{ "title": "Clay Alternatives 2027: 12 Paid, Free & Open-Source", "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/clay/", "summary": "The best Clay alternatives in 2027 are Apollo.io (best overall), Hunter (best free plan: 50 credits a month) and OpenOutreach (best open source, GPL-3.0). Clay itself starts at $167/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 9 more are compared below, including 3 with a free plan and 3 open source.", "tool": { "name": "Clay", "starting_price": "$167/mo", "free_plan": "500 actions and 100 data credits a month", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://www.clay.com/pricing" }, "task": "B2B lead database / prospecting", "prices_checked": "2026-11-11", "date_modified": "2026-11-13", "alternatives": [ { "name": "Apollo.io", "type": "Free", "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published", "free_plan_limit": "Yes", "best_for": "Contact database with built-in sequencing", "difference": "Apollo holds its own contact database and its Basic plan adds email sequencing; plans are Free, Basic, Professional and Custom, all applied account-wide rather than per user.", "website": "https://www.apollo.io", "zekai_score": 8.9, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/apollo-io/" }, { "name": "Hunter", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$34/mo billed yearly", "free_plan_limit": "50 credits per month", "best_for": "Finding and verifying work email addresses", "difference": "Hunter charges one credit per email found and half a credit per email verified, and credits reset monthly without rolling over, unlike Clay's yearly data-credit pools.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://hunter.io/pricing", "website": "https://hunter.io", "zekai_score": 7.7, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/hunter-io/" }, { "name": "Persana AI", "type": "Free plan + paid", "starting_price": "$151/mo billed yearly", "free_plan_limit": "50 credits", "best_for": "AI prospecting with credit-based enrichment", "difference": "Persana sells credit tiers: Free has 50 credits, Starter is $85 monthly for 2000 credits, and Growth is $151 a month billed annually for 60k credits a year.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://www.persana.ai/pricing", "website": "https://www.persana.ai", "zekai_score": 6.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/persana-ai/" }, { "name": "UpLead", "type": "Paid", "starting_price": "$99/mo", "free_plan_limit": "No free plan", "best_for": "Verified contact data bought by the credit", "difference": "UpLead sells verified contacts by the credit: Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, and each credit unlocks one contact with email and mobile direct dial.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://www.uplead.com/pricing/", "website": "https://www.uplead.com", "zekai_score": 8.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/uplead/" }, { "name": "Origami", "type": "Paid", "starting_price": "$99/mo", "free_plan_limit": "No free plan", "best_for": "Chat-driven list building with a sequencer", "difference": "Origami's Starter is $99 a month including $165 of usage, with an unlimited sequencer and five email plus three LinkedIn senders included, built around a chat interface.", "price_checked": "2026-11-11", "pricing_url": "https://origami.chat/pricing", "website": "https://origami.chat", "zekai_score": 6.1, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/origami/" }, { "name": "Lusha", "type": "Free", "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published", "free_plan_limit": "Up to 40 credits per month", "best_for": "Browser-extension contact lookup with CRM sync", "difference": "Lusha's Free plan gives up to 40 credits a month, with one credit per verified email and five per phone number, plus a browser extension and CRM integrations.", "website": "https://www.lusha.com", "zekai_score": 6.8, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/lusha/" }, { "name": "LeadIQ", "type": "Free", "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published", "free_plan_limit": "1 user, 50 credits", "best_for": "Prospecting with job-change tracking", "difference": "LeadIQ's Free plan covers 1 user and 50 credits with job-change tracking and a Chrome extension, and Pro is billed per credit volume with a monthly or annual toggle.", "website": "https://leadiq.com", "zekai_score": 7.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/leadiq/" }, { "name": "ZoomInfo", "type": "Paid", "starting_price": "Not checked", "free_plan_limit": "No free plan", "best_for": "Enterprise B2B database with intent data", "difference": "ZoomInfo sells packages across contact data and GTM applications and publishes no list prices; pricing is requested through a contact form.", "website": "https://www.zoominfo.com", "zekai_score": 8.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/zoominfo/" }, { "name": "OpenOutreach", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "GPL-3.0", "best_for": "Self-hosted lead discovery from a product description", "difference": "Builds a list from your product description and has an LLM judge each candidate against your ideal customer profile with written reasons; it holds no database and relies on BetterContact for lookups.", "website": "https://github.com/eracle/OpenOutreach", "repository": "https://github.com/eracle/OpenOutreach", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openoutreach/", "commercial_use": "Yes; GPL-3.0 means sharing source if you distribute a modified version.", "runs_on": "Any machine that runs Python with uv; a Docker image exists for servers.", "setup": "moderate: Needs an LLM key, a BetterContact key and a mailbox app password.", "github_stars": 3685, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-13", "zekai_score": 7.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openoutreach/" }, { "name": "Prospex (business-leads-ai-automation)", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "AGPL-3.0", "best_for": "Local business leads scraped from Google Maps", "difference": "Scrapes Google Maps for local businesses, scores leads with an LLM and drafts outreach for email, WhatsApp, Instagram and LinkedIn, so it suits local-business lists rather than B2B job titles.", "website": "https://github.com/asiifdev/business-leads-ai-automation", "repository": "https://github.com/asiifdev/business-leads-ai-automation", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/business-leads-ai-automation/", "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.", "runs_on": "Docker host for PostgreSQL 16 and Redis 7; an OpenAI-compatible LLM.", "setup": "moderate: Docker Compose for the databases, Node.js 20 and pnpm 9 to develop.", "github_stars": 244, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-05", "zekai_score": 6.6, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/business-leads-ai-automation/" }, { "name": "Sellbird (formerly Harvey)", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "AGPL-3.0", "best_for": "Agent that finds, verifies and emails prospects", "difference": "Finds local businesses free on OpenStreetMap, reads each company's own website for buying signals, verifies one email per contact and only sends to deliverable addresses after your approval.", "website": "https://sellbird.ai", "repository": "https://github.com/ethanplusai/sellbird", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/harvey/", "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.", "runs_on": "Your own computer with Python 3.11 or newer; no GPU needed.", "setup": "moderate: Python install, a signed-in Claude or Codex CLI, and a sending mailbox.", "github_stars": 5373, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-10", "last_release": "2026-11-06", "zekai_score": 7.5, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/harvey/" }, { "name": "Google Maps Scraper", "type": "Open source", "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)", "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)", "licence": "MIT", "best_for": "Free Google Maps business data and emails", "difference": "Extracts name, address, phone, website, rating, reviews and emails for Google Maps places into CSV or JSON through a CLI, web UI or REST API; it is a scraper, not a contact database.", "website": "https://github.com/gosom/google-maps-scraper", "repository": "https://github.com/gosom/google-maps-scraper", "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/google-maps-scraper/", "commercial_use": "Yes (MIT).", "runs_on": "Docker or a prebuilt binary on Windows, macOS or Linux.", "setup": "easy: One docker run command, or download the binary and run it.", "github_stars": 8014, "stars_checked": "2026-11-13", "last_commit": "2026-11-08", "last_release": "2026-11-08", "zekai_score": 8.3, "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/google-maps-scraper/" } ], "faq": [ { "q": "What is the best alternative to Clay in 2027?", "a": "Apollo.io is the best overall Clay alternative on this page (Free plan; paid price not published). For no cost, Hunter has a free plan (50 credits per month). To self-host, OpenOutreach is open source (GPL-3.0)." }, { "q": "Is there a free version of Clay?", "a": "Yes. Clay has a free plan: 500 actions and 100 data credits a month. Paid plans start at $167/mo, checked on 11 Nov 2026." }, { "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Clay?", "a": "Yes. OpenOutreach, Prospex (business-leads-ai-automation), Sellbird (formerly Harvey), Google Maps Scraper are open source and free to self-host. Apollo.io, Hunter, Persana AI, Lusha, LeadIQ have a free plan with limits, shown in the table." }, { "q": "What is cheaper than Clay?", "a": "Origami starts at $99/mo, against $167/mo for Clay, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026." }, { "q": "How much do Clay alternatives cost for a team of 5?", "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Hunter $170/mo, UpLead $495/mo, Origami $495/mo, against Clay $835/mo for Clay. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size." }, { "q": "Which is better, Apollo.io or Clay?", "a": "Apollo holds its own contact database and its Basic plan adds email sequencing; plans are Free, Basic, Professional and Custom, all applied account-wide rather than per user. Choose Apollo.io if you want one tool holding the contact database and the outreach sequences, without wiring data providers. Stay with Clay if you need to chain many data providers and AI research steps into custom enrichment tables." }, { "q": "Why are people leaving Clay?", "a": "The documented reasons are: On 11 March 2026 Clay introduced new pricing that split credits into Data Credits and Actions; Actions reset each billing cycle and do not roll over, and new customers go to Launch, Growth or Enterprise plans (11 Mar 2026); Clay's pricing page shows phone-number enrichment, job-change signals and its email sequencer only from the Launch plan; the Free plan caps tables at 200 rows and 500 actions a month (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above." }, { "q": "What is better than Clay?", "a": "It depends on the job. Apollo.io suits teams wanting a database plus sequencing, Hunter suits email finding, and ZoomInfo suits enterprise data. Clay is stronger when you combine many data providers and AI research in one table." } ], "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.", "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/clay/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted." }