Clay turned lead enrichment into a spreadsheet where every column can call a data provider or an AI agent. It is powerful, its pricing page links a New York Times story about employees selling shares at a $5 billion valuation, and its pricing has two separate meters that confuse almost everyone. That is why "Clay alternatives" is searched hundreds of times a month. Three smaller companies are the most direct alternatives for a small sales team or an agency: Persana AI, Databar and Freckle. This guide compares the four using only the prices published on each vendor's pricing page on November 15, 2026, and shows what a small team really pays to enrich 1,000 leads a month.
Quick verdict. Persana is the simplest to budget: 1 credit per email found, 10 per phone number, from $68 a month billed annually. Databar is the most open: every feature on every plan from $99 a month, with your own API keys, MCP server and CLI included. Freckle is the cheapest way to start, with a free plan and paid plans from $99 a month, and positions itself directly against Clay's action credits. Clay remains the most capable platform, but on its Launch plan you pay for two meters, from $167 a month billed annually.
At a glance
| Clay | Persana AI | Databar | Freckle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 500 actions and 100 data credits a month | 50 credits | 150 credits | 250 credits, free forever |
| Entry paid plan | Launch from $167/mo (annual) or $185/mo (monthly) | Starter $68/mo (annual) or $85/mo (monthly) | Build $99/mo, 5,000 credits | Build from $99/mo |
| Next plan | Growth from $446/mo (annual) or $495/mo (monthly) | Growth $151/mo, Pro $400/mo (annual) | Scale $495/mo, 50,000 credits | Scale from $699/mo |
| How usage is counted | Actions plus data credits | Credits per result | Credits | Credits, "no confusing action credits" |
| Bring your own API keys | Yes, skips data credits | Listed among features | Yes, every paid plan | Yes, from Build |
| Seats | Unlimited | Unlimited users | 1 to 10 editors by plan | Unlimited |
Sources: clay.com/pricing, persana.ai/pricing, databar.ai/pricing and freckle.io/pricing on November 15, 2026. All four change prices often; confirm on the page before you buy.
Clay's two meters, explained
Clay charges for two different things:
- Actions measure platform work: enriching a row, running a table, calling an AI model, sending data to another tool or exporting. They reset every billing cycle and do not roll over. Clay says actions start at less than $0.01 each.
- Data credits buy data from Clay's marketplace of more than 150 providers: emails, phone numbers, company data. They start at $0.05 each and, on Launch and Growth, can accumulate up to twice your monthly amount.
If you bring your own API key for a data provider, you skip data credits for it and only use actions. If a lookup finds nothing, Clay charges neither.
The plan card prices are the two meters added together. Launch billed annually starts at $54 a month for 180,000 actions a year plus $113 a month for 30,000 data credits a year: $167 a month. Billed monthly it is $60 for 15,000 actions plus $125 for 2,500 data credits: $185 a month. Growth starts at $185 plus $261, or $446 a month annually, and $205 plus $290, or $495 a month monthly, with 40,000 actions and 6,000 data credits a month. Extra credits cost a 30% premium. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day trial.
Clay's Free plan is generous for learning: 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, unlimited seats and tables, waterfalls across providers, Claygent (its web research agent), but only 200 rows per table and no phone enrichment.
Persana AI
Persana sells one kind of credit and states what it buys: 1 credit for each email found, 10 credits for each phone number found. Plans:
- Free: 50 credits, no billing.
- Starter: $85 a month billed monthly for 2,000 credits a month, or $68 a month billed annually for 24,000 credits a year.
- Growth: $151 a month billed annually, 60,000 credits a year, with email sequencing and up to 20,000 people or company records per search.
- Pro: $400 a month billed annually, 216,000 credits a year.
- Unlimited: $600 a month billed annually, 50,000 credits a month.
Every plan has unlimited users, more than 100 data providers, email and phone waterfalls, web scrapers and Persana's AI research agent.
What to watch: Persana's pricing page announces that it is "joining forces with Rox". When a vendor merges, plans and roadmaps can change. Prefer monthly billing until the combined offer is clear, and keep your enriched data exported.
Databar
Databar's pitch is "every feature on every plan". Free gives 150 credits. Build costs $99 a month billed monthly for 5,000 credits, with up to 3 workspace editors, unlimited own API keys, 5 custom HTTP APIs, CRM integrations, webhooks, scheduling, triggers, conditional enrichments, an AI web research agent, an MCP server and a CLI. Scale costs $495 a month for 50,000 credits, 10 editors, a workspace cache so you never pay twice for the same data, a faster queue and a dedicated Slack channel. Annual billing saves 12% with all credits delivered upfront.
What to watch: the credit cost of each data point depends on the provider you call, so check the per-provider price inside Databar before you budget. The MCP server and CLI are a real advantage if you already work with AI assistants or scripts.
Freckle
Freckle positions itself head-on against Clay: "40+ data providers at a lower price than Clay (and with no confusing action credits)". Free is free forever with 250 credits, unlimited seats and tables, waterfalls, web search and scraping, limited to 500 rows. Build starts at $99 a month with unlimited rows, an HTTP API and your own API keys. Scale starts at $699 a month and adds ad audiences, competitor visitor feeds and priority support. The plan comparison lists rollover credits and credit top-ups.
What to watch: Freckle publishes its credit cost per data point and provider on a separate breakdown page; use it with your own volumes. Its FAQ section still showed placeholder text on the day we checked, so ask support directly about rollover and plan changes before committing.
What enriching 1,000 leads a month costs
Take a typical small team: 1,000 new companies a month, find one verified email for each, and a phone number for 100 of them.
- Persana: 1,000 emails x 1 credit + 100 phones x 10 credits = 2,000 credits. That is exactly the Starter allowance: $85 a month, or $68 billed annually.
- Clay: Launch includes 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions a month on monthly billing. Whether 1,000 emails and 100 phones fit depends on the providers in your waterfall, since each one costs a different number of data credits. Budget from $185 a month monthly, less if you bring your own provider keys.
- Databar: Build's 5,000 credits at $99 a month is likely enough for this volume, but the exact number depends on the providers you call.
- Freckle: Build from $99 a month; check its per-provider breakdown for your mix.
Only Persana publishes a fixed credit cost per email and per phone on its pricing page, which is why it is the only one we can price exactly. For the others, run 50 real rows during the trial and read the credit counter.
The fifth option: build it yourself
For a small team with steady, simple needs, a platform is not always required. An automation tool such as n8n can read a list from a sheet or CRM, call one or two enrichment APIs directly, verify each email domain, score the row and write it back, paying only the providers you use.
We run our own prospecting this way. Purist's prospect base of about 1,500 companies was collected and enriched with scrapers, direct API calls and a mail server check on every address, then scored and loaded into our admin, without an enrichment platform subscription. Our search engine data costs about $0.012 per query through DataForSEO. The trade-off is that someone has to build and maintain the workflow; the gain is that you own it, pay providers at cost and can add any step you like.
Which one should you choose
Choose Persana if
You want a clear price per email and per phone and unlimited users, and you are comfortable with a vendor in the middle of a merger.
Choose Databar if
You want every feature from the first plan, your own API keys, and you work with AI assistants or scripts through MCP or a CLI.
Choose Freckle if
You want to start free, keep unlimited seats, and avoid action-based pricing.
Stay with Clay if
You need its depth: 150+ providers, Claygent, signals, CRM sync and ad audiences, and you have someone who will manage the two meters carefully.
Common mistakes
- Comparing plan prices without converting your volume into each vendor's credits.
- Running a waterfall through the most expensive provider first.
- Re-enriching the same companies every month instead of caching results.
- Buying annual plans with a vendor whose ownership is changing.
- Sending emails to addresses that were never verified, which harms your domain reputation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Clay alternative?
Freckle and Databar both have free plans and paid plans from $99 a month. Persana Starter is $68 a month billed annually. For 1,000 emails and 100 phones a month, Persana's published credit costs make its Starter plan the easiest to price.
Why is Clay so expensive?
Its plan prices combine two meters: actions for platform work and data credits for data. On Launch that is from $167 a month billed annually. Bringing your own API keys removes the data credit part for those providers.
Do Clay alternatives have AI research agents?
Yes. Persana lists an AI research agent, Databar an AI web researcher agent, and Freckle offers AI and agent columns. Clay has Claygent.
Can I use my own data provider API keys?
Clay, Databar and Freckle state it on their pricing pages, and Persana lists "Use Your Own API Key" among its features.
Is it worth building enrichment in n8n instead?
When your process is stable and you use one or two providers, yes: you pay providers at cost and own the workflow. When you are still experimenting with many providers, a platform is faster.
If you want an enrichment and outreach pipeline that runs in your own accounts, scores every lead and never sends without approval, we build it with n8n at a fixed price. Book a free automation audit and we will tell you whether a platform or a custom workflow fits your volume.
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Steve founded PURIST, a workflow automation studio working with n8n, Make and Claude AI, and is the point of contact on every project. Prices and features in our articles come from vendor documentation and public pricing pages. How we research and score tools.
