Leadsforge is the lead database in the Salesforge stack, positioned as a search engine for B2B leads with a 500M+ contact database and signal-based prospecting features. It is a reasonable product with one structural characteristic worth understanding: it is a data subscription, separate from the sequencer, separate from the infrastructure, separate from the mailboxes.
Most teams looking for an alternative are looking for one of three things, better accuracy on their specific ICP, filters deep enough to actually narrow a list, or a way to stop paying for data and outreach as two products. Here are six options and what each is genuinely for.
How to evaluate a lead database (test, do not read)
Every provider in this category claims a large database and high accuracy. The claims are not comparable and mostly are not falsifiable. What works instead:
- Pull 200 records from your actual ICP on a trial, from every provider you are considering. Not a generic segment, the exact titles, company sizes and geographies you sell to.
- Run them through independent verification and record the real bounce rate. This is the only accuracy number that means anything to you.
- Check mobile number fill rate separately. It is always far lower than email coverage, and providers rarely separate the two in their marketing.
- Try to narrow a list to under 500 people. If the filters cannot get you there, they are not deep enough for account-based work.
- Price it at your real monthly volume, not the headline plan. Credit models make this less obvious than it should be.
1. Outboundry Lead Finder, data, filters and outreach in one place
Lead Finder covers 500M+ contacts with verified business emails and, through Phone Finder, verified mobile and direct-dial numbers. Filters go deep enough for genuine account-based targeting, title, seniority, department, headcount, revenue, geography, industry, technology used, hiring activity and growth signals, and you can combine them rather than picking one axis.
Two things separate it from a standalone database. First, breadth of lead type: standard B2B contacts, local business data, LinkedIn-sourced profiles and company follower exports, so you are not buying a second tool when your ICP does not fit the classic B2B mould. Second, ICP Score, every lead is scored against your ideal customer profile before it can be enrolled, so poor-fit records never consume a send. No other tool in this comparison does that, and it is the single biggest lever on reply rate that does not involve rewriting your copy.
Because the data sits in the same platform as sequencing, LinkedIn outreach and the unified inbox, the feedback loop closes: you can see which filter combinations produced meetings, not just which produced contacts.
Best for: teams who want the data and the outreach that consumes it in one subscription, with fit scoring built in.
Watch out for: if you only want a raw data API to feed an existing warehouse, a dedicated enrichment provider is a better shape.
2. Leadsforge, the incumbent
A 500M+ database with a search-engine interface and buying-signal features, tightly integrated with the rest of the Salesforge products and available via API and MCP for teams building automated workflows. If you already run Salesforge for sequencing, the integration is real.
The Essential plan is $49 per month for 2,000 credits, or $588 per year for 28,000 credits granted upfront. Credits price at 1 per email, 1 per LinkedIn profile URL, 1 per company follower, 1 per company lookalike and 10 per mobile number, and they do not expire.
Best for: existing Salesforge customers who want data inside the same ecosystem.
Watch out for: the entry rate. At $49 for 2,000 credits you are paying $0.0245 per credit on monthly billing, and it is another subscription on top of the sequencer, the infrastructure and the mailboxes. There is also no fit-scoring layer, so filtering quality is entirely on you.
The credit maths, side by side
Both databases cover 500M+ contacts and both charge in credits, so the comparison is unusually clean: what does a credit cost, and how many do you get.
| Plan | Price / month | Credits | Cost per credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadsforge Essential (monthly) | $49 | 2,000 | $0.0245 |
| Leadsforge Essential (annual) | $49 equivalent | 28,000 / year | $0.0210 |
| Outboundry Data Starter | $29 | 2,000 | $0.0145 |
| Outboundry Data Growth | $79 | 6,000 | $0.0132 |
| Outboundry Data Pro | $149 | 12,000 | $0.0124 |
| Outboundry Data Scale | $249 | 22,500 | $0.0111 |
| Outboundry Data Agency | $399 | 40,000 | $0.0100 |
| Outboundry Data Volume | $799 | 100,000 | $0.0080 |
At the same 2,000 credits, Outboundry is $29 against $49, roughly 41% less, on monthly billing, with no annual commitment needed to get there. And because the Outboundry ladder keeps going, the gap widens with volume: at 100,000 credits a month you are paying $0.008 per credit, about a third of the Leadsforge monthly entry rate.
What each credit actually buys
Cost per credit only matters alongside how many credits a record costs. This is where the gap gets wider than the headline rate suggests.
| Record type | Leadsforge | Outboundry |
|---|---|---|
| Lead record | 1 credit | 0.5 credit |
| Lead with verified email | 1 credit | 1 credit |
| Mobile number | 10 credits | 10 credits |
| LinkedIn company follower | 1 credit | 1 credit |
| Company record & all 50+ filters | Charged | Free |
Two lines do the damage. Lead records are half a credit, so a 2,000-credit plan yields 4,000 leads rather than 2,000. And company records and every one of the 50+ search filters cost nothing, you only spend a credit when you take a contact detail, so building, refining and discarding lists is free rather than metered.
Company follower exports are the standout. At 1 credit each, a $29 plan pulls 1,000 followers and a $149 plan pulls 6,000. Scraping a competitor’s LinkedIn follower list is one of the highest-intent prospecting moves available, these are people who already opted into your category, and most databases either charge a premium for it or do not offer it at all. Company Follower treats it as a standard record type at the standard rate.
What a plan gets you
| Plan | Credits | Leads | Leads + email | Phones | Followers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $29 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 2,000 | 200 | 1,000 |
| $79 | 6,000 | 12,000 | 6,000 | 600 | 3,000 |
| $149 | 12,000 | 24,000 | 12,000 | 1,200 | 6,000 |
| $249 | 22,500 | 45,000 | 22,500 | 2,250 | 11,250 |
| $399 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 40,000 | 4,000 | 20,000 |
| $799 | 100,000 | 200,000 | 100,000 | 10,000 | 50,000 |
One more thing that does not show up in any table: unused credits roll over, so a quiet month is not money burned.
Competitor pricing taken from their public pricing pages at the time of writing. Prices change, verify current rates before you decide.
3. Apollo, the large generalist
The best-known database in the category, with a sequencer attached. Enormous contact coverage and a free tier that makes it easy to start.
The recurring complaint is data decay on smaller and non-US companies, and a sequencer that is adequate rather than good. Plenty of teams use Apollo for data and export to a dedicated outreach tool, which is a workable pattern but means paying for the sequencer you are not using.
Best for: broad US mid-market prospecting where volume of records matters more than precision.
Watch out for: accuracy outside the US, and credit consumption on plans that look cheap until you actually use them.
4. Clay, enrichment orchestration, not a database
Clay is a different category and worth understanding as such. It is a waterfall enrichment engine: it queries multiple data providers in sequence until one returns a match, then lets you run AI research on the result. Coverage is excellent because it is aggregating everyone.
The cost is complexity and price. It is a builder’s tool that rewards someone who will genuinely invest in learning it, and the credit economics get expensive quickly at volume.
Best for: GTM engineers running sophisticated, multi-source enrichment workflows.
Watch out for: cost at scale, and the fact that it needs a person who owns it. It is not a tool a sales team self-serves.
5. Cognism, European coverage and compliance
The strongest option for EMEA data and the one to look at seriously if GDPR posture matters to your legal team. Notify, its DNC-screening feature, is a genuine differentiator for phone-led outbound in Europe.
Best for: European ICPs, phone-heavy motions, compliance-sensitive organisations.
Watch out for: annual contracts and enterprise pricing. This is not a self-serve purchase.
6. ZoomInfo, enterprise depth at enterprise cost
The deepest firmographic and intent data in the market, with org charts and technographics that nothing else quite matches. It is also priced accordingly, sold on annual contracts, and generally overkill unless you have an enterprise ICP and a team large enough to work the data properly.
Best for: enterprise sales organisations with the budget and the headcount.
Watch out for: the total cost of ownership, which extends well past the licence.
Choosing quickly
| If your priority is | Look at |
|---|---|
| Cheap LinkedIn follower exports | Outboundry (1 credit each) |
| Lowest cost per credit | Outboundry ($0.008–$0.0145 vs $0.021–$0.0245) |
| Data and outreach in one subscription | Outboundry Lead Finder |
| Only enrolling good-fit leads | Outboundry (ICP Score) |
| Broad US coverage on a budget | Apollo |
| Multi-source waterfall enrichment | Clay |
| European data and compliance | Cognism |
| Enterprise depth and intent | ZoomInfo |
Whatever you shortlist, run the 200-record test on your own ICP before you sign anything annual. Every provider in this list looks identical on a marketing page and materially different on your actual target segment.
Next: how to define an ICP that filters properly, or building a targeted lead list from scratch.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Leadsforge alternative?
For teams who want lead data and outreach in one place, Outboundry Lead Finder, which pairs a 500M+ database with sequencing and ICP scoring. For pure enrichment workflows, Clay. For a large standalone database with its own sequencer, Apollo.
How accurate is B2B lead data really?
Even good providers land somewhere in the 85 to 95 percent range on verified business emails, and materially lower on mobile numbers. Treat any claim above that with suspicion, and always test a provider on 200 records from your own ICP before committing to an annual plan.
Should I buy lead data and outreach separately?
Separating them costs you the feedback loop. When bounces, replies and meetings live in the same system as the data, you can see which filters and sources actually produce pipeline. When they live in two tools, you are guessing.
What lead types should a lead finder cover?
Beyond standard B2B contacts, look for local business data, LinkedIn-sourced profiles, company follower and engagement data, and technographic filters. Providers that only cover one type force you to buy a second tool for the rest.
What is ICP scoring and why does it matter?
ICP scoring rates each lead against your ideal customer profile before it enters a sequence, so you can enrol only the high-scoring ones. It matters because sending to poor-fit leads costs you deliverability as well as reply rate. Most lead databases do not offer it.