Explorium vs Clay vs PredictLeads

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Clay, and PredictLeads to help you evaluate features, pricing, and performance and find the perfect fit for your data needs.

Explorium

4.8

The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance

Clay

4.7

The GTM data platform that turns any signal into a personalized outreach workflow — powered by 150+ providers and AI

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance

PredictLeads

4.7

Pure-play company intelligence data infrastructure — sourced, structured, and delivered via API for teams that build on top of raw signal data

  • API
  • GDPR Compliance

Primary Use Cases

Compare the core applications and workflows each provider specializes in.

Explorium

  • GTM Agents

    Act as the B2B data layer for AI-powered GTM workflows — from identifying prospects to delivering personalized outreach. Supports MCP-native access via Claude and other AI agents.

  • ABM Targeting

    Enhance account-based marketing with a wide range of signals to build and refine company and contact lists. Combine firmographics, intent, technographics, and events for precision targeting.

  • AI Recruiting

    Build recruiting automation systems on top of a premium B2B data layer. Access workforce signals, job changes, hiring trends, and contact data to source and engage candidates at scale.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Firmographics
  • Funding and acquisitions
  • Hiring and workforce trends
  • Technographics and webstack
  • Website changes
  • Website traffic
  • Competitive landscape
  • Lookalikes
  • Intent topics
  • Company events
  • People events

Clay

  • AI-Powered Lead Research & Enrichment

    Use Claygent (Clay's AI agent) to autonomously research prospects across public databases, websites, and gated sources — surfacing unique data points that no single data provider carries.

  • Automated Outbound Prospecting

    Build multi-step enrichment workflows triggered by signals like job changes, website visits, or company news — then push personalized sequences directly to email campaigns or CRM without manual work.

  • Waterfall Enrichment at Scale

    Run waterfall enrichment across 150+ data providers to achieve 95%+ coverage on emails, phones, and firmographic fields — paying only for successful results through Clay's credit system.

Signals powering these use cases

  • 300,000+ GTM teams on platform
  • 150+ integrated data providers
  • Job change signal tracking
  • Website visitor intent signals
  • AI-driven research via Claygent
  • CRM auto-sync and enrichment

PredictLeads

  • Sales Trigger & Intent Signals

    Detect high-intent buying signals such as new job postings for specific roles, product launches, funding rounds, and partnership announcements — enabling sales teams to reach out at exactly the right moment.

  • Investment Due Diligence

    Enrich portfolio and target companies with structured growth signals — hiring velocity, technographic shifts, and news events — to surface promising startups and monitor performance over time.

  • Market & Competitive Intelligence

    Track sector-wide trends, monitor competitor activity, identify supply chain relationships via key customer data, and uncover new market opportunities using structured data on 100M+ companies.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Job opening trends (9.2M+ active jobs)
  • News events (29 categories, 2M+ companies)
  • Technographic changes
  • Financing rounds
  • Key customer relationships
  • Product launches & expansions

Snapshot

Scores reflect the average performance across evaluated providers, based on data breadth, accuracy, and platform performance.

Explorium Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.5
  • Signals depth 5.0
  • Freshness 1.8

Clay Snapshot

  • Signals depth 3.7
  • Freshness 4.3

PredictLeads Snapshot

  • Company coverage 1.7
  • Signals depth 3.0

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Clay, and PredictLeads across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Clay
PredictLeads
Data Enrichment
ML Discovery
API Access
REST JSON API with batch support (up to 100 entities), webhooks, sync/async; up to 100 QPS; 99.999% uptime
Yes — available on Enterprise plan; HTTP API integrations on Growth+
Full REST API + Webhooks + MCP server
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
Enterprise plan includes dedicated SLA and Growth Strategist
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2
GDPR compliant
Custom Entities
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
Global via 150+ provider network
100M+ companies globally
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Salesforce and HubSpot native auto-sync on Growth and above
Via API — no native CRM connectors
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Spreadsheet-like web UI, API (Enterprise), CRM-connected workflows
API, flat files, webhooks, MCP server — no native UI
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Webhooks, HTTP API, email campaign tools (Instantly, Smartlead, Apollo), ads platforms
Webhook delivery for real-time triggers
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
Sourcing from Google Maps, GitHub, LinkedIn, industry directories, and 150+ providers
100M+ companies globally
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
Emails, phones, job titles, LinkedIn profiles via 150+ provider waterfall
-
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global
Global, with strong European coverage
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Aggregated from 150+ third-party B2B data providers via waterfall, plus AI-powered web research
Public web crawling — company websites, PR sites, news outlets, job boards, DNS/HTML signals
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Flexible schema — users configure fields; no enforced global standard
Structured, normalized schema across all datasets
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Real-time signals; enrichment runs on-demand or on schedule
Job data refreshed every 36 hours; news events continuously tracked
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Company news, funding events, technographics, employee count, revenue estimates, LinkedIn data
Funding rounds, employee counts, industry codes, company description, technologies used
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Verified email, phone, job title, LinkedIn profile, work history, AI-generated summaries
-
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Email, phone, job title, company data, social profiles, technographics, intent signals, news, funding, AI research
Job openings, news events, technographics, key customers, financing rounds, product data, firmographics
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Job change tracking, website visitor intent, company news mentions, investor signals
29 news event categories including product launches, funding, partnerships, expansions, C-level changes
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
95%+ coverage claimed via multi-provider waterfall
Company-level matching via domain and firmographic identifiers
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Provider-level validation; waterfall cascades ensure highest-confidence result across sources
ML and NLP extraction from public sources; source-backed technographics
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
-
Normalized company identifiers across datasets
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
-
-
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce, HubSpot (auto-sync on Growth+), Attio
Via API or third-party connectors (no native CRM integration)
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Snowflake and other warehouse sync on Enterprise plan
Flat file delivery compatible with most data warehouse ingestion pipelines
Bulk data delivery
Claude Connector
ChatGPT App
Custom MCP
Claude Plugin
ChatGPT Plugin
OpenClaw Plugin
Skills
16
-
-
GDPR compliance
CCPA support
-
SOC 2
-
ISO certifications
ISO 27001
-
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
Priority support on Growth+; Enterprise SLA
-
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Two-tier credit system: Data Credits (for enrichment lookups) + Actions (for workflow operations)
Dataset subscription (per dataset, per volume)
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Data Credits from $0.05 each; Actions for routing and workflow logic. Different providers cost different credit amounts.
API credits for evaluation tier; subscription for full access
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Free ($0), Launch ($185/mo), Growth ($495/mo), Enterprise (custom)
Free API credits, per-dataset subscription, enterprise custom
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Permanent free plan with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions/month; up to 200 rows per table
100 free API credits per month
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly, annual, or custom enterprise contract
Annual only
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Clay
PredictLeads
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Two-tier credit-based subscription (Data Credits for enrichment data; Actions for platform operations)
Dataset subscription with volume discounts
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual; Enterprise requires annual commitment
Annual contracts; custom enterprise deals
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or Annual
Annual
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free plan available with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions/month; no credit card required
100 free API credits/month for evaluation
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Yes — dedicated Growth Strategist, unlimited bulk enrichment, SSO, RBAC, Snowflake/data warehouse sync
Yes — custom pricing based on datasets, volume, and delivery method
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve for Free/Launch/Growth; white-glove onboarding for Enterprise
Self-serve API + dedicated support for enterprise

What Experts Say

V

Verified Customer

Head of Growth, B2B SaaS

"Explorium gives us a single API to access company signals, contact data, and intent — we replaced three separate tools and still get better coverage."
Verified User for Explorium
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Head of Growth, B2B SaaS startup

"Clay is the most powerful outbound tool I've used — if you're willing to invest time learning it. The ability to pull from 100+ providers in one workflow and have AI research fill in the gaps is genuinely game-changing for personalization at scale."
Verified User for Clay
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Data Engineer, B2B SaaS

"PredictLeads has been a reliable, easy-to-use solution that provides real value. We get a steady flow of quality job leads, the integration is seamless, and the customer support team is excellent. The data quality has proven trustworthy over time."
Verified User for PredictLeads

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Clay better than PredictLeads?

It depends on your use case. Clay The GTM data platform that turns any signal into a personalized outreach workflow — powered by 150+ providers and AI PredictLeads Pure-play company intelligence data infrastructure — sourced, structured, and delivered via API for teams that build on top of raw signal data

What is the difference between Clay and PredictLeads?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Clay focuses on The GTM data platform that turns any signal into a personalized outreach workflow — powered by 150+ providers and AI while PredictLeads focuses on Pure-play company intelligence data infrastructure — sourced, structured, and delivered via API for teams that build on top of raw signal data.

How much does Clay cost compared to PredictLeads?

Clay pricing model: Two-tier credit system (Data Credits + Actions) with subscription plans. PredictLeads pricing model: Dataset subscription.

Is Clay or PredictLeads better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than Clay?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform Clay The GTM data platform that turns any signal into a personalized outreach workflow — powered by 150+ providers and AI

What is the difference between Explorium and Clay?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while Clay focuses on The GTM data platform that turns any signal into a personalized outreach workflow — powered by 150+ providers and AI.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Clay?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Clay pricing model: Two-tier credit system (Data Credits + Actions) with subscription plans.

Is Explorium or Clay better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than PredictLeads?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform PredictLeads Pure-play company intelligence data infrastructure — sourced, structured, and delivered via API for teams that build on top of raw signal data

What is the difference between Explorium and PredictLeads?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while PredictLeads focuses on Pure-play company intelligence data infrastructure — sourced, structured, and delivered via API for teams that build on top of raw signal data.

How much does Explorium cost compared to PredictLeads?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. PredictLeads pricing model: Dataset subscription.

Is Explorium or PredictLeads better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Does Explorium have an MCP server?

Yes. Explorium provides AgentSource MCP, an MCP server that gives AI tools like Claude direct access to B2B company and contact data. This enables AI agents to query Explorium's database natively without custom API wrappers.

What is Explorium's data accuracy?

Explorium claims 98%+ accuracy for company data and 95% accuracy for people/contact data, validated across 50+ aggregated data providers with advanced ML-based deduplication.

What is Explorium's API rate limit?

The default rate limit is 200 requests per minute per API key. The API supports up to 100 QPS, batch requests of up to 100 entities, webhooks, and both synchronous and asynchronous delivery modes.

Does Explorium offer a free trial?

Yes. Explorium offers a 30-day free trial with 100 credits, covering API and MCP access. Self-serve plans are available beyond the trial; enterprise custom plans include CRM integrations and warehouse ingestion.

What is Explorium's data refresh rate?

High-velocity signals (intent, events, hiring) refresh daily. Semi-dynamic attributes refresh weekly. Stable firmographic fields refresh monthly or quarterly.

How does Explorium compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo for coverage?

Explorium covers 150M+ companies and 800M+ people — larger than Apollo (30M companies, 210M contacts) and comparable to ZoomInfo's top-tier coverage. Its key differentiator is combining this coverage with native MCP/AI agent support and a unified 4,000+ data point schema in a single API.

How does Clay's credit system work?

Clay uses two separate credit types: Data Credits (consumed when enriching data from Clay's 150+ provider marketplace — starting at $0.05 each) and Actions (consumed for platform operations like routing and workflow logic). Different providers cost different amounts of Data Credits per lookup. Credits do not carry over between months on standard plans.

What is Claygent?

Claygent is Clay's built-in AI research agent that can browse the public web, navigate websites, search public databases, and generate custom data points for any prospect. It can answer questions like 'What is this company's pricing model?' or 'Has this person published any recent content about AI?' — going beyond structured databases.

Does Clay require engineering resources to use?

Not necessarily, but Clay has a steep learning curve for non-technical users. Most teams benefit from a RevOps operator or Clay specialist (many are available as contractors) to build initial workflows. Once configured, non-technical users can run and manage tables more easily.

What CRM integrations does Clay support?

Clay natively integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Attio for two-way CRM sync. Automated CRM sync is available on the Growth plan ($495/month) and above. Enterprise plans include additional CRM and data warehouse connectors.

Can Clay trigger enrichment based on real-time signals?

Yes. Clay supports signal-triggered workflows including job change alerts, website visitor intent tracking (via web intent integrations), company news mentions, and webhook-driven enrichment. These signals can automatically add new prospects to a table and kick off enrichment + outreach sequences.

Is Clay GDPR compliant?

Yes. Clay is GDPR and CCPA compliant and holds SOC 2 certification. Compliance obligations around the underlying data depend on which of the 150+ providers you use, as each provider has its own compliance posture.

Does Clay have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Yes — Clay offers an official Claude Code plugin. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.

Does PredictLeads include contact or people data?

No. PredictLeads is a company-level intelligence platform only. It tracks signals at the organizational level — job postings, news events, technographics, financing rounds, key customers, and firmographics — but does not provide individual contact records, email addresses, or phone numbers.

How is PredictLeads different from ZoomInfo or Apollo?

ZoomInfo and Apollo are contact databases with CRM-like prospecting UIs. PredictLeads is a data infrastructure provider — it delivers structured company signal datasets via API, webhook, and flat file, without a prospecting interface. It covers far more granular company event signals and is designed for teams building data pipelines, not individual sales reps looking up leads.

How frequently is PredictLeads data refreshed?

Job postings are refreshed approximately every 36 hours, providing near real-time visibility into hiring activity. News events are continuously tracked from 19M+ sources. Technographic data is updated as new signals are detected from website crawls, DNS records, and job descriptions.

Can I try PredictLeads before purchasing a subscription?

Yes. PredictLeads offers 100 free API credits per month, which allows developers and data teams to test the API and evaluate data quality before committing to a paid dataset subscription.

What integrations does PredictLeads support?

PredictLeads supports REST API, webhooks, and flat file exports for integration with any downstream system. It also provides an MCP server for use with AI agents and LLM-powered workflows. There are no native CRM connectors, but data can be routed into Salesforce, HubSpot, or any other system via API or tools like Clay.

What industries and regions does PredictLeads cover?

PredictLeads covers 100M+ companies globally across all industries, with particularly strong European coverage. News events are tracked from 19M+ PR sites, news outlets, and blogs worldwide. The platform participated in Y Combinator and has a global customer base including investment firms, data platforms, and enterprise intelligence teams.

Does PredictLeads have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

PredictLeads does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.