7 Best B2B Database Purchase Options in 2026 (Compared)

A B2B database purchase is a paid licence to search, enrich or export records of people and companies, such as titles, work emails and phones. Anyone who builds outbound lists, fills a CRM or feeds an agent has to buy one.

Most vendors price by seat, credit or quote, so the real cost only shows at volume. We priced all seven on one input: 1M work-email lookups that return a result, at list price. Where a vendor publishes no price at that size, we say so and do not multiply a small-plan rate.

We ran no accuracy test. The only count we ran ourselves is a free LeadOcean sizing call, shown below. Each rival has its own page: Apollo, ZoomInfo, Lead411, UpLead, Cognism and People Data Labs. For a wider view see best B2B databases, best B2B data providers and the UK list.

TL;DR

What we evaluated

• Price at volume: flat, credits, seats or quote, and the cost of 1M records.
• Purchase model: self-serve card, annual contract or sales call, and whether unused records expire.
• API access: whether search and enrichment are in the API, and on which plan.
• MCP: whether an agent can pull records, or only read docs.
• Rate limit: the default per second or minute, and what raises it.

Every figure comes from a vendor page or doc linked in its section.

1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers

LeadOcean holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone, plus 67M companies. The data is refreshed monthly, and each record carries its own fetched_at date. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters.

You size a list before you pay. On 2026-10-21 we ran leadocean_count_leads for US VPs in Sales & Business Development. It returned 129,494 people with a verified, catch-all-valid or catch-all email, out of 350,517 without an email condition. That count is free and spends no records.

Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and POST /v1/exports writes a CSV. The app at app.leadocean.io has an Exports page with a filter builder, a column picker and a price preview. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 13 tools.

Every plan has the same data and features. The price buys speed and rights. Solo is $97 a month for one person, with 50 requests a second. Agency is $497 a month with 200 requests a second and 5 keys. There are no credits, only a fair-use pace (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

Pros

• A free sizing call: counts, filters lists and a 404 on a miss cost nothing.
• REST and MCP on every plan, Free included.
• One flat monthly price per plan, with no per-record meter or overage invoice.
• Phones and bulk CSV export are included from Solo up.

Cons

• No rep workspace, sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension. The app is for exports, keys and usage.
• No name plus domain lookup. Search by domain first, then enrich by person_id.
• No refund for bounced emails, so read email_status before you send.
• Bulk CSV export is not on Free, and one search pages to 10,000 rows.

Best for: engineers, RevOps teams and agents that need volume on a fixed bill.

Pricing: Free is 1,000 records for life, no card, 5 requests a second. Solo $97, Agency $497, Platform $1,997 a month (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026).

2. Apollo: best for sales teams that want an app plus data

Apollo is a prospecting app with a database behind it. Every plan, Free included, has API access (Apollo API pricing, September 2026). The official MCP server works on any plan (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Plans bill per seat a month. Free is $0 with 75 credits. Basic is $65 with 2,500 credits, Professional $99 with 4,000, and Organization $149 with 6,000 and a three-seat minimum. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8 (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Credits are pooled across the team and expire at the end of each billing cycle. At 1M email credits a month that is 250 Professional seats, or $24,750 at list. Billed yearly, 400 Basic seats at $49 comes to $19,600 a month. Apollo prints no price for extra credits, so a cheaper add-on path cannot be priced.

Pros

• A full sales app on the same login as the data.
• API and MCP on every plan, Free included.
• Enrichment at 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans (Apollo rate limits, September 2026).

Cons

• Seats set your credits, so volume means buying seats.
• A phone costs 8 credits, and unused credits expire each cycle.
• Search is limited to 200 requests a minute on paid plans.

Best for: sales teams that want one app to find, sequence and call.

Pricing: Free, then $65, $99 and $149 per seat a month, or $49, $79 and $119 billed yearly (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

3. ZoomInfo: best for enterprise teams that want intent data

ZoomInfo is an enterprise sales intelligence suite. Its platform plan prices sit behind a human check on zoominfo.com/pricing, so we quote none.

For code, ZoomInfo sells GTM AI, with an API, MCP server and CLI on pay-as-you-go data credits. List price falls from $0.45 a credit to $0.25 at 100,000 credits, which is $25,000. The slider stops there, and larger volumes go to Enterprise (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

Search and lookup are free. A record is charged once per 12 months, so re-enriching it costs nothing (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026). Rate limits are 5 requests a second on Builder, 25 on Standard and 35 on Scaling (ZoomInfo API docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A free tier of 1,000 data credits with API and MCP, no card.
• One charge per record per year.
• Intent data and a full suite behind one account.

Cons

• The public credit ladder stops at 100,000 credits.
• MCP needs data credits, so a plan with only recurring monthly credits cannot use it (GTM AI docs, September 2026).
• Platform plan prices are not readable.

Best for: enterprise sales teams that want signals and one login.

Pricing: GTM AI credits from $20, $0.45 down to $0.25 each. Platform plans by quote (GTM AI pricing, September 2026).

4. Lead411: best for reps who want US and Canada contacts in an app

Lead411 is a contact database with a web app and Chrome extension. It lists data for 13 countries, led by the United States and Canada (Lead411 FAQ, September 2026). It gives no total record count.

Spark is $49 a month for 1,000 exports, or $490 a year. It has verified emails but no direct phones and no API. Ignite starts at $150 a month ($1,500 a year) and adds direct phones and API access. Blaze has unlimited exports by quote, on annual billing only (Lead411 pricing, September 2026).

The V3 API takes an API key and publishes no rate limit number. The MCP server is for approved customers and Lead411 Support must enable it (Lead411 API docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A low entry price with verified emails.
• A published OpenAPI spec.
• A 7-day trial with 50 exports and no card.

Cons

• No API on Spark.
• No public rate limit and gated MCP access.
• Unlimited exports need an annual quote.

Best for: a rep or small team that works in an app and sends a few hundred contacts a month.

Pricing: Spark $49, Ignite from $150 a month, Blaze by quote (Lead411 pricing, September 2026).

5. UpLead: best for reps who need checked emails in a web app

UpLead states over 200 million contacts and 19 million companies (UpLead data page, September 2026). It claims a 95% accuracy guarantee and refunds bounces and poor data.

A credit buys one record. For contacts, UpLead charges only when the email is Valid or Accept All, and unmatched enrichment rows are refunded (UpLead API docs, September 2026). Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, or $74 billed yearly. Plus is $199 for 400 credits, or $149 yearly (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

Full API access is on Professional only, a custom quote on annual billing. Extra credits cost $0.50 to $0.60, and purchases are capped at $2,000 a day (UpLead help center, September 2026). That cap makes 1M credits a month impossible on self-serve.

Pros

• You pay only for Valid or Accept All emails.
• Clear self-serve prices for one user.
• 500 API requests a minute.

Cons

• API access is on Professional only.
• No first-party MCP server in its docs.
• The daily purchase cap blocks volume.

Best for: a rep who searches in a web app and needs checked emails.

Pricing: Essentials $99 and Plus $199 a month, or $74 and $149 billed yearly. Professional by quote (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

6. Cognism: best for EU outbound teams that call mobiles

Cognism sells sales prospecting built around phone-verified mobiles and European data. It publishes no dollar price. The pricing page lists Standard and Pro, with five seats each, and says price depends on product, team and usage (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

One credit reveals one contact, and the same credits work in the app, Enrich and the API. Cognism claims more than 10M phone-verified contacts and gives no total count, only "hundreds of millions" of profiles (Cognism FAQ, September 2026).

The API allows 500 requests a minute per account, per operation (Cognism rate limits, September 2026). The MCP server has 15 tools and OAuth 2.0 sign-in (Cognism MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Phone-verified mobiles with Do Not Call checks.
• API and MCP share credits with the app.
• Revealing a contact twice does not cost twice.

Cons

• No public price at any size.
• No published credit allocation per seat.
• API and MCP need a package that includes them.

Best for: EU outbound teams that call mobiles and can buy through sales.

Pricing: Quote only (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

7. People Data Labs: best for licensed datasets and per-match enrichment

People Data Labs (PDL) is a person and company data API with bulk licences. Its person dataset holds 2.47 billion profiles, and 592M of them have an email (PDL docs, September 2026).

Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, which is $0.28 each, or $78 a month billed yearly. Free gives 100 credits a month with contact data obscured (PDL pricing, September 2026). One credit buys one match, and a 404 is free.

Self-serve is meant for volumes below about 100,000 profiles, and above that PDL sends buyers to Enterprise (PDL blog, September 2026). Person Enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and Person Search allows 10 (PDL docs, September 2026).

Pros

• The largest stated dataset on this list.
• Pay per match, with no charge for a 404.
• Enrichment at 1,000 requests a minute.

Cons

• $0.28 a record at the entry rate, and no public 1M price.
• No official MCP server in its docs (PDL llms.txt, September 2026).
• Search defaults to 10 requests a minute.

Best for: teams that license data into a warehouse or enrich one match at a time.

Pricing: Free up to 100 credits a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits (PDL pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• Code, agents or volume: LeadOcean. Same data on every plan, REST and MCP from Free, and Agency at $497 a month.
• A sales app with sequences: Apollo, if seat-based credits fit your team.
• Intent data and one suite: ZoomInfo, through sales for platform plans.
• US and Canada contacts in an app: Lead411, on Ignite if you need the API.
• Checked emails, small volume: UpLead, with a quote for API access.
• EU mobiles for a calling team: Cognism, on a quote.
• Licensed files for your own warehouse: PDL.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for anyone who pulls data by API, by agent or at volume. Agency is $497 a month for 1M-scale work, and sizing is free. Apollo wins for a sales team that wants an app and sequences. ZoomInfo suits enterprise teams that want intent data, and Cognism suits EU callers. Lead411 and UpLead suit a rep working in a web app. PDL wins for licensed datasets. Start on the free plan and run the same lookups on any two of them.

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