Services offering sales management teams leads range from buying segmented lists of email contacts to advanced tools that identify prospects based on social media profiles, saving both sales prospecting time and effort. We looked at dozens of sources for leads and narrowed it down to the six best, based on price, general features, ease of use, and help and support to learn which is the best choice.
Here are six tools we’ve determined to be the best at helping small businesses buy and generate leads to fill your pipeline:
- UpLead: Best overall for businesses that want to send verified leads directly to their customer relationship manager (CRM)
- Salesfully: Excellent for small businesses wanting an affordable, easy-to-use place to buy unlimited lead contact information
- D&B Hoovers: Ideal for teams who need advanced search filtering to identify territory-based leads
- Lusha: Great for business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals needing to identify lead contact information through social media networks
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Best for businesses wanting direct B2B connections with decision-makers at target client companies
- FindEmails.com: Ideal for sales teams who need no-frills company lead and contact search
How We Evaluated the Best Places to Buy Business Leads
Businesses use a variety of forms of lead generation to fill their sales funnel, from prospecting on social media networks to purchasing targeted lists of accurate and up-to-date contact information. We identified the top business lead sources and looked at how easy it is to identify leads and move them into customer relationship management (CRM) software.
We found UpLead to be the best overall place for small businesses to buy business leads based on its simple interface, robust search features, and affordable monthly subscription plan starting at $99 per month for 170 credits. In addition, UpLead offers the option of one-click export to your connected CRM, making it the best choice for businesses wanting a simple way to buy leads and add prospects to their sales process.
You can click through to learn more about how we evaluated the best places to buy business leads:
40% of Overall Score
We looked at if there is a pay-as-you-go plan, monthly and annual plans, public pricing, and customizable plans. We also evaluated if you only had to pay for qualified leads.
25% of Overall Score
We evaluated if there was a direct CRM integration, downloadable lead lists, and browser extensions. Additionally, we checked to see if each business offered real-time lead verification.
15% of Overall Score
We explored how easy each tool was to set up and how friendly the user interface is. We also looked at how comfortable the search interface is.
10% of Overall Score
We looked at the types of customer support each business offered. This includes chat support, phone support, and email and ticket support.
10% of Overall Score
This section includes standout features, value for the price, and popularity. We also evaluated how well each tool is suited for small businesses from an expert opinion.
UpLead
PROS
- Direct lead import into many CRMs
- Includes over 30 million contacts
- Real-time lead verification
CONS
- Can be expensive if you need a lot of credits
- Provides generic phone numbers rather than direct contact numbers
- Does not offer phone support
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 4.50 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 4.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 2.75 | OUT OF | 5 |
UpLead is an excellent choice for companies that want a real-time, verified business-to-business (B2B) database and the ability to search for contacts and import them directly into many of the top small business CRMs. UpLead verifies contacts upon export, so users won’t end up with large lists of bounced emails or take a hit to their sender reputation due to bad email addresses.
UpLead Pricing
UpLead’s Essentials plan charges $99 per month for 170 credits. Additional credits are 60 cents per contact. The Plus plan is $199 per month for 400 credits with additional credits at 50 cents. The Professional plan is $399 per month for 1,000 credits for unlimited users and 40 cents for additional credits. Additional pricing details include:
- 25% discount for annual billing rather than monthly billing
- Seven-day free trial, including five credits
- No contract or long-term commitment required
- Ability to upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time
UpLead Features
UpLead verifies leads at the time of purchase to make sure that every contact and email address you purchase is accurate. Users can search by individual contacts or by companies, and can then export the results to a spreadsheet or send them directly to your CRM. This is supported by UpLead’s database of over 30 million contacts, built using both public and proprietary information sources.
Some of the most valuable features include:
- List Filters & Search that allows you to search for contacts based on criteria such as industry, title, location, company, and social profiles.
- UpLead enriches the lead with LinkedIn profile information, giving users access to the professional history of potential leads.
- Users can exclude previous downloads from results to ensure they are only capturing new leads, and not duplicate records.
- Verifies lists at the time of export, in real time, unlike some competitors that only verify on scheduled intervals.
- Offers the option of downloading leads in bulk as a CSV file, which is helpful if you want to upload leads to other types of software, such as email marketing or direct mail services.
- Direct CRM integration with many small business CRMs, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Insightly, and Zoho.
UpLead search interface
Salesfully
PROS
- Unlimited number of leads you can download each month
- Real-time lead verification
- Access to over 200 million business and consumer leads
CONS
- No direct CRM integration
- Does not offer phone or email support
- Many leads don’t include email addresses
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 3.75 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 3.88 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 4.13 | OUT OF | 5 |
Salesfully is a simple lead database that offers both B2B and consumer leads for a low monthly price of $29. It has a simple search interface with a real-time update of the number of leads that fit your search profile. Salesfully is especially useful for B2B sales teams who are looking for an affordable place to access large numbers of business leads.
Salesfully Pricing
Salesfully charges $29 per month for unlimited business and consumer leads. Other pricing details include:
- Free to sign up and download your first 100 leads
- Ability to export up to 10,000 leads at a time
- No setup fees or contracts
- 30-day money back guarantee
Salesfully Features
Salesfully includes a good combination of overall value for the price and delivers reliable high-quality leads. Their database includes over 200 million business and consumer leads, which are verified on a regular basis using a variety of public and business databases. Some of Salesfully’s best features include:
- Unlimited lead searches with the ability to download leads, review past saved searches, and export the results to a CSV file.
- A simple-to-use search feature that allows users to apply filters based on job title, location, industry, company name, company size, or revenue.
- Validates business and consumer email addresses, and offers a refund of the monthly subscription fee when incorrect information is provided.
- Uses a variety of public and proprietary databases to verify information on a regular basis.
- CSV export so leads can be imported into any CRM or email marketing program.
Salesfully lead search interface
D&B Hoovers
PROS
- Access to over 120 million business records over 1,000 industries in 190 countries
- Direct integration with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 354, Marketo, and Eloqua
- Offers advanced search features, such as defining a specific geographic area
CONS
- Disappointing customer service, and search interface is not as modern as other options
- No direct CRM integration to other popular small business CRMs
- Lack of pricing information available on website
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 2.50 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 4.25 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 3.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 1.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
D&B Hoovers offers the ability to buy verified leads and is powered by the Dun & Bradstreet database, the industry’s leading business intelligence service. Users are able to conduct advanced searches based on location and location radius, SIC codes, industry, revenue, and even variables such as IPO status, legal entity, and fiscal year. This makes it the best for teams who need robust search filtering to identify territory-based B2B leads.
D&B Hoovers Pricing
D&B Hoovers does not publish a fixed rate per lead or specific packages for buying leads. You need to call the company, start a chat with a sales representative, or fill out a form to discuss a plan that best fits your business needs and goals. However, they do offer a free trial with customer support.
D&B Hoovers Features
The sales lead component of D&B Hoovers includes information on over 120 million business records covering 1,000 industries in 190 countries, making it more comprehensive than any other option on this list—which makes it an excellent choice for those who want to find verified leads worldwide. They also offer:
- Advanced search features of any of the options we reviewed, allowing users to search by industry codes, geographic location radius, and even variables such as IPO status and underwriter.
- A reliable database that is updated over 5 million times per day, and is the primary source that other services often use for verification.
- Direct CSV download to import into any CRM or email marketing program.
- Direct integration with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Marketo, and Eloqua.
D&B Hoover search filters
Lusha
PROS
- Simple-to-use Chrome browser plugin that automatically generates contact information
- Stores your search history to keep track of social media leads
- Excellent accuracy of leads generated via social media
CONS
- No searchable database
- Very few leads included in the free plan
- Limited customer support
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 3.75 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 4.63 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 4.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 2.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 2.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
Lusha is a lead prospecting service with a Chrome browser extension allowing users to identify the contact information of social media connections. It stores your search history (so it is easy to keep track of social media leads), making Lusha the best place to buy lead information while browsing social media networks.
Lusha Pricing
- Starter Plan: Five free credits per month
- Professional Plan: 100 credits per month for $79 for up to three users
- Premium Plan: 300 credits per month for $199 for up to five users
- Enterprise Plan: Custom plan built to scale with a dedicated success manager
Lusha Features
Unlike the other options on this list, Lusha isn’t a searchable database. Rather, it gives users the ability to identify contact information for leads on social network sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Lusha offers main features such as:
- A Chrome browser plugin that automatically opens when you are navigating a supported social network page, and provides phone and email contact information when available.
- Available as a Salesforce native app at an additional cost, which seamlessly adds contact information directly into your Salesforce account and auto-enriches your lead, contact, and company profiles to include phone, email, and other contact information.
- Integrations through Zapier with apps such as Gmail, HubSpot, and Mailchimp.
- The ability to export a CSV of your contacts with their “Lists” feature. You can export an entire list or select specific contacts to export, which can then be uploaded to your CRM or other contact management tool.
Lusha browser widget on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
PROS
- Automatically recommends leads based on factors such as company and connection to existing leads
- Ability to directly contact prospects using LinkedIn’s InMail feature
- Includes CRM features built into the Sales Navigator subscription, allowing users to connect with and nurture leads directly within the software
CONS
- InMail functionality does not extend to non-LinkedIn connects
- Does not include the ability to export directly to a CSV file or to a CRM without using an API or a service like Zapier
- Can be expensive for smaller businesses with limited budgets
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 3.25 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 2.88 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 4.50 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 3.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 2.75 | OUT OF | 5 |
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a subscription-based software tool designed to provide additional features to your LinkedIn account. Specifically, it includes advanced keyword and search filters to identify new leads and gives you the ability to import your existing contacts to use predictive search to identify similar prospects. This makes it ideal for B2B sales reps who want to make direct connections with decision-makers at their target companies.
Sales Navigator Pricing
- Professional Plan: $79.99 per month
- Team Plan: $134.99 per month
- 25% discount for annual billing and a 30-day free trial
Sales Navigator Features
Sales Navigator allows you to search for new prospects with advanced search features. It also provides in-depth information about both your leads and their companies, as well as similar prospects and connections. Some of the most helpful features include:
- Automatically recommending leads that LinkedIn identifies.
- The ability to filter profiles by industry, title, company, and geographic location.
- The ability to send messages to prospects who they aren’t already connected to on LinkedIn and see when recipients have read their email.
- CRM features that are built into the Sales Navigator subscription, allowing users to connect with and nurture leads directly within the software.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator advanced lead search interface
FindEmails
PROS
- Simple, no-frills search features allowing users to identify contact information for leads at their target companies
- Offers a separate list verification service that allows users to validate email addresses on an individual basis or as a bulk list
- Offers a Chrome extension to verify email addresses on the website you are browsing and a “confidence score” for the validity of each one you add to your list
CONS
- No discount for annual billing
- Doesn’t allow searching by location, size, or across multiple companies or other advanced search features
- Deducts credits when you conduct a search, not just when you download or export prospects
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 4.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| General Features | 3.75 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Ease of Use | 4.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Customer Help & Support | 2.00 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Score | 2.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
FindEmails is an email list service that allows users to buy business leads in the form of validated email lists. Users can create their own list criteria or purchase existing predefined lists. FindEmails is an affordable option for small businesses and is a good choice for those who need a no-frills way to buy business leads.
FindEmails Pricing
- Basic Plan: 1,000 credits per month for $29
- Better Plan: 2,500 credits per month for $49
- Best Plan: 10,000 credits per month for $99
FindEmails Features
FindEmails includes simple search features and an email verification service that allows users to upload their own lead lists to verify the email addresses of existing prospects. FindEmails is useful for simple prospecting at specific target companies. Some of their best features include:
- A simple search tool that allows users to find prospects based on their company and job title. For example, users can search for “managers at Microsoft” or “VP at General Motors.”
- The ability to download purchased leads into a CSV format, which can be imported into a CRM or email marketing software.
- A convenient Chrome extension that lets you verify email addresses on the website you are browsing.
FindEmails simple search interface
Bottom Line
Businesses buy leads to help supercharge their sales process and generate new sales opportunities. These six places to buy business leads represent the best options for small businesses that are looking for affordable ways to add prospects that fit their target market.
UpLead allows users to purchase and download verified leads into a spreadsheet or directly into their CRM. UpLead’s monthly plans begin at $99 per month for 170 download credits. UpLead also offers a seven-day free trial, where users can download up to five leads. Visit UpLead for more information.
