Torn between ZoomInfo and UpLead?Â
Perhaps you feel ZoomInfo is overpriced. Or UpLead is too lightweight. It might simply be that neither feels quite right.Â
We get it. Your team needs a reliable B2B data source that fuels real outbound results—not stale contacts, hidden upgrade fees, or clunky UX.
That’s why we ran the tests, read the fine print, and combed through G2, Capterra, and Reddit threads to find out how these tools perform in 2025.
ZoomInfo vs. UpLead: Quick Comparison
Feature | ZoomInfo | UpLead |
Ideal User | Enterprise sales teams that need massive scale and complex integrations, and don’t mind long contracts | Startups and mid-market teams that prioritize data accuracy, fair pricing, and ease of use |
Database Size | 260M+ contacts, 104M+ companies, 135M+ verified phone numbers | 160M+ contacts, 19M+ companies |
Data Accuracy | Self-reported ~95% accuracy Users report ~75% accuracy | 95%+ guaranteed accuracy by the company |
Data Freshness | Variable freshness depending on region and role | Real-time email verification at download and ongoing database refreshes |
Features Included | Org charts, enrichment, workflows, technographics, intent data, predictive modeling, website visitor tracking | Verified email data, direct dials, CRM enrichment, Chrome extension, technographic filters, intent data |
Pricing Transparency | Annual custom contracts only; typically $15k–$30k/year minimum | Month-to-month plans from $99/month, cancellable any time |
Who Each Platform Is Best For
ZoomInfo is best for large sales organizations with deep budgets, mature RevOps, and multi-seat sales teams running account-based marketing (ABM) at scale.
It’s a good fit when:
You need firmographic depth (headcount growth, hiring trends, tech stack) to power intent-based targeting.
You’re already using Salesforce, Marketo, Outreach, etc., and want seamless integrations.
You can afford a $15K–$40K+ annual commitment and plan to use multiple data and enrichment features continuously.
UpLead is ideal for startups, lean sales teams, and mid-market companies seeking verified B2B leads under clear and transparent pricing models.
It’s a good fit when:
You need accurate contact information data with real-time verification to build clean prospect lists with no hassle.
You don’t need features for RevOps like predictive modeling.
You’re running outbound in-house or via tools like HubSpot or Lemlist.
ZoomInfo Overview
ZoomInfo is the heavyweight in the B2B data space, but with that power comes complexity, a steep learning curve, cost, and commitment.Â
The platform offers tools for lead prospecting, advanced display targeting options, and even live chat widgets. It also competes with players like Gong and offers conversation intelligence through ZoomInfo Chorus.
Let’s look at lead research features.Â
Key Features
SalesOS for contact search and lead enrichment
MarketingOS for buyer intent and web tracking
TalentOS with data for recruiting teams
Trigger alerts (Scoops) on company activity like funding, decision-maker job changes, hiring announcements
Account fit score and intent topics to instantly prioritize high-fit, high-intent accounts
Website visitor tracking for identifying anonymous companies viewing your site
Direct dial phone numbers
Pricing and Structure
ZoomInfo is a tricky beast when it comes to pricing because it doesn’t offer any hints. To get a quote, you must contact their sales team. However, users report $15,000/year as a starting point. The final cost fluctuates based on the number of seats, credits, and added modules.
Does ZoomInfo offer a free trial?
Yes and no.Â
You’ll find “Free trial” CTAs across the site, but you’ll need to speak to sales reps to get your trial. Other than that, you can submit a request for a free list of prospects.
What’s more, ZoomInfo offers annual contracts only, with no monthly option. Some plans require a multi-year commitment for discounts.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Huge global database with verified emails and phone numbers, solid integrations, and advanced features for teams at scale
Excellent enterprise reporting and GTM coordination
Deep firmographic filtering and intent tools suitable for ABM workflows
Integrates well with major CRO stack tools and supports enterprise-scale enrichment and automation
Cons:
Steep learning curve for new users
Significant complaints about data inaccuracies: multiple Reddit users cite bounce rates from 20% to 50% and stale contacts (e.g., people who left companies years ago)
Pricing plans lack transparency and flexibility
Slow customer support response times
The biggest disadvantage for outbound sales teams is that ZoomInfo doesn’t offer native outreach tools. You have to integrate with tools like Outreach, Salesloft, or Apollo to set up email or LinkedIn cadences.
UpLead Overview
UpLead bills itself as a clean, affordable, and super-accurate prospecting tool. It targets startups and mid-market teams that need real-time verified emails, advanced filtering options, and intent data. UpLead tops its offer with a user-friendly interface and ease of use.
Let’s see if the platform delivers on promises.
Key Features
Prospector with over 160 million contacts, 50+ live filters, and coverage in 200+ countries
Real-time email verification with a 95% accuracy guaranteed—if an email bounces, you receive a credit back
Technographic data with 2,500+ technology stacks
Lead enrichment with 40+ company and contact data points
LinkedIn Chrome extension for list building while browsingÂ
Integrations with popular B2B sales tools: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Outreach, Reply, and Zapier
Pricing and Structure
Compared to ZoomInfo, UpLead offers a straightforward pricing structure and a free trial. Monthly and annual billing are available, with discounts for the latter.
7-day free trial includes 5 credits
Essentials: $99/month or $74/month per annum with extra credits at $0.60/credit
Plus: $199/month or $149/month per annum with extra credits at $0.50/credit
Professional: Available upon request with annual billing only
Pros and Cons
Pros:
Offers a clear breakdown on data refreshes: adds ~30K contacts and 500K data points weekly
Re-verifies data every 90 days automatically
Cost-effective for companies of all sizes
Offers a simple user interface
Users praise its great customer experience on G2 and Reddit
Instantly returns your email credits if an email is invalid
Cons:
Smaller B2B database compared to ZoomInfo and
Fewer executive-level direct dials
No built-in outreach or workflows
Credit limits make it harder to scale outreach fast and can be pricey
Technographics, Data Enrichment, and Intent Data features are only available for Plus users
Key Differences Between ZoomInfo and UpLead
We’ve already discussed pricing model differences, but there’s more to come. What about contact data volume and accuracy, AI-powered features, and other important functionality?
Let’s get to it.Â
Contact Data Volume vs. Accuracy
ZoomInfo boasts an enormous dataset of 260 million professional contacts, including 135 million mobile numbers with 95% data accuracy. That scope is why enterprise teams lean on ZoomInfo for maximum reach.
However, reality hits differently.
Reddit threads from 2024–2025 express concerns like “ZoomInfo has great volume, but accuracy drops off outside major roles.” Another user reports “bounce rates from 20% to 50% and stale contacts.”Â
To be specific, users on G2 tend to cite insufficient or outdated data for APAC and EMEA regions and small businesses. Users are also concerned with intent data freshness—like press releases or funding announcements from months ago.Â
However, for the rest of the world and mid-sized, enterprise-level companies, ZoomInfo provides lots of real data points.
UpLead, in turn, has a smaller dataset of 160 million contacts, but most of them are valid, which means having huge numbers isn’t equal to quality. Remember, if a prospect has an invalid email, UpLead returns you one credit.
On G2 and Reddit, users consistently praise UpLead for clean targeting: “I’d much rather fewer numbers that are accurate than bulk volume full of errors.”Â
Features and Intelligence
UpLead is a pure lead data platform with enrichment capabilities, but it lacks additional tools for outreach or AI personas. Intent data is also scraped from Bombora.
ZoomInfo is a sales intelligence platform with a vast prospecting database suitable for a range of functions, from ABM to recruiting. It includes org charts and conversation intelligence alongside predictive account scoring and digital ad orchestration.Â
However, like UpLead, it doesn’t come with built-in outreach tools.
Integrations and Workflow
Both platforms natively integrate with popular CRMs, outreach tools, data intent tools, and sales enablement tools. Having Zapier allows you to integrate UpLead or ZoomInfo with over 1,500 additional tools.
So, there’s no big difference. You can create any workflow you want.
Pricing and Flexibility
You’ll need to negotiate pricing and face annual contract lock-ins if you choose ZoomInfo.
UpLead is flexible, with a low entry barrier, and offers upgrades, downgrades, a free trial, and credit overruns (a feature that isn’t available in ZoomInfo). The platform makes it easy to test and pause outbound.
Data Quality and Coverage
Let’s get more granular on where each platform wins or falls short in regards to data quality and coverage—because volume means nothing without precision.
Global vs. Regional Strength
ZoomInfo claims on its site that it has 200 million contacts and 45 million mobile numbers outside North America. However, Reddit users repeatedly flag inaccurate data in EMEA, especially regarding mobile numbers and SMB contacts. One reviewer even called ZoomInfo “extremely US‑centric” with “the worst accuracy in Europe.”
In contrast, US users praise ZoomInfo for its accurate data and volume.
UpLead has coverage across 200 countries, with a strong focus on Western Europe and North America. Reddit users mention strong accuracy for SaaS and tech contacts in the US, although coverage drops for newer, small-scale firms or niche verticals.
Freshness and Verification
Both platforms promise impeccable data freshness, but if we cut the marketing fluff and listen to real user feedback, it’s mixed.Â
ZoomInfo is usually praised for its fresh data in the US. Others outside North America note that “half the contacts are inaccurate,” pointing to outdated titles and missing direct numbers.
UpLead’s value proposition is real-time email verification (at export) that ensures cleaner lead lists and much lower bounce rates.
Accuracy at Scale
ZoomInfo delivers unmatched scale—if you need high-quality global volume, you’ll want to choose ZoomInfo. This is particularly true if your sales reps use phone numbers.
UpLead is smaller at scale but lean and offers consistently clean data. Its real-time filtering and verification mean features that even moderately sized lead list exports typically achieve high deliverability.
Pricing Models and Contracts
Before picking either ZoomInfo or UpLead, it’s important to learn about hidden pricing traps in both tools and what budget you’ll realistically need to allocate.Â
ZoomInfo Pricing
ZoomInfo pricing is based on the following criteria:
Features and functionality
Number of licenses
Credit usage
On top of that, you’ve often got to fork out for extra data within the tool. For example, technographics, department budgets, org charts, and real-time alerts related to company events are all charged extra.
Basic credits include only traditional demographic and firmographic details.
As disclosed on the official website, integrations and add-ons can also impact pricing and packaging.
In the end, you should expect:
$15,000 as an entry price, which can scale to $40,000+ with add-ons
Extra charges for additional seats
UpLead Pricing
With UpLead, everything is simple. You choose a plan for one user with limited credits, and extra credits can be added for transparent fees.Â
Regardless of which plan you choose, UpLead offers identical business data:
Verified emails
Verified phone numbers
Mobile direct dials
However, technographics and data enrichment are available only to the Plus users, while buyer intent data and competitor intelligence are only included on the Professional plan.
What’s cool is that with UpLead, you can upload a list of emails, phone numbers, or company URLs to exclude from your results.
When to Choose ZoomInfo or UpLead
ZoomInfo and UpLead take radically different approaches to B2B data and B2B lead generation. One is built for ops-heavy enterprise companies. The other is designed for lean sales teams who just want clean, verified contacts without a contract.
So…which should you choose?
ZoomInfo Works Best When…
You fall under an enterprise or multi-region GTM team and are juggling sales, marketing, recruiting, and intent-based ABM. You need contact data, intent signals, new market data, enrichment, and advertising orchestration under one roof with synced workflows across teams.
Ideally, a dedicated RevOps or SalesOps professional will manage setup, workflows, and integrations (it’s a complex platform).
UpLead Works Best When…
All you need is clean, verified leads and flexible billing. It’s ideal when you’re an early-stage or mid-market company with a small team or a single AE/BDR/SDR setup. In addition, it’s perfect if you’re looking for a tool with little to no onboarding.
Most importantly, it’s one of the best options on the market when your priority is to test multiple ICPs, regions, or verticals, where you can’t risk bounce-heavy lists with stale contacts.
The Mid-Market Struggle
If you're a 10–100 person sales org, neither ZoomInfo nor UpLead works for you.
ZoomInfo is obvious overkill, with exorbitant pricing and features that you won’t fully use.
UpLead is underpowered. It gives you great data but falls short when it comes to execution. It doesn’t offer built-in outreach tools, nor does it have email warm-up or multi-channel tracking.
Why Artisan Is a Smarter Third Option
Artisan combines multiple tools—multi-channel outreach, a verified contact database of over 300 million, enterprise SMB, and ecommerce contacts, email warm-up tools, and real-time B2B intent data.
AI BDR Ava Handles Everything
At the core of the platform is Ava, an AI business development representative (BDR), who handles lead research, email and LinkedIn outreach, personalization, and follow-ups, and provides in-depth analytics on best outreach sequences, top-performing ICPs, and LinkedIn message templates.
All-in-One Tool, No Stack Chaos
Tired of orchestrating six or more tools to simply achieve a smooth outbound sales pipeline? Artisan combines enrichment, outreach sequencing, warm-up, copywriting, and deliverability optimization into a single consolidated platform.Â
Local Data and Global Reach
Artisan’s extensive database consists of 300 million verified global B2B contacts and 13 million eCommerce leads with over 60 buyer behavior filters. All users get deep segmentation by location, tech stack, seniority, and signal triggers. You can also scrape X and LinkedIn profiles for recent posts.
Predictable Pricing
Artisan comes with flat monthly pricing and doesn’t charge for credits. On top of it, you’ll receive white-glove onboarding and pay for the tool only after your account is up and running.
Final Verdict: Which Tool Wins?
To finish, let’s summarize the main features and differences and restate the best-fit users for each platform.Â
ZoomInfoÂ
You’re getting a massive global dataset, deep integrations, and features that stretch from prospecting to predictive ads. But it comes at a cost and complexity—literally and operationally. You’ll need a big budget and headcount.
UpLead
You get clean data and a UI you can start using in five minutes. But it stops at the contact list. No sequences, no email warm-up, no outreach analytics.
Artisan
Artisan is the only AI BDR platform that does everything from data scraping and finding buyer intent to AI template generation, sequencing, warmups, and outreach. There’s no stale data. And Artisan’s team is very responsive to feedback and new feature rollouts.
