Lusha Alternatives: 10 Cheaper B2B Contact Tools for 2025

1) Why People Switch from Lusha

Let me be honest about why teams move away from Lusha. I've talked to dozens of SDRs and founders who've made the switch. The complaints? Pretty consistent.

The Credit Burn is Real

On Lusha's Pro plan ($29.90/month), you get 250 credits. Sounds reasonable until you realize phone numbers cost 5-10 credits each. An active SDR can blow through that in a week. And credits don't roll over. Use 'em or lose 'em. (Yes, that's as frustrating as it sounds.)

Pricing Escalates Quickly

That affordable entry point? It leads to enterprise tiers running $15K-66K per year. I've seen teams start at $30/month and end up at $500/month within six months. Wild.

Accuracy is Inconsistent

Lusha claims 81% data accuracy, which is above the 60-70% industry average. But according to DealSignal, 70% of CRM data is outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate. User reviews tell the same story. Bounced emails are common. That 81% feels optimistic in practice.

2) The Two Types of Lusha Alternatives

Traditional Contact Data Tools

The obvious alternatives are other contact databases. Apollo, UpLead, RocketReach - they all do what Lusha does, just with different pricing models, database sizes, and accuracy claims. If your main issue with Lusha is price or credit limits, these tools solve that problem. Same fundamental approach. Different execution. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Intent-Based Alternatives

But there's another category most comparison articles ignore entirely. Tools like Guffles take a different approach - instead of providing a static contact database, they identify people who are already engaging with relevant content on LinkedIn.

An intent-based lead is a prospect identified through their online engagement and behavior signals, indicating active interest in a topic or product, as opposed to static contact lists.

The logic is simple: someone who commented on a competitor's post yesterday is warmer than a cold contact scraped from a database six months ago. According to Factors.ai, intent-driven leads convert at 2-3x the rate of traditional leads (20-25% vs 5-10%). That's a fundamentally different value proposition. If you want to explore this category further, our intent data providers comparison covers the landscape in detail.

3) 10 Best Lusha Alternatives Compared

1. Apollo.io - Best All-in-One Platform

Apollo is the Swiss Army knife of sales tools. With 275M+ contacts and built-in email sequences, it's way more than a contact database. Pricing starts at $49/month for 5,000 credits, with an unlimited tier at $79/month. The downside? It's overkill if you just need quick LinkedIn lookups. Honestly, I've seen teams get overwhelmed by all the features when they really just needed contact info. If you're considering this route, check out our Apollo alternatives guide for a deeper dive.

2. UpLead - Best for Data Accuracy

UpLead's big selling point is their 95% accuracy guarantee - they'll refund credits for bounced emails. At $99/month for 170 credits, it's pricier per contact, but you're paying for quality. Best for teams tired of bad data wasting their time. And trust me, bad data wastes a lot of time.

3. RocketReach - Best for Database Size

If you need volume, RocketReach has 700M+ profiles. At $69/month you get access to 1,200 exports per year. The catch? Annual export limits. So plan your usage carefully. Good for one-off research projects or sporadic prospecting.

4. Hunter.io - Best for Email Finding

Hunter is laser-focused on email finding. Their domain search feature is genuinely useful for account-based campaigns. At $49/month for 500 searches, it's affordable. But if you need phone numbers? Look elsewhere. That's not their game.

5. Kaspr - Best for European Data

Kaspr shines for EU-based prospecting with strong GDPR compliance. At $49-79/month with 1,200+ phone credits, it's solid value for European markets. Less useful if your ICP is primarily US-based.

6. Cognism - Best for Phone Numbers

If you're making calls, Cognism's 97% phone accuracy is hard to beat. Their "Diamond Data" feature verifies mobile numbers manually. The catch? Enterprise pricing starts at $15K/year. Not for small teams or early-stage startups. (I learned this the hard way when I tried to get pricing.)

7. Seamless.AI - Best for AI-Powered Search

Seamless uses AI to find and verify contacts in real-time. At $147+/month, it's not cheap. But the real-time verification means fresher data. Good for teams with budget who want the latest features. Just know what you're signing up for price-wise.

8. LeadIQ - Best for Salesforce Users

LeadIQ's universal credit system and deep Salesforce integration make it ideal for enterprise sales teams. Pricing starts at $36/month. Fair warning: the credit system can get confusing. I've talked to reps who weren't sure what they were being charged for.

9. Snov.io - Best Budget Option

Snov.io combines email finding with basic outreach features for $39/month (1,000 credits). It's no-frills but gets the job done. Perfect for early-stage teams watching every dollar. Sometimes simple is exactly what you need. For more budget-friendly options, check out our guide to B2B sales tools under $100/month.

10. Guffles - Best for Intent Signals

Full disclosure: this is us. But we're a different category entirely. At $79/month with $150 in wallet credit, Guffles finds people engaging with relevant LinkedIn content rather than pulling from static databases. More on this approach below.

4) The Hidden Cost of Credit-Based Pricing

Here's what I learned the hard way when I was running demand gen at my last startup: we were measuring the wrong thing.

We tracked cost per contact. We celebrated when we found cheaper databases. But we never measured cost per response or cost per meeting booked. When we finally ran those numbers, the picture changed completely.

The data backs this up. According to Belkins' 2024 study of 16.5 million cold emails, average reply rates dropped to 5.1% - down from 7% the year before. Landbase research shows sales reps lose 500 hours per year (that's 62 working days) from using bad prospect data.

So you're paying for contacts that are 22.5% outdated annually. Sending to lists where 5% respond. And wasting days on bad data. The credit model isn't the problem. The cold contact approach might be.

Here's the thing - if you're burning through credits because you're blasting contacts that never respond, the problem isn't the credits. It's that most of those contacts weren't interested in the first place.

Guffles approaches this differently. At $79/month (with $150 in wallet credit to start), it finds people already engaging with relevant LinkedIn content - people who've raised their hand by commenting, liking, or sharing posts in your industry. Based on our data from 200+ B2B companies, these warm leads convert at 14.6% compared to 1.7% for cold outreach. That's not a marginal improvement. It's a different game entirely.

Compare that to Apollo ($49-119/month with credit limits), Lusha ($29-70/month with 250-800 credits), or ZoomInfo ($15K+/year). The question isn't which tool is cheapest per contact. It's which approach gets you meetings.

5) How to Choose the Right Alternative

Not every team needs the same solution. Here's my quick framework (and yes, I've helped dozens of teams work through this exact decision):

If you need high volume (10,000+ contacts monthly): Go with Apollo's unlimited tier at $79/month or Seamless.AI.

If you need guaranteed accuracy: UpLead's 95% guarantee or Cognism's 97% phone accuracy is worth the premium. Fewer bounces = less wasted time.

If you're targeting Europe: Kaspr or Cognism offer GDPR-compliant data with strong EU coverage.

If you live in Salesforce: LeadIQ's integration is unmatched for enterprise workflows.

If you want a different approach entirely: Look into buyer intent signals that indicate prospects ready to buy. This is where intent-based tools like Guffles - or even manual engagement tracking - can outperform volume-based approaches.

The Bottom Line

After 8 years in B2B sales, here's what I've learned: the tool matters less than the approach.

If you just need cheaper contact data than Lusha, Apollo or Snov.io will do the job. If accuracy is your issue, UpLead or Cognism are worth the premium.

But if you're tired of burning credits on contacts that don't respond? Maybe the problem isn't the credits. Maybe it's cold outreach itself. I've been there. It's exhausting.

Warm vs cold outreach data consistently shows that engaged leads convert better. If the intent-based approach sounds right for your team, you can start manually - track who engages with competitor posts on LinkedIn and reach out referencing their engagement. It works. But it's time-consuming.

Or skip the manual work: Guffles automates this process at $79/month, and new users get $150 in wallet credit to test the approach. Either way, the shift from cold contacts to warm engagement is worth exploring.

The choice isn't just which Lusha alternative is cheapest. It's whether you want more contacts or better ones. And honestly? That's the question that changed everything for me.