Sales representatives waste 27.3% of their time due to bad contact data. That’s over a quarter of every workday spent chasing dead emails, phone numbers that go straight to some confused person who definitely doesn’t make purchasing decisions, and people who switched jobs months ago.
Most modern sales teams rely heavily on lead databases for prospecting, but these platforms often create more problems than they solve. It seems like most of them would rather brag about having 500 million contacts than admit half of those contacts are useless.
So how do you separate the databases that actually work from the ones that just look good in demos? We put 8 B2B lead databases through actual testing to see which ones deliver contacts you can reach. Here’s what we found.
- Instantly
Instantly’s lead database, Supersearch, houses over 450 million contacts across industries and locations. With numbers like that, you’re sure to find leads for whatever market you’re targeting.
Every lead goes through email verification before you pay for it, so you’re not wasting money on contacts that don’t work. You can filter prospects by industry, job title, revenue, technologies, funding status, and dozens of other parameters to focus on your exact target market. To make your outreach even more targeted, the AI web researcher visits prospect websites automatically to find case studies, client lists, pricing, or any specific information you need.
Found a prospect that looks perfect? The clone feature finds more people with the same characteristics. Instead of starting your search over, you get similar leads that match your ideal customer profile.
The lead database alone is powerful, but connecting it with Instantly’s email tools changes everything. Your outreach becomes seamless with the AI email writer, which creates personalized emails for each lead based on what actually works from billions of sales messages. Add in automated warmup sequences and deliverability features that get your messages into inboxes instead of spam folders, and you have everything you need in one platform.
- Cognism
Cognism built its platform around European markets, which makes it the obvious choice if you’re trying to crack into Europe. The platform is chock full with over 200 million European contacts, plus 70 million global mobile numbers and 50 million North American phone numbers.
Their best feature is something called Diamond Data—verified direct dial phone numbers for decision-makers that their team manually confirms. This gives you a direct line to executives instead of going through gatekeepers or main office numbers. The verification process combines proprietary sources, manual research, strategic partnerships, and machine learning to keep contact information current and accurate.
Cognism takes the legal stuff seriously too, following GDPR, CCPA, and Do Not Call rules across 13 countries. Their phone-verified mobile numbers work 87% of the time, so you’re not burning through your day calling dead lines.
- Apollo
Apollo calls its system a “living data network” because it constantly updates through 2 million data contributors who keep contact information fresh. The database contains over 210 million contacts from 60 million companies, with new data flowing in continuously. The platform runs a 7-step verification process that delivers 91% email accuracy and less than 1% invalid phone numbers.
The Chrome extension lets you find contact details from any website instantly. Apollo also provides lead recommendations based on your search patterns and shows you prospects similar to ones you’ve already engaged with. Beyond basic contact info, you get access to intent data and employee growth trends to time your outreach better.
- Lusha
Lusha focuses on North American and European markets with 135 million enriched contacts, including 45 million in North America and 21 million GDPR-compliant European contacts. It covers both enterprise (50 million profiles) and SMB businesses (44 million profiles), so you can find prospects regardless of company size.
Lusha is built for simplicity. New users can set up their account quickly and start finding contacts without a steep learning curve. The platform provides verified emails, phone numbers, job change alerts, and technology filters to help you find the right people at the right companies.
But while the email verification process is solid, some contact information can become outdated over time. Lusha also offers email sequencing features, but these are fairly basic compared to dedicated email automation platforms.
- RocketReach
RocketReach holds over 700 million professionals from 60 million companies, making it one of the biggest contact databases you’ll find. The platform focuses heavily on showing you how reliable each contact is through verification scores, so you know exactly whether that email address actually works. RocketReach also guarantees 98% deliverability for its verified email addresses, which means almost no bounce backs when you send your campaigns.
The LinkedIn extension makes prospecting incredibly simple. You can pull contact details straight from LinkedIn profiles in real time, without copying and pasting. And if you’re already using CRM or other sales tools, RocketReach connects with most of them through integrations or its API.
- ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo operates a large B2B database with over 150 million verified contacts, complete with phone numbers and email addresses. Major companies like Airbnb, PayPal, Deloitte, and J.P. Morgan rely on ZoomInfo for their own prospecting efforts. The platform builds this comprehensive dataset by gathering information from public records, annual reports, and web scraping technology that claims to access data hidden from typical searches.
The “Scoops” feature uses an in-house research team that tracks company news like mergers, funding rounds, leadership changes, and new projects. This timing intelligence helps you reach out at exactly the right moment when prospects might actually need your solution.
- Saleshandy
Saleshandy’s database holds over 700 million contacts with email verification that only shows contacts hitting 95%+ accuracy rates. You get work emails, personal emails, phone numbers, and company details without annoying credit limits or export restrictions. When you need to scale up, the bulk search feature handles up to 10,000 leads at once instead of searching contacts individually. The Chrome extension also works directly on LinkedIn, so you can pull contact details from profiles while you’re browsing the platform.
The lead finder sits directly inside Saleshandy’s cold email platform, so you can find a prospect, add them to an email sequence, write personalized messages using their company data, and launch campaigns without ever leaving the dashboard.
- Dealfront
Dealfront has over 180 million contacts and 40 million companies across Europe, with 100+ filters for finding prospects, but its real value comes from tracking which companies are visiting your website. The platform’s AI system monitors up to 33 different trigger events to show you exactly who’s browsing your site, how they found you, what pages they checked out, and whether they’re just window shopping or actually ready to buy. This means you can call prospects who already know your company exists instead of making completely blind cold calls.
The database itself works well for European markets, though some users mention email bounce-backs. There’s also no built-in email system, so you’ll need to export leads to other platforms for actual outreach campaigns.
Final Thoughts
The best lead generation tools for B2B aren’t just about who has the biggest database anymore. The platforms that actually help you close deals give you accurate contacts plus the tools to reach them effectively. Some focus on email automation, others track website visitors, and a few even use AI to write better messages.
But the perfect database means nothing if your team won’t use it. Don’t settle for inferior tools just because they’re easier to navigate. Sometimes a smaller, simpler platform that integrates well with your existing process beats a feature-packed monster that sits collecting digital dust.
