Alternatives to Email Finder Tools for Higher Quality b2b Databases
What are email finder tools?
Email finder and verifier tools help you find email addresses, direct phone numbers, company names, social media profiles, company revenue and a lot more contact and company information. Their algorithm indexes a huge number of web pages to source information, and builds and stores extensive databases. They also help you verify the validity and existence of the email address before sending. There are bulk email finder options which allow you to upload a csv file and enrich it with email addresses. These tools help you build a lead list for marketing, sales, and business development, using a browser extension, API or web interface.
If you want to evaluate various software platforms and identify their pros and cons, and also discover ways to overcome the drawbacks of such software tools, this is the best place for you.
Pros and cons of email finder tools
Pros
They are easily accessible, quick and most have fairly simplified interfaces that you can navigate through and download data in bulk.
Many provide free trials so you can test them out before you buy.
They integrate with most CRM systems.
It’s a quick way to get started with email marketing campaigns.
It avoids the task of building a list yourself through content marketing.
Cons
The most persistent downside of using such tools is the inability to have all the features you need within a single tool. In that case, you may end up juggling between 2 or more tools, which ends up in more time and money spent. Therefore it’s important to make sure you have all the features you need by using a trial version first.
Also, some tools still charge for inaccurate and unverified contact data emails or numbers which is wasted money and time down the drain.
Despite tall accuracy claims, you end up with bounced emails on your marketing campaigns. This is because data gets stale and needs to be updated often. Most platforms have a fixed refresh schedule like 30 or 90 days, leading to a lot of stale data.
Since data is shared between users, you and your competitors end up having very similar data. There is a lack of exclusivity.
Common email finder tools available on the market and how they score
There are a wide range of email finder tools available online. These tools are also called prospecting tools, list building tools, etc but the majority of them have similar features and have a few differentiators among them like price or method of data collection. Some email finder tools that are in common use are Uplead, Snov.io, Lusha, Hunter.io, Seamless.ai, Apollo.io, Clearbit, D&B Hoovers, Rocketreach, AeroLeads, and Prospect.io.
These tools work as software solutions that are a quick way to find email addresses, phone numbers, and other details of prospects you want to target in your email marketing campaigns. These tools or solutions help you save time on research by allowing instantaneous downloads from their database based on your needs. They have simple and user-friendly interfaces and are seamlessly integrated with your CRM systems. Some of these tools also provide you with browser extensions for easy usage.
But the question on most marketing and sales teams minds, is that can software tools give you highly qualified and targeted leads for your email and advertising campaigns? The main factors that need to be evaluated are accuracy and pricing. When a marketer or sales person evaluates their campaign’s requirements against the budget available, it comes down to Accuracy versus Pricing. So let’s get an in-depth look into these factors.
According to reviews, the 2 main complaints many users have had with email finder tools and data enrichment software is the high cost and lack of complete accuracy, which is incorrect emails and phone numbers. With many software tools, their data is not as accurate as they claim it to be.
Software tools are known to have a large amount of stale data, because they contain millions of contacts. All these contact details cannot be refreshed in real time. Only the popular industries and job titles are refreshed quarterly or monthly by automated software programs. This is why they are low on accuracy.
When it comes to pricing, there are different subscription plans which determine the number of searches, bulk features access, speed of search results, and technical support you get from the team. There is also a credit system which determines the number of profiles you will be able to download.
One downside about the pricing is that in the long run, the pricing tends to be higher. In case the leads you paid for are inaccurate, you may go on to pay more for refreshing these stale leads. With inaccurate contact details in your email campaigns, you end up with lots of bounced emails, contacts unsubscribing to your lists, and overall low open rates. This way you end up incurring a greater cost on your marketing campaigns.
For further details on this topic visit this blog article. Are high quality leads possible with email finder tools?
What are the common alternatives to email finder tools available on the market?
Most users of email finder tools complain about b2b data inaccuracies. 43% of sales and marketing teams say a lack of accurate data remains a challenge. It is an accepted fact that data accuracy rates are between 60% and 80%. This eventually leads to at least a 5% bounce rate on your email marketing campaigns. This insight has led many vendors to improvise how data is sourced.
As accuracy and consent are essential for a seamless email marketing campaign, the perfect alternative to email finder tools are custom data research providers. Custom data research providers, also known as custom list builders or bespoke data vendors, provide you with high-quality email lists that are sourced specially for your campaigns. The data is not stored in humongous databases to reduce the chances of it being outdated. The data is also considered high in accuracy, which reduces your email bounce rate.
One of the biggest advantages of such data providers is that they comply with data privacy standards and regulations like GDPR, CCPA, etc along with providing flexible pricing structures, unlike the rigid and high pricing of email finder tools. They would also perform data enrichment, which is refreshing your data and filling the gaps in the information, allowing you to tailor personalised messages, improve the customer experience, and improve your chances of conversion.
Custom list builders help you optimise your total addressable market by letting you know exactly whom to target, which would in turn result in a higher conversion rate, save you time and effort, and help you target more efficiently.
How Ascentrik provides the best solution amongst all other custom data research providers
Ascentrik Research works as your organisation’s data partner, providing an end-to-end solution to your data needs. We leverage automation as well as human efforts to make your “freshly sourced” data 100% accurate. As we source our data during your campaign, we are able to maintain this high level of accuracy along with a zero percent email bounce rate. We not only help you achieve the email lists of mass industries but also hyper-niche industries, thanks to our global coverage.
We also perform data cleansing and enrichment practices where, if your prospect leaves his or her job during your campaign, we ensure to provide replacements for a smooth and efficient marketing campaign. Along with data services, we also provide you with insights and intelligence such as sales intelligence, competitive and trend analysis, and business intelligence, all under one roof.
Salespeople and marketers often switch between data providers and email finder tools because their expectations do not match their results. Either their marketing goals are unfulfilled or the ROI is not attractive. We have been a valuable part of fulfilling the objectives of our clients by giving them a 100% ROI along with company growth. Our long-term partners have resulted in 70% growth, and this has been achieved by leveraging our highest-quality data and email lists.
Some data points that Ascentrik provides:
• First name • Last name • Job position • Locality • Prospect’s social profile • Company name • Company URL • Company’s social profile • Company size • Company’s locality • Country • State • City • Industry
Let’s have a detailed look at some Email Finder Tools
Emailsearch.io
It is an online tool that enables users to search for the email addresses of individuals or companies. It uses advanced algorithms to scan various public sources and databases to provide accurate and up-to-date email addresses. It is a service that collects data on linkedin and other social media channels and offers you an email search engine service.
1. Pros
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Support is available
- CSV opportunity
- Cost-effective
- Email automation
- Outreach options: Email, Phone number, Social media, LinkedIn address
- Simple and easy to use email search engine.
2. Cons
- Pricing should be followed because credit resets every month
- The first pricing plan has quite limited features.
- Limited multi-user capabilities for teams.
3. Pricing
- They have different pricing plans on their website ranging from $29 per month to $279 per month.
Emailsearch.io
It is an online tool that enables users to search for the email addresses of individuals or companies. It uses advanced algorithms to scan various public sources and databases to provide accurate and up-to-date email addresses. It is a service that collects data on linkedin and other social media channels and offers you an email search engine service.
1. Pros
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Support is available
- CSV opportunity
- Cost-effective
- Email automation
- Outreach options: Email, Phone number, Social media, LinkedIn address
- Simple and easy to use email search engine.
2. Cons
- Pricing should be followed because credit resets every month
- The first pricing plan has quite limited features.
- Limited multi-user capabilities for teams.
3. Pricing
- They have different pricing plans on their website ranging from $29 per month to $279 per month.
Hunter
Hunter lets their users find professional email addresses in seconds and connect with the people that matter for your business. Their business provides data prospecting and cold email outreach services to their users
1. Pros
- Team account option
- Search features: Domain search, bulk domain search, search by first and last name, social network search (Twitter)
- Email verifier, email tracker, email campaign sending, email drip campaigns, web technology checker
- Single email search is equipped with confidence scores and sources where Hunter scraped these emails.
- Good tool to find email addresses by domain research and contact information.
2. Cons
- You cannot search the company profile.
- You cannot search social URLs.
- You cannot research emails from names.
- No verifiable source to check the leads.
- Hunter deducts credits for generating emails but it also deducts credits for validating the emails which are generated.
- It doesn’t work with LinkedIn
3. Pricing Structure
- There is a free version.
- Starts at $49.00 per month. Hunter offers a free trial.
Hunter
Hunter lets their users find professional email addresses in seconds and connect with the people that matter for your business. Their business provides data prospecting and cold email outreach services to their users
- Team account option
- Search features: Domain search, bulk domain search, search by first and last name, social network search (Twitter)
- Email verifier, email tracker, email campaign sending, email drip campaigns, web technology checker
- Single email search is equipped with confidence scores and sources where Hunter scraped these emails.
- Good tool to find email addresses by domain research and contact information.
- You cannot search the company profile.
- You cannot search social URLs.
- You cannot research emails from names.
- No verifiable source to check the leads.
- Hunter deducts credits for generating emails but it also deducts credits for validating the emails which are generated.
- It doesn’t work with LinkedIn
- There is a free version.
- Starts at $49.00 per month. Hunter offers a free trial.
Voila Norbert
Voila Norbert is an intelligent lead generation tool that can find anyone’s corporate email address and enrich it with data that drives conversion.
1. Pros
- Team account option
- Search features: Domain search, bulk domain search, emails from names, social network search (LinkedIn)
- Email tracker, email campaign sending, email drip campaigns
2. Cons
- May find emails that are no longer valid or not find any
- Chrome extension may close if too many tabs are open.
3. Pricing
- Starts at $49 per month with unlimited team members. This email finder tool offers a free trial.
Voila Norbert
Voila Norbert is an intelligent lead generation tool that can find anyone’s corporate email address and enrich it with data that drives conversion.
- Team account option
- Search features: Domain search, bulk domain search, emails from names, social network search (LinkedIn)
- Email tracker, email campaign sending, email drip campaigns
- May find emails that are no longer valid or not find any
- Chrome extension may close if too many tabs are open.
- Starts at $49 per month with unlimited team members. This email finder tool offers a free trial.
RocketReach
Rocketreach is a sales and lead intelligence platform that provides real-time verified data to its users. Their data is used in marketing, sales and recruitment.
1. Pros
- Team account option, API
- Search features: Full prospect profile (for additional pay), domain search, bulk domain search, emails from names, company profile search
- Email verifier, email campaign sending
- It has a huge database of 700 million+ contacts across 35 million companies
2. Cons
- The credits might be deducted even if the users obtain outdated or non-existing email addresses.
- The job titles drop-down is too limited and needs to be expanded.
- No free plan.
- Some users claim that the platform lacks data coverage in Japan, China and Latin America.
- Some users face issues integrating the platform in their CRM’s as well as uneasiness in mass export
- Data quality issues are faced by some users
3. Pricing Structure
- Starts at $49 and 170 contact lookup per month.
RocketReach
Rocketreach is a sales and lead intelligence platform that provides real-time verified data to its users. Their data is used in marketing, sales and recruitment.
- Team account option, API
- Search features: Full prospect profile (for additional pay), domain search, bulk domain search, emails from names, company profile search
- Email verifier, email campaign sending
- It has a huge database of 700 million+ contacts across 35 million companies
- The credits might be deducted even if the users obtain outdated or non-existing email addresses.
- The job titles drop-down is too limited and needs to be expanded.
- No free plan.
- Some users claim that the platform lacks data coverage in Japan, China and Latin America.
- Some users face issues integrating the platform in their CRM’s as well as uneasiness in mass export
- Data quality issues are faced by some users
- Starts at $49 and 170 contact lookup per month.
Lusha
Lusha functions as a browser or salesforce plugin, or via an API, or through Lusha’s Zapier integration. It also has a large searchable database, with 36 million C-level profiles, 100 million business profiles, and 15 million company profiles.
1. Pros
- Lusha has a massive database of 100M business profiles, 60M email addresses, 50M direct dials and over 15M companies’ profiles.
- They are GDPR and CCPA compliant
- Lusha helps in creating and sending customised emails to the prospects
- The platform is user friendly and the Chrome Integration is handy for the users
- Excellent dashboard for overview of data
2. Cons
- Lusha themselves claim to provide 81% accurate data which is lower than many of the competitors like Cognism (98%) and Uplead (95%)
- Some users have claimed to face email bounces as high as 40%
- Data can get outdated and stale very quickly
- The quality of direct dials is a matter of concern
Lusha has 4 pricing plans and is based on a Freemium model. The customer is billed annually
- Free: $0/user (5 credits)
- Pro: $348/user billed annually (480 credits)
- Premium: $612/user billed annually (960 credits)
- Scale: Must contact the sales team
Lusha
Lusha functions as a browser or salesforce plugin, or via an API, or through Lusha’s Zapier integration. It also has a large searchable database, with 36 million C-level profiles, 100 million business profiles, and 15 million company profiles.
- Lusha has a massive database of 100M business profiles, 60M email addresses, 50M direct dials and over 15M companies’ profiles.
- They are GDPR and CCPA compliant
- Lusha helps in creating and sending customised emails to the prospects
- The platform is user friendly and the Chrome Integration is handy for the users
- Excellent dashboard for overview of data
- Lusha themselves claim to provide 81% accurate data which is lower than many of the competitors like Cognism (98%) and Uplead (95%)
- Some users have claimed to face email bounces as high as 40%
- Data can get outdated and stale very quickly
- The quality of direct dials is a matter of concern
Lusha has 4 pricing plans and is based on a Freemium model. The customer is billed annually
- Free: $0/user (5 credits)
- Pro: $348/user billed annually (480 credits)
- Premium: $612/user billed annually (960 credits)
- Scale: Must contact the sales team
Swordfish
Swordfish is a tool that helps sales teams and recruiters find direct information like phone numbers and email addresses from the prospects’ social profiles including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub and Stack Overflow.
1. Pros
- It helps the users to upload their pre-existing data lists for data enrichment
- The platform is easy to use
- Swordfish is GDPR and CCPA compliant
- The free chrome extension is available that helps in bulk selection of contacts
2. Cons
- The biggest drawback of Swordfish is the accuracy of its data. According to a user, it is as low as 65%
- Currently, Swordfish does not have its integrations for major CRM platforms like Outreach, HubSpot, Zoho, etc
- There are a few emails that don’t exist anymore, generating bouncing emails and potentially increasing the risk of being flagged as spam.
3. Pricing Structure
Swordfish has a free trial version where the user is offered 5 credits as a sample. Along with the free trial, the company offers 3 plans which includes:
- Starter – $99/month (100 credits per month)
- Starter plus – $199/month (300 credits per month)
- Professional – Must contact the company for a price quotation
Swordfish
Swordfish is a tool that helps sales teams and recruiters find direct information like phone numbers and email addresses from the prospects’ social profiles including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub and Stack Overflow.
- It helps the users to upload their pre-existing data lists for data enrichment
- The platform is easy to use
- Swordfish is GDPR and CCPA compliant
- The free chrome extension is available that helps in bulk selection of contacts
- The biggest drawback of Swordfish is the accuracy of its data. According to a user, it is as low as 65%
- Currently, Swordfish does not have its integrations for major CRM platforms like Outreach, HubSpot, Zoho, etc
- There are a few emails that don’t exist anymore, generating bouncing emails and potentially increasing the risk of being flagged as spam.
Swordfish has a free trial version where the user is offered 5 credits as a sample. Along with the free trial, the company offers 3 plans which includes:
- Starter – $99/month (100 credits per month)
- Starter plus – $199/month (300 credits per month)
- Professional – Must contact the company for a price quotation
Clearbit
Clearbit is a data enrichment solution that automatically refreshes sales records with verified corporate and contact information in order to provide greater insights into prospects. Their platform provides services of data enrichment, website visitors view and identifying high intent prospects.
1. Pros
- They claim to have an accuracy of 94% email deliverability with a database of 389M contact records and 48M company records
- They refresh their data every 30 days claiming to have the most up-to-date data possible.
- The 2-step setup process makes it easy for businesses to activate data and get insights that drive revenue
- Their users claim to have received excellent customer support
- Easily access email lists, phone numbers and job titles
- Seamless integrations into CRMs
2. Cons
- Not suitable for finding data for small companies
- Unclear and non-transparent pricing policies and overhead charges according to many users
- Sometimes, the information Clearbit returns is inaccurate and outdated
- Lack of multi-user support feature
- According to some users, Clearbit cannot be relied for phone numbers
3. Pricing Structure
No pricing information is mentioned on the website. One must contact the company to get a quotation.
Clearbit
Clearbit is a data enrichment solution that automatically refreshes sales records with verified corporate and contact information in order to provide greater insights into prospects. Their platform provides services of data enrichment, website visitors view and identifying high intent prospects.
1. Pros
- They claim to have an accuracy of 94% email deliverability with a database of 389M contact records and 48M company records
- They refresh their data every 30 days claiming to have the most up-to-date data possible.
- The 2-step setup process makes it easy for businesses to activate data and get insights that drive revenue
- Their users claim to have received excellent customer support
- Easily access email lists, phone numbers and job titles
- Seamless integrations into CRMs
- Not suitable for finding data for small companies
- Unclear and non-transparent pricing policies and overhead charges according to many users
- Sometimes, the information Clearbit returns is inaccurate and outdated
- Lack of multi-user support feature
- According to some users, Clearbit cannot be relied for phone numbers
3. Pricing Structure
No pricing information is mentioned on the website. One must contact the company to get a quotation.
Snov.io
Snov.io is not just an email finder tool but more like an all-in-one cold outreach automation platform, packed full of different business essentials. It also offers a searchable B2B lead database
1. Pros
- It offers both individual and bulk search functionality based on names and domains.
- Once you build your list, you can also use Snovio email campaigns to craft, send, and track your cold email campaigns.
- It has a UI that scores well on looks and functionality, and has tons of features.
- It’s Google Chrome extension can scrape emails from any website or social media profile you visit.
- It has a techstack checker allows you to check which technologies a website is using.
2. Cons
- In terms of finding emails, compared to Voila Norbert, Aeroleads, and Hunter, Snovio’s accuracy rate is the lowest of them all.
- They often provide work emails of the previous company, which could mean that they didn’t update their email database for a while.
- Sometimes my IMAP settings for receiving emails get broken in the middle of a drip-email campaign.
- Snov.io is made for people who want a searchable B2B Lead database, CRM, and email automation software all-in-one. But for people who want a heavy-duty email finder, Voila Norbert is the better choice.
3. Pricing
- Snovio’s pricing starts at $39 per month and offers 1000 email-finding monthly credits and 2000 email verifications.
- In addition to that, even on the lowest pricing tier you get email drip campaigns, unlimited team members, and integrations. According to these numbers, Snovio is the most affordable email finder.
Snov.io
Snov.io is not just an email finder tool but more like an all-in-one cold outreach automation platform, packed full of different business essentials. It also offers a searchable B2B lead database
- It offers both individual and bulk search functionality based on names and domains.
- Once you build your list, you can also use Snovio email campaigns to craft, send, and track your cold email campaigns.
- It has a UI that scores well on looks and functionality, and has tons of features.
- It’s Google Chrome extension can scrape emails from any website or social media profile you visit.
- It has a techstack checker allows you to check which technologies a website is using.
- In terms of finding emails, compared to Voila Norbert, Aeroleads, and Hunter, Snovio’s accuracy rate is the lowest of them all.
- They often provide work emails of the previous company, which could mean that they didn’t update their email database for a while.
- Sometimes my IMAP settings for receiving emails get broken in the middle of a drip-email campaign.
- Snov.io is made for people who want a searchable B2B Lead database, CRM, and email automation software all-in-one. But for people who want a heavy-duty email finder, Voila Norbert is the better choice.
- Snovio’s pricing starts at $39 per month and offers 1000 email-finding monthly credits and 2000 email verifications.
- In addition to that, even on the lowest pricing tier you get email drip campaigns, unlimited team members, and integrations. According to these numbers, Snovio is the most affordable email finder.
Aeroleads
Aeroleads is a Chrome extension that combs through LinkedIn, CrunchBase, AngelList, and many more websites to find the emails and phone numbers of your prospects.
1. Pros
- Prospect list export that supports CSV format
- Possible to integrate the service with your software through their API
- It has an email finder and verifier for single + bulk CSV usage.
2. Cons
- The accuracy varies depending on the niche.
- Some users have noted that it charges free credits even if it gives no contact information or wrong contact information.
- To get maximum value out of this tool, you should be a very consistent LinkedIn user as well. For example Aeroleads will only be able to process the contacts that are visible to you after a LinkedIn Search. This is not an Aeroleads tool limitation but your LinkedIn account type limitation.
3. Pricing
- It has 4 pricing plans from $49 per month to $499 dollars per month.
- It also has an Enterprise plan where the price is quoted based on the client’s needs.
Aeroleads
Aeroleads is a Chrome extension that combs through LinkedIn, CrunchBase, AngelList, and many more websites to find the emails and phone numbers of your prospects.
- Prospect list export that supports CSV format
- Possible to integrate the service with your software through their API
- It has an email finder and verifier for single + bulk CSV usage.
- The accuracy varies depending on the niche.
- Some users have noted that it charges free credits even if it gives no contact information or wrong contact information.
- To get maximum value out of this tool, you should be a very consistent LinkedIn user as well. For example Aeroleads will only be able to process the contacts that are visible to you after a LinkedIn Search. This is not an Aeroleads tool limitation but your LinkedIn account type limitation.
- It has 4 pricing plans from $49 per month to $499 dollars per month.
- It also has an Enterprise plan where the price is quoted based on the client’s needs.
Now Let’s look at Ascentrik’s Custom Data Research
Ascentrik
Ascentrik is a custom research company that offers a team of research experts, rather than a pre-built database for download.
1. Database Size
- Ascentrik does not store data. But builds a new database for each client from the ground up.
2. Compliance
- GDPR compliance and exclusive databases that are not shared with the competition, thus enabling a high level of confidentiality.
3. Data Sourcing
- Primary and secondary research is conducted with various quality checks that are automated and human-verified. Email and voice verification is done.
4. Refresh Schedules
- Ascentrik keeps your data fresh and updated all through your campaign.
- If an employee changes his job during the marketing campaign, replacements are provided, at a minimal additional cost.
5. Accuracy Rate
- Because each database is custom-built, Ascentrik offers an accuracy rate of 100%.
6. Intelligence
- Offers market and competitor intelligence, trend analysis, SWOT analysis, and comprehensive insight into the financial performance of various companies.
7. Advantages
- Offers a free trial.
- Is highly scalable based on project requirements.
- Offers a dedicated research team, that can work as an extension to your own team.
- Offers additional benefits associated with outsourcing.
Ascentrik
Ascentrik is a custom research company that offers a team of research experts, rather than a pre-built database for download.
1. Database Size
- Ascentrik does not store data. But builds a new database for each client from the ground up.
2. Compliance
- GDPR compliance and exclusive databases that are not shared with the competition, thus enabling a high level of confidentiality.
3. Data Sourcing
- Primary and secondary research is conducted with various quality checks that are automated and human-verified. Email and voice verification is done.
4. Refresh Schedules
- Ascentrik keeps your data fresh and updated all through your campaign.
- If an employee changes his job during the marketing campaign, replacements are provided, at a minimal additional cost.
5. Accuracy Rate
- Because each database is custom-built, Ascentrik offers an accuracy rate of 100%.
6. Intelligence
- Offers market and competitor intelligence, trend analysis, SWOT analysis, and comprehensive insight into the financial performance of various companies.
7. Advantages
- Offers a free trial.
- Is highly scalable based on project requirements.
- Offers a dedicated research team, that can work as an extension to your own team.
- Offers additional benefits associated with outsourcing.
Conclusion
Data Research is designed to overcome all the shortcomings of data enrichment tools. It eliminates the problems occurring from storing large databases with millions of contacts. This is done by building a fresh database for each client.
Business intelligence tools that offer pre-built databases have the downside of getting stale quickly. But a team of researchers who source and build fresh databases, work as an extension to your own team. They establish strong communication channels with your data and marketing teams and support you throughout your marketing campaign.
For details on how the various tools fare on data accuracy check out this blog article. How does custom data research compare with other b2b data providers?