September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Sales › Sales intel · September 2026 Edition

Sales intelligence and contact data

Asked as “B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform”, and as “B2B prospecting database”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
76%
Clear leader
76Apollo.io17ZoomInfo SalesOS05UpLead02others

76% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Apollo.io76%16%67endorsed leader
02ZoomInfo SalesOS17%44%61criticized challenger
03UpLead5%3%33accepted challenger
04Cognism2%12%48accepted challenger
Show the nine products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Seamless.AI0%53%19criticized challenger
106sense Sales Intelligence0%25%20criticized challenger
05Lusha0%21%48accepted challenger
12Demandbase0%18%11accepted challenger
07LinkedIn Sales Navigator0%0%15accepted challenger
06Clay0%0%14accepted challenger
08Salesmotion0%0%13accepted challenger
09Hunter0%0%12accepted challenger
11HubSpot Breeze Intelligence0%0%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All six head-to-head pages: the top four products, each against each

One product takes 76% of first choices here, so the chart would put twelve markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Three products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Ten of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5 and GPT-5.4 mini changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
ZoomInfo SalesOS
44%
27 of 61 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“What to avoid on a tight budget - ZoomInfo, Cognism, 6sense, Demandbase — enterprise tools with opaque pricing” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Apollo.io
16%
11 of 67 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Apollo’s "single-source" database approach often leads to high bounce rates... shares the same "scraping controversy" as Seamless.ai” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Lusha
21%
10 of 48 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Has the lowest rating on Trustpilot of 1.3/5. Users report accuracy has declined, particularly for phone numbers” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Seamless.AI
53%
10 of 19 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Despite claiming 98% accuracy, independent community analysis and G2 reviews consistently place their actual email accuracy closer to 60–75%” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 253 links across 126 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Salesmotion9 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo8 answers · 15 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Autobound8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Salesgenie8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Demandbase6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Amplemarket6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Monday.com5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Alpharun5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Cognism4 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Saleshandy4 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Avoma4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Cleanlist4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “b2b contact data and sales intelligence platform”, “best b2b contact data and sales intelligence platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Apollo.io apollo.io76%101033,100396111,608943
ZoomInfo parent site
ZoomInfo SalesOS 17%
17%193135,0001,810
UpLead uplead.com5%833,6005715,3397
Cognism cognism.com2%3493,6006848,68515
Lusha lusha.com0%28012,10089352,570$1157
Clay clay.com0%287135,000168,089294,05611
LinkedIn linkedin.com
LinkedIn Sales Navigator 0%
0%14711,100,00077,031331,033,472 company$1,032113
Salesmotion salesmotion.io0%11320411,256
Amplemarket amplemarket.com0%253,600812,0678
Hunter hunter.io0%79201,000280,275152,7826

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 11 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (autobound.ai, demandbase.com, pipeline.zoominfo.com, salesgenie.com). The first result for “b2b contact data and sales intelligence platform” is autobound.ai.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which B2B prospecting database would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top sales intelligence and contact data platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales intelligence and contact data platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Apollo.io
Three alternativesAmplemarket, Lead411, ZoomInfo SalesOS
no first choiceChangedagainst: ZoomInfo SalesOSZoomInfo SalesOS
Three alternativesApollo.io, Clay, Cognism
against: Bombora
UpLead
Four alternativesApollo.io, Kaspr, Lead411, Lusha
no first choiceagainst: Apollo.io, Lusha, SalesIntel, ZoomInfo SalesOS
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
One alternativeCognism
CognismChanged
One alternativeZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Seamless.AI
Apollo.io, UpLeadagainst: ZoomInfo SalesOSno first choiceagainst: Mobilewalla
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Cognism, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesClay, Cognism, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Five alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Clay, Cognism, Demandbase, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Apollo.io
Three alternativesKaspr, Lusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
no first choice
Four alternativesApollo.io, Cognism, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Apollo.io, Cognism, Lusha, People Data Labs, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Perplexity SonarApollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesCognism, Lusha, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Six alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Bombora, Cognism, Demandbase, Gong, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Apollo.io
Three alternativesHunter, Lusha, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Gong, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Grok 4.20Apollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, Lead411, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesCognism, Lusha, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
ZoomInfo SalesOS
Four alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Cognism, Lusha
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLead411, LeadIQ, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
ZoomInfo SalesOS
Five alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Bombora, Cognism, Lusha
against: Apollo.io, Lusha, SalesIntel, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Mistral SmallApollo.io
Four alternativesCognism, Lusha, Salesmotion, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesCognism, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
ZoomInfo SalesOS
Six alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Bombora, Cognism, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
Two alternativesHunter, Seamless.AI
ZoomInfo SalesOS
Three alternativesApollo.io, Cognism, Salesmotion
against: Apollo.io, Cognism, Dun & Bradstreet, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesCognism, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Lusha
Apollo.io, Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Six alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Bombora, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
Seven alternativesHunter, LeadIQ, Lusha, Prospeo, RocketReach, Skrapp.io, Snov.io
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, Demandbase, Seamless.AI, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
no first choice
Six alternativesApollo.io, Cognism, Lusha, SalesIntel, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Demandbase
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, RocketReach, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Llama 4 MaverickZoomInfo SalesOS
Three alternativesCognism, Salesloft, UpLead
ZoomInfo SalesOSHeld
Three alternativesApollo.io, Skrapp.io, UpLead
no first choiceApollo.ioZoomInfo SalesOSagainst: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io
Three alternativesHubSpot Breeze Intelligence, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesUpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Five alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Amplemarket, Clay, Cognism, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
One alternativeLusha
no first choiceagainst: Seamless.AIagainst: Apollo.io, Proxycurl, Seamless.AI
Kimi K2Apollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesCognism, Lusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
no first choice
Nine alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Amplemarket, Apollo.io, Clay, Cognism, Demandbase, Gong, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, RocketReach, Seamless.AI
Apollo.io
Four alternativesClay, Cognism, Lusha, Salesmotion
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Apollo.io, Cognism, Kaspr, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
One alternativeUpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Amplemarket
Seven alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Clay, Cognism, Demandbase, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, RocketReach, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 11x, Apollo.io, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
MiniMax M2.5Apollo.io
Four alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, Lead411, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesCognism, UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Five alternatives6sense Sales Intelligence, Clay, Cognism, Lusha, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
One alternativeLeadIQ
against: Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
ZoomInfo SalesOS
Three alternativesApollo.io, Cognism, G2 Buyer Intent
against: Apollo.io, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:41yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:14yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:15yes2226 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:38yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:16yes012 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:12yes08 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:45yes021 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:12yes03 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:02no028 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:59yes032 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:29yes043 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:38yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:35no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:46yes44 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:32yes618 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:51yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:34yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:47yes08 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:46yes016 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:47yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:28yes024 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:07yes039 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:23yes016 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:16yes027 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:31yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:40yes79 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:11yes1924 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:42yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:40yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:09yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:59yes059 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:48yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:40yes031 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:42yes079 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:48yes0112 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:28yes017 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:23yes77 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:23yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:41yes917 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:08yes195 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:27yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:35yes09 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:25yes024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:42yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:13no037 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:30yes028 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:46yes0110 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:03yes024 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:15no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:42no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:22no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:55yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:18yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:16yes013 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:29yes042 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:18yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:17no033 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:50yes052 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:25yes017 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:33yes015 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:04yes177 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:55yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:58yes1322 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:23yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:26yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:45yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:58yes021 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:45yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:37yes054 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:26yes080 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:07yes070 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:28yes019 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

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Claude Haiku 4.5
3 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
4 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
2 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
0 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.20
2 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
2 of 6 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
2 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
1 of 4 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
4 of 5 flipped
Kimi K2
3 of 6 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
1 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
3 of 5 flipped

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
6sense read as 6sense Sales Intelligence
Skrapp read as Skrapp.io
ZoomInfo read as ZoomInfo SalesOS
ZoomInfo (SalesOS) read as ZoomInfo SalesOS
Unresolved, counted raw
Leadsimple
Proxycurl
Salesforce
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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