammate costs a second subscription or shares one pool.
• Agents. Whether there is an MCP server, how many tools it has and what plan it needs.

1. Apollo: best for a one-person team that wants data and outreach in one app

Apollo is a contact database with sequences, a dialer and a rep workspace on top. For a founder who wants to find a lead, email it and track replies in one login, it is the default and it is cheap to start. The Free plan gives 75 credits a month.

Apollo bills per seat. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 8 credits (Apollo API pricing, September 2026). Credits are pooled across the team and expire at the end of each billing cycle, so a quiet month wastes them.

Every plan includes API access, and the enrichment endpoints reach 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). Apollo also runs an official MCP server on any plan, Free included (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Data, sequences and dialer in one app.
• Free plan with API access and MCP.
• Credits are pooled across the team.
• Enrichment API at 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans.

Cons

• Per-seat pricing makes volume expensive: 1M emails a month is 250 Professional seats.
• Credits expire each cycle and do not roll over.
• Search endpoints are capped at 50,000 requests a day on paid plans.
• The price of extra credits is not public.

Best for: one to five people who prospect in a browser and want the sequencer included.

Pricing: Free; Basic $65 a seat a month, $49 billed yearly; Professional $99, $79 billed yearly; Organization $149, $119 billed yearly, minimum 3 seats (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

2. LeadOcean: best for pulling data in code or with an agent at volume

LeadOcean is only the data layer. It holds 693M people and 67M companies, over REST and MCP, with no seats and no credits. It has no rep workspace, sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension. If your team prospects by clicking through a UI, rank it below Apollo.

If code or an agent pulls the data, rank it first. Paid plans run on a fair-use pace, not a credit meter, and there is no per-record price and no overage invoice. Every plan has the whole database and every feature. The price buys speed, keys and rights.

Solo is $97 a month for one person, with phone numbers and bulk CSV export included. Agency is $497 a month with 200 requests a second and 5 keys. Counts are free, so you can size a list before you spend a record. The MCP server has 13 tools and signs in with OAuth (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026; LeadOcean MCP docs, October 2026).

The app has an Exports page with a filter builder, a column picker and a price preview, then a CSV download. That covers a non-technical user who wants a list, not a workspace.

Pros

• Flat price: $497 a month covers 1M records, with no meter.
• 693M people and 67M companies on every plan, Free included.
• 13 MCP tools and 50 people filters.
• Free counts and a free plan with 1,000 records for life.

Cons

• No outreach tools, so you bring your own sender.
• The Free plan is a one-off 1,000 records, not a monthly allowance.
• Bulk CSV export is not on Free.
• Built for API and agent use, so a pure-UI user gets less from it.

Best for: developers, RevOps and agent builders who pull people and companies programmatically.

Pricing: Free $0; Solo $97 a month; Agency $497 a month; Platform $1,997 a month (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

3. Prospeo: best for verified emails and mobiles on small credit plans

Prospeo sells verified emails and mobile numbers by the credit, per user. A verified email costs 1 credit and a mobile costs 10. A company costs 1 credit, and a search request that returns results costs 1 credit for up to 25 results (Prospeo help center, September 2026).

The plans are easy to read. Starter is 2,000 credits for $49 a month, Growth is 5,000 for $99 and Pro is 15,000 for $249. Credits pool across seats, and unused credits expire at the end of the cycle.

Prospeo has a hosted MCP server with 8 tools (Prospeo MCP docs, September 2026). The enrichment API allows 5 requests a second on Starter and Growth and 30 on Pro (Prospeo rate limits, September 2026).

Pros

• Clear credit cost per action.
• Zero credits for no result and for re-enriching the same record within 90 days.
• Seats share one credit pool.
• Hosted MCP server with 8 tools.

Cons

• Mobiles cost 10 credits, so a phone-heavy list burns credits fast.
• No single plan reaches 1M credits.
• Add-on credits are a recurring subscription, not one-time top-ups.
• Credits expire and do not roll over.

Best for: a small team that needs verified emails and some mobiles, under about 15,000 records a month.

Pricing: Free 100 credits a month; Starter $49 a month, $37 billed yearly; Growth $99, $74 billed yearly; Pro $249, $187 billed yearly (Prospeo pricing, September 2026).

4. Hunter: best for email-only lookups and shared team credits

Hunter finds and verifies email addresses by domain or by name. It does not sell phone numbers. If email is the only field you need, it has the lowest published 1M price among the credit tools here.

Plans share one credit pool with unlimited team members, so a second teammate does not cost a second subscription. An email found costs 1 credit and a verification costs 0.5 credit. Nothing is charged if nothing is found (Hunter help center, September 2026).

Hunter also sells a Data Platform for API and bulk use. 1,000,000 Search credits cost $6,900 once, valid 12 months (Hunter Data Platform, September 2026). Hunter has an official remote MCP server included on all plans (Hunter MCP, September 2026).

Pros

• Unlimited team members share one credit pool.
• Published price at 1M credits: $6,900.
• No credit charged when nothing is found.
• MCP server included on all plans.

Cons

• Email only, with no phone numbers.
• A rate-limited call returns 403, not 429, which trips up retry code.
• Monthly plan credits do not carry over.
• Credit packs are capped per purchase: 9,000 on Starter.

Best for: teams that need emails and nothing else, from a handful of lookups a month to bulk files.

Pricing: Free 50 credits a month; Starter $49 a month, $34 billed yearly; Growth $149, $104 billed yearly; Scale $299, $209 billed yearly (Hunter pricing, September 2026).

5. Lusha: best for phone numbers for a few reps in a browser

Lusha is built around the browser extension and the contact card. The Free plan gives 40 credits a month, and Starter is 400 credits for $49.90 a month. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 5, so a phone-first user pays more per record than an email-only one (Lusha API guide, September 2026).

Every user gets an API key, Free included. Rate limits are per key and per plan: 40 a minute on Free and Starter, 50 a minute on Pro and 300 a minute on Premium. The MCP server has 50 tools and shares the REST credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Free plan with an API key.
• Rollover up to 2x on monthly Pro and Premium.
• Large MCP toolset with 50 tools.
• Pro and Premium include extra seats (2 and 5).

Cons

• Per-minute caps are low on small plans.
• Scale pricing is custom and there is no public 1M price.
• Whether a no-match API request is charged is unclear in the docs.
• Per-credit cost is high next to flat-price providers.

Best for: two to five reps who need mobile numbers and work from a browser.

Pricing: Free $0; Starter $49.90 a month, $37.45 billed yearly; Pro $69.90, $52.45 billed yearly; Premium $399.90, $299.95 billed yearly (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

6. RocketReach: best for looking up named people across many roles

RocketReach is a lookup tool: you search for a person and spend an export to see the contact details. One export in the app equals one API credit. A professional email costs 2 Universal Credits and a phone costs 6 (RocketReach credits, September 2026).

RocketReach's own pricing page blocks automated readers, so these prices come from G2. Essentials (email only) is $69 a month, Pro $119 and Ultimate $209 (G2 RocketReach pricing, September 2026). RocketReach publishes no dollar price per credit for the API.

The global API limit is 10 requests a second, and monthly person-lookup caps are 5,000 on Essentials, 20,000 on Pro and 50,000 on Ultimate (RocketReach rate limits, September 2026). The MCP server has 9 tools.

Pros

• Re-lookups of the same profile are free while the plan is active.
• No credit is charged when no data is found.
• MCP server with OAuth 2.1 and 9 tools.
• Company and person search in one account.

Cons

• First-party pricing could not be read in September 2026.
• No public dollar price per API credit.
• API setup goes through the API team, not a checkbox.
• No public price at 1M records.

Best for: a small team that looks up a known list of people, not one that builds lists from filters.

Pricing: Essentials $69, Pro $119 and Ultimate $209 a month on monthly billing, as reported by G2 (G2 RocketReach pricing, September 2026).

7. UpLead: best for small, checked lists for one user

UpLead sells a prospecting database with email checking. It states a 95% accuracy guarantee, more than 200 million contacts with email addresses and more than 19 million company profiles (UpLead data page, September 2026). A credit is charged only when the email is Valid or Accept All, and unmatched enrichment rows are refunded.

The catch for a small team is the API. The Enrichment API and full API access are ticked only on Professional, which is a custom quote billed yearly. Essentials ($99) and Plus ($199) have no API (UpLead pricing, September 2026). UpLead's homepage and API docs mention no MCP server.

Pros

• Credits are charged only for Valid or Accept All emails.
• Unmatched enrichment rows are refunded.
• Free Test Drive: 7 days and 5 credits.
• Clear list prices on Essentials and Plus.

Cons

• No API on Essentials or Plus.
• One user per plan.
• No MCP server mentioned.
• Extra credits ($0.50 to $0.60) are capped at $2,000 of purchases a day.

Best for: one person who builds small lists in the app and does not need an API.

Pricing: Essentials $99 a month for 170 credits ($74 billed yearly); Plus $199 for 400 credits ($149 billed yearly); Professional is a custom quote (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• One founder, no developer: Apollo. Free to start, with sequences and a dialer included.
• A developer or an agent pulls the data: LeadOcean. Flat price, REST and MCP, no seats.
• Email only: Hunter. Unlimited team members and a published $6,900 price at 1M credits.
• Verified mobiles on a small budget: Prospeo or Lusha. Check the credit cost per mobile first: 10 at Prospeo, 5 at Lusha.
• A named list of people to look up: RocketReach, once you have confirmed live pricing.
• One person, small lists, no API: UpLead Essentials.
• A team of five or more pulling at volume: LeadOcean Agency. Per-seat tools multiply with every added rep.

Verdict

Apollo wins for the small team that wants one login for data and outreach. LeadOcean wins for anyone who pulls data in code or through an agent. $497 a month covers 1M records, which costs $6,900 to $24,750 on the seat and credit tools that publish a 1M price. Hunter wins for email only, and Prospeo wins for verified mobiles on a small plan. Lusha, RocketReach and UpLead each fit a narrower case: browser phone lookups, named-person lookups and small checked lists.

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