September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Sales intelligence and contact data for small business buyers

Asked as “B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform”, and as “B2B prospecting database”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
94%
Consensus
94Apollo.io02Cognism02Kaspr02others

94% of first choices, consensus.

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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Apollo.io94%9%69endorsed leader
02Lusha2%10%63accepted challenger
03Cognism2%40%35criticized challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10ZoomInfo SalesOS0%83%58criticized challenger
096sense Sales Intelligence0%77%13criticized challenger
08Demandbase0%75%12criticized challenger
07Seamless.AI0%53%19criticized challenger
06RocketReach0%25%16criticized challenger
05LeadIQ0%7%15accepted challenger
04UpLead0%3%33accepted 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All six head-to-head pages: the top four products, each against each

One product takes 94% of first choices here, so the chart would put nine 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. Six 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 MiniMax M2.5 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
83%
48 of 58 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 18 hard negative
“ZoomInfo — the biggest "contract trap" risk ... For most small teams, you'll pay more for data you could get cheaper elsewhere, and you risk getting locked into a renewal contract.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Cognism
40%
14 of 35 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Why avoid: Also enterprise-priced ($15,000+/yr) with minimal ROI for small businesses” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
6sense Sales Intelligence
77%
10 of 13 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“one guide explicitly says not to buy it without someone owning the platform most of the time” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Seamless.AI
53%
10 of 19 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“it is one of the most complained-about platforms among small businesses... Deceptive Contract Lock-ins” Gemini 3.5 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

22 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. 283 links across 104 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 · Salesgenie11 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Salesmotion10 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo9 answers · 13 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Reddit8 answers · 17 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Demandbase8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Amplemarket7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Lusha Systems6 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · BookYourData6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Cleanlist6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Apollo.io5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · YouTube5 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Autobound5 answers · 6 citations · 3 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.io94%101033,100396111,608943
Lusha lusha.com2%28012,10089352,570$1157
Kaspr kaspr.io2%15
Cognism cognism.com2%3493,6006848,68515
UpLead uplead.com0%833,6005715,3397
LeadIQ leadiq.com0%151,900521,140,9531
Hunter hunter.io0%79201,000280,275152,7826
Saleshandy Lead Finder saleshandy.com0%13193,5532
Skrapp.io skrapp.io0%5
Clay clay.com0%287135,000168,089294,05611

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 11 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (apollo.io, autobound.ai, demandbase.com, pipeline.zoominfo.com, reddit.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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which B2B prospecting database would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top sales intelligence and contact data platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 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 a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Apollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, D&B Hoovers, Lead411, LeadIQ, Lusha
Apollo.io, KasprChangedagainst: ZoomInfo SalesOSApollo.io
Four alternativesClay, Cognism, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesBookYourData, Lead411, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Lusha, SalesIntel, ZoomInfo SalesOS
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, Lusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesCognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, Crunchbase, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io
Five alternativesCognism, HubSpot Breeze Intelligence, Kaspr, Lusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Lusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Two alternativesKaspr, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Cognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Bombora, Demandbase, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Perplexity SonarApollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, Skrapp.io
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, Skrapp.io, Unify
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHunter, LeadIQ, Lusha, UpLead
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead
no first choiceagainst: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Apollo.io, Demandbase, Gong, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Grok 4.20Apollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, RocketReach, UpLead
against: Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLead411, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, Cognism
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, Demandbase, SalesIntel, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Mistral SmallApollo.io
Four alternativesKaspr, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder, UpLead
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, Salesmotion, Seamless.AI
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, Demandbase, Gong, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
Apollo.io
Five alternativesCraft.co, LeadIQ, Lusha, Seamless.AI, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Lusha, RocketReach, SalesIntel, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, Demandbase, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHunter, Lusha, Skrapp.io, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesClay, Lusha, UpLead
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, Snov.io
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, LeadIQ, Lusha
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Demandbase, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Apollo.io, Kaspr, Lusha, RocketReach, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Llama 4 MaverickApollo.io
Three alternativesDealfront, Lusha, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesLusha, Skrapp.io, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesHunter, Lusha, Salesmotion
Apollo.io
Three alternativesDealfront, LeadIQ, Saleshandy Lead Finder
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesLusha, RocketReach
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Two alternativesAmplemarket, Lusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: UpLead, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Apollo.io, RocketReach, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Kimi K2Apollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, Lusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
One alternativeLusha
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, RocketReach
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Demandbase, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesHunter, Lusha, Saleshandy Lead Finder
against: Cognism, LeadIQ, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, UpLead
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Apollo.io, Lusha, RocketReach, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io
Two alternativesLusha, Seamless.AI
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioHeld
One alternativeLusha
against: Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io
Three alternativesLeadIQ, Lusha, Seamless.AI
Apollo.io
Three alternativesLusha, RocketReach, UpLead
Apollo.io
Three alternativesCognism, LeadIQ, Lusha
against: Apollo.io, Cognism, Demandbase, Lusha, Seamless.AI, ZoomInfo SalesOS
MiniMax M2.5Apollo.io
One alternativeAmplemarket
against: ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.io, LushaChangedApollo.io
Four alternativesLinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha, Salesmotion, UpLead
against: 6sense Sales Intelligence, Demandbase, ZoomInfo SalesOS
Apollo.ioagainst: ZoomInfo SalesOSApollo.io
Two alternativesCognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
against: Cognism, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Lusha, Seamless.AI, 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 05:07yes79 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:51yes55 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:51yes2024 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:09yes205 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 00:23yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:42yes06 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:51yes028 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:27yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:28yes027 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:48yes027 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:54yes053 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:43yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:24yes67 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:20yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:59yes717 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:32yes205 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 02:13yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:42yes04 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:38yes041 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:12yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:55yes034 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:59yes019 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:53yes030 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:27yes011 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:45yes710 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:05yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:29yes1827 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:39yes2021 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 04:35yes017 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:05yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:01yes024 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:45yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:42yes025 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:06yes038 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:24yes076 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:55yes016 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:32yes89 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:15yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:45yes1724 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:09yes206 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 03:03yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:02yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:04yes037 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:34yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:27yes028 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:54yes0167 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:18yes038 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:10yes027 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:40no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:19no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:25yes1423 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:35yes209 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)2026-09-15 03:33yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:28no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:38yes027 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:44yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:22yes040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:03yes042 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:15yes027 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:30yes017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:50yes1410 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:49yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:21yes2322 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:19yes207 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)2026-09-14 23:35yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:17yes015 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:52yes030 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:29yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:57yes049 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:30yes057 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:07yes055 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 05:00yes020 s

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
Saleshandy read as Saleshandy Lead Finder
Skrapp read as Skrapp.io
ZoomInfo read as ZoomInfo SalesOS
Unresolved, counted raw
Craft.co
Lessie
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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