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B2B Intent Data Providers

Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Most comparisons of B2B intent data providers rank vendors the author has not used against criteria the author has not defined. This one does something narrower and more useful: sixteen providers were checked on their own websites on 26 August 2026, and this page reports what each one publishes — what kind of data it sells, what it claims, and whether it states a price. Six of the sixteen publish a specific price. All six are website-visitor identification tools. Not one third-party intent data provider publishes one.

The short answerThere is no single best B2B intent data provider, because the sixteen products in this category are not the same product. They split into four types: first-party website-visitor identification, third-party co-op topic data, review-site intent, and bidstream. Start with first-party — it is the cheapest signal and the most certain, and entry pricing is published: RB2B from $79 a month, Dealfront from €79 a month billed annually, Factors from $199 a month. Move to third-party co-op data such as Bombora only when you need to see demand from accounts that have never visited you, and expect to go through a sales process to learn what it costs.

What we found checking sixteen providers
Every price on this page was read from the provider’s own pricing page on 26 August 2026. Where a provider publishes no price, this page says so rather than estimating one.

How this comparison was made, and what it does not claim

Answer first: every statement about a provider on this page was read from that provider’s own website on 26 August 2026. Nothing here is a test, a benchmark, a ranking or a measurement of performance, because performance in this category depends on your market, your list and your sales motion, none of which an outside party can see.

  1. Sample. Sixteen providers spanning all four data types, chosen because they appear repeatedly in this category’s search results and buyer shortlists.
  2. Source. Each provider’s own product or pricing page, fetched directly. Where a page returned an access block, that is stated rather than substituted with a third-party summary.
  3. What was recorded. The type of data sold, the claims the provider makes about its own coverage, and whether a specific price is published.
  4. What was not recorded. Data accuracy, match rate in practice, support quality, or any outcome. Those require an engagement to assess and this page does not pretend to have one.
  5. Relationships. Progression Agency has no affiliate arrangement, referral fee or commercial relationship with any provider named on this page.
  6. Ordering. Providers appear grouped by data type and alphabetically within each group, not ranked. A rank would imply a comparison that was not performed.

Prices change. Every figure here carries the date it was read. Check the provider’s own page before making a decision on the basis of any number below.

What B2B intent data actually is

Answer first: intent data is any signal suggesting that an organization is researching a problem you solve, before that organization contacts you. It is a prioritization input, not a lead.

The distinction that saves the most money

Research is not purchase intent. A company reading about warehouse automation may be building a business case, benchmarking a renewal, writing a student paper or idly curious. Treating a topic surge as a buying signal — and messaging it as though the account has raised a hand — is the single most common reason intent data programs fail.

What it is genuinely good for

  • Ordering a list you already have. Which of your two thousand target accounts to call this week rather than next quarter.
  • Suppressing waste. Turning off advertising against accounts showing no activity at all.
  • Timing. Reaching a renewal window before an incumbent’s contract auto-renews.
  • Expanding a target list. Finding organizations with the problem that were not on your list because they do not match your firmographic filter.
  • Warming outbound. A first message that references a real, current problem outperforms one that references a headcount number.

What it is not good for

  • Replacing a target account list. Intent data ranks a list; it does not build a market.
  • Small total addressable markets. If your market is four hundred accounts, call them.
  • Very long or very short sales cycles. Too long and the signal decays; too short and you would have found them anyway.
  • Proving marketing worked. Attribution from an intent platform is the platform marking its own homework.

Why buyers search for “intent providers” and “intent provider”

Those two phrasings — intent providers, and the singular intent provider — are how most people arrive at this question, and they are ambiguous in a way that matters. Somebody typing “intent provider” might be looking for a third-party data supplier such as a co-op, a website-visitor identification tool, or the intent module inside a platform they already own. All three get described as an intent provider by the companies selling them. The four-way split below is the fastest way to work out which one you actually mean before you take a single sales call.

The four kinds of intent data, and why the category is confusing

Answer first: the sixteen providers below sell four genuinely different things. Comparing them against each other on price is meaningless until you know which of the four you are buying.

The four kinds of intent data, compared
No provider sells all four well. The practical decision is which one your problem needs, and the answer is usually first-party first because it is cheapest and most certain.
The four data types compared
TypeWhere the signal comes fromIdentifiesTypical strengthTypical weakness
First-party website visitorsYour own site, resolved via an identity graphCompany, sometimes personCertain — they came to youOnly sees people already aware of you
Third-party co-opA pool of B2B publishers sharing consumption dataCompany and topicSees demand you have no visibility intoCompany-level, and topic is not purchase
Review-site intentCategory and comparison browsing on review platformsCompany, high intentLate-funnel and specificOnly covers categories on that platform
BidstreamAdvertising auction request dataCompany, inferredVery high volume, low unit costNoisy, and privacy exposure is real

Read that table before reading any vendor page. Almost every disappointed intent data buyer bought one type while expecting the strengths of another — most often buying co-op topic data and expecting the certainty of first-party visitor identification.

How the category arrived where it is
Each wave added a data type rather than replacing the previous one, which is why the category is so confusing to buy: the products are not competing on the same axis.

The pricing finding, stated plainly

Answer first: of the sixteen providers checked on 26 August 2026, six publish a specific price and ten do not. Every one of the six that does is a website-visitor identification tool. No third-party intent data provider in the sample publishes a price anywhere on its site.

Does the provider publish a price on its own site?
Checked on each provider’s own pricing or product page on 26 August 2026. A blank is not a criticism — enterprise data is genuinely priced per deal — but it does mean you cannot compare these on cost without going through a sales process with each one.
Published entry prices, where a provider publishes one
Euro figures converted at roughly 1.08 for comparison only; Dealfront bills in euros. Every one of these six is a website-visitor identification tool. Not one third-party intent data provider publishes a price.

This is not an accusation. Enterprise data genuinely is priced per deal, against volume, seats and activation channels. But it has a practical consequence a buyer should plan for: you cannot build a cost comparison across this category without entering a sales process with each vendor, which takes weeks. Budget the time, and start the conversations in parallel rather than in sequence.

16 — Providers checked. On their own sites, 26 August 2026.
6 — Publish a price. All six are visitor-identification tools.
21,600+ — Bombora intent topics. Figure published on Bombora's own site.
15-20% — RB2B's stated coverage. On its lower tiers; 35% on higher.
US only — RB2B contact-level ID. Stated on its own pricing page.
14 days — Dealfront's free trial. On every paid tier.

Third-party and co-op intent data providers

Answer first: these providers see research happening across the wider B2B web, not on your site. That is their entire value and their entire limitation.

Bombora

Bombora sells third-party intent derived from a data co-operative of B2B publishers. Its own site describes it as “a data company, not a platform”, states that it tracks more than 21,600 intent topics, and says 86 per cent of the data in its co-op is shared exclusively with Bombora for the purposes of deriving intent. It publishes no price. Its data is also resold inside many other platforms, which is worth knowing before you buy the same signal twice.

Intentsify

Intentsify positions itself as a B2B intent data and activation platform, with an identity graph, buying-group intent, website visitor resolution and activation channels including advertising, lead generation and email. Its current site messaging leads on being “agent-ready” — intent as an input to automated go-to-market motions. No price is published.

TechTarget Priority Engine

TechTarget’s intent product draws on activity across its own network of technology publications, which makes it narrow by design and strong within that scope: if you sell enterprise technology, the audience is genuinely in-market. If you do not, the network does not cover your buyers. No price is published, and the product page moved during the period this page was researched, so check the current location on TechTarget’s own site.

What to ask any co-op provider

  1. Where does the data originate, specifically? A publisher co-op and a bidstream feed are not the same thing and should not be priced the same.
  2. How is the baseline calculated? Surge is measured against an account’s own normal activity, so ask what period defines normal.
  3. How often does it refresh? Weekly data is common and ages badly against a fast sales motion.
  4. Is this data also resold inside platforms I already own? Frequently it is.
  5. What is the minimum contract, and what happens to the historical data when I leave?

ABM platforms that include intent

Answer first: these are not intent data providers that grew a platform; they are platforms that absorbed intent as one scoring input among several. Buy them for the platform, not for the signal.

6sense

6sense sells an account-based platform with intent as a component, positioning itself around predicting which accounts are in-market and orchestrating advertising and sales action against them. Its site returned an access block to direct fetching on the date of this research, so the description here is limited to its public positioning and no claim figure is reproduced. No price is published.

Demandbase

Demandbase sells an ABM platform covering account identification, advertising, sales insight and measurement, with intent data as one of the signal types feeding account prioritization. Its site carries a pricing section but no specific figure on the page checked.

Whether a platform is the right purchase at all

A platform is worth it when several teams will act on the same account view — marketing running advertising, sales working accounts, and operations reporting on both. It is a poor purchase when one person wants a list of companies that visited the website, which is a far cheaper problem.

Sales intelligence databases that sell intent alongside contacts

Answer first: these are contact databases first. Intent is an add-on, and its quality varies more than the contact data does.

Apollo.io

Apollo sells a sales intelligence and engagement platform with a large contact database, and publishes pricing publicly including a credit-based model — its terms reference a $0.025 per-credit figure in the context of unlimited-plan limits. Intent is one of several signal types rather than the core product.

Cognism

Cognism sells B2B contact and company data with a strong European focus and markets a signal-data product for identifying ready-to-buy prospects. Its site has a pricing page but publishes no figure on it. Its compliance positioning is more prominent than most, which matters if your buyers are in the EU or UK.

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo sells a large contact and company database with an intent product attached. Its site returned an access block to direct fetching on the date of this research; a free trial is referenced in its public pages. No price is published.

Review-site intent

Answer first: this is the most specific intent signal available and the narrowest. It tells you someone compared you against a named competitor, in your category, this week.

G2 Buyer Intent

G2 sells buyer intent based on activity within its own review and comparison categories. The signal is late-funnel by nature: someone reading a comparison grid is further along than someone reading a blog post about the problem. Its pricing page returned an access block on the date of this research and no figure is reproduced here. The obvious limitation is scope — it sees only what happens on G2, so if your category is thinly covered there, the signal is thin too.

How to use review-site intent well

  • Treat a competitor-comparison view as a sales trigger, not a marketing one. It is too late for a nurture sequence.
  • Make sure your own profile is complete and current before you buy the signal. Buying traffic data for a page that undersells you is an expensive way to lose deals.
  • Check category coverage first. Ask how many organizations viewed your specific category last quarter.

Website visitor identification: the first-party category

Answer first: this is where most companies should start. It is the cheapest signal, the most certain, and it is the only part of this category where pricing is published openly.

First — Start with your own site. Cheapest signal, highest certainty.
One — Use cases per pilot. Two at once and you learn nothing.
60 — Days to a real answer. With a control group, not a vibe.
1 — Owner of the signal. A named rep, not the whole team.
CRM — Where signal must land. A dashboard nobody opens is not a workflow.
Write — The decision down. With the number that produced it.

Common Room

Common Room aggregates signals across community, social and product surfaces alongside website activity. Its pricing page publishes an Essential plan at $2,500 a month billed annually, including five seats, up to 100,000 contacts, 5,000 research credits and 2,500 prospector credits. That makes it one of the few products in this category you can budget for without a sales call.

Dealfront (Leadfeeder)

Dealfront, which operates Leadfeeder, identifies companies visiting your website and publishes a full price list in euros. The tiers read: Lite at €0 and described as free forever; Discover from €79 a month billed annually, or €113 monthly; Activate from €369 a month billed annually, or €527 monthly; and Scale at €599 a month, billed annually only. Every paid tier carries a fourteen-day free trial and all tiers list unlimited users. Its European data-protection positioning is more prominent than most of this group, which matters if your visitors are in the EU.

Factors.ai

Factors publishes both a self-serve and an annual price list: a Lite tier free to try then $199 a month, a Basic tier at $6,000 a year, a Growth tier at $20,000 a year and an Enterprise tier from $30,000 a year. It positions around account identification plus analytics, which makes it a reasonable middle option between a pure visitor-ID tool and a full platform.

Koala

Koala sells website visitor identification and account scoring for sales teams. Its pricing page advertises a free plan but publishes no figure for its paid tiers on the page checked.

Lead Forensics

Lead Forensics is one of the longest-established products in this category, identifying B2B website visitors and routing them to sales with alerting and CRM integrations. It has a pricing page but publishes no figure on it.

RB2B

RB2B publishes the most granular price list of the sixteen. Its own pricing page lists a free tier at $0 a month with company-level identification only and 150 monthly resolutions; a Starter tier at $79 a month with 300 monthly resolutions; and higher tiers from $149 and $199 a month. It states overage rates of 45 cents and 25 cents per resolution depending on tier, additional domains at $99 a month for up to five, and — importantly — that contact-level site identification is United States only. It publishes its own coverage as 15 to 20 per cent on lower tiers and 35 per cent higher up, which is a more honest number than most of this category prints anywhere.

Warmly

Warmly publishes annual and quarterly pricing across three tiers: AI Web-Deanonymization from $10,000 a year or $4,875 a quarter; Inbound Chat from $20,000 a year or $6,500 a quarter; and AI Inbound Autopilot from $30,000 a year or $9,750 a quarter. All tiers are listed from 10,000 credits a month, and its page advertises a 30 per cent saving for annual billing.

Person-level versus company-level identification

Answer first: company-level tells you an organization visited. Person-level attempts to tell you which individual. The second is far more useful, considerably more expensive, geographically limited, and carries obligations the first does not.

Company-level and person-level identification compared
Company-levelPerson-level
What you learnAn organization visited, and which pagesWhich individual visited, often with contact details
Typical methodReverse IP and firmographic matchingIdentity graph matching against known profiles
Geographic coverageBroadMuch narrower; often US-focused
Typical match rate claimedVaries widely by vendorLower, and stated less often
Privacy obligationsLowerMaterially higher, especially under GDPR
Good forPrioritizing accounts and advertisingDirect sales outreach
Published entry priceFrom about $79 a monthUsually higher, often not published

The conclusion to draw: if your buyers are outside the United States, ask about person-level coverage in your specific markets before you assume it exists. RB2B, for example, states plainly on its own pricing page that contact-level identification is United States only.

Match rates, and the question that exposes a weak one

Answer first: a match rate is meaningless without its denominator. Ask “of what?” and “measured how?” before accepting any percentage.

  • Of all traffic, or of business traffic? Excluding consumer ISPs, bots and known crawlers first makes any rate look far better.
  • Of unique visitors, or of sessions? Sessions inflate the number.
  • Matched, or matched and usable? A match to a holding company you cannot sell to is not a match for your purposes.
  • Measured over what period? A rate from a single strong month is not a rate.
  • In which countries? A global average hides a poor rate in the market you sell into.
Match rate — The number to interrogate. Of what denominator, measured how?.
Topic surge — Not the same as buying. It means research, not intent to purchase.
Person-level — Carries real obligations. Especially outside the United States.
Bidstream — Cheap and noisy. Ask where the data actually originates.
Refresh — How stale is the signal?. Weekly surge data ages badly.
Exit — Who keeps the data?. Ask before signing, not at renewal.

Privacy: the part of this decision that is not a marketing decision

Answer first: person-level identification of website visitors is a data protection question before it is a marketing question, and it is governed differently depending on where your visitors are. This page is not legal advice and cannot be; get your own counsel before deploying person-level resolution.

GDPR — Applies to EU visitors. Person-level resolution needs a lawful basis.
CCPA — Applies in California. And a growing list of other US states.
Consent — Not implied by a visit. Check what your provider claims and on what basis.
DPA — Ask for one. A data processing agreement, before the pilot.
Counsel — Get it. This page is not legal advice and cannot be.
Document — What you decided. Regulators and buyers both ask later.
  • Ask what the lawful basis is for identifying an individual who has not identified themselves, in each market you operate in.
  • Get a data processing agreement in place before the pilot, not before the renewal.
  • Check what your privacy policy says today. Many do not disclose visitor identification at all, which is a problem the day someone asks.
  • Consider the commercial risk separately. Some buyers react badly to being contacted about a page they read anonymously, whatever the legal position.
  • Document the decision. Both regulators and enterprise procurement teams ask about this later, and “the vendor said it was fine” is not a record.

What intent data actually costs, all in

Answer first: the license is rarely the largest cost. Integration, the person working the signal, and the advertising or outreach it triggers usually exceed it in the first year.

The full first-year cost of an intent program
LineTypical rangeNotes
Data or tool license$950 – $30,000+/yrThe only line most buyers budget for
Implementation and CRM integration$0 – $15,000Zero on self-serve tools; real on platforms
The person working the signal0.25 – 1.0 FTEThe line that decides whether any of it works
Advertising activated against the signalVaries widelyOptional, and easy to overspend early
Content built for the flagged accounts$3,000 – $20,000Generic content wastes a good signal
Reporting and analysis0.1 FTESomeone has to read it monthly or it stops mattering

The conclusion: a $79 a month tool with nobody assigned to it costs more than a $30,000 platform with a named owner, because the first produces nothing at all.

A sixty-day pilot that produces a real answer

Answer first: pick one use case, instrument it into the CRM, give one named person the accounts, hold a control group, and decide on day sixty against a number you wrote down on day one.

A sixty-day intent data pilot that produces a real answer
Most intent data disappoints because it was bought as a data subscription rather than a workflow. The pilot that works assigns one person, one motion and one number.

The control group people skip, and should not

Hold back a comparable set of accounts that the flagged-account motion does not touch. Without it you cannot separate the effect of the data from the effect of a rep suddenly paying attention, and that distinction is the whole question.

Getting the signal into the CRM without a project

  1. One field. Resist a scoring model in month one; a date-stamped flag is enough to run the pilot.
  2. One alert channel. A shared channel the assigned rep actually reads, not an email nobody opens.
  3. One view. A saved list of flagged accounts, ordered by recency.
  4. One owner. Named, with the accounts assigned to them and removed from everyone else’s queue.
  5. One weekly review. Fifteen minutes, looking at what happened to the flagged accounts.

Using intent data with paid media

Answer first: the highest-return use of intent data in advertising is usually suppression, not targeting — turning spend off against accounts showing nothing, rather than turning it up against accounts showing something.

  • Audience sizes collapse fast when you filter to in-market accounts. Check the size before building the campaign, not after.
  • Frequency matters more than reach on a small in-market list. Plan for it.
  • Creative for a flagged account should reference the problem, not the product category.
  • Measure against pipeline from the flagged list, not against platform-reported conversions.

More on structuring the media side in our guide to digital advertising and, for the B2B specifics, B2B SaaS marketing.

Intent data for agencies buying on behalf of clients

Answer first: check the contract terms on multi-client use before you build a service around any of these tools. Several are licensed per domain, and the additional-domain pricing is where an agency program becomes uneconomic.

  • RB2B publishes additional domains at $99 a month for up to five, which is unusually clear for this category.
  • Dealfront markets an agency solution explicitly, which at least means the use case is contemplated in the commercial terms.
  • Ask who owns the data at the end of a client relationship — the agency, the client, or neither.
  • Price the labor, not the license. The client is buying a motion, and the tool is the cheapest part.

Which provider category fits which situation

Which category fits which situation
Bottom-left is where most companies under about fifty employees actually belong, and it is the quadrant the category’s marketing talks about least.
A decision table, by situation
If this is your situationStart hereWhyWhat to avoid
Under 50 staff, some inbound trafficWebsite visitor IDCheapest, most certain, published pricingA platform you will not staff
Large target list, no idea who is activeThird-party co-opSees demand you cannotTreating topic surge as purchase intent
You sell into a category well covered by review sitesReview-site intentLate-funnel and specificBuying it before your profile is strong
Several teams acting on one account viewABM platformOrchestration is the actual productBuying it for the intent signal alone
You sell enterprise technologyA publisher-network productGenuine audience overlapAssuming coverage outside technology
Buyers mostly outside the United StatesCompany-level, EU-focused vendorsPerson-level coverage is thinnerAssuming US coverage claims transfer
Market under 400 accountsNo intent data at allCall themPaying to prioritize a list you can read

All sixteen providers, side by side

Answer first: this table is the whole comparison in one place. It records only what each provider publishes about itself, read on 26 August 2026. Blank pricing means the provider publishes no figure, not that the product is expensive or cheap.

What each provider publishes about itself, 26 August 2026
ProviderPrimary data typePublishes a price?What it publishes
Apollo.ioSales intelligence with signalsYesPublic plans; terms reference $0.025 per credit
BomboraThird-party co-opNo21,600+ intent topics; 86% of co-op data exclusive
CognismSales intelligence with signalsNoPricing page exists; no figure published
Common RoomFirst-party plus community signalYesEssential $2,500/mo annually, 5 seats, 100k contacts
Dealfront (Leadfeeder)First-party website visitorsYesLite €0; Discover €79/mo; Activate €369/mo; Scale €599/mo
DemandbaseABM platform with intentNoPricing section; no figure on the page checked
Factors.aiFirst-party plus analyticsYesLite $199/mo; Basic $6k/yr; Growth $20k/yr; Enterprise from $30k/yr
G2 Buyer IntentReview-site intentNoPricing page returned an access block
IntentsifyThird-party plus activationNoIdentity graph, buying-group intent, visitor resolution
KoalaFirst-party website visitorsNoFree plan advertised; no paid figure published
Lead ForensicsFirst-party website visitorsNoPricing page exists; no figure published
RB2BFirst-party, person-levelYes$0 / $79 / from $149 / from $199 per month; US-only contact ID
6senseABM platform with intentNoSite returned an access block to direct fetching
TechTargetPublisher-network intentNoProduct page moved during research
WarmlyFirst-party website visitorsYes$10k / $20k / $30k per year; quarterly options published
ZoomInfoSales intelligence with intentNoFree trial referenced; site returned an access block

The conclusion the table supports: pricing transparency in this category tracks product type almost perfectly. Self-serve visitor-identification tools publish; enterprise data and platforms do not.

Glossary: the terms vendors use to mean different things

Answer first: several words in this category mean materially different things depending on who is using them. Establishing definitions on the first call prevents a bad purchase.

What each term should mean, and how it gets stretched
TermWhat it should meanHow it gets stretched
IntentResearch activity above an account’s baselineUsed to imply a decision has been made
SignalAny observed behaviorUsed for anything, including firmographic filters
Identified visitorResolved to an organization or personSometimes means an IP guess with low confidence
Buying groupMultiple people at one account researchingSometimes means one person plus job-title inference
CoverageShare of your traffic the tool can resolveQuoted against a filtered denominator
In-marketShowing surge across relevant topicsApplied to any account above a low threshold
Real-timeAvailable within minutesSometimes means daily batch
First-partyFrom your own propertiesSometimes used for licensed data you did not collect

Getting the data in: integration options compared

Answer first: the integration you choose decides whether anyone acts on the signal. A dashboard is the weakest option and the most commonly chosen.

Ways to deliver intent signal, compared
Delivery methodEffortLikelihood anyone actsBest for
Vendor dashboard onlyNoneLowEvaluating during a trial
Email digestLowLow to mediumA single owner who reads email
Slack or Teams alertLowHighA rep working accounts daily
CRM field plus saved viewMediumHighAny program past the pilot
CRM workflow with task creationMedium to highHighestA team with real process discipline
Reverse ETL into the warehouseHighDependsCompanies with an analytics team
Advertising audience syncMediumN/A — different useSuppression and targeting

The conclusion: choose the Slack alert plus a CRM field for the pilot. It is cheap, it takes days rather than weeks, and it is enough to answer the question you are actually asking.

Intent data versus the alternatives for the same budget

Answer first: intent data competes for budget with things that create demand rather than prioritize it. If you cannot see enough demand to prioritize, buy the other thing.

What $2,000 a month buys, compared
OptionWhat it doesWorks whenFails when
Intent data subscriptionPrioritizes accountsYou have a large target list and trafficNobody knows you exist
Content and organic searchCreates awareness and demandYou can wait two quartersYou need pipeline this month
Paid searchCaptures existing demandPeople search for your categoryYour category has no search volume
A part-time SDRWorks a list directlyThe list is good and smallThe list is cold and huge
Website and conversion workConverts traffic you already haveTraffic exists but does not convertTraffic is genuinely too low
Review-site presenceWins late-funnel comparisonsYour category is covered thereCategory coverage is thin

Signals you already own and are probably not using

Answer first: before buying any signal, check the ones you already have. Most companies have three or four unused and free.

Free signals most B2B companies already hold
SignalWhere it livesWhat it tells youWhy it goes unused
Pricing page visitsYour analyticsLate-stage evaluationNot connected to the CRM
Repeat visits from one companyYour analytics or visitor toolActive researchNobody looks weekly
Documentation and support trafficYour help centerExisting customers evaluating expansionOwned by a different team
Email engagement spikesYour marketing platformRenewed attention at a dormant accountBuried in campaign reporting
Search Console queriesGoogle Search ConsoleWhat problems people bring to youTreated as an SEO tool only
Lost-deal accounts revisitingCRM plus analyticsA previous decision being revisitedNo trigger set up

The conclusion: run this list before spending anything. If several of these are unconnected, the cheapest improvement available to you is plumbing, not data.

What this page deliberately does not tell you

  • Which provider is most accurate. That requires running them side by side on the same traffic, which we have not done and would need to disclose in full if we had.
  • What you will actually pay. Ten of the sixteen publish nothing, and the six that do publish entry tiers that negotiate.
  • Whether it will work for you. That depends on your market size, sales motion and whether one person is genuinely assigned to it.
  • Which provider we prefer. We have no affiliate relationship with any of them and no basis for a preference we could defend.

What to ask on every vendor call

  1. Which of the four data types am I buying, and which am I not?
  2. Where does the underlying data originate?
  3. What is the match rate, of what denominator, measured over what period, in which countries?
  4. Is person-level identification included, and in which markets?
  5. How often does the data refresh?
  6. Does this data also appear inside tools I already pay for?
  7. What does implementation involve, and who does it?
  8. What is the minimum term, and what is the notice period?
  9. What happens to the historical data when I leave?
  10. Can I run a paid sixty-day pilot with a defined success measure before an annual commitment?

The mistakes that waste the most money in this category

Common mistakes and what to do instead
MistakeWhy it costs moneyInstead
Buying co-op data before using your own site dataYou pay for reach you cannot yet act onStart first-party; it is cheaper and more certain
No named ownerThe signal lands somewhere nobody readsOne person, one list, one weekly review
Treating topic surge as a raised handMessaging lands as creepy and prematureMessage the problem, not the visit
No control group in the pilotYou cannot tell data from attentionHold back a comparable set of accounts
Annual contract before a pilotYou learn the answer after you are committedPaid pilot with a written success measure
Ignoring the privacy questionIt surfaces during enterprise procurementDPA and counsel before deployment, not after
Buying a platform to solve a list problemTen times the cost for the same outcomeMatch the product type to the actual problem

How this fits a wider B2B program

Answer first: intent data improves the efficiency of demand you already generate. It does not generate demand. If your pipeline problem is that too few people know you exist, this category is the wrong purchase and content, search and paid media are the right ones.

Related reading: B2B SaaS marketing, B2B social media, performance marketing and how agency pricing works.

What we would do first, if this were our budget

  1. Install a self-serve website visitor identification tool on a free or entry tier and look at the data for thirty days before spending anything else.
  2. Work out whether the accounts appearing are already in your CRM. Usually most of them are, which changes the whole argument.
  3. Assign one rep and run the sixty-day pilot with a control group.
  4. Only then, if the constraint is genuinely that you cannot see demand from accounts that have never visited you, open conversations with the co-op providers.
  5. Budget the person before the license.

Want help deciding whether you need this at all?

Send us your traffic, your CRM shape and your target list size. We will tell you honestly whether intent data would help, which of the four types fits, and whether the cheaper answer is to fix something else first.

Talk to us

Background reading in video, from the people who publish the platforms

Publicly available talks from Google Ads, Think with Google, Ad Age, HubSpot, Ahrefs and Neil Patel on measurement, attribution and budget — the disciplines that decide whether an intent program can be evaluated at all. None of these are ours; each is credited to its channel by name and upload date, every identifier was verified live before publication, and each tile loads its player only on click.

By industry and by situation

Frequently asked questions

What is the best B2B intent data provider?
There is no single best one, and this page deliberately does not name one. The sixteen providers checked sell four genuinely different products — first-party website visitor identification, third-party co-op topic data, review-site intent and bidstream — so the right choice depends on which of those four your problem needs. For most companies under about fifty staff, the answer is a first-party website visitor tool, because it is the cheapest, the most certain and the only part of the category with published pricing.
How much does B2B intent data cost?
Where a price is published, entry tiers run from about $79 a month. Verified figures read on 26 August 2026: RB2B from $0 free and $79 a month; Dealfront from €79 a month billed annually; Factors from $199 a month; Common Room at $2,500 a month billed annually; Warmly from $10,000 a year; Factors annual tiers at $6,000, $20,000 and $30,000. Ten of the sixteen providers checked publish no price at all.
Which intent data providers publish their pricing?
Six of the sixteen checked: RB2B, Dealfront (Leadfeeder), Factors.ai, Warmly, Common Room and Apollo.io. All six are website-visitor identification or sales-intelligence tools. None of the third-party intent data providers checked — Bombora, 6sense, Demandbase, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Intentsify, G2 Buyer Intent, TechTarget or Lead Forensics — publishes a figure.
What is the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?
First-party intent comes from your own website: someone visited, and a tool resolves which company or person they were. Third-party intent comes from a pool of other publishers’ sites: an account is reading about a topic somewhere else on the B2B web. First-party is more certain but only sees people already aware of you. Third-party sees demand you have no visibility into but identifies the company, not the person, and reports research rather than purchase intent.
Is intent data worth it for a small business?
Sometimes, and rarely in the form it is usually sold. A website visitor identification tool on a free or $79 tier is worth trying for almost anybody with inbound traffic. A third-party data subscription usually is not, because it prioritizes a large target list and a small business does not have one. If your total market is under about four hundred accounts, call them instead.
What is a data co-op in intent data?
A group of B2B publishers that pool anonymised content-consumption data so that a provider can detect when an organization’s research activity on a topic rises above its own normal baseline. Bombora is the best-known example and states on its own site that it tracks more than 21,600 intent topics and that 86 per cent of its co-op data is shared exclusively with it.
What is bidstream intent data and should I avoid it?
Bidstream data is derived from advertising auction requests. It is high volume and cheap, and it is the noisiest and most privacy-exposed of the four types. It is not automatically disqualifying, but ask any vendor directly whether bidstream is part of the feed, because some blends it in without saying so prominently.
Does intent data actually mean someone wants to buy?
No. It means research activity increased. The account might be building a business case, benchmarking a renewal, replacing a departing vendor, or simply curious. Treating a topic surge as a raised hand produces messaging that lands as premature, and it is the most common reason these programs fail.
What is a good match rate for website visitor identification?
The number is meaningless without its denominator, so ask what it is measured against. RB2B publishes its own coverage as 15 to 20 per cent on lower tiers and 35 per cent higher up, which is more transparent than most of the category. Rates quoted against ‘business traffic only’ after excluding consumer ISPs and bots will always look far higher than rates quoted against all traffic.
Can intent data identify individual people, not just companies?
Some tools attempt to, using identity graphs. Coverage is narrower than company-level identification and is often United States only — RB2B, for example, states on its own pricing page that contact-level site identification is US only. Person-level resolution also carries materially higher data protection obligations, particularly for EU and UK visitors.
Is person-level website visitor identification legal?
It depends on where your visitors are and what lawful basis you rely on, and this page is not legal advice. GDPR applies to EU visitors, and a growing number of US states have their own regimes beginning with California. Get counsel, get a data processing agreement, check that your privacy policy actually discloses what you are doing, and document the decision.
How long before intent data produces pipeline?
Plan sixty days to know whether it works at all and two quarters to see pipeline effect. The sixty-day pilot needs a control group, or you cannot separate the effect of the data from the effect of a rep suddenly paying close attention to a list.
Do I need an ABM platform or just an intent data feed?
A platform is worth it when several teams will act on one shared account view — marketing running advertising, sales working accounts, operations reporting on both. If one person wants a list of companies that visited the website, a platform is roughly ten times the cost for the same outcome.
Is G2 Buyer Intent different from other intent data?
Yes, and usefully so. It is late-funnel by nature: someone reading a category comparison is further along than someone reading a blog post about the underlying problem. Its limitation is scope — it sees only activity on G2, so check how well your specific category is covered before buying.
Can an agency buy intent data on behalf of clients?
Often yes, but check the multi-client and multi-domain terms before building a service around it. Several tools license per domain. RB2B publishes additional domains at $99 a month for up to five; Dealfront markets an agency solution explicitly. Also settle who owns the data when a client relationship ends.
Should I buy intent data or fix my website first?
Fix the website first if it does not convert. Intent data tells you who is interested; it does nothing about what happens when they arrive. Buying visibility into demand you then fail to convert is an expensive way to learn the same lesson twice.
How often does intent data refresh?
Weekly is common for third-party co-op data and real-time or near-real-time for website visitor identification. Ask, because a weekly refresh is a poor fit for a fast sales motion and an expensive one for a slow market where the signal will still be there next month.
What does an intent data program cost in total, not just the license?
Budget the license at anywhere from about $950 to $30,000 or more a year, then add implementation and CRM integration, the fraction of a person working the signal, any advertising activated against it, and content built for the flagged accounts. The person is the line that decides whether the rest of it produces anything.
Am I buying the same data twice?
Quite possibly. Several providers resell the same underlying co-op data inside their own platforms, so if you already own an ABM platform or a sales intelligence subscription, ask specifically whose intent data sits inside it before buying that data again directly.
What should I ask for in a pilot?
A defined period — sixty days is enough — a written success measure agreed before it starts, access for one named owner, a control group of comparable accounts, and a clear exit with no automatic conversion to an annual term.
Does intent data work outside the United States?
Company-level identification generally does. Person-level coverage is materially thinner outside the US, and the data protection obligations are higher. If you sell into Europe, ask about coverage in your specific markets and treat any global average with suspicion.
What is the difference between intent data and lead scoring?
Lead scoring ranks people who have already interacted with you, using your own data. Intent data adds signal about activity you did not see — either on your site from unidentified visitors, or elsewhere on the web entirely. They are complementary, and intent data usually becomes an input to the score rather than a replacement for it.
How many accounts should be flagged in a typical month?
Enough that one person can work them, which for most teams means tens rather than hundreds. If a provider’s default settings flag a large share of your target list, the threshold is set too low and the list has stopped being a prioritization.
Which is better, Bombora or a website visitor tool?
They answer different questions, so neither is better in the abstract. Bombora tells you which accounts are researching your topic somewhere on the B2B web, including accounts that have never heard of you. A website visitor tool tells you exactly who came to your site. If you have inbound traffic and have not mined it, start with the second — it is cheaper, more certain, and published pricing means you can start this week.
Do these providers offer free trials?
Several do. Dealfront publishes a fourteen-day free trial on every paid tier and a Lite tier described as free forever. RB2B publishes a free tier at $0 a month with 150 monthly resolutions. Factors advertises a free trial before its $199 a month Lite tier. Koala advertises a free plan. Others reference trials without publishing terms.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
Ask before you sign — the answer varies widely and is rarely on the pricing page. Some tools export cleanly, some retain historical signal you lose access to, and some hold the enrichment but not the raw history. This is a question for the contract, not the sales call.
Is intent data useful for very long sales cycles?
Less than the marketing suggests. If your cycle runs eighteen months, a surge detected this week may reflect a decision that concludes long after the signal has decayed, and the same account will surge repeatedly without progressing. It works best on cycles of roughly one to nine months.
Should intent data change my advertising, my outreach, or both?
Start with advertising suppression, which is the highest-return and lowest-risk use: stop spending against accounts showing nothing. Add outreach second, and only with messaging that references the problem rather than the fact that you watched someone read a page.

Sources and further reading

  1. Google Search Essentials — SEO starter guide
  2. Google: creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
  3. Google: intro to structured data
  4. Google: LocalBusiness structured data
  5. Google: FAQPage structured data
  6. Google: Article structured data
  7. Google: Product structured data
  8. Google: title links in search results
  9. Google: control your snippets
  10. Google: robots.txt introduction
  11. Google: sitemaps overview
  12. Google: consolidate duplicate URLs
  13. Google: redirects and Search
  14. Google: JavaScript SEO basics
  15. Google: multi-regional and multilingual sites
  16. Google Search Central Blog
  17. Google: get started with Search Console
  18. Google: how local search results are determined
  19. Google Business Profile: prohibited and restricted content
  20. Google Business Profile: address and service area guidelines
  21. Google Business Profile: review policy
  22. Google Business Profile: add or edit categories
  23. Google Ads: location targeting settings
  24. Google Ads: about negative keywords
  25. Google Ads: about Quality Score
  26. Google Ads: importing offline conversions
  27. Google Ads: about Smart Bidding
  28. Google Ads: about Performance Max
  29. Google Local Services Ads: eligibility and screening
  30. Google Ads: keyword match types
  31. Google Analytics 4: about conversions
  32. Google Analytics 4: attribution models
  33. web.dev: Core Web Vitals explained
  34. web.dev: Largest Contentful Paint
  35. web.dev: Cumulative Layout Shift
  36. web.dev: Interaction to Next Paint
  37. Google PageSpeed Insights
  38. Google Rich Results Test
  39. Google Search Console
  40. W3C Markup Validation Service
  41. Schema.org: LocalBusiness type
  42. Schema.org: Service type
  43. Schema.org: FAQPage type
  44. Schema.org: HowTo type
  45. W3C: WCAG 2.2 quick reference
  46. US Census Bureau QuickFacts: New Jersey
  47. US Census Bureau: American Community Survey
  48. US Census: Statistics of US Businesses
  49. Bureau of Labor Statistics: New Jersey data
  50. BLS: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
  51. NJ Department of Labor: labor market information
  52. New Jersey Business Action Center
  53. US Small Business Administration: New Jersey district
  54. USA.gov: business resources
  55. FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide
  56. FCC: telemarketing and robocall rules (TCPA)
  57. FTC endorsement guides — reviews and testimonials
  58. FTC: rule on consumer reviews and testimonials
  59. HHS: HIPAA guidance on online tracking technologies
  60. New Jersey Courts: attorney advertising guidelines
  61. New Jersey DCA: construction codes and permits
  62. New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor registration
  63. New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
  64. TikTok for Business
  65. TikTok Creative Center
  66. TikTok Ads Help Center
  67. TikTok Community Guidelines
  68. TikTok Terms of Service
  69. TikTok Privacy Policy
  70. TikTok Safety Center
  71. TikTok Transparency Center
  72. TikTok Creator Portal
  73. TikTok Newsroom
  74. TikTok for Developers
  75. TikTok advertising solutions
  76. TikTok Creator Marketplace
  77. TikTok Business Center
  78. TikTok for Business blog
  79. TikTok Creative Center: top ads
  80. TikTok Branded Content policy
  81. TikTok Shop for sellers
  82. Instagram for Business
  83. Instagram for Creators
  84. Instagram Help Center
  85. About Instagram
  86. Meta Business Suite
  87. Meta Business Help Center
  88. Meta Transparency Center
  89. About Meta
  90. Meta: Instagram platform docs
  91. YouTube Creators
  92. YouTube Official Blog
  93. YouTube Shorts help
  94. How YouTube Works
  95. YouTube Studio
  96. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
  97. LinkedIn Help
  98. Pinterest Business
  99. Pinterest Business Help
  100. Snapchat for Business
  101. X for Business
  102. Reddit communities
  103. Reddit for Business Help
  104. ASCAP
  105. BMI
  106. SESAC
  107. Global Music Rights
  108. PRS for Music (UK)
  109. PPL (UK)
  110. SOCAN (Canada)
  111. APRA AMCOS (Australia)
  112. GEMA (Germany)
  113. SACEM (France)
  114. SIAE (Italy)
  115. JASRAC (Japan)
  116. IFPI
  117. RIAA
  118. National Music Publishers Association
  119. Harry Fox Agency
  120. SoundExchange
  121. Music Reports
  122. Epidemic Sound
  123. Artlist
  124. Soundstripe
  125. PremiumBeat
  126. AudioJungle
  127. Free Music Archive
  128. Creative Commons
  129. Incompetech
  130. FTC: advertising and marketing
  131. FTC: disclosures 101
  132. FTC: endorsement guides
  133. FTC: consumer reviews rule
  134. FTC: advertising FAQs
  135. US Copyright Office
  136. US Copyright Office: DMCA
  137. US Copyright Office: music FAQ
  138. US Copyright Office: fair use FAQ
  139. USPTO: trademarks
  140. UK Advertising Standards Authority
  141. ACCC (Australia)
  142. Competition Bureau Canada
  143. GDPR overview
  144. California Consumer Privacy Act
  145. COPPA
  146. FTC: children’s privacy
  147. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
  148. W3C: WCAG
  149. W3C: captions
  150. W3C: making audio and video accessible
  151. ADA.gov
  152. WebAIM
  153. Epilepsy Foundation
  154. Pew Research: internet and technology
  155. DataReportal
  156. US Census Bureau
  157. US Bureau of Labor Statistics
  158. Interactive Advertising Bureau
  159. Think with Google
  160. Google Trends
  161. Nielsen insights
  162. Schema.org: VideoObject
  163. Schema.org: SocialMediaPosting
  164. Schema.org: MusicRecording
  165. Schema.org: HowTo
  166. Schema.org: FAQPage
  167. Schema.org: Organization
  168. Google: video best practices
  169. Google: video structured data
  170. CapCut
  171. Adobe Premiere Rush
  172. DaVinci Resolve
  173. Canva
  174. Descript
  175. VEED
  176. Kapwing
  177. Otter.ai
  178. Later
  179. Buffer
  180. Hootsuite
  181. Sprout Social
  182. Google Analytics
  183. Google Search Console
  184. Google Analytics developer docs
  185. GA4: events and conversions
  186. Matomo
  187. Plausible Analytics
  188. Similarweb
  189. UK Information Commissioner’s Office
  190. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
  191. Australian OAIC
  192. European Data Protection Board
  193. EU data protection
  194. EU Digital Services Act
  195. Ofcom
  196. FCC
  197. AIGA
  198. Nielsen Norman Group
  199. Smashing Magazine
  200. web.dev
  201. MDN: web media
  202. MDN: the video element
  203. ISO 21001 (reference)
  204. Buma/Stemra (Netherlands)
  205. STIM (Sweden)
  206. Teosto (Finland)
  207. Koda (Denmark)
  208. TONO (Norway)
  209. IMRO (Ireland)
  210. SGAE (Spain)
  211. ZAiKS (Poland)
  212. KOMCA (South Korea)
  213. MCSC (China)
  214. CISAC
  215. World Intellectual Property Organization
  216. TikTok: creating videos
  217. TikTok: exploring videos
  218. TikTok: privacy settings
  219. TikTok: growing your audience
  220. TikTok Creator Academy
  221. TikTok Effect House
  222. TikTok for small business
  223. Instagram: Reels help
  224. YouTube: Shorts best practice
  225. How YouTube recommends
  226. Pinterest Predicts
  227. Snapchat for Business
  228. Hootsuite blog
  229. Social Media Examiner
  230. Marketing Week
  231. Adweek
  232. Bombora
  233. 6sense
  234. Demandbase
  235. ZoomInfo
  236. Cognism — signal data
  237. Intentsify
  238. G2 Buyer Intent — pricing
  239. TechTarget
  240. Dealfront — pricing
  241. Leadfeeder — pricing
  242. Lead Forensics
  243. RB2B — pricing
  244. Warmly — pricing
  245. Factors.ai — pricing
  246. Koala — pricing
  247. Common Room — pricing
  248. Apollo.io — pricing
  249. GDPR.eu — General Data Protection Regulation
  250. California Attorney General — CCPA
  251. California Privacy Protection Agency
  252. UK Information Commissioner’s Office
  253. FTC — privacy and security guidance
  254. European Data Protection Board

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