Guide
B2B prospecting tools: what each one does and which you need at your stage
B2B prospecting tools fall into five categories: databases and enrichment to know who to write to, cold email to send sequences, LinkedIn, calling, and a CRM with prospecting built in. A founder selling alone can start with two; a team of one to ten also needs everything to land in the same pipeline. Here is what each one does and its public price on 17 September 2026.
By the GTM Flow team · Updated · 19 min read
Transparency note
This guide is written by the GTM Flow team, and GTM Flow is one of the options listed. Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on 17 September 2026, with its currency and billing terms. Where another tool fits a case better than GTM Flow, we say so — and GTM Flow cannot be bought today.
This guide is written by the GTM Flow team, and GTM Flow is one of the options listed. We have tried to be fair to all of them; every price is public as of 17 September 2026.
Prices change often and some exclude tax: confirm them on each vendor's site before you buy. Where an official page leaves a condition unclear, we say so instead of guessing.
What a B2B prospecting tool is
A B2B prospecting tool is software that helps you find companies and people who fit your ideal customer profile, get their professional contact details, and reach them by email, LinkedIn or phone in an orderly way. Some cover a single step, such as verifying emails; others try to cover the whole cycle, from list to opportunity.
- Find: companies and people who fit your ideal customer profile.
- Enrich and verify: get the work email or phone number and check it is valid.
- Reach out: email sequences, LinkedIn steps and calls.
- Keep track: stop when someone replies, and never write to the same person twice.
- Record: make sure the reply ends up as an opportunity in the pipeline.
Almost no tool does all five steps well. That is why most people combine several, and why what matters is how much it costs to stitch them together and whether the replies end up in one place.
The five categories and the problem each one solves
B2B prospecting tools split into five categories: databases and enrichment, which tell you who to write to and how to reach them; cold email, which sends sequences without landing in spam; LinkedIn, for invitations and messages; calling, to talk and record; and a CRM with prospecting built in, which ties it all to the pipeline. Each solves a different bottleneck.
- Databases and enrichment (Apollo.io, Lusha, Kaspr, Hunter, Dropcontact): they solve “I don't know who to write to” or “I don't have their email”. Almost always paid for in credits.
- Cold email (lemlist, Instantly): they solve sending from several mailboxes with warm-up and follow-ups. The technical side — SPF, DKIM and DMARC — is in the B2B cold email guide.
- LinkedIn (Waalaxy, La Growth Machine, Kaspr for data): they solve invitations, messages and contact details from profiles. Before you connect your account, it is worth reading LinkedIn's terms, which we link below.
- Calling (Ringover, Aircall): cloud telephony with recording and CRM integration.
- A CRM with prospecting built in (GTM Flow): keeps contacts, multichannel sequences and opportunities together so you are not copying replies between tools by hand.
Summary table: twelve tools, category and entry price
The table lists twelve B2B prospecting tools with their category and the entry price published on their official site on 17 September 2026, with currency and billing. Free plans come with credit or sending limits, and dollar prices are shown unconverted: always compare the plan you would actually use, not the cheapest one.
| Tool | Category | What it is for | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo.io | Database and sequences | Find contacts, enrich them and send sequences | Free plan; Basic, US$49 per seat a month billed annually |
| Lusha | Database and enrichment | Reveal verified emails and phone numbers | Free plan (40 credits a month); Starter, US$37.45 a month billed annually |
| Kaspr | Enrichment from LinkedIn | Emails and phone numbers from LinkedIn profiles via a Chrome extension | Free plan; Starter, €45 per user a month paid annually or €59 monthly |
| Hunter | Email finding and verification | Find and verify emails by domain or by name | Free plan (50 credits a month); Starter, €34 a month paid annually or €49 monthly |
| Dropcontact | Enrichment and data cleaning | Find and validate emails and deduplicate contacts | Starter, €24 a month paid annually or €29 monthly with no commitment |
| lemlist | Cold email and multichannel | Email sequences; the Multichannel plan adds LinkedIn, SMS and calls | Email, US$55 a month paid annually or US$69 monthly |
| Instantly | Cold email | Sending from unlimited mailboxes with warm-up | Growth, US$37.6 a month paid annually or US$47 monthly |
| Waalaxy | LinkedIn (plus email on Business) | Invitation and message campaigns on LinkedIn | Pro, €19 per user a month |
| La Growth Machine | LinkedIn, email and calls | Multichannel sequences per sending identity | Basic, €50 per identity a month paid annually or €60 monthly |
| Ringover | Calling | Cloud telephony with recording and AI summaries | Smart, €21 per user a month on a 12-month commitment or €29 monthly |
| Aircall | Calling | Cloud telephony with recording and integrations | Essentials, €30 per licence a month paid annually or €40 monthly; 3 licences minimum |
| GTM Flow | CRM with prospecting built in | CRM, cold email, LinkedIn steps, WhatsApp and calls in one place | Planned: Solo €39, Team €69 and Scale €149 |
Databases and enrichment: Apollo.io, Hunter, Kaspr and Dropcontact
Database and enrichment tools answer two questions: who to write to, and what their work email or phone number is. Apollo.io and Lusha search their own database, Hunter finds and verifies emails by domain, Kaspr pulls details from LinkedIn profiles, and Dropcontact enriches the list you already have with algorithms and no contact database, according to its site.
Apollo.io
apollo.ioFounders and small teams who want a database, enrichment and sequences in a single tool.
Apollo.io combines a B2B database — 240 million contacts and 30 million companies, according to its site — with enrichment, email sequences and opportunity management. It runs on credits: each plan includes a number of credits per seat per year. The free plan lets you try it with limits.
A favor
- Free plan with 900 credits per seat a year and 2 sequences
- Database, enrichment and sequences in the same tool
- Warm-up and deliverability tooling from the Basic plan
En contra
- Prices in US dollars, per seat, and the headline figures are billed annually
- Exporting or enriching burns credits: work out your consumption before picking a plan
- The dialler it advertises is a US dialler, and it consumes credits too
Precio: Free plan. Basic: US$49 per seat a month billed annually; Professional: US$79; Organization: US$119 (3 seats minimum). Checked on 17/09/2026.
Hunter
hunter.ioAnyone who needs to find and verify work emails from a domain or a person's name.
Hunter finds email addresses by domain or by first and last name and verifies them before you send. It also lets you connect email accounts and run sequences. Every plan includes unlimited team members; what changes is the number of credits and connected email accounts.
A favor
- Free plan with 50 credits a month
- Unlimited team members on every plan
- Prices in euros, and the finder does not charge a credit when it finds nothing
En contra
- Connected email accounts are capped per plan: 1 on Free, 3 on Starter, 10 on Growth
- Verification burns credits too (0.5 per email verified)
Precio: Free plan. Starter: €34 a month paid annually (€408 a year) or €49 monthly. Growth: €104 or €149. Checked on 17/09/2026.
Kaspr
kaspr.ioAnyone prospecting on LinkedIn who needs the email or phone number of profiles they have already found.
Kaspr is a B2B contact data platform with a Chrome extension that surfaces verified emails and phone numbers from LinkedIn profiles, groups and events. It also enriches a CSV of LinkedIn URLs and exports to CRMs such as HubSpot and Salesforce. It is priced per user, with phone and direct-email credits.
A favor
- Free plan with 15 B2B email credits, 5 phone credits and 5 direct-email credits a month
- Unlimited B2B email credits from Starter upwards
- Prices in euros and credits shared across the users on the account
En contra
- Phone credits are capped: 100 a month on Starter
- It works as a Chrome extension on top of LinkedIn: LinkedIn has a help page on prohibited software and extensions that is worth reading first
Precio: Free plan. Starter: €45 per user a month paid annually or €59 monthly. Business: €79 or €99. Checked on 17/09/2026.
Dropcontact
dropcontact.comTeams who want to find emails and clean up their CRM database with a European vendor focused on the GDPR.
Dropcontact is a French company that finds and validates work emails from a first name, last name and company website, and enriches and deduplicates contacts. According to its site, it uses no contact database but its own algorithms on servers in the European Union, and it presents itself as one hundred per cent GDPR compliant. That is the vendor's own claim.
A favor
- Pay for results: if it finds no email, it gives the credit back
- Monthly billing with no lock-in and 50 free credits to try it
- European approach to data protection, with terms governed by French law
En contra
- No use for discovering new companies: it starts from the list you already have
- Its plans cover enrichment, validation and cleaning, not sending: you need another tool to reach out
Precio: Starter: €24 a month paid annually (6,000 credits a year) or €29 a month with no commitment (500 credits a month). Checked on 17/09/2026.
Lusha, the fifth in this category, has a free plan with 40 credits a month and charges 1 credit per verified email and 5 per phone number; its Starter plan costs US$37.45 a month billed annually and includes one seat.
Cold email tools: lemlist and Instantly
Cold email tools send sequences from your mailboxes, spread volume across them, warm them up and stop when someone replies. lemlist leans towards multichannel campaigns with unlimited users on its Email plan; Instantly leans towards volume, with unlimited email accounts and warm-up from its cheapest plan. Both sell contact data separately.
lemlist
lemlist.comTeams who want cold email sequences with the option to add LinkedIn, calls and SMS to the same campaign.
lemlist is a multichannel prospecting platform. Its Email plan includes unlimited users and senders, 50,000 emails a month, a lead database (it advertises more than 650 million), warm-up and a unified inbox. The Multichannel plan adds LinkedIn steps, SMS, a call dialler and a WhatsApp add-on, with 5 senders per user.
A favor
- Email plan with unlimited users and senders
- Warm-up and a deliverability centre included
- 14-day free trial
En contra
- Prices in US dollars; Multichannel is charged per user
- Contact data is paid for in separate credits: 5 credits per email and 20 per phone number, at US$0.01 a credit
- It runs actions from your LinkedIn account: read LinkedIn's terms of service first
Precio: Email: US$55 a month paid annually or US$69 monthly. Multichannel: US$87 per user a month paid annually or US$109 monthly. Checked on 17/09/2026.
Instantly
instantly.aiFounders and teams whose priority is sending cold email from many mailboxes with warm-up included.
Instantly is a cold email tool built around sending: its Outreach plans include unlimited email accounts and warm-up, with caps on emails sent and contacts uploaded. It sells credits for its lead database separately — it advertises more than 450 million contacts — plus a CRM, or everything together in bundles.
A favor
- Unlimited email accounts and warm-up from the Growth plan
- Low entry price to start sending
- Sending, data and CRM can be bought separately
En contra
- Prices in US dollars and volume caps: Growth includes 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts a month
- Contact data and the CRM are paid for separately or in bundles, from US$94 a month for the Starter bundle
Precio: Growth: US$47 a month billed monthly or US$37.6 a month paid annually. Hypergrowth: US$97 or US$77.6. Checked on 17/09/2026.
LinkedIn prospecting tools: Waalaxy and La Growth Machine
LinkedIn prospecting tools run invitation and message campaigns from your profile and combine them with email. Waalaxy is the entry option, priced per user in euros; La Growth Machine charges per identity and adds email and calls. Both run actions from your LinkedIn account, so it is worth reading its terms of service first.
Before you connect your profile. Before connecting your LinkedIn account to any tool, a CRM included, read its terms of service and its help page on third-party software and extensions, and ask the vendor exactly what it does inside your account.
Waalaxy
waalaxy.comFounders and reps who prospect mainly on LinkedIn and want invitation and message campaigns with follow-ups.
Waalaxy is a LinkedIn prospecting tool that runs invitation and message campaigns with follow-ups and syncs with your CRM. Its plans differ by invitations a month — 300 on Pro and 800 on Advanced and Business — and the Business plan adds cold email sequences and 500 email finder credits.
A favor
- Low entry price in euros: €19 per user a month on Pro
- 14-day free trial
- Unlimited campaigns and CRM sync from Pro upwards
En contra
- Cold email is only on Business (€69 per user a month)
- The pricing page does not make clear which billing period the figure shown corresponds to
- It runs actions from your LinkedIn account: read LinkedIn's terms of service first
Precio: Pro: €19 per user a month; Advanced: €49; Business: €69. The site offers quarterly and annual discounts: confirm the billing period before you buy. Checked on 17/09/2026.
La Growth Machine
lagrowthmachine.comTeams who want multichannel sequences across LinkedIn, email and calls, and who pay per sending profile.
La Growth Machine builds sequences combining LinkedIn and email, and depending on the plan calls and X as well, with lead enrichment included every month. It is priced per identity, meaning per profile that sends. Basic allows up to 3 identities and 1 sending email per identity; Pro adds a multichannel inbox, A/B tests and 5 emails per identity.
A favor
- Enrichment included: 250 leads a month on Basic and 400 on Pro
- Prices in euros, with annual billing worth roughly 2 months free
- Pro includes up to 25 team members at no extra cost
En contra
- Priced per identity: with several reps sending, the cost multiplies
- HubSpot and Pipedrive sync sits on Ultimate (€150 per identity a month paid annually)
- It runs actions from your LinkedIn account: read LinkedIn's terms of service first
Precio: Basic: €50 per identity a month paid annually or €60 monthly. Pro: €100 or €120. Ultimate: €150 or €180. Checked on 17/09/2026.
Calling tools: Ringover and Aircall
Calling tools for prospecting are cloud telephony: landline numbers, calls from your computer or phone, recording, and CRM integration so every conversation is logged. Ringover and Aircall publish euro prices per user or licence, with a discount for a yearly commitment. Aircall requires a minimum of 3 licences; Ringover has a plan for 1 or 2 users.
Ringover
ringover.comSales teams who want cloud telephony with recording, call summaries and CRM integration.
Ringover is a cloud telephony provider with a virtual switchboard, call logging and recording, and AI transcription and summaries. The Smart plan includes a landline number in 43 countries and unlimited calls to 110 destinations; Business adds integrations with more than 100 tools such as CRMs, SMS campaigns and a Power Dialer.
A favor
- Euro pricing published on its European site
- Recording, transcription and call summaries from Smart upwards
- A Quicktalk plan for teams of 1 or 2 users
En contra
- CRM integrations and the Power Dialer sit on Business (€47 per user a month on an annual commitment)
- The lowest prices require a 12-month commitment
- Prices differ by country site: the UK site publishes its plans in pounds
Precio: Smart: €21 per user a month on a 12-month commitment or €29 monthly. Business: €47 or €57. Quicktalk (1-2 users): €15 or €24. Checked on 17/09/2026 on the European (EUR) pricing page.
Aircall is the better-known alternative: its Essentials plan costs €30 per licence a month paid annually or €40 monthly, with a minimum of 3 licences, and includes recording, more than 100 integrations and 1,000 outbound domestic call minutes per user a month in the countries it lists.
A CRM with prospecting built in: GTM Flow
A CRM with prospecting built in keeps contacts, multichannel sequences and opportunities in one place, so a reply stops the sequence and stays on the record. GTM Flow is that kind of system, an AI go-to-market platform built for founders who sell and teams of one to ten. It is in early access, opened in waitlist order, and cannot be bought today.
GTM Flow
gtmflowos.comFounders who sell and sales teams of 1 to 10 who prospect by email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and phone and want the CRM in the same place.
GTM Flow is an AI go-to-market platform with the CRM inside: companies, contacts, opportunities, lists and tasks, and on the same record the cold email sequences, the LinkedIn steps, WhatsApp and the calls. Background AI agents act on every reply and every call, and a Copilot runs what you ask once you confirm. Our own sales team runs on it in production. You cannot buy it today: it is in early access, opened in waitlist order.
A favor
- A reply lands on the contact and stops the sequence; AI agents read it, create the task and flag the account as hot
- Email from your own mailboxes with rotation, per-mailbox caps and address checks at enrolment; bounces and unsubscribes handled; nothing goes out from shared domains
- LinkedIn steps with a daily cap, a three-week ramp and a maximum number of pending invitations, or done by hand as tasks
- Imports CSV files, including HubSpot and Pipedrive exports, and syncs with Pipedrive
En contra
- You cannot buy it today: early access is opened in waitlist order.
- Planned pricing: Solo €39, Team €69 and Scale €149 per seat a month billed annually.
- No public API or MCP server for customers yet, no mobile app and no contact database of its own.
Precio: Planned pricing, not on sale yet: Solo €39, Team €69 and Scale €149 per seat a month billed annually (€49, €85 and €179 billed monthly), each with the CRM, all four channels and Copilot. No credits and nothing metered per send. Checked 23/10/2026.
If what you need today is a contact database, GTM Flow does not have one: you would pair it with one of the data tools above. If the part falling short is your CRM rather than your outreach tools, our Pipedrive alternatives and HubSpot alternatives comparisons cover that side. More detail on the GTM Flow home page, on multichannel prospecting inside the CRM and on the planned pricing.
What stack you need at your stage
A founder selling alone needs little: one source of contacts with verification, one way to send sequences, and consistency. A team of one to ten also needs everyone to see the same replies and opportunities. Buying data, email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and a CRM separately tends to cost between €150 and €250 per user a month, on our own estimate from public prices.
| Stage | What you need | One possible combination | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder selling alone, first dozens of accounts | Find and verify emails, send a short sequence and note the replies | The free plan on Apollo.io or Hunter for data, and an entry plan on Instantly or lemlist to send | Do not buy volume before you have a message that works |
| Founder with first customers and another channel | The above plus calls or LinkedIn, and a tidy pipeline | A data tool, an email tool, telephony such as Ringover, and a CRM | Replies scattered across several inboxes |
| Team of one to ten people | That nobody writes to the same account twice and that every reply becomes an opportunity | Several tools integrated with the CRM, or a CRM with prospecting built in | Cost per user and hours spent on integration |
The €150-250 per user a month figure is a GTM Flow estimate using September 2026 public list prices for HubSpot Starter, Instantly, HeyReach and a WhatsApp add-on. It is nobody's published rate: your number will depend on the plans and the volume you pick.
- You copy replies from a tool into the CRM by hand.
- Two people on the team have written to the same account without knowing.
- You cannot tell which sequence produced which opportunity.
- You pay for several per-user subscriptions that are only half used.
If two or more of those sound familiar, the problem is no longer the sending tool but having everything in separate places. If you are selling on your own, the founder-led sales guide helps you decide what to set up first.
Personal data and privacy rules when enriching contacts
Enriching contacts means processing personal data, which the GDPR defines as any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Which rules apply depends on where you and your contacts are: the GDPR and ePrivacy in the EU, CAN-SPAM in the US, PECR in the UK. This guide does not assess any tool or use: check it with a lawyer.
- European Union: the General Data Protection Regulation, whose Article 14 is titled “Information to be provided where personal data have not been obtained from the data subject”, and the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC on unsolicited communications, implemented country by country.
- United States: the FTC's CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business, on the requirements for commercial email.
- United Kingdom: the ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing, on how PECR applies alongside UK data protection law.
When a vendor says it complies with the GDPR, that is the vendor's own claim: ask for its data processing agreement and ask where the data comes from. Go through all of this with a lawyer before you import or enrich anything — this guide compares tools, it does not assess compliance.
Where to start
Start with the bottleneck you have today. If you do not know who to write to, a data tool with a free plan such as Apollo.io or Hunter. If you already have the list, a cold email tool such as Instantly or lemlist. If replies, calls and opportunities are scattered, a CRM with prospecting built in, such as GTM Flow when access opens.
Before you pay for volume, get the domain and the mailboxes ready: SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the first thing Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook ask of senders. It is all step by step in the B2B cold email guide.
Frequently asked questions
What B2B prospecting tools should I use if I'm just starting out?
Two pieces are enough at the start: a data tool with a free plan, such as Apollo.io (900 credits per seat a year) or Hunter (50 credits a month), and a way to send short sequences from your mailbox, such as the entry plan on Instantly or lemlist. Before paying for more, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC and test the message on a few dozen well-chosen accounts.
Are there free B2B prospecting tools?
There are free plans, not free tools. Apollo.io, Lusha, Kaspr and Hunter all publish one, and each caps what you can do: Hunter gives 50 credits a month and one connected email account, Kaspr 15 B2B email credits, 5 phone credits and 5 direct-email credits. They are enough to test a list and a message, not to run a campaign. Dropcontact gives 50 credits to try it, with no permanent free tier.
What is the difference between Apollo and lemlist?
Apollo.io starts from a B2B database with enrichment and adds sequences on top; it has a free plan and charges per seat, from US$49 a month billed annually. lemlist starts from multichannel sequences and adds data as credits; its Email plan costs US$55 a month paid annually with unlimited users, and Multichannel adds LinkedIn, SMS and calls per user. If what you lack is contacts, Apollo; if it is the sending, lemlist.
Which is the best LinkedIn prospecting tool?
There is no single best one. Kaspr is for pulling emails and phone numbers from profiles; Waalaxy for invitation and message campaigns at a low entry price in euros; La Growth Machine for sequences mixing LinkedIn, email and calls, priced per identity. Whichever you pick, read LinkedIn's terms of service before connecting your account and ask the vendor exactly what it does inside it.
Do I need a CRM as well as a prospecting tool?
If you sell on your own and talk to a handful of accounts, a prospecting tool and a spreadsheet can be enough to start. As soon as there are open opportunities, several people or several channels, you need a CRM so every reply becomes an opportunity and nobody writes to the same account twice. A CRM with prospecting built in, such as GTM Flow, saves integrating two tools, though today it is on a waiting list.
The CRM with prospecting built in
GTM Flow brings the CRM, cold email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and calls into one system, with AI that tells you what to do next. Early access for founders and small sales teams. See how it works
Sources
- Apollo.io: Pricing · checked on
- Lusha: Pricing · checked on
- Kaspr: Plans & Pricing · checked on
- Hunter: Pricing · checked on
- Dropcontact: Pricing · checked on
- Dropcontact: Terms (company details) · checked on
- lemlist: Pricing · checked on
- Instantly: Pricing · checked on
- Waalaxy: Pricing · checked on
- La Growth Machine: Pricing · checked on
- Ringover: Pricing (European site, EUR) · checked on
- Aircall: Pricing (European site, EUR) · checked on
- LinkedIn: User Agreement · checked on
- LinkedIn: Prohibited software and extensions · checked on
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) · checked on
- EUR-Lex: Directive 2002/58/EC (ePrivacy Directive) · checked on
- FTC: CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business · checked on
- ICO: Electronic mail marketing (Guide to PECR) · checked on
Keep reading
By channel
Multichannel outreach CRM
What a multichannel outreach CRM is, why email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and call steps belong on the CRM record, and how lemlist, HeyReach and Reply.io compare.
11 min4 sourcesGuide
B2B cold email
B2B cold email step by step: SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warm-up, who to write to, sequences and why emails go to spam, with official sources.
16 min16 sourcesComparison
Instantly alternatives
Instantly alternatives for founders and small sales teams: Smartlead, lemlist, Saleshandy, Woodpecker and La Growth Machine, prices checked in October.
12 min6 sources