ZoomInfo and Clay get plenty of attention—both praise and criticism—from SDR teams.
A common view is that these two platforms have some of the best data on the market. But there are also criticisms—high pricing, steep learning curves, and limited features in certain areas.
Which one fits your needs? Let’s find out.
Clay vs ZoomInfo: Quick Comparison
Clay | ZoomInfo | |
Pricing | Flat monthly pricing based on credits | Annual contracts, priced per seat and product line |
Data Sources | Pulls from multiple third-party sources | Proprietary database with millions of global records |
Automation | Fully customizable, no-code enrichment workflows | Automation is often gated behind higher-tier plans |
Outreach | Doesn’t offer built-in outreach tools | Includes native email sequencing and Salesloft integration |
Integrations | Native support for Salesforce, HubSpot, Airtable (others via Zapier or Make) | Deeper native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach |
Ideal Client | Best for startups and growth teams who need flexible, personalized workflows | Best for enterprise teams focused on high-volume outreach |
Who Is Each Platform Best For?
Clay leans into flexibility—it’s a great match for startups and lean teams that want to build enrichment and automation workflows without a ton of overhead.
ZoomInfo fits larger sales orgs that need deep data and structured systems, and are ready to invest in a full-scale go-to-market engine.
ZoomInfo Overview
ZoomInfo is a legacy sales intelligence platform with one of the most accurate B2B datasets in the market.
Key Features
B2B contact database with over 200M professional profiles, 100M company profiles, and 135M phone numbers
Buyer intent signals like company funding updates, hiring surges, technology installations, and competitor non-renewals
Filters by company size, revenue, tech stack, industry, etc.
Automated workflows triggered by buying signals or CRM updates
Deep native integrations with Salesloft, Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Pricing and Structure
Plans are segmented by use case: Sales, Marketing, and Talent, each with its own feature set and pricing tier.
ZoomInfo uses a credit-based pricing model—every time you reveal or export contact info, you burn credits. While pricing isn’t publicly listed, most teams report spending at least $15,000/year to get started.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Extensive database with high data accuracy rates
Enterprise-grade CRM integrations
Built-in outreach capabilities
Powerful filtering and prospecting tools
Cons:
High price tag with long-term contracts (though pricing is often negotiable, according to users)
Essential capabilities like intent data, workflow automation, or sequence tools are locked behind higher-tier plans
May require training or extended ramp-up time before gaining full value
What users say about ZoomInfo
“No one has perfect data. ZoomInfo is up there with the best.”
“Zoominfo is good for phone numbers, but email quality is marginally better than any other provider (none of them are perfect).”
“ZI, for all its shortcomings, is still better than everything else I've compared, and I keep coming back to it.”
Clay Overview
Clay isn’t a data provider in the traditional sense. It plugs into your favorite data sources so you can build enrichment workflows that are as advanced as you want.
Key Features
AI-powered enrichment from LinkedIn, Crunchbase, company websites, socials, and hundreds of other sources
Dynamic workflows that let you build automations and triggers (buying signals included) with no code
Exports and CRM sync with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Airtable, and Google Sheets
Custom scraping and enrichment logic
Pricing and Structure
Clay offers transparent, monthly pricing based on usage:
Free: 100 credits/month, access to core people/company search features
Starter ($149/month): 2,000 credits/month, adds signals, scheduling, and phone numbers
Explorer ($349/month): 10,000 credits/month, unlocks email sequencing integrations
Pro ($800/month): 50,000 credits/month, unlocks CRM integrations
Enterprise: custom package
Pros and Cons of Clay
Pros:
Superior data coverage and enrichment
No-code advanced workflow automation
Highly customizable and flexible—you can tailor enrichment pipelines with AI logic, custom fields, and web scraping
Modern UI and a faster onboarding process.
AI tools like Claygent (an AI web scraper) and in-platform message drafting.
Cons:
Because Clay aggregates from 40+ providers, data quality can vary
Requires experience with building workflows and technical setup
While the interface is flexible, it can feel cluttered when handling large tables or multiple workspaces
Getting proficient with advanced features may take months
No built-in outreach tools (requires integrations)
What users say about Clay
“Clay has let me do some things that otherwise would have been impossible or unworkably hard.”
“It’s great, but there’s a massive learning curve unless you dedicate all your time to it. It is not for non-technical people.”
“It’s hard to get the hang of the platform, and there’s a high chance of wasting your credits (aka your money) if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Key Differences Between Clay and ZoomInfo
Clay and ZoomInfo solve similar problems but take very different paths to get there. Here’s how they compare across key areas.
Data Enrichment
ZoomInfo relies on its own internal database, which is large but fixed. In contrast, Clay pulls from multiple third-party data providers and uses a waterfall approach—it turns to data providers one by one to enrich lead profiles with detailed info.
Automation
ZoomInfo does offer automation tools, but many of these are locked behind higher-tier plans or add-on modules.
Clay supports flexible, end-to-end workflow automation. You can auto-enrich leads as they come in, trigger updates based on CRM changes, or run large enrichment jobs—all without code.
Outreach
With ZoomInfo, you get built-in outreach tools where you can launch multi-step sequences triggered by buying intent or website activity.
On top of that, it has a deep native integration with Salesloft—so if your team runs cadences there, you can orchestrate the entire sales process without switching platforms. You can also purchase access to Salesloft directly through your ZoomInfo account rep.
Clay doesn’t offer native outreach, but it integrates easily with tools like Instantly, Apollo, or Smartlead if you want to build your own outbound stack.
CRM & Integrations
ZoomInfo offers deeper native integrations with major CRMs and sales engagement platforms. You can sync data bi-directionally with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Outreach, trigger actions based on CRM activity, and auto-enrich contact records inside your pipeline.
Clay supports CRM sync, too, but with lighter coverage. It connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Airtable, but many integrations are handled through tools like Zapier, Make, or custom webhook setups.
Usability
For power users, both platforms come with a learning curve, but in different ways.
ZoomInfo offers a robust, enterprise-grade interface that can feel overwhelming at first. With multiple product lines (SalesOS, MarketingOS, TalentOS), dashboards, filters, and nested modules, it takes time to learn the platform.
Clay is positioned as more intuitive, designed for no-code users and growth teams. It gives you a visual, spreadsheet-like workspace to build enrichment workflows and automations. But while the interface feels more user-friendly, it still takes time to master, especially if you want to move beyond basic tasks.
Data Quality, Accuracy & Scale
At the end of the day, it all comes down to data with these two tools. Let’s take a look at how each platform handles it.
ZoomInfo Data Strength
ZoomInfo has an unparalleled proprietary database. It covers millions of global companies and delivers deep company profiles enriched with firmographics, buying intent, and tech stack data.
A common sentiment among long-time users sums it up well: “Perfect data doesn’t exist. I’ve used them all, and ZoomInfo is far better than anything else on the market.” It’s not flawless, but for sheer breadth and structure, it’s hard to beat.
Clay Data Strategy
Clay isn’t really in the same wheelhouse as ZoomInfo. It acts as a hub that pulls contact data from providers like ZoomInfo, Apollo, Clearbit, and People Data Labs, then “waterfalls” through them to find the best available enrichment in real time.
The platform also lets you keep records fresh by automatically re-enriching based on triggers, which makes it a flexible option for teams focused on personalization and nimble outreach.
Accuracy at Scale
If you need structured, high-volume data for broad outreach or global coverage, ZoomInfo seems to be a more reliable option.
Clay offers more flexibility and freshness through real-time enrichment, but accuracy can vary depending on the providers in your stack.
Pricing Models and Flexibility
Both platforms take fundamentally different approaches to pricing, and this will likely influence your choice as much as the features themselves.
ZoomInfo Pricing
ZoomInfo requires a high upfront investment. Contracts are annual, often with multi-seat minimums, and features are segmented across different product lines (SalesOS, MarketingOS, TalentOS).
Pricing isn’t listed publicly, but you’re typically looking at a five-figure annual spend.
Clay Pricing
With Clay, you can start for free or at $149/month and scale up as your prospecting expands. The flexibility is a major benefit for lean teams who don’t want to commit thousands before validating results.
Which Is More Startup-Friendly?
Clay is the clear winner for startups and scrappy GTM teams. You get full access to core features at a low entry point, with the ability to scale as you go.
ZoomInfo makes more sense if you’re running a mature outbound operation with a big enough budget to unlock the full value of its intent data, automation, and CRM integrations.
Best Use Cases for Each Platform
Pricing structure isn’t a deal breaker for you?
In that case, let your use case guide which one fits best.
ZoomInfo Is Best For…
Enterprise sales orgs and BDR teams running large-scale, global outreach typically lean toward ZoomInfo. It takes budget and infrastructure to make it work, but for volume, accuracy, and targeting precision, it delivers.
Clay Is Best For…
Clay is the best tool for startups, growth teams, and solo sellers who need flexible enrichment, workflow automation, and control over how and when data gets pulled.
It’s built for experimentation—you can test providers, build and tweak workflows, and scale fast without needing a dev team. If your priority is personalization at scale rather than blasting massive lists, Clay gives you the right toolkit.
What Both Clay and ZoomInfo Miss
Neither platform offers true end-to-end outbound. ZoomInfo has built-in sequencing, but it’s limited and often locked behind add-ons. Clay requires integrations to run campaigns and send emails.
In both cases, you need a separate outreach platform like Salesloft, Outreach, Instantly, or Smartlead to handle email delivery and follow-ups at scale.
Meet Artisan: The AI-Powered Third Option
If ZoomInfo feels too rigid and Clay too manual, Artisan offers a middle path—an AI-powered enrichment and outreach automation platform under one interface.
All-in-One AI Outbound
With Artisan, you can handle the entire outbound sales process—from lead generation to personalized outreach—from one interface. AI BDR Ava is an AI employee that sits at the core of the platform and manages all automation tasks.
B2B Data at Scale
Artisan gives you access to over 300 million global contacts that are enriched and hygiene-checked on an ongoing basis. You can filter those by industry, location, intent, job changes, funding rounds, and many more criteria.
Multi-Channel Outreach
Artisan has powerful email personalization features that draw on enriched data and run fully automated email and LinkedIn sequences. You can oversee the process if you want, but Ava’s built to run it end to end.
Consolidated Stack and Transparent Pricing
You don’t need a vast tech stack when you have Artisan. It combines built-in CRM, enrichment, deliverability tools, and outreach workflows.
In addition, Artisan uses simple, flat-rate pricing—no confusing credits or surprise fees. Talk to our team to get a quote tailored to your use case.
Final Verdict: Clay vs. ZoomInfo or a Better Option?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re likely trying to solve the same problem most GTM teams face: how to scale outbound without blowing up your budget.
Clay and ZoomInfo both bring something valuable to the table, but each comes with limitations.
ZoomInfo is primarily a data provider for enterprise sales orgs doing high-volume outreach across large markets. You’re getting breadth and integrations, but you’re also locking into a rigid contract, expensive pricing, and a system that works best when you already have a full ops team in place.
Clay is a flexible, automation-friendly platform ideal for startups and growth teams who want control over workflows. Great if you love experimenting and building custom logic, but it requires time, upkeep, and a learning curve.
Artisan is AI-native from the ground up, with enrichment, targeting, personalization, and sequencing built into one interface. It automates what Clay requires you to build and what ZoomInfo expects you to integrate. There’s no duct-taping tools or juggling workflows—it’s all handled by Ava, your AI outbound assistant.
