Credit-based pricing dominates B2B data tools, and it is quietly the most user-hostile pricing structure in the category. Apollo charges credits per email reveal, Clay burns credits per enrichment step, and Lusha meters every phone lookup at five credits a pop. A 2026 Kustiq analysis comparing 10 providers found sticker prices ranging from $0.025 per contact (Hunter) to $3.30 (Cognism), with per-seat taxes inflating real costs by 5x for a 5-person team. The study noted that credit pricing introduces a worse problem than cost: founders stop prospecting because they are afraid of running out of credits. Flat pricing — a fixed fee with no per-contact charges — is the alternative, but only a handful of B2B data tools have adopted it honestly. After verifying every candidate against its live pricing page, seven tools belong in this roundup, and not all are truly credit-free. Each entry below says plainly where it falls on the spectrum. Pricing verified August 2026.
Comparison table
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Flat or credits? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cognism | EU-focused enterprise teams needing GDPR-compliant data | ~$15,000/yr platform fee + ~$1,500/seat/yr | Flat fee, no per-credit charges |
| Kaldo | B2B SaaS founders wanting intent signals without credit anxiety | $49/seat/mo (Pro), $149/seat/mo (Business, min 3 seats) | Flat, no credits for core signals |
| CloseFast (closefa.st) | Marketing agencies prospecting local businesses | €49/mo (Starter), €99/mo (Pro) | Flat, no credits, no per-seat |
| Amplemarket | Full-stack revenue teams replacing a multi-tool stack | $600/mo (Startup, 2 users, annual) | Flat platform fee, annual credit renewal |
| LeadIQ | SDR teams wanting one credit pool across email and phone | ~$200/mo flat (Pro, up to 5 users) | Flat per-team, credits consumed inside |
| Ocean.io | Teams wanting unlimited seats without per-seat tax | ~$99/mo (yearly subscription) | Credit-based, unlimited seats, credit rollover |
| 6sense | Enterprise ABM teams with dedicated RevOps | ~$25,000/yr (Team tier) | Flat platform fee, credits inside |
Pricing verified August 2026. Cognism and 6sense do not publish prices — figures are from buyer-reported data (Salesgear, Vendr, G2 contract reviews, August 2026). LeadIQ's $200/mo flat Pro plan was reported by Kustiq's July 2026 comparison but is not published on LeadIQ's own pricing page, which shows a credit slider instead.
1. Cognism — the enterprise flat-fee original
Best for: EU-focused enterprise teams that need GDPR-compliant contact data and phone-verified mobile numbers without credit anxiety.
What it actually does: Cognism sells two tiers — Grow and Elevate — on a flat-fee model with no per-credit charges for day-to-day prospecting. Reps can view and export contacts without watching a credit meter. The platform fee covers database access, integrations, and search, while per-seat licenses cover individual users. Elevate adds Diamond Data (phone-verified mobiles) and Bombora-powered intent signals. Cognism's GDPR-first positioning makes it the natural choice for European teams that need EEA-verified contacts, and its flat-fee model is the structural differentiator it sells against ZoomInfo's credit-metered approach.
Pricing (verified August 2026): No published pricing — quote-only. Buyer-reported data from Salesgear, Cleanlist, and Vendr puts the platform fee at $15,000 to $25,000 per year, plus $1,500 to $2,500 per seat per year. A typical 5-user Grow deal runs ~$22,500 per year. Elevate for the same team starts at ~$37,500. Onboarding fees ($500 to $1,500) and intent data topics ($200 to $400 each) are the main add-ons. Renewals climb 10 to 15% per year unless you negotiate a cap.
Honest limitation: The platform fee alone puts most contracts above $15,000 per year, making Cognism inaccessible to small agencies and startups. The flat-fee economics only work if your team prospects heavily — light exporters pay a premium for headroom they will never use.
2. Kaldo — flat pricing for intent signals
Best for: B2B SaaS founders who want hiring, funding, and growth signals without a credit-based metering model.
What it actually does: Kaldo is a newer entrant (2026) that built its entire pitch around flat pricing. The tool tracks company-level signals — hiring posts, funding rounds, growth indicators — and ranks accounts by buying intent. Every signal, every account, one flat price per seat. No per-signal billing, no credit packs. The Free tier covers 5 tracked accounts. Pro covers 500 accounts per workspace at $49 per seat per month. Business covers 2,500 accounts at $149 per seat per month (minimum 3 seats) and adds webhooks and API access. Kaldo is transparent about what it does not do: no anonymous website-visitor identification (that requires paying Clearbit or ipinfo.io per resolution), no LinkedIn engagement tracking.
Pricing (verified August 2026 via kaldo.io/pricing): Free ($0, 5 accounts), Pro ($49/seat/mo or $490/yr), Business ($149/seat/mo or $1,490/yr, min 3 seats). All plans include all signal engines — tiers differentiate only by account volume and integrations.
Honest limitation: Kaldo is a signal layer, not a contact database. It tells you which companies to target but does not give you verified email addresses or phone numbers for individual contacts. You still need a separate contact-finding tool (Hunter, Apollo, or similar) to get the actual outreach data.
3. CloseFast (closefa.st) — flat pricing for agency prospecting
Best for: Marketing agencies that prospect local businesses and want every prospect audited for ad spend, website quality, and SEO gaps — not just a contact record.
What it actually does: CloseFast (closefa.st) is our product, and we built it on flat pricing because the credit model is the single most common complaint we hear from agency owners evaluating data tools. The free tier gives 10 leads per month with full audit capabilities — Google Maps search, Meta Pixel and website audit, ads audit with A/B/C/D prospect ranking, and a generated pitch. Starter at €49/mo covers ~250 leads with full audits and personalized pitches. Pro at €99/mo covers ~600 leads with priority support. No credits, no per-seat charges, no per-lookup deductions. The price does not move based on how many searches you run within your tier's monthly allotment.
Pricing (verified August 2026 via closefa.st): Free (€0, 10 leads/mo), Starter (€49/mo, ~250 leads/mo), Pro (€99/mo, ~600 leads/mo). No credit card required for the free tier.
Honest limitation: CloseFast is built for agencies prospecting local businesses, not enterprise B2B sales teams. The database is Google Maps and local-business oriented, not a 270-million-contact B2B database. If you need technographics, firmographics, or enterprise intent data, this is the wrong tool.
4. Amplemarket — flat platform fee, annual credits
Best for: Full-stack revenue teams that want to replace a multi-tool stack (data + sequencing + warmup + signals) with one platform.
What it actually does: Amplemarket bundles contact data (200M+ AI-verified contacts, under 3% bounce rate), intent signals (100+ contact-level signals), multichannel sequencing, email warmup, and CRM integrations into a single platform. The Startup plan costs $600 per month on an annual contract and includes 2 users, 15,000 email credits per user per year, and 480 phone credits per user per year. Credits renew annually on your contract date — not monthly — so there is no month-to-month credit anxiety. The model is flat in the sense that your annual cost is your annual cost, with no monthly overage pressure. Phone credit top-ups cost $0.50 each if you exceed the included allowance.
Pricing (verified August 2026 via amplemarket.com/blog/amplemarket-pricing): Startup $600/mo (annual, 2 users). Growth and Elite are quote-based with more users and features. No monthly billing option.
Honest limitation: Amplemarket uses credits internally — they just renew annually instead of monthly. The $600/mo entry price is also steep for a solo prospector or small agency. If you only need contact data (not sequencing, signals, and warmup), you are paying for capabilities you may not use. It is flat-adjacent, not truly credit-free.
5. LeadIQ — flat per-team, credits inside
Best for: SDR teams that want one universal credit pool across email and phone lookups, with a flat per-team fee instead of per-seat pricing.
What it actually does: LeadIQ sells prospecting data through a Universal Credit system where 1 credit equals 1 email reveal and 10 credits equal 1 phone number. The Free tier gives 50 credits for 1 user. The Pro plan covers up to 5 users with a flat monthly fee, and credits are shared across the team. Enterprise is quote-only. In mid-2026, LeadIQ restructured from per-seat to a flat per-team model — the Pro plan covers up to 5 users for one price, removing the seat tax that made per-seat pricing indefensible for small teams. The tool integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho, and includes AI-generated outbound messages and job-change tracking.
Pricing (verified August 2026): LeadIQ does not publish dollar amounts on its pricing page — it shows a credit slider instead. Third-party sources (Kustiq, Cleanlist, Costbench, all July-August 2026) report the Pro plan at approximately $200/mo flat for up to 5 users, with credits included. Exact credit allowances are not published; the pricing page lets you estimate credits based on monthly needs.
Honest limitation: LeadIQ is not truly flat — credits are consumed per action, and when they run out, you either upgrade or wait. The flat per-team fee removes the seat tax but not the credit anxiety. Phone numbers cost 10x more credits than emails, which can burn through an allowance fast for cold-calling teams.
6. Ocean.io — credit-based, but unlimited seats
Best for: Teams that want to avoid per-seat pricing and are comfortable managing a credit budget.
What it actually does: Ocean.io is a B2B prospecting platform with 35M companies and AI-powered lookalike search. Every plan comes with unlimited users — no per-seat charges. Credits are consumed per action: 1 credit per verified email, 10 credits per direct phone, 0.2 credits per search result. Monthly plans allow credit rollover for up to 6 months. Yearly plans give credits valid for 12 months. The tool is EU-based (Central European support hours, GDPR-compliant), which makes it relevant for agencies targeting European markets.
Pricing (verified August 2026 via ocean.io/pricing): Pricing is credit-based, estimated at ~$99/mo for ~1,700 monthly credits on a yearly subscription. The plan calculator on the pricing page lets you estimate costs based on your monthly email, phone, and search volume. Pay-as-you-go credits are also available with 3-month validity.
Honest limitation: Ocean.io is credit-based, not flat. It is included here because the unlimited-seats model removes one half of the credit-and-seat tax that defines most B2B data tools. But you still manage a credit budget, and phone lookups at 10 credits each can deplete an allowance quickly.
7. 6sense — enterprise flat-fee with credits inside
Best for: Enterprise ABM programs with dedicated RevOps teams that use intent data, predictive analytics, and account-based workflows as a core part of their sales process.
What it actually does: 6sense is an account intelligence and intent data platform that uses a flat platform-fee model at the enterprise level. The Team tier starts at approximately $25,000 per year and includes core sales intelligence and data credits. Higher tiers add predictive AI and the complete bundle, which runs $100,000 to $200,000+ per year. The platform fee is flat — you pay an annual contract price, not per-contact — but credits are consumed for certain data actions inside the platform. The model is structurally similar to Cognism's: a high platform fee with credits as a secondary metering mechanism.
Pricing (verified August 2026): No published pricing — quote-only. Buyer-reported data from Warmly, Derrick, and CASRAI (all 2026) puts the Team tier at ~$25,000/yr, with the complete bundle at $100,000 to $200,000+/yr. Multi-year contracts are mandatory. Credits are included in the platform fee but consumed for certain actions.
Honest limitation: 6sense is not truly credit-free, and the entry price of $25,000 per year puts it out of reach for any team without a dedicated RevOps function. The platform is designed for enterprise ABM, not for agency prospecting or small-team outbound. Including it here is honest about the spectrum: it is flat-fee at the contract level, credit-metered at the action level.
How to choose
Two questions narrow the field:
Do you need contact data, or signals? If you need verified emails and phone numbers, Cognism (enterprise), CloseFast (agencies), and Amplemarket (full-stack) are the options. If you need buying signals and intent data, Kaldo and 6sense are purpose-built for that. LeadIQ and Ocean.io sit in between — they provide contacts but meter them with credits.
What is your team size and budget? Solo prospectors and small agencies should start with CloseFast (€49/mo, no credits, no per-seat). B2B SaaS founders should evaluate Kaldo ($49/seat/mo, flat). Mid-market teams that want the full stack should look at Amplemarket ($600/mo). Enterprise teams with five-figure tool budgets should evaluate Cognism (
$22,500/yr for 5 users) or 6sense ($25,000/yr entry).
When a credit-based tool is the better choice
Flat pricing is not always the right answer. If your prospecting volume is low and unpredictable — a few hundred contacts per quarter, not per month — a credit-based tool like Hunter at $34/mo for 2,000 credits may cost less than any flat-fee alternative. If you need the largest possible database (Apollo's 270M+ contacts, ZoomInfo's depth in North America), the credit model is how those tools fund data acquisition at scale. And if your team only prospecting occasionally, paying per credit is cheaper than carrying a flat fee for headroom you do not use.
The honest framing: flat pricing wins when your team prospects actively and predictably. Credit pricing wins when your usage is light, sporadic, or focused on a single data type (email-only lookups via Hunter are cheaper than any flat-fee tool for pure volume).
Read next
- Best Lead Generation Tools for Marketing Agencies (2026) — the broader roundup covering credit-based and flat-fee tools side by side
- Apollo Alternatives for Agencies (No Expiring Credits) — the comparison-lane post that validated the credit-resentment angle this roundup builds on
- CloseFast vs Clay for Finding Agency Clients — how Clay's credit-and-actions model compares to a flat fee