Cognismvs
ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo: Deeper United States coverage and a larger company dataset if North America is the target market
Cognism
B2B contact data that notifies European contacts and screens do-not-call lists as a product feature
As of 31 August 2026, Cognism's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. For a European sales team the decisive question about contact data is not coverage but lawful basis, and Cognism is one of the few vendors that runs contact notification and do-not-call screening as part of the product rather than as a clause in the terms. Softwr lists it under Sales Enablement. Cognism is available on Web, Browser extension, API.
Overview
What Cognism does
Cognism is a London company founded in 2015 that sells B2B contact and company data with intent signals, delivered through a web application, browser extension and CRM integrations. Its headline dataset is Diamond Data, mobile phone numbers verified by a human calling process rather than inferred, which materially changes connect rates for teams that actually cold call. The distinguishing commercial fact is compliance posture. Cognism notifies individuals whose details are held in its European and United Kingdom database and screens numbers against national do-not-call registers across several European countries and the United States. For a buyer in Europe that is the fact that decides whether the vendor can be used at all, because the legal exposure of prospecting on data with no notification is not a procurement detail, it is the whole risk. It is worth being precise about the comparison here: the largest rival, ZoomInfo, has faced class action litigation in the United States under state right-of-publicity statutes, and Apollo suffered a widely reported exposure of a database of over two hundred million contact records in 2018. Neither of those is a European regulatory finding, and beyond documented cases like these it is better to check a vendor sourcing statement than to rely on reputation. Buyers are outbound sales teams in Europe and increasingly in North America, usually mid-market SaaS. The trade-off is that United States coverage remains behind ZoomInfo, and the commercial model is an annual platform fee plus per-seat licences plus credit allowances, so the seat price alone understates what you will pay. Data density also varies sharply by country, and DACH and Nordic coverage is thinner than the United Kingdom.
What people use it for
- A European outbound team that needs a defensible answer when legal asks where the phone numbers came from
- Calling campaigns where verified mobile numbers rather than switchboard numbers determine connect rate
- Enriching an existing CRM of stale records with current job titles and direct dials
- Prioritising accounts using intent signals before committing sales development capacity
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Cognism.
- United States coverage is behind ZoomInfo, and the gap shows most in mid-market American accounts where record density thins out.
- The commercial model combines an annual platform fee, per-seat licences and credit allowances, so a quoted seat price consistently understates the total.
- Diamond Data verified mobiles are a subset of the wider database rather than the whole of it, and the subset available for your target market should be tested before signing.
- There is no free tier and no monthly rolling contract, so evaluating properly means committing to a year or relying on a short trial with limited data.
- Coverage density varies sharply by country, with the United Kingdom strong and DACH and the Nordics noticeably thinner, which matters if your expansion market is the weak one.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Cognism
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- CognismvsLusha
Lusha: Cheaper and self-serve for small teams that need occasional lookups rather than a full data programme
- CognismvsApollo.io
Apollo.io: Combines data with sequencing in one tool at lower cost, with a lighter compliance posture in Europe
Pricing
What Cognism costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Cognism Platform
On request
- Annual platform fee plus per-seat licences
- Credit allowances for exports and enrichment negotiated separately
- No free tier and no monthly rolling term
Capabilities
Features
Diamond Data
Mobile numbers verified by human calling rather than inferred from other sources
Contact notification
Notification of individuals held in the European and UK database as part of the lawful basis process
DNC screening
Numbers screened against national do-not-call registers in several European countries and the US
Intent data
Buying intent signals through a Bombora partnership used to prioritise accounts
Browser extension
Contact and company lookup on LinkedIn and company websites
CRM enrichment
Scheduled and on-demand enrichment into Salesforce and HubSpot records
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Can a European company use it lawfully?
It notifies contacts held in its EU and UK database and screens do-not-call registers, which supports a legitimate interest basis. The balancing test, record keeping and handling of objections remain your obligation, not the obligation of the vendor.
How does it compare with ZoomInfo on coverage?
ZoomInfo is stronger in the United States, Cognism is generally stronger on European mobile numbers. That, rather than feature lists, is what most head-to-head evaluations come down to.
Can we buy a single seat monthly?
No. Contracts are annual with a platform fee, which makes a genuine pilot harder than with credit-based self-serve vendors.
Keep looking
Where to go from Cognism
- Cognism alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Cognism pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Cognism badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Sales Enablement softwareThe full category
- Best Sales Enablement softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Cognism, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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