Cognism Review: What It Does (and Doesn’t Do)

If you do a quick web search, Cognism shows up as one of the most popular providers of accurate data for B2B sales.

How true is that?

What else does Cognism offer to GTM teams? 

And are there alternatives that might be a better fit? 

Let’s answer all those questions and more. 

Is There a Better Option Than Cognism?

Cognism is known for delivering accurate B2B contact data and intent insights. Its phone number coverage is among the best, and it checks all the boxes for GDPR compliance.

But is it enough?

The short answer is that it is a good choice for companies targeting European prospects with an existing tech stack for sales cycle management.

However, it is not an all-in-one solution. If you’re looking for a tool that blends contact data with built-in outbound workflows, AI assistance, and reporting, there are better options. 

Cognism Review: What You Get (and What You Don’t)

We’ll start with an overview of Cognism’s core features. After that, we’ll take a look at how it works in practice.

B2B Contact Database

Data is Cognism’s biggest strength. When stacked against tools like Apollo, Lusha, and Seamless.ai, it stands out for its GDPR compliance and accuracy.

“As a BDR, what I like best about Cognism is the quality and accuracy of the contact data—especially the direct dial numbers, which significantly increase my connect rates,” shares one user. And this review tracks: Cognism’s Diamond Data gives users strong coverage of verified mobile numbers, checked against 13 European do-not-call lists. 

But you should note that Cognism has shifted its focus primarily to the European market, which is reflected in recent changes to its team and positioning.

The company has scaled back its US presence, and its website now emphasizes coverage in EMEA rather than global reach. While their data remains strong in Europe, updates outside this region—particularly in the US and APAC—are slowing.

Intent Data & Signal Tracking

Cognism sources most of its intent data (70%) from Bombora, one of the most respected intent data providers.

Bombora collects intent signals from a massive B2B data co-op—thousands of publisher websites—so it can track behavior across a wide range of topics. These signals include topics target accounts are actively researching, as well as insights like hiring trends, recent funding rounds, and technographic data (tools in their stack).

What’s missing, though, is first-party intent. Cognism doesn’t offer website visitor tracking or warm-lead scoring based on how prospects engage with your own content on your site.

Data Enrichment

Cognism helps keep your CRM data clean and current. It fills in missing fields in platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, and offers on-demand enrichment through CSV uploads and API calls. You can update prospect lists with fresh details, like job changes, name updates, and new mobile numbers, whenever you need.

But it’s still a manual process. There’s no automation running in the background to keep records updated continuously. Sales development reps need to trigger enrichment themselves, which adds an extra step to the workflow.

Chrome Extension & LinkedIn Companion

Cognism’s Chrome extension works directly on LinkedIn and Sales Navigator, making it easy to pull contact data while browsing prospect profiles. 

However, the extension doesn’t plug into your outreach workflows. It’s not tied to sequences, automation, or campaign triggers, so it’s helpful for research but doesn’t speed up execution.

CRM Integrations

Cognism offers seamless integrations with major sales intelligence platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, and Salesloft. You can push contact information and enrichment updates directly into your CRM or sales engagement tool, which keeps your systems in sync.

A Look Inside a Cognism-Based Workflow

To get a better sense of how Cognism fits into a real outbound workflow, we tested it across a few use cases—specifically lead research, data reveal, and enrichment.

Lead Research & Contact Reveal on LinkedIn

Using Cognism’s Chrome extension, we started by browsing profiles in LinkedIn Sales Navigator. When you land on a prospect, the extension “reveals” their contact details directly in the sidebar. 

In these tests, mobile phone numbers were often available for European contacts, and the email data accuracy was decent (about 7 out of 10 were verified). Once revealed, contacts can be added to a list for export or pushed into your CRM.

Manual Data Verification with ‘Diamond on Demand’

If you want to verify or enrich a lead that’s not in Cognism’s core database, you can upload a CSV or drop them into a list field in the browser interface and request additional verification. This is part of the Diamond on Demand feature. 

Upon submitting a few outdated records, job titles were updated within 24 hours, and one even returned a mobile number that wasn’t previously available.

CRM Sync

The Salesforce integration works as expected: once you add contacts to a list, you can sync them straight into your CRM. 

That said, it’s still a manual sync. You push contacts in batches—it’s not a real-time or auto-updating flow. So if someone changes roles or leaves a company a month later, you’d need to re-trigger enrichment or check for updates manually.

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a Demo

How Much Does Cognism Cost? 

Let’s talk about money. What will Cognism cost you?

Pricing Structure

Cognism doesn’t offer a self-service sign-up—everything runs through the sales team. Its two core plans, Grow and Elevate, are priced per user with unlimited access to view data:

• 

  Grow includes email and phone data.

  
  
• 

  Elevate adds advanced intelligence and actionable intent signals.

  
  

Most team plans start at around $20,000 per year, though pricing varies based on team size, regions covered, and add-ons.

Cognism is designed for scale, and reviewers frequently mention this: “...it’s clearly built for scale, so if you’re not extracting full value from all the features, the cost per user might feel a bit higher.”

What Features Do You Get With Cognism? 

Or, in other words, what does your quote depend on?

Your Cognism pricing largely depends on the volume and type of data you need access to. While viewing data is unlimited, you have limits on how many prospect lists you can create and how many contacts you can export within those lists. 

For example, the Grow plan allows one list with up to 250 contacts, whereas Elevate lets you manage up to 10 lists with 500 contacts each.

On top of that, Elevate offers extras like the option to submit your own data for enhanced verification through a feature called Diamond on Demand, as well as the option to purchase additional intent data topics.

What Are the Downsides of Using Cognism?

All in all, Cognism is a solid B2B data platform, but there are some drawbacks that might push companies—especially smaller ones—elsewhere. 

Steep Pricing for Basic Functionality

Cognism’s core value is access to a static database, and that comes at a high starting price. It’s a bit of a leap: you’ll need to commit upfront and then assess whether the value you’re getting matches the spend.

No Outreach Automation

You still need additional sales tools to actually run outbound. Cognism doesn’t offer sequencing, routing, or campaign workflows—so sales reps need to toggle between platforms to manage outreach campaigns.

Stale or Missing Data

If you’re relying solely on data—without personalization or smart automation—there’s always a risk of being let down. 

No database is perfect. In Cognism’s case, mobile number accuracy is strong within Europe, but even there, it’s not flawless. And once you move beyond EMEA, gaps become more noticeable.

Limited Real-Time Intelligence

Cognism gives you third-party intent signals via Bombora, but there’s no first-party tracking. You can’t see who’s visiting your website, what content they’re engaging with, or when they’re showing signs of interest.

Introducing Artisan: Built for AI Automation

As we’ve mentioned earlier, there are systems that combine quality data and automated workflows. Artisan is one of those. 

It’s an AI-powered outbound system that goes beyond contact lists. It handles tasks like lead generation, email warmup, personalized outreach, and beyond.

These are the standout Artisan features Cognism doesn’t offer:

Watchtower campaigns: Artisan monitors site activity to enrich and qualify leads in real time with its Watchtower feature. Get notified when target accounts show buying intent, visit your site, or engage with your content. 

End-to-end AI BDR (Ava): The core engine behind it all is Ava, Artisan’s AI BDR. She runs the whole outbound motion for you, including writing, scheduling, sending, and following up on messages.

Built-in email warmup: Artisan warms up new inboxes automatically with its built-in deliverability optimization engine that reduces the risk of getting flagged as spam.

Fully automated sequencing: Multi-touch, multi-channel campaigns across email and LinkedIn with Artisan’s outreach sequencer—there’s no need for a separate sequencing tool.

Cognism vs. Artisan: Side-by-Side Breakdown

With all the above information in mind, let’s run down the main differences between Cognisma and an all-in-one tool like Artisan. 

Is Cognism Worth It?

If your revenue team is big, your RevOps processes are mature, and you’ve already built a custom tech stack, Cognism delivers. But it comes with the expectation that you’ll plug it into other tools to extract full value.

If you’re growing fast and want automation to keep up—it’s Artisan. 

Instead of toggling between Cognism, Apollo, Outreach, and a dozen spreadsheets, Artisan gives you one unified workspace, an AI assistant, and a complete set of tools to manage campaigns, responses, and lead handoff.

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a Demo