Decision guide
It depends on what you use the database for. Keep ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, Apollo or LinkedIn Sales Navigator if your team needs emails, phone numbers or LinkedIn reach at volume. Add Salesmotion for a different job: account research, buying signals and outreach drafts across 1,000+ public sources, from $85/mo.
By Semir JahicCEO & Co-Founder, SalesmotionLast reviewed In most teams the answer is yes, keep it. A contact database answers "who do I contact, and how do I reach them?" Salesmotion answers "which accounts should I work now, and what should I say?" Its three AI agents monitor 1,000+ public sources for 50+ signal types, write a cited brief on each account and draft the outreach for a rep to review and send.
Salesmotion does include contact data: the Individual plan comes with 200 contact credits a month (verified email and phone), and team plans get a credit volume sized to the team. For a rep working a named account list, that can cover the contacts they reach in a month. A team that pulls thousands of contacts for sequences, enriches a CRM or calls from a dialer all day needs a contact database built for that volume.
So the useful question is which line item does which job. The table below sorts the common jobs into keep, add and consolidate.
Find the job your team bought the contact database for.
| What you use it for | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| High-volume outbound that needs emails and direct dials for thousands of contacts | Keep | Keep the contact database. Sourcing contacts at volume is the job it is built for. |
| Cold calling into Europe with Do-Not-Call screening | Keep | Keep a provider built for it. Cognism lists phone-verified mobiles and Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe. |
| CRM enrichment and list building with firmographic or technographic filters | Keep | Keep the database. Enrichment at scale is a data-provider job. |
| Finding and messaging people on LinkedIn | Keep | Keep LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It is the first-party route to LinkedIn's member network, with InMail and job-change alerts. |
| Sequences and a dialer in the same tool as the contacts | Keep | Keep the sending tool. Salesmotion drafts the message; a rep sends it from the tool the team already uses, or pushes the draft to lemlist. |
| Deciding which accounts to work this week, and why | Add | Add Salesmotion. The Signal Agent monitors your target accounts for 50+ signal types and alerts the rep when something changes. |
| Account research before a call, a QBR or an account plan | Add | Add Salesmotion. The Research Agent writes a brief from earnings calls, filings, news and hiring, with every claim linked to its source. |
| Outreach that refers to something that happened at the account | Add | Add Salesmotion. The Outreach Agent drafts an email or LinkedIn message tied to the signal, for a rep to review and send. |
| Separate subscriptions and manual routines for news, earnings, filings and hiring research | Consolidate | Consolidate these into Salesmotion. This is the research work the agents take over. |
| One rep or a small team that reveals a few contacts a week at a fixed list of accounts | Consolidate | Possibly. The Individual plan includes 200 contact credits a month (verified email and phone). Count what your team reveals in a month before you decide. |
ZoomInfo is a B2B data and go-to-market platform. It states verified data on 500M+ contacts and 100M+ companies, including 120M+ direct-dial phone numbers. On top of the data it sells ZoomInfo Copilot, which it calls an AI sales agent, with buyer signals, account summaries and drafted outreach, and Streaming Intent as an add-on.
Price. ZoomInfo does not publish list pricing; contracts are quoted per organization; its own pricing page states that no specific dollar amounts are published because pricing is consumption-based. Vendr reports a median contract of $33,500 a year based on 1,576 purchases, with a range of $7,233–$156,053. ZoomInfo Lite is a permanent free tier with 10 credits a month. ZoomInfo describes its paid plans as annual subscriptions.
Verdict. Keep ZoomInfo if your team needs verified emails and direct dials at volume, technographic and intent filters for list building, or CRM enrichment. Salesmotion sits beside it as the account layer: source-cited research and signals from earnings calls, filings, hiring and leadership changes, monitored per account.
Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence provider that describes itself as built for growth in Europe. Its headline strength is phone-verified mobile numbers, with decision-maker data refreshed every 30 days and Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe. It also lists hiring, funding and job-change signals, and Bombora intent data on its Pro package.
Price. Cognism does not publish list pricing; contracts are quoted per organization; it sells Standard and Pro packages, each listed with 5 seats included, on a credit system where one credit reveals one contact.
Verdict. Keep Cognism if your reps call into European markets and need verified mobiles screened against Do-Not-Call lists. Salesmotion tells those reps which accounts have a reason to buy now and gives them a cited brief before they dial.
Lusha is a contact data platform with self-serve plans. It states 515M+ verified contacts and 29M+ companies, with 165M+ emails and 117M+ direct dials. Revealing a verified email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 5 credits.
Price. Lusha publishes its pricing: a free plan with 40 credits a month, then Starter at $37.45, Professional at $52.45 and Premium at $299.95 per month on annual billing ($49.90, $69.90 and $399.90 billed monthly). Scale is quote-only.
Verdict. Keep Lusha if reps reveal emails and direct dials every day and you want published, self-serve pricing for it. A rep sees the signal and reads the brief in Salesmotion, then reveals the right contacts in Lusha.
Apollo.io combines a contact database with sequences and a dialer. It states 240M contacts and 30M companies. On its credit system an email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 8 credits.
Price. Apollo publishes its pricing: a free tier, then Basic at $49, Professional at $79 and Organization at $119 per seat per month on annual billing (3-seat minimum on Organization). Monthly billing is $65 and $99 on Basic and Professional; Organization is annual only.
Verdict. Keep Apollo if you want contacts, sequences and calling in one platform, or you send at volume. Salesmotion decides which accounts get the effort: cited research, buying signals and a drafted message for each, which the rep then sends from Apollo.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's sales product: search with 50+ filters across 1+ billion members, InMail, alerts when a saved lead changes job or role, and relationship tools such as TeamLink and Relationship Explorer.
Price. LinkedIn publishes Sales Navigator pricing: Core at $119.99/month or $1,079.88/year, Advanced at $159.99/month or $1,799.88/year, and Advanced Plus on request. All three plans include 50 InMail credits a month.
Verdict. Keep Sales Navigator if your team prospects on LinkedIn. Buyers in our sales calls describe it as their freshest source for people data, and usually keep it. Salesmotion covers the sources outside LinkedIn: earnings calls, filings, news and hiring, turned into signals and a cited account brief.
Published prices for one user, with Salesmotion's Individual plan added.
| Feature | Published price | With Salesmotion Individual |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core | $119.99/month | $204.99/month |
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced | $159.99/month | $244.99/month |
| Apollo Basic | $65/seat/month billed monthly ($49 on annual billing) | $150/month ($134 with Apollo on annual billing) |
| Apollo Professional | $99/seat/month billed monthly ($79 on annual billing) | $184/month ($164 with Apollo on annual billing) |
| Lusha Starter | $49.90/month billed monthly ($37.45 on annual billing) | $134.90/month ($122.45 with Lusha on annual billing) |
| Lusha Professional | $69.90/month billed monthly ($52.45 on annual billing) | $154.90/month ($137.45 with Lusha on annual billing) |
| ZoomInfo | Custom, consumption-based | Your ZoomInfo quote plus $85/mo |
| Cognism | Custom, quote-only | Your Cognism quote plus $85/mo |
Salesmotion's side of each row is the Individual plan: $85/mo for one user, up to 100 accounts, with monthly billing. Team and enterprise plans are custom priced on account volume, with unlimited users.
ZoomInfo and Cognism do not publish list prices, so there is no sum to show. The ZoomInfo section above quotes the median contract Vendr reports.
The combined figure is what running both costs. It is not a saving. The saving, where there is one, comes from the research subscriptions and the hours of manual research the team stops paying for.
We held 55 sales and customer calls between August and October 2026. In 21 of them the buyer wanted fewer tools, and asked what a new one would let them stop paying for.
“the hope would be that we would have one solution, not like multiple solutions.”
“how do you think that if we ... subscribe to your tool it would reduce my dependency on other tools?”
What teams do stop paying for after adding Salesmotion is the research stack: the news monitoring, the earnings and filings reading, the job-board checks and the hours of manual prep that sit between those tabs. Cytel consolidated five tools into one and cut research time by 50%. Lynn Powers, Enterprise Sales Director at Clari, put it this way: "I used to juggle 5 different tools to get what I now get in one click."
Yes, if your team relies on ZoomInfo for contact data at volume, technographics, intent or CRM enrichment. ZoomInfo answers who to contact and how to reach them. Salesmotion answers which accounts to work now and what to say, with cited research and buying signals. Many teams run both. See ZoomInfo vs Salesmotion.
Yes, if your team relies on verified contact data. Cognism is where teams find and verify contacts, with phone-verified mobiles and Do-Not-Call coverage across Europe. Salesmotion does a different job: account research and buying signals that tell reps which accounts to work now and what to say. See Cognism vs Salesmotion.
Usually not. Salesmotion is the account intelligence and signal layer that sits alongside a contact database. It does include contact data, 200 contact credits a month (verified email and phone) on the Individual plan, which can be enough for a rep working a fixed account list. Teams that need contacts at volume keep their database.
Yes. Every plan includes verified email addresses and direct-dial phone numbers through contact credits. The Individual plan comes with 200 contact credits a month (verified email and phone): one credit per email address revealed and one per phone number. Team and enterprise plans get a credit volume sized to the team.
Yes, if your team prospects on LinkedIn. Sales Navigator gives first-party access to LinkedIn's member network, with job and role change alerts, TeamLink and InMail. Salesmotion does a different job: account research and buying signals from sources outside LinkedIn, with every claim cited. See LinkedIn Sales Navigator vs Salesmotion.
Yes. Apollo and Lusha are the contact layer: the people to reach and their details, and in Apollo's case the sequences and dialer too. Salesmotion is the account and signal layer: which accounts to work now, a cited brief on why and a drafted message. See Apollo vs Salesmotion and Lusha vs Salesmotion.
For one user on published prices, Salesmotion adds $85/mo to whatever the contact tool costs. With LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core at $119.99/month that is $204.99/month; with Apollo Basic at $65/month billed monthly it is $150/month; with Lusha Starter at $49.90/month billed monthly it is $134.90/month. ZoomInfo and Cognism do not publish list prices, so that sum needs their quote.
The research tools and routines: news monitoring, earnings-call and filings reading, hiring checks and manual account prep. Cytel consolidated five tools into one with Salesmotion. Tools bought for contact data at volume, LinkedIn reach or sending do a different job and usually stay.
A Signal Agent, Research Agent, and Outreach Agent — working 24/7 so your team spends less time researching and more time closing.
