Cognism alternatives in 2026: 9 tools compared on price, mobiles and Europe

The best Cognism alternatives in 2026 are Scalelist, Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, Lusha, Kaspr, Leadfeeder (formerly Dealfront), LeadIQ, FullEnrich and Dropcontact. Eight of the nine publish a price you can pay today. Cognism does not.

Cognism is best known for phone-verified mobile numbers and for selling into Europe with Do Not Call screening built in.

Every tool below is judged on the same seven fields, taken from its own site on 27 September 2026. When a vendor does not publish something, we write “not published”.

Why people look for Cognism alternatives

People look for Cognism alternatives mostly because of how Cognism is sold, not because of its mobile data. Its pricing page shows two quote-only packages, each with 5 seats included, and the features it is known for sit in the higher one.

• No public price. Both the Standard and Pro packages lead to “Talk to sales”. You cannot price a pilot without a call. Our Cognism pricing breakdown shows what is known and what to ask.
• 5 seats included. No single-seat, self-serve plan is published, so a founder or a two-person team starts from a 5-seat package.
• The headline features are Pro. Pro “includes features such as intent data, on-demand mobile verification and enhanced dashboards.”
• Add-ons on top. CRM Enrichment and Data-as-a-Service (API or bulk delivery) are sold separately.
• One credit per contact, again after a job change. “1 credit = 1 revealed contact”, and “A credit is only used again if that contact changes jobs.” Whether a contact with no mobile uses a credit is not published.
• No self-serve trial. Instead of a free plan, the site offers a “Free data sample” and demos.

To be fair to Cognism: its phone-verified mobiles are “premium records which go through additional layers of verification checks,” using “manual and automated processes.” It screens phones against 15 major Do Not Call and TPS lists (its data page says 16), including the UK TPS and CTPS, the US, Australia, Germany and France.

Cognism is also ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certified, registered as a data broker with the California Attorney General, and says Director-level and above data is refreshed every 30 days. It claims a “3x improvement in connect rates” with phone-verified mobiles compared with the industry average; that is its own claim. Re-viewing a revealed contact is free, and one credit pool covers the platform, Enrich and the API.

If you call UK, German or French mobiles every day and want screening built into the data, Cognism is still a strong buy. This page is for teams that want a published price, fewer seats, or a way to test before they sign.

Cognism alternatives compared at a glance

The 9 alternatives to Cognism differ most on four things that change your bill: the entry price, the billing model, what a mobile number costs and whether you pay when nothing is found. Cognism’s own row comes first for reference.

Tool	Best for	Entry price	Mobile numbers	Charged on a miss
Cognism (reference)	Calling Europe with DNC screening	Not published (quote, 5 seats)	Yes, in 1 credit per contact	Not published
Scalelist	Teams that call and email in 4 regions	29 USD/mo for 500 credits	Yes, 20 credits each	No
Apollo.io	Data plus sequences per seat	49 USD/seat/mo yearly, 65 monthly	Yes, 8 credits each	No, on Apollo’s own data
ZoomInfo	Like-for-like enterprise swap	Not published (quote, annual)	Yes, inside each record	Not published
Lusha	Self-serve reps and small teams	37.45 USD/mo yearly, 49.90 monthly	Yes, 5 credits each	Partly
Kaspr	European reps working from profiles	59 EUR/user/mo (65 USD view)	Yes, 1 phone credit per lead	No, in CSV enrichment
Leadfeeder	Visitor ID plus EU-processed data	79 EUR/mo yearly; phones from 369 EUR	Yes, in a 1-credit email + phone lookup	No
LeadIQ	SDRs pushing into Salesforce	15 USD/mo yearly, 20 monthly	Yes, 10 credits each	No
FullEnrich	Many vendors, pay per result	26 USD/mo yearly, 29 monthly	Yes, 10 credits each	No
Dropcontact	GDPR-first email enrichment	15 EUR/mo yearly, 19 monthly	No self-serve mobiles	No, credit refunded

Which Cognism alternative is best?

The best Cognism alternative depends on why you are leaving. If you want mobile numbers across Europe and other regions at a published price, Scalelist charges 20 credits per mobile only when found, with no seats, and found phone numbers for 73% of an EMEA list in our own test. If you want the closest like-for-like swap, ZoomInfo is quote-only and annual, like Cognism.

Apollo.io and Lusha have the lowest phone credit prices on this page. Kaspr and Leadfeeder are European tools priced in euros, LeadIQ fits SDR teams working in Salesforce, and FullEnrich checks 20+ vendors per lookup. If compliance is why you bought Cognism and you mostly email, Dropcontact enriches emails without a contact database.

How we picked and compared these tools

We picked tools in three groups Cognism buyers compare: European or EU-first tools, self-serve databases with published prices, and the enterprise swap. Each was checked against the same criteria on its own website.

• Published price: the cheapest paid plan, with both billing options where the page shows them. Quote-only means “not published”. EUR prices stay in EUR.
• Billing model: seats, credits or usage, and whether monthly billing is allowed.
• Mobile numbers: sold or not, and what one costs in credits and in dollars at the entry plan.
• Misses: whether a lookup that finds nothing costs you anything, in the vendor’s own words.
• Evidence: coverage numbers only from our own published benchmark. Cognism was not in it; on this page only Scalelist and Apollo.io were. Vendor claims are labeled as claims.
• Date: every pricing page was rendered in a US-locale browser on 27 September 2026. Prices change, so check before you sign.

The 9 best Cognism alternatives in 2026

The nine Cognism alternatives below run from pay-per-result credit tools to one enterprise contract, each with the same seven fields in the same order.

1. Scalelist

• What it is: Scalelist is an AI Lead Finder. You describe the people you want in one sentence, see how many match for free, then get them with verified work emails and mobile numbers.
• Entry price: 29 USD a month for 500 credits (Scaler 500), or 290 USD a year. Plans go up to 649 USD a month for 20,000 credits, with custom plans above that (Scalelist plans and credits).
• How pricing works: Credits, with no seats and no annual contract. 1 credit per lead found, 1 per email found, 20 per mobile found. Unused credits roll over, up to 2x the monthly allocation, while you stay subscribed.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 20 credits per mobile found. That is about 1.16 USD on the 500-credit plan, 0.80 USD at 5,000 credits and 0.65 USD at 20,000.
• Charged on a miss: No. Nothing is charged when nothing is found, and every email comes back labeled Valid or Risky.
• Best for: Teams that call and email across North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America and want to pay per mobile found, without seats or a sales call.
• Where it falls short: A phone credit costs more than on Apollo.io, Lusha or FullEnrich. No intent data. It does not publish Do Not Call screening or an audited security certification, and HubSpot is its only native CRM.

2. Apollo.io

• What it is: Apollo.io is an all-in-one sales platform: a B2B contact database plus sequences, a dialer and deal tools, sold per seat with a credit allowance.
• Entry price: 49 USD per seat a month billed annually (Basic), or 65 USD billed monthly. Free plan: 75 credits a month (Apollo pricing page).
• How pricing works: Per seat plus credits. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. The Organization plan is annual only, with a 3-seat minimum.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 8 credits each: about 0.21 USD on Basic billed monthly and 0.16 USD billed yearly. Apollo does not refund credits for mobile numbers.
• Charged on a miss: No for Apollo’s own data: “You aren’t charged if a source can’t find any data.” Its multi-source enrichment can bill for unverified results from connected providers.
• Best for: SMB and mid-market teams that want data, sequencing and a dialer in one self-serve tool. It is ISO 27001 certified.
• Where it falls short: Seats add up, and international dialing is an add-on at 149 USD per team a month. In our benchmark it found phones for 63% of the EMEA list and 8% in APAC.
• Read next: Apollo.io alternatives

3. ZoomInfo

• What it is: ZoomInfo is an enterprise B2B data platform (contacts, companies and intent) sold on custom-quoted annual contracts, with a free ZoomInfo Lite tier.
• Entry price: Not published. ZoomInfo Lite is free with 10 credits a month (25 with Community Edition). Vendr, a software buying marketplace, reports a median ZoomInfo contract of 33,500 USD across 1,573 purchases.
• How pricing works: Quote only, annual and seat-based, with seat minimums. One credit per exported record. Monthly credits do not roll over, and bulk credits expire at the end of the contract.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, on paid plans, inside the exported record. Price per number: not published. ZoomInfo claims 135M+ direct dial numbers.
• Charged on a miss: Not published.
• Best for: Larger teams that want the closest swap for Cognism: quote-only, annual, data plus intent. It holds ISO 27001, 27017 and 27701 certifications.
• Where it falls short: No public price, and “Monthly billing is not standard.” Two users exporting the same record pay two credits, and “Renewal pricing can increase.”
• Read next: ZoomInfo competitors compared

4. Lusha

• What it is: Lusha is a self-serve B2B contact data platform (web app, browser extension and API) that sells verified emails and phone numbers on credit plans.
• Entry price: 37.45 USD a month billed yearly (Starter, 4,800 credits a year), or 49.90 USD billed monthly (400 credits a month). Free plan: 40 credits a month (Lusha pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. Monthly Pro and Premium plans roll credits over up to 2x; annual credits reset at the end of the year.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 5 credits each: about 0.62 USD on Starter billed monthly and 0.47 USD billed yearly. Lusha claims 117M+ direct dials.
• Charged on a miss: Partly. CSV rows with no match are free, but every API request costs at least 1 credit, and bulk reveals charge for contacts with partial data.
• Best for: Individual reps and small teams that want month-to-month access. Its plan comparison lists GDPR, ISO 27701 and a Do Not Call list.
• Where it falls short: Teams above 5 users must go through sales, CSV exports cost 1 credit per 25 rows, and per-user credit limits need the Scale plan.
• Read next: Lusha alternatives

5. Kaspr

• What it is: Kaspr is a contact data tool, delivered mainly as a Chrome extension that works on professional profile pages plus a web dashboard, that reveals work emails, personal emails and phone numbers on per-user credit plans.
• Entry price: 59 EUR per user a month (Starter), shown as 65 USD in the page’s dollar view; the page does not label the billing period. Free plan: 15 work-email, 5 phone and 5 personal-email credits a month (Kaspr pricing page).
• How pricing works: Per user plus credits. Work emails are “unlimited” under a fair use policy. Starter includes 100 phone credits a month and Business (99 EUR) 200. Paid-plan credits are shared across the workspace.
• Mobile numbers: Yes. “Kaspr focuses on providing you with the direct mobile numbers of your leads,” at 1 phone credit per lead “regardless of the number of phone numbers”. A price per phone is not published.
• Charged on a miss: No in CSV enrichment: “If Kaspr can’t find a phone number, it won’t use credits on that lead.” Export credits are charged on every export.
• Best for: Individual reps and recruiters in Europe who prospect one profile at a time and need a set number of phone numbers each month.
• Where it falls short: Phone credits are capped per plan (100 a month on Starter), every export uses an export credit, California residents cannot log in, and Starter has limited API access.
• Read next: Kaspr alternatives

6. Leadfeeder (formerly Dealfront)

• What it is: Leadfeeder, the brand Dealfront merged into in September 2026, shows which companies visit your website and adds a company and contact database, B2B display ads, CRM sync, an API and an MCP server. It is aimed mainly at European teams.
• Entry price: 79 EUR a month billed annually, or 113 EUR monthly (Discover, up to 50 identified companies a month). Verified emails and phones start on Activate: 369 EUR a month billed annually or 527 EUR monthly, with 200 credits. Free Lite plan: the last 100 companies, 7-day history (Leadfeeder pricing page).
• How pricing works: Usage. You pay by companies identified a month plus a credit allowance, with unlimited users. An email-only lookup costs 0.2 credits and email plus phone 1 credit. Price per credit: not published.
• Mobile numbers: Only inside the 1-credit email and phone lookup. Its own GDPR page says it “will have fewer personal phone numbers and mobile direct dials than others”.
• Charged on a miss: No. “If we can’t find any additional data, no credit will be charged.”
• Best for: European B2B teams that want website visitor identification plus GDPR-first data, with “100% of data processed within the EU” and ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications.
• Where it falls short: Few mobiles by its own account, credits do not roll over, only EUR prices were shown, and the Scale plan is annual only.

7. LeadIQ

• What it is: LeadIQ is a prospecting tool for sales development teams (Chrome extension, database, CRM enrichment and API) that captures verified emails and mobile numbers into CRM and sequencing tools.
• Entry price: 15 USD a month billed annually (Pro, 2,400 credits a year, up to 5 users), or 20 USD monthly (200 credits a month). Free plan: 1 user and 50 credits (LeadIQ pricing page).
• How pricing works: One universal credit pool. An email costs 1 credit, a phone number 10, both together 11.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 10 credits each: about 1.00 USD on Pro billed monthly and 0.75 USD billed yearly. LeadIQ claims an “85 % global match-rate (70 % in EMEA and climbing)”.
• Charged on a miss: No, per its MCP billing rules: addresses that fail verification “are not returned and cost nothing”. A returned work email is charged whatever its verification status.
• Best for: SDR teams that capture prospects while browsing and push them into Salesforce and their sequencing tool.
• Where it falls short: Phone numbers are the expensive part at 10 credits. Pro covers up to 5 users; larger teams move to Enterprise, which is quoted and listed as annual only.

8. FullEnrich

• What it is: FullEnrich checks 20+ third-party data vendors in turn to find and verify work emails, personal emails and mobile numbers, for GTM teams, agencies and AI agents. It claims an “80%+ find rate”.
• Entry price: 26 USD a month billed yearly, or 29 USD monthly (Pro, 500 credits a month). Free trial: 50 credits, no credit card (FullEnrich pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits, with unlimited users. A work email costs 1 credit, a mobile 10, a personal email 3. Monthly-plan credits last 3 months and yearly-plan credits 12.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 10 credits each: about 0.58 USD at the entry plan billed monthly and 0.52 USD yearly. Landlines are detected and not charged, and owner names are checked for US and Canadian numbers.
• Charged on a miss: No. “If we can’t find the data, you don’t pay.”
• Best for: Teams that want one pay-per-result tool that checks many vendors for mobiles, without managing those vendors themselves.
• Where it falls short: Credits expire after 3 or 12 months, results depend entirely on third-party vendors (“We do not have any contact database”), and enriching contacts already in HubSpot is marked “Soon”.
• Read next: FullEnrich alternatives

9. Dropcontact

• What it is: Dropcontact is a French, GDPR-focused email finder and CRM enrichment tool that finds and verifies business emails with its own algorithms instead of a contact database.
• Entry price: 15 EUR a month billed annually, or 19 EUR monthly (Starter, 500 credits). No free plan, but 50 credits to try. No USD price is published (Dropcontact pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits. One credit per verified business email returned or per email you ask it to verify. CRM enrichment is a separate subscription.
• Mobile numbers: Not on self-serve plans. Mobile numbers appear only in its Enterprise CRM offer, with no published price.
• Charged on a miss: No. “If Dropcontact doesn’t find an email, the credit is automatically refunded to your account.”
• Best for: EU teams that mostly email and want GDPR-first enrichment of their own lists and CRM, processed “exclusively by our own native algorithms on EU-based servers”.
• Where it falls short: No self-serve mobiles and no prospect database, credit carryover only on Growth, and prices in EUR only.

Why Scalelist is the better fit for teams that call and email

Scalelist fits teams that call and email across several regions and want a published price per mobile, charged only when one is found. Here is the case, and where Cognism stays ahead.

EMEA phone coverage, measured

We ran the same list of founders through 8 data providers in North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America and published the raw data in our B2B data provider comparison. Cognism was not part of that test, so this is not a head-to-head with Cognism.

On the EMEA list, Scalelist found a phone number for 73% and Apollo.io for 63%; no other provider we tested passed 39%. Outside Europe, Scalelist found 87% in North America, 75% in APAC and 85% in Latin America. It is our own test, so run 100 contacts you already know through your shortlist. Our data provider test method shows how.

A published price instead of a quote

You can price a Scalelist pilot before you talk to anyone: every plan is published, there is no per-seat pricing, and sizing a search is free.

You describe the audience in one sentence in the Scalelist Lead Finder, for example “Heads of Operations at US manufacturers with 200 to 1,000 employees”, and see how many people match before you spend a credit. Moving off Cognism with a list of names and companies? Upload it to the Mobile Finder and pay only for the mobiles it finds.

Where Cognism, or another tool, is the better choice

Scalelist does not do everything Cognism does, and it is not the cheapest per phone credit.

• Do Not Call screening: Cognism screens phones against 15 major Do Not Call and TPS lists. Scalelist does not publish screening, so you check numbers against the registries yourself before you dial.
• Phone-verified mobiles: Cognism Pro adds on-demand mobile verification with manual checks. Scalelist does not publish an equivalent phone verification step.
• Certifications: Cognism holds ISO 27001 and ISO 27701. Scalelist operates under the GDPR and Singapore’s PDPA, with a Data Processing Agreement and Standard Contractual Clauses, but publishes no audited certification.
• Intent data: Cognism Pro uses Bombora’s Company Surge. Scalelist sells no intent data.
• Cheapest phone credit: on paper, Apollo.io (0.16 to 0.21 USD), Lusha (0.47 to 0.62 USD) and FullEnrich (0.52 to 0.58 USD) cost less per number than Scalelist’s 0.65 to 1.16 USD. Compare the cost per correct mobile on your own list, not per credit.
• Email only: Dropcontact’s Starter plan is 19 EUR for 500 email credits, and it refunds every miss.

Calling Europe after Cognism: what to rebuild

If you leave Cognism, you also leave its built-in screening, so rebuild that step before the first call. This is a summary of official guidance, not legal advice; our guide to B2B cold calling laws has the detail and the primary sources.

• UK: screen against both the TPS and CTPS registers and your own do-not-call list before live B2B calls, per the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Mobiles can be on the TPS.
• EU: legitimate interest can support direct marketing after a balancing test, but the right to object is “unconditional”, per the European Data Protection Board.
• Germany: calls to a business need at least presumed consent under section 7 of the Unfair Competition Act (UWG).
• France: the CNIL allows B2B calls on legitimate interest when the offer relates to the person’s job.
• Your data provider: sign a Data Processing Agreement, check where data is processed, and keep one suppression list across tools. See whether B2B contact data is legal under the GDPR.

How to choose a Cognism alternative

Choose a Cognism alternative by the one thing you used Cognism for, then test it on contacts you already know.

1. Name the reason you bought Cognism. European mobiles, DNC screening, intent data or a single enterprise contract. Each points to a different tool.
2. Count your countries. Split last quarter’s calls by country. A tool that is strong in the US can be thin in Germany or Singapore.
3. Price your real mix. A phone costs 5 to 20 times an email on most credit plans here, and seats multiply everything.
4. Run a 100-contact test. Use contacts whose numbers you already have, and count correct mobiles, not returned ones.
5. Get miss billing and renewal terms in writing. Especially on quote-only tools.

For a side-by-side on cost per contact, read Scalelist vs Cognism. For per-lookup tools, our RocketReach alternatives guide covers those, and the Scalelist blog has more head-to-head pages.

FAQ

What are the best Cognism alternatives?

The best Cognism alternatives in 2026 are Scalelist, Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, Lusha, Kaspr, Leadfeeder (formerly Dealfront), LeadIQ, FullEnrich and Dropcontact. Scalelist fits teams that call and email in several regions and want mobiles charged only when found. ZoomInfo is the closest enterprise swap. Apollo.io, Lusha and LeadIQ are self-serve, Kaspr and Leadfeeder are European tools, FullEnrich checks many vendors, and Dropcontact is email only.

Who are Cognism’s main competitors?

Cognism’s main competitors are ZoomInfo at the enterprise end, self-serve contact databases such as Apollo.io, Lusha and LeadIQ, and European tools such as Kaspr and Leadfeeder (formerly Dealfront). Pay-per-result tools such as Scalelist and FullEnrich compete for the mobile-number part of Cognism’s offer. Of these, only ZoomInfo also sells on custom quotes.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Cognism?

Probably, but Cognism publishes no prices, so a direct comparison is not possible. Several alternatives publish entry prices under 50 USD a month: LeadIQ from 15 USD, FullEnrich from 26 USD, Scalelist from 29 USD for 500 credits, Lusha from 37.45 USD and Apollo.io from 49 USD per seat. Cognism’s packages include 5 seats, so compare the full team cost.

Which Cognism alternative is best for European mobile numbers?

In our own benchmark, Scalelist found phone numbers for 73% of an EMEA list and Apollo.io for 63%; no other provider we tested passed 39%. Cognism was not in that test. LeadIQ claims a 70% match rate in EMEA, and Leadfeeder says it has fewer mobiles than others. Test 100 of your own European contacts before you switch.

Does Cognism screen numbers against Do Not Call lists?

Yes. Cognism says it screens phone numbers against 15 major Do Not Call and TPS lists (its data page says 16), including the UK TPS and CTPS and lists in the US, Australia, Germany and France. If you move to a tool that does not publish screening, check numbers against those registries yourself before you call.

Does Cognism have a free trial?

No self-serve trial or free plan is published. Cognism offers a free data sample and demos, and both paid packages route to sales. Alternatives with free credits include Lusha (40 a month), LeadIQ (50), FullEnrich (50 to start), Apollo.io (75 a month) and Scalelist (20 free credits, no credit card required).

Is Scalelist a good Cognism alternative?

For mobile numbers at a published price, yes. Scalelist, an AI Lead Finder, returns verified work emails and mobile numbers from a one-sentence description, charges 20 credits per mobile and 1 per email only when found, and starts at 29 USD a month with no seats. It does not publish Do Not Call screening, phone verification or intent data, which Cognism Pro includes.

Sources

• Cognism: Pricing
• Cognism: Our data
• Cognism: Compliance
• Apollo.io: Pricing
• Apollo.io: How data requests work
• Apollo.io: Security
• ZoomInfo: How much does ZoomInfo cost
• ZoomInfo help center: Overview of credits
• ZoomInfo: Trust center
• Vendr: ZoomInfo pricing data
• Lusha: Pricing
• Lusha: How credits are counted
• Kaspr: Pricing
• Kaspr: What are credits
• Kaspr: CSV enrichment
• Kaspr: FAQs
• Leadfeeder: Pricing
• Leadfeeder: Dealfront is now Leadfeeder
• Leadfeeder: How credits are spent
• Leadfeeder: Contact data
• Leadfeeder: GDPR
• Leadfeeder: Security
• LeadIQ: Pricing
• LeadIQ: Developer documentation
• FullEnrich: Pricing
• FullEnrich: How credits work
• Dropcontact: Pricing
• ICO: Business-to-business marketing
• EDPB: Guidelines 1/2024 on legitimate interest
• Gesetze im Internet: UWG section 7
• CNIL: Commercial phone prospecting rules