Have you ever spent hours and thousands of dollars trying to find leads for an outreach campaign only to discover that half of them are outdated, most of the emails bounce, and every number you call ends up being someone’s grandma?
In today’s digital world, AI-powered tools are transforming how companies find and connect with clients. Following B2B lead generation best practices can help maximize your outreach efficiency and conversion rates.
Well, choosing the right lead generation tool can cost you more than just money burned on bad leads — it can actually destroy your deliverability and sender reputation, skyrocket your expenses, and leave you with zero results to show for your effort.
But don’t worry — in this article, we’re going to explore eight of the best lead generation tools to fuel your outreach campaign with verified lead data.
So whether you’re a solo entrepreneur, a startup, an enterprise, or even running a lead gen agency. This guide will save you time, money, and a lot of frustration.
How We Evaluated Each Tool
Here’s how we’ll break down each tool:
- What it’s best for
- The number of available contacts
- Whether those contacts are verified
- Key features
- Pricing structure
- How much it would cost to get 10,000 verified leads from each source
Let’s get into it.
1. Wizza
Full transparency here — if you’re new to our website, Wizza is one of the best tool. But here’s why we really do recommend it.
Wizza offers the most comprehensive database of over 830 million verified leads, and unlike other tools mentioned in this article, every lead is real-time verified to ensure 100% accuracy.
Best For
LinkedIn-focused outreach and getting accurate contact information.
Key Features
- Prospect Search & Advanced Filtering: Narrow down your search by industry, job title, company size, and more.
- Real-Time Verified Data: No stale databases — you’re always working with the latest verified contact info.
- Bulk Exporting & CRM Syncing: Export your lists to CSV for use with outreach tools like Smartlead or Instantly, or integrate directly with your CRM.
- LinkedIn Integration: Use the Wizza Chrome extension to find emails and phone numbers directly from LinkedIn profiles and export Sales Navigator lists.
Pricing
- Free Trial: Up to 25 leads
- Starter Plan: $49/month – includes 100 emails & 100 phone numbers
- Email Plan: $99/month – includes 500 verified emails
- Email + Phone Plan: $199/month – includes 500 emails & 500 verified phone numbers
- Team Plan: $399/month – unlimited verified emails and phone numbers for up to three users
You can also purchase additional leads at $0.15 per email or $0.35 per phone number.
That means with the Team Plan, you can get 10,000 verified leads (or even 100,000) for a flat $399 — crazy value.
Verdict:
Wizza offers the best mix of scale, affordability, and verified data accuracy, especially for LinkedIn-focused outreach.
2. ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is more of an enterprise-level lead generation tool. If you’re a startup, solo founder, or small agency, ZoomInfo might not be the best fit.
It has a database of around 320 million professionals, with additional features like buying intent, sales automation, and some AI integrations.
Pricing
The website doesn’t display pricing — a red flag. However, after research, prices start around $115,000 per year, with the Advanced Plan at $25,000 annually for 10,000 credits (about 10,000 leads). There are no monthly options.
Verdict:
ZoomInfo is overkill for small businesses and agencies due to high costs and lack of pricing transparency.
3. UpLead
UpLead is very similar to Wizza — almost a carbon copy — but with a smaller database and more limitations.
Features
It includes a built-in prospecting tool, a Chrome extension, and verified emails. However, there are two key differences:
- Only 160 million verified leads, compared to Wizza’s 830 million.
- No unlimited pricing plan like Wizza.
Pricing
To get 10,000 leads, you’ll need the $199+ plan (which includes 400 credits), plus 9,600 extra credits at $50 each — a total of $4,999.
Verdict:
UpLead is a decent tool but its smaller database and higher cost make it less ideal for large-scale campaigns.
4. Apollo
Apollo is one of the most popular tools right now, offering a full end-to-end suite for both finding and engaging leads.
It has 275 million verified leads, which is significantly fewer than Wizza’s 830 million.
Key Features
Apollo includes:
- Lead discovery
- Sales outreach workflows
- Deal management
- AI-powered insights
- LinkedIn prospecting
- Email sequencing tools
Pricing
Apollo works on a credit system:
- 1 email = 1 credit
- 1 phone number = 5 credits
If you want 10,000 emails → 10,000 credits ($99/month) on the Professional Plan.
If you want both emails & phones → 60,000 credits (you’ll need to buy an additional 50,000 credits for $400).
Total = $499 for 10,000 leads.
Verdict:
Apollo is great for all-in-one management but misses 70% of verified contacts compared to Wizza — and costs $100 more for the same number of leads.
5. Instantly
Instantly is best for cold email campaigns with built-in automation tools.
It offers about 160 million contacts, which is less than 20% of Wizza’s database.
Key Features
- Lead Management: Import and organize leads easily.
- Drip Campaigns: Automate personalized email sequences with A/B testing.
- Analytics & Reporting: Track open rates, CTRs, and conversions.
- Email Verification: Claims to ensure high deliverability (pricing for this feature is unclear).
Pricing
You’ll need to pay separately for leads, email sending, and CRM access:
- 10,000 leads → $197/month
- Email sending (Hyper Growth Plan) → $97/month
- CRM (Hyper CRM) → $97/month
Total = $391/month
Verdict:
Instantly works great for cold outreach but lacks the scale and affordability of Wizza’s unlimited plan.
6. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator deserves a spot here because it’s technically a lead generation tool.
LinkedIn hosts over 1 billion professional contacts, with around 310 million monthly active users. However, it’s limited to the LinkedIn platform — you can message people but can’t get their emails or phone numbers.
Integration Tip
Use Wizza’s Chrome extension with Sales Navigator to extract verified contact info (emails & phone numbers) directly from your lead lists.
Pricing
$99/month — allows saving up to 10,000 contacts and sending 50 InMails per month.
Verdict:
Sales Navigator is great for prospecting, but you’ll need a tool like Wizza to access verified contact details.
7. Hunter.io
Hunter.io is a solid choice for B2B email outreach and includes around 100 million professional emails.
Features
It focuses exclusively on email — no phone numbers — but includes a built-in outreach tool similar to Apollo and Instantly.
You can also use Wizza to collect large lists of verified emails and import them into Hunter for your email campaigns.
Pricing
To get 10,000 leads, it’ll cost around $299 — for emails only.
Verdict:
Hunter.io is simple and effective but limited to email only, lacking the scalability of other tools.
8. Cognism
Cognism is more of a B2B sales intelligence platform that includes a prospecting tool with around 70 million verified phone numbers.
Pricing
Not publicly listed (another red flag). Research indicates pricing between $15,000 and $103,000 per year.
Verdict:
Like ZoomInfo, Cognism is likely out of budget for most small businesses — but could work for large enterprises.
Final Verdict: Which Tool Should You Choose?
If you’re looking for the best overall value, Wizza is the clear winner.
Tools like Apollo and Instantly make it easier to scale cold email campaigns, but success also depends on sender reputation and inbox placement. Learning how to improve cold email deliverability is key to ensuring your outreach actually reaches potential clients.
It offers the largest real-time verified database, an affordable unlimited plan, and seamless LinkedIn integration for both individual profiles and Sales Navigator lists.
For large-scale campaigns, Wizza’s Team Plan is unbeatable — you can scale from 10,000 to 100,000 leads without paying a cent more.
If you prefer an all-in-one system for outreach, Apollo or Instantly might suit you better — but you can also combine them with Wizza for maximum efficiency.
Use the comparison chart on-screen (or create your own) to decide which one works best for your business.
And if you want to learn how Wizza can fuel your next outreach campaign, check out our full demo video linked below.
If you found this article helpful, leave a comment about any other lead generation tools we might have missed — and as always, have a magical day!