7 Best B2B Databases in 2026 (Compared)

A B2B database is a store of people and company records, such as titles, work emails, phones and firmographics, that you search, enrich or export. Sales teams use one to build lists. Engineers and agent builders use one to fill in records from code.

Most databases price by seat, credit or quote, so the cost of 1M records is hard to compare. Rate limits run from 10 requests a minute to 10,000 a second, and only some MCP servers return records. We priced all seven on the same input, 1M work-email lookups, and ran no accuracy test.

LeadOcean is first for readers who pull data by API, by agent or at volume. Each rival has its own page: Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, UpLead and People Data Labs. See also best B2B data providers, the UK list, what enriching data means and pricing.

TL;DR

"1M records" means 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.

What we evaluated

• Price at volume: flat, credits, seats or quote, and the cost of 1M records.
• API access: whether search and enrichment are in the API, and whether the free tier includes them.
• MCP: whether an agent can search and enrich, or only read docs.
• Rate limit: the default per second or minute, and what raises it.
• Data: stated coverage, and the email and phone fields you get back.

We quote no match rates. 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 number, 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.

Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows a request. Every record has an email_status, with 13 values from verified to spam_trap.

Paid plans are flat: Solo is $97 a month at 50 requests a second, and Agency is $497 a month at 200 requests a second with 5 API keys. There are no credits, only a fair-use pace. Person enrich also returns career history: past roles, education and certifications. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 13 tools, so an agent can pull records directly.

Pros

• Flat monthly plans with a fair-use pace, not a credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• Counts are free, and a miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.
• The whole database and every feature on every plan, with no seat fees.

Cons

• Bulk CSV export is not on the Free plan.
• No rep workspace, sequencer, dialer, CRM or Chrome extension. The app has an Exports page, nothing more.
• 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.

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

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

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

Apollo is a prospecting app with a database behind it. Its pricing page claims 240 million contacts and 30 million companies (Apollo pricing, September 2026). Every plan, Free included, has API access (Apollo developer FAQ, September 2026).

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

Credits are pooled across the team and expire at the end of each billing cycle. Paid plans allow 1,000 enrichment requests a minute and 200 search requests a minute (Apollo rate limits, September 2026). The official MCP server works on any plan (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A full sales app, with sequences, on the same login as the data.
• API and an official MCP server on every plan, Free included.
• Enrichment at 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans.

Cons

• Seats set your credits, so 1M email lookups a month works out to about 250 Professional seats.
• A phone number costs 8 credits, and unused credits expire each cycle.
• The price of an add-on credit is not public.

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 and one suite

ZoomInfo is an enterprise sales intelligence suite. Its platform plans are quoted by sales (ZoomInfo, July 2026).

For code, ZoomInfo sells GTM AI, an API, MCP server and CLI on pay-as-you-go credits. A data credit enriches or exports one company or contact. List price falls from $0.45 each to $0.25 at 100,000 credits, which is $25,000 (GTM AI pricing, September 2026). Search and lookup are free.

A record is charged once per 12 months (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). The MCP server needs a GTM AI account or a ZoomInfo subscription with data credits (GTM AI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A free tier of 1,000 data credits and 1,000 AI credits, with API and MCP, no card.
• A record is charged once a year, so repeat enrichment costs nothing.
• Intent data and a full suite sit behind the same account.

Cons

• The credit slider stops at 100,000 credits. Beyond that is a quote.
• The free tier is limited to 5 requests a second.
• MCP access needs data credits, so a plan with only recurring monthly credits cannot use it.

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. Cognism: best for EU outbound teams that call mobiles

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

One credit reveals one contact. Each seat includes credits, more can be bought, and the same credits work in the platform, Enrich and the API. Cognism claims more than 10M phone-verified contacts and Do Not Call checks in 15 territories (Cognism Diamond Data, September 2026). It gives no total profile count, only "hundreds of millions" (Cognism FAQ, September 2026).

The API allows 500 requests a minute per account, per operation (Cognism rate limits, September 2026). The search schema has 13 person and 21 company filter fields (Cognism API reference, 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, which suits cold calling.
• API and MCP use the same credits as the app.
• Revealing a contact twice does not cost twice.

Cons

• No public price at any size, so 1M needs a sales call.
• No published coverage count and no 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. Standard and Pro (Cognism pricing, September 2026).

5. Lusha: best for small sales teams on self-serve credits

Lusha sells contact data on self-serve credit plans, with a browser extension and an API. Its homepage claims more than 515 million contacts and more than 29 million companies (Lusha, October 2026). Every plan, Free included, gets an API key.

Free is $0 for 40 credits a month. Starter is $49.90 a month for 400 credits, or $37.45 billed yearly. Pro is $69.90 for 600, or $52.45 yearly. Premium is $399.90 for 3,400, or $299.95 yearly (Lusha pricing, September 2026). Scale is custom.

An email costs 1 credit and a phone 5. Email plus phone through one API request is 7 credits. Bulk calls cost 1 credit per 25 results and take up to 100 contacts a request (Lusha API guide, September 2026). Free and Starter allow 40 requests a minute and 100 a day, and Premium allows 300 a minute. The MCP server has 50 tools on the REST credit pool (Lusha MCP docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Low entry price, with a free plan and no card.
• API key and a 50-tool MCP server on the same credits.
• Data Waterfall, 2 credits per work email, on paid plans.

Cons

• The top public tier is 10,000 credits a month. 1M is about 104 times that.
• Free and Starter cap API use at 100 requests a day.
• Credits reset at the end of a yearly cycle.

Best for: small sales teams that want a self-serve extension and a light API.

Pricing: Free, then $49.90, $69.90 and $399.90 a month, or $37.45, $52.45 and $299.95 billed yearly (Lusha pricing, September 2026).

6. UpLead: best for reps who search in a web app and need checked emails

UpLead is a contact database you search in a web app and buy in credits. It states more than 200 million contacts with email addresses and more than 19 million companies (UpLead data page, September 2026). It also claims a 95% accuracy guarantee and refunds bounces and poor data.

A credit buys one contact or company record. For contacts with an email, UpLead charges only when the status is Valid or Accept All (UpLead API docs, September 2026). Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, or $74 a month billed yearly. Plus is $199 for 400 credits, or $149 yearly (UpLead pricing, September 2026).

The API is tied to the plan. The pricing comparison ticks the Enrichment API and Full API Access only on Professional, which is a custom quote with annual billing. The API allows 500 requests a minute, and the docs mention no MCP server (UpLead API docs, September 2026).

Pros

• A credit is spent only on a Valid or Accept All email, and unmatched enrichment rows are refunded.
• Bounces and poor data are refundable under its accuracy guarantee.
• Clear self-serve prices for one user.

Cons

• API access is on Professional only, a custom quote.
• No first-party MCP server.
• Extra credits are $0.50 to $0.60 each, and purchases are capped at $2,000 a day (UpLead help center, September 2026).

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

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

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

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

Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, which is $0.28 each. Billed yearly it is $940, or $78 a month. Free gives 100 credits a month with contact data obscured (PDL pricing, September 2026). One credit buys one match, and a 404 is free (PDL docs, September 2026).

Self-serve is meant for about 100,000 profiles, and above that PDL quotes Enterprise (PDL blog, September 2026). Enrichment allows 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and Person Search allows 10 (PDL docs, September 2026). PDL's docs list no official MCP server (PDL docs, September 2026).

Pros

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

Cons

• $0.28 a record at the entry rate, with no public price at 1M.
• No official MCP server.
• 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, or $78 billed yearly (PDL pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

How to choose

• Code, agents or volume: LeadOcean. Flat price, REST and MCP on every plan, 200 requests a second on Agency.
• A sales app with sequences: Apollo, if seat-based credits fit your team.
• Intent data and org charts: ZoomInfo, through sales.
• EU mobiles for a calling team: Cognism, on a quote.
• A cheap self-serve start: Lusha, if 100 API requests a day is enough.
• Checked emails in a web app: UpLead, with a custom quote for API access.
• Licensed files in your own warehouse: PDL.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers. It has a flat $497 price on Agency, emails and phones in one plan, and an MCP server that returns records. Apollo wins for a sales team that wants an app and sequences, ZoomInfo for enterprise signals and Cognism for EU mobiles. Lusha is the cheap self-serve start, UpLead suits a rep in a web app, and PDL wins for licensed datasets. Start on the free plan and run the same lookups on any two of them.

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