The main intent data providers are Bombora for third-party research signals, G2 for review-site intent, TheirStack for job-posting signals, 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo for intent inside larger platforms, Leadfeeder and HubSpot for your own website visitors, and Apollo and Cognism for intent topics inside a contact database. Here is how they compare, with prices as published in September 2026.
Each tool below gets the same fields in the same order: what it is, intent type, coverage, entry price, pricing model, best for, and where it falls short. If you are still deciding whether you need intent data at all, start with our guide to B2B intent data.
Intent data providers compared
This table compares all 10 intent data providers on the same five fields. Coverage is each vendor’s own published claim, so the numbers measure different things and cannot be ranked against each other.
| Provider | Intent type | Coverage (vendor claim) | Entry price | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bombora | Third-party co-op | 5M+ company domains, 21,600+ topics | Not published | Quote only |
| G2 Buyer Intent | Review-site | G2, Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp | Not published (add-on) | Add-on to Professional or Enterprise |
| TheirStack | Job-posting | 9,000+ topics, 359k+ job websites | 109 USD for 1,000 company credits | Credits |
| 6sense | Keyword, partner, web visits | 500B+ signals a month | Not published | Quote only, credits for contacts |
| Demandbase | Bidstream plus partners | 865K+ keywords | Not published | Platform fee plus per-user fee |
| ZoomInfo | Bidstream, content, IP, review-site | 4,500+ topics | Not published (intent is an add-on) | Quote only, annual |
| Leadfeeder (Dealfront) | First-party website visitors | Up to 45% of visiting companies | Free Lite; 79 EUR a month, billed yearly | Companies identified, plus credits |
| HubSpot | First-party plus research network | 200,000+ sites | 7 USD a seat a month, billed yearly | Per seat plus credits |
| Apollo.io | Third-party (Bombora) | 12 topics | 119 USD a seat a month, billed yearly, 3 seats | Per seat plus credits |
| Cognism | Third-party (Bombora) | 12 topics from 11,000+ | Not published | Quote only, 5 seats |
What are intent data providers?
Intent data providers are companies that collect signals showing which businesses are researching a topic, a product category or a vendor, and sell those signals as account-level scores or alerts. They differ mostly in where the signal comes from: a publisher network, ad auctions, review sites, job postings or your own website.
Almost all intent data names a company, not a person. G2, for example, says its data is “collected at the organization level”. So a provider tells you which accounts to look at first, and you still need a way to find and reach the people inside them.
The 5 types of intent data, by where the signal comes from
Intent data comes from five sources: your own website (first-party), a co-op of publisher sites (third-party), programmatic ad auctions (bidstream), software review sites and job postings. The source decides what a signal can see, and most providers use more than one.
- First-party: visits to your own site, matched to companies. Leadfeeder and HubSpot.
- Third-party co-op: reading across member publisher sites. Bombora, also resold inside Apollo and Cognism.
- Bidstream: browsing seen through ad auctions. Demandbase and ZoomInfo both say they use it. ZoomInfo itself notes that bidstream collection “has drawn scrutiny under GDPR’s real-time bidding (RTB) consent framework”, so ask any vendor for its consent documentation.
- Review-site: research on G2, Capterra and similar sites. G2 directly; 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo import it.
- Job-posting: what a company is hiring for. TheirStack; 6sense also shows job postings.
How we picked these intent data providers
We chose intent data vendors that a B2B team can actually buy from, and covered every source type at least once.
- The method is published. Each vendor explains where its intent comes from on its own pages.
- One per source type at least. First-party, third-party, bidstream, review-site and job-posting are all covered.
- Facts from vendor pages only. Prices come from rendered pricing pages, retrieved 27 and 28 September 2026. Unknown means “not published”.
- Same fields for every tool. No scores, no invented rankings.
Pure intent data sources
These three providers sell the signal itself, with no contact data. You plug them into the CRM, ad platform or data warehouse you already use.
1. Bombora
What it is: a B2B data company that sells account-level intent data, called Company Surge, built from research on a cooperative of publisher and brand websites. Bombora says it “is a data company, not a platform”.
Intent type: third-party co-op. Research is “collected through a proprietary, consent-driven tag on every site in our Co-op.”
Coverage: “16B+ monthly events and 5M+ company domains” and “21,600+ Intent topics”, per Bombora’s site.
Entry price: not published. The pricing URL redirects to the Co-op page.
Pricing model: quote only.
Best for: marketing, ABM and ad teams that want third-party intent inside their current stack. Bombora says 6sense, Apollo and AdRoll embed its Company Surge data.
Where it falls short: account-level only, with no email or phone data. It only sees research on its co-op sites.
2. G2 Buyer Intent
What it is: an add-on to G2’s paid seller packages that shows which companies research your product, your category or your competitors on G2, Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp.
Intent type: review-site. Each signal carries an activity level and a buying stage (Awareness, Consideration, Decision).
Coverage: “Over 200 million software buyers research across G2, Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp each year”, according to G2.
Entry price: not published. It is an add-on to the Professional or Enterprise package, both “Contact sales”. G2 offers a free, one-off look at companies that researched you in the past 30 days.
Pricing model: quote-only add-on.
Best for: B2B software vendors listed on G2 that want late-stage signals of companies comparing them with competitors.
Where it falls short: account-level only, and G2 says it “does not collect, process, or store any personally identifiable data”. The signals only cover software review sites, so it helps mainly if you sell software.
3. TheirStack
What it is: a job postings data company that detects the technologies and buying intents companies reveal in their job ads. It is sold through an app, an API, webhooks, an MCP server and datasets. It also works as a technographic data source.
Intent type: job-posting. “Analyzing the jobs of millions of companies lets us identify the buying intents they are hiring for.” TheirStack says every signal is “traceable, scored for confidence”.
Coverage: “9,000+ buying intent topics across 14 keyword categories”, from job listings on “over 359k different websites” in “195+ countries”.
Entry price: 109 USD for 1,000 company credits, with a free tier of 50 company credits.
Pricing model: credits. One company credit reveals a company, with unlimited views for 90 days, and unused paid credits roll over for 12 months.
Best for: teams that sell something companies hire for, such as a technology, a compliance program or an equipment rollout.
Where it falls short: no contact data. It only sees intent that shows up in hiring, and TheirStack says “coverage is not uniform across countries and languages”.
Platforms with built-in intent
These three platforms combine intent with account scoring, advertising or contact data. They are sold on custom quotes. Our list of account-based marketing tools compares them as ABM platforms; here we focus on their intent.
4. 6sense
What it is: an account-based marketing and sales intelligence platform that uses intent data and predictive AI to show which accounts are in market. Emails and phone numbers are unlocked with data credits.
Intent type: several sources. You can “track an unlimited number of custom search keywords”, and 6sense adds partner intent from Bombora, TechTarget, TrustRadius and G2. Its sales product also shows web visitor identification and job postings.
Coverage: “500B+ Intent Signals Analyzed Monthly”, tracked “in over 40 languages”.
Entry price: not published. The Sales Intelligence free plan was discontinued on August 12, 2026.
Pricing model: quote only. One credit unlocks one person’s emails or phone numbers, “but only if the data is available”.
Best for: mid-market and enterprise B2B teams that want intent and predictive account scores first, with contacts as an add-on.
Where it falls short: no public price, and “Credits do not roll over annually; if not used these credits will be lost.” Predictive-only licenses cannot export contacts.
5. Demandbase
What it is: an account-based go-to-market platform for enterprise teams that combines account intelligence, intent data, a B2B advertising DSP and a company and contact data product.
Intent type: bidstream plus partners. Demandbase cites its “direct access to the bidstream” and lets you import Bombora, G2 and TrustRadius intent.
Coverage: “865K+ Intent Keywords” and “2.1T+ Intent Signals a Month”, per its intent page.
Entry price: not published. The pricing page is a quote form. A free lookup at engage.demandbase.com shows accounts researching your keywords over the last 7 days.
Pricing model: “a clear platform fee” plus “a flat fee per user”.
Best for: enterprise B2B teams that want intent, advertising and contact data in one platform, bought on a custom contract.
Where it falls short: no public price, and Demandbase says “we don’t split Demandbase into separate solutions” for marketing and sales. Contact exports are capped per user each month, at 50 on the Essentials license.
6. ZoomInfo
What it is: an enterprise go-to-market data platform with contacts, companies and intent, sold on custom-quoted annual contracts, with a free ZoomInfo Lite tier.
Intent type: four sources, per ZoomInfo: bidstream from “programmatic ad auction networks”, content consumption tracking across third-party websites, IP-based identification, and G2 and TrustRadius review-site signals.
Coverage: “real-time intent signals from 4,500+ topics”, matched with “210 million IP-to-Organization pairings”. ZoomInfo says it refreshes intent data daily.
Entry price: not published. “Intent data is available as an add-on to ZoomInfo’s base platform subscription,” and buyer intent signals are a paid-plan feature, not part of free Lite.
Pricing model: quote only, on annual contracts with seat minimums.
Best for: larger sales and marketing teams that want contact data and intent in one enterprise platform.
Where it falls short: no public price, an annual contract, and credits that expire. Intent costs extra on top of the base subscription.
First-party intent: your own website
First-party intent is the strongest signal you can get: a company looking at your own pricing page. These two tools identify those companies.
7. Leadfeeder (Dealfront)
What it is: website visitor identification software that shows which companies visit your site, with a company and contact database, B2B display ads, CRM sync and an API. Dealfront rebranded as Leadfeeder in September 2026.
Intent type: first-party website visitors, with intent signals added on the Activate plan.
Coverage: Leadfeeder says it can “Identify up to 45% of companies visiting your website”.
Entry price: a free Lite plan shows the last 100 companies from the past 7 days. Discover starts at 79 EUR a month billed annually, or 113 EUR monthly, for up to 50 identified companies a month.
Pricing model: usage, priced by companies identified each month, plus credits for contact data. Users are unlimited on every plan.
Best for: B2B teams, especially in Europe, that want to see which accounts visit their website and push them into the CRM.
Where it falls short: it only sees your own traffic. Standard credits do not roll over, and Leadfeeder says it “will have fewer personal phone numbers and mobile direct dials than others”. Prices were shown in EUR.
8. HubSpot
What it is: HubSpot’s buyer intent tool, available from the Starter tier, shows “which companies are visiting your website” and companies researching your topics across a network of other sites.
Intent type: first-party visits, plus research intent “powered by HubSpot’s proprietary intent ecosystem of 200,000+ websites.” Every site in it “has the HubSpot tracking code installed, and has opted into intent data access.”
Coverage: 200,000+ websites, assigned “hundreds of thousands of hyper-specific research topics”.
Entry price: Sales Hub Starter “Starts at $7/mo/seat” billed annually and lists “Intent signals”, with 500 HubSpot Credits. HubSpot’s rate sheet prices intent at 10 credits per company per month, so the included credits cover about 50 companies a month.
Pricing model: per seat plus credits. Extra credits cost 0.010 USD each, about 0.10 USD per company per month.
Best for: teams already on HubSpot that want intent next to their contacts and deals.
Where it falls short: research intent only sees sites in HubSpot’s own network. Credits reset monthly with no rollover, and HubSpot’s data enrichment does not return contact emails or mobile numbers.
Contact databases with intent topics
These two tools start from contact data and add intent topics sourced from Bombora. They suit sales teams that want the signal and the person in one place.
9. Apollo.io
What it is: an all-in-one sales platform that pairs a B2B contact database with sequencing, a dialer and deal tools, sold per seat with a credit allowance.
Intent type: third-party. Bombora lists Apollo among the partners that embed its Company Surge data.
Coverage: “12 intent topics” on the Organization plan, on top of a database Apollo sizes at “240M contacts & 30M companies”.
Entry price: intent topics are listed on the Organization plan: 119 USD per seat per month billed annually, with a 3-seat minimum (357 USD a month). Basic starts at 49 USD a seat.
Pricing model: per seat plus credits.
Best for: SMB and mid-market teams that want intent, contacts and sequences in one per-seat tool.
Where it falls short: intent needs the annual Organization plan. A phone number costs 8 credits against 1 for an email, and “Apollo doesn’t refund any credits for mobile numbers.”
10. Cognism
What it is: a B2B sales intelligence platform that sells contact data, including phone-verified mobile numbers, through quote-only packages with 5 seats included.
Intent type: third-party, using “Bombora’s Company Surge” data.
Coverage: “Administrators can select up to 12 intent topics from a library of over 11,000 options.”
Entry price: not published. Intent is a feature of the Pro package.
Pricing model: quote only, with 5 seats per package.
Best for: teams prospecting into Europe and other markets with do-not-call rules that want intent next to phone-verified mobiles.
Where it falls short: no public price, no published single-seat plan, and intent only on the Pro package.
Which intent data providers include the people?
Five of the ten sell contact data next to intent, and four sell the signal only. Leadfeeder sits in between, with limited contact enrichment paid in credits. If you buy a signal-only source, plan how you will find and reach the buying group before the surge goes stale.
A signal is only useful if someone acts on it quickly. Our guide to real-time buying signals explains how fresh each kind of signal needs to be, and buying signals data covers the non-intent triggers, such as funding and new leaders.
Where Scalelist fits: the contact layer, not an intent provider
Scalelist is not an intent data provider. Scalelist, an AI Lead Finder, is the contact layer: it turns the accounts an intent tool flags into named people with verified work emails and mobile numbers.
Take the domains your intent provider flags, then ask for the roles you sell to at each one through the Scalelist MCP server in Claude or ChatGPT, or the people search API. For a new segment, describe the buyer in one sentence in Scalelist’s Lead Finder; it shows what it understood and how many people match before you spend a credit.
The cost is predictable. Credits are charged only when something is found: 1 per lead, 1 per email and 20 per mobile. Three roles at 30 surging accounts is 90 people, or 1,980 credits at most, which fits the Scaler 2K plan at 89 USD a month (see Scalelist pricing).
Where Scalelist is not the right tool: it will not tell you which accounts are researching a topic. Contact monitoring (beta) re-checks the contacts you upload; it is not an intent signal.
Bring the accounts your intent tool flags and get the buying group with verified emails and mobiles.
Get 20 credits to test itHow to choose an intent data provider
Choose an intent data provider by where your buyers research, then by whether you need contacts in the same tool. Test on your own accounts before you sign.
- Define fit first. Intent only ranks accounts. Your ideal customer profile and firmographic data decide which accounts are worth ranking.
- Match the source to your buyers. Software buyers compare on review sites. Operations buyers may never read the publishers a co-op tracks. Hiring is visible for almost everyone.
- Start with first-party. Your own pricing-page visitors are the strongest signal, and they cost the least.
- Ask for a preview on your accounts. G2, Demandbase and Leadfeeder offer a free look before you buy.
- Plan the people layer. Decide how a flagged account becomes a named person on a target account list within a week.
- Keep a control group. Compare meetings from surging accounts with a matched group before you renew.
FAQ
Who are the main intent data providers?
The main intent data providers are Bombora (third-party co-op), G2 Buyer Intent (review sites), TheirStack (job postings), 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo (platforms with built-in intent), Leadfeeder and HubSpot (your own website visitors), and Apollo and Cognism, which add Bombora-sourced intent topics to their contact databases. They differ most in where each signal comes from.
How much do intent data providers cost?
Most do not publish prices. Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfo and Cognism sell on custom quotes, and G2 Buyer Intent is a quote-only add-on. Published entry points in September 2026: TheirStack at 109 USD for 1,000 company credits, Leadfeeder from 79 EUR a month billed yearly, HubSpot Starter from 7 USD a seat, and Apollo’s Organization plan at 119 USD a seat.
What is bidstream intent data?
Bidstream intent data comes from programmatic ad auctions: when a page with an ad slot loads, details about the visit are shared with bidders, and a vendor matches that activity to a company. Demandbase and ZoomInfo both say they use bidstream data. ZoomInfo notes it has drawn scrutiny under GDPR’s real-time bidding consent framework, so ask for consent documentation.
What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?
First-party intent is activity on your own properties, such as pricing-page visits, matched to companies by tools like Leadfeeder or HubSpot. Third-party intent is research on other websites, such as Bombora’s publisher co-op. First-party is stronger and cheaper, because the company is looking at you. Third-party shows research before a buyer reaches your site.
Do intent data providers include contact details?
Some do. 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfo, Apollo and Cognism sell contact data alongside intent, and Leadfeeder offers limited contact enrichment with credits. Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent and TheirStack deliver account-level signals only, and HubSpot’s enrichment does not return contact emails or mobiles. With a signal-only source you still need a way to find and reach the people.
Is Scalelist an intent data provider?
No. Scalelist is an AI Lead Finder: it finds the people inside the accounts, with verified work emails and mobile numbers. Teams use it next to an intent provider, taking the domains the intent tool flags and finding the buying group at each one. Credits are charged only when something is found: 1 per lead, 1 per email, 20 per mobile.
Which intent data provider is best for small teams?
Start with first-party intent, which is the cheapest and the strongest signal. Leadfeeder has a free Lite plan, and HubSpot Starter lists intent signals from 7 USD a seat. If you sell something companies hire for, TheirStack starts at 109 USD. Enterprise platforms such as 6sense, Demandbase and ZoomInfo sell on custom quotes and suit larger teams.
Sources
- Bombora: Company Surge intent, home page and partners
- G2: plans, Buyer Intent and documentation
- TheirStack: pricing, buying intents and job data sources
- 6sense: intent data, Sales Intelligence, credits overview and free plan discontinuation
- Demandbase: intent, pricing, intent preview and export credit limits
- ZoomInfo: how ZoomInfo Intent works (updated July 9, 2026), data and pricing article
- Leadfeeder: pricing, home page and GDPR
- HubSpot: buyer intent, research intent, Sales Hub pricing and credits rate sheet
- Apollo.io: pricing
- Cognism: pricing
