When evaluating Clay alternatives, B2B sales and marketing teams often compare Clay with other data providers like DataBees. Both solutions serve go-to-market teams but cater to different needs. While Clay offers an AI data enrichment and sourcing platform, DataBees is a data-as-a-service provider that acts as an extension of your team and does all the legwork for you. This comparison breaks down the key differences to help you choose the right data provider for your business.
Data quality is difficult to assess with Clay due to reliance on third-party data enrichment services integrated into it. That said, you can use waterfall enrichment techniques through their API tables. This will need to be managed yourself.
DataBees uses humans + waterfall enrichment tech to curate bespoke and accurate datasets. Data is human-verified. Our process and quality assurance team double-checks and verifies data points like email addresses, job titles, company info, and LinkedIn URLs, which results in better outcomes like higher deliverability, lower bounce rates, and CRM records.
You can leverage filters across a variety of data sources to target your ideal prospects effectively. This is contingent on the APIs you integrate; as long as the API of the data sources you select supports these filter parameters, you can refine your search.
DataBees works with you to define the criteria for your niche and ideal customer profile. We then gather account and contact data that aligns with your specifications, even when that information isn’t available in standard databases. You won’t be limited by preset filters; our researchers apply human judgment to identify subtle signals that automated tools often overlook.
Clay offers five pricing tiers: Free, Starter, Explorer, Pro, and Enterprise.
Each plan is credit-based, beginning with 1,200 credits on the Free plan. Paid plans include more credits, while Enterprise pricing is custom and tailored to your needs.
Features like email sequencing, CRM/API integrations, custom automation templates, credit usage analytics, and Slack support are only available on higher-tier plans.
DataBees is your full-stack Sales Data Operations team offered on a simple subscription-based model (starting at ~$1440/month per researcher). We don’t charge based on credits; our output depends on the complexity of your required data points and volume you require. To test our service, book a free, zero-obligation sample and tell us about your business needs.
Clay prides itself on flexibility. You can build tailored enrichment flows, scraping logic, and follow-up sequences—but you’ll need to maintain the workflow. One obstacle people face is finding Clay expertise or the frustration with paying for ongoing workflow maintenance.
We mold to your workflow – the team can deliver data via spreadsheets or even work directly in your CRM (Hubspot, Salesforce, etc.) to enrich records. You have a say in what data fields are included for each lead. Our Customer Success Managers meet with you weekly to discuss output, adjustments or alterations to your requirements and implement them within days.
Forward-thinking sales and marketing teams often pair Clay’s automation engine with DataBees’ research to get the best of both worlds—speed and precision. Clay excels at building automated workflows that enrich large datasets using APIs like Clearbit, Apollo, and LinkedIn, making it ideal for volume-based outbound. But when those enriched leads are missing key data, show signs of inaccuracy, or don’t quite fit a nuanced ICP, teams bring in DataBees to manually verify contacts, fill in missing fields like verified emails, direct dials, or LinkedIn URLs, and even surface niche data points that APIs can’t find—like “people who recently spoke at fintech events” or “heads of sales at companies hiring BDRs.” Many GTM teams route their Clay-enriched leads into CRM, then run a parallel workflow with DataBees for Tier 1 accounts, ensuring top-priority prospects are fully vetted, context-rich, and ready for high-converting outreach. Together, Clay and DataBees allow sales teams to operate at scale without compromising on data quality.
DataBees acts like an extension of your team, with your Customer success manager proactively managing instruction writing and managing the researchers. All you need to do is tell us about your ICP, which data points you require and in what format. Then we’ll do the leg work to supply you with accurate data to help your sales ops, sales and marketing team drive revenue. Our competitors offer AI solutions or a static database which you’ll have to work out yourself. Conversely we take that all off your workload and simply deliver great data straight into your sales processes or CRM.
Many people initially mistake DataBees for a software or sales prospecting tool. We’re a data-as-a-service provider acting as an alternative to these self-serve tools. Marketing and sales teams often use DataBees alongside their existing sales intelligence tools, databases, and go-to-market tools.
We tailor our services to your data requirements. This can be based upon your ideal customer profile, go-to-market strategies, industry, and data acquisition goals. That’s why we recommend you book a call to discuss your requirements.
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