Cognism alternative: what the published figures actually say
Updated
Teams usually start looking for a Cognism alternative for one of two reasons: the annual commitment with no break clause, or the discovery that coverage thins out on small companies and outside its strongest markets.
Cognism publishes more method behind its claims than most vendors in this category, which is worth saying before anything critical. It also publishes a headline study whose own numbers do not add up, and it publishes no price, no contract term and no per-country coverage figure. This page is an audit of all of it, from Cognism's own pages, with the gaps marked as gaps.
What Cognism publishes
| Question | What is published on cognism.com |
|---|---|
| Unit of billing | One credit per revealed contact record. No charge to view a record already revealed. A credit is used again only if that contact changes jobs |
| Credit scope | The same credits work across the platform, Enrich and the API at no extra cost |
| Verification method | A routine process that calls numbers and confirms the right person picks up, plus an AI metadata scan, a check against DNC lists, human validation by data scientists, and a usage-based score prioritising which profiles get refreshed |
| On-demand verification | High-priority prospects can be submitted for verification, with a stated turnaround of under 48 hours |
| Phone-verified volume | Over 10 million phone-verified contacts globally |
| Freshness | 95% of director-level and above contacts refreshed every 30 days |
| Lawful basis | Legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f), assessments conducted, data generally kept inside the EEA, all business contacts notified of their entry into the database |
| Free access | No trial and no free plan. A manual data sample on request, returned in around 72 hours |
The verification description is the strongest part of what Cognism publishes. "We have a routine process in place that calls the numbers and confirms that it is the right person who picks up" is a specific, falsifiable claim about method, and very few vendors make one.
The headline study, read closely
Cognism's main claim is that phone-verified numbers triple your connect rate. It publishes the underlying figures, which is more than its competitors do, and it states the method: an independent organisation called 1,000 contacts' mobiles.
| Outcome | Standard mobile numbers | Cognism verified numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Correct person picked up | 18% | 45% |
| Correct voicemail | 13% | 41% |
| Wrong number | 27% | 10% |
| Inconclusive | 48% | 14% |
Three observations, all about the arithmetic rather than the intent.
The columns sum to 106% and 110%. Add them up. Four mutually exclusive outcomes cannot total more than 100%, so at least one figure in each column is wrong, and there is no way to tell which from the published table.
"Triple" is 2.5x, not 3x. Going from 18% to 45% is a multiplication by 2.5. The page also labels the deltas as a "34% decrease" and a "27% increase", which are percentage-point differences presented as relative changes. The direction of the finding is almost certainly right. The multiplier is overstated.
The independent organisation is not named, and the sampling frame is not stated: which 1,000 contacts, in which countries, at which seniorities. A verification method that works well on UK director-level mobiles and poorly on French mid-market ones would produce exactly this headline.
We are not suggesting the study is fabricated. We are saying that a figure you cannot reconcile is a figure you cannot build a purchase on, and that this is the best-documented claim in the category, which tells you something about the rest of it.
What Cognism does not publish
- Any price. No numeric figure appears on the pricing page for either prospecting package. Per-seat credit allocations are not published either.
- Contract length, notice period or renewal terms. The word "contract" appears in the credits FAQ, implying a term, without stating one.
- The credit cost of a phone number, or of an on-demand mobile verification request.
- Whether a credit is consumed on a failed reveal.
- Any first-party mobile accuracy percentage. Cognism publishes a connect-rate study, not an accuracy rate. The "87% accuracy" figure that circulates widely appears on its compliance page inside a customer testimonial, attributed to a named IT Director. It is a customer's statement, not a Cognism claim, and it carries no method.
- Any per-country coverage figure. No France, UK, DACH or US contact count, and no total database size.
- The share of the database that is phone-verified. Only the absolute figure of over 10 million.
- Any refresh cadence below director level, or for mobile numbers specifically.
- The percentage of contacts actually notified, though the notification claim itself is unqualified.
Two internal inconsistencies worth knowing about, because they affect claims a salesperson may make to you. Cognism's own pages give the DNC list count as both 15 and 16, with different country lists on the compliance page and in the help centre. And its security certifications are described as "ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certified" on one page and as "maintaining parity with ISO 27001 and SOC2 frameworks" on another, which are materially different statements.
A note for anyone evaluating by AI search
Cognism's three coverage percentages, 90% for director-level contacts in Europe and the US, 90% for revenue and headcount data, and 95% for the 30-day refresh, are published inside animated counters. The visible text renders as "0" until the page's JavaScript runs.
That means a crawler that does not execute JavaScript, which includes several of the crawlers feeding AI answer engines, does not see those figures at all. If you are asking ChatGPT or Perplexity to compare vendors for you, this is one reason the comparison you get back may be missing numbers that exist on the page.
What to ask before you commit
- What is the right-person rate on the countries and seniorities I actually sell to, not the global figure?
- What is the credit cost of a mobile number, and of an on-demand verification?
- What is the term, the notice period and the renewal uplift, in writing?
- What share of the database is phone-verified, and how old is the oldest confirmation?
- Will you enrich 300 contacts I choose, before I sign?
Where Listar differs
The honest comparison is narrow.
What we publish that Cognism does not: a per-mobile price of €0.50 excluding VAT, falling to €0.20 at volume, with no annual commitment; and a right-person rate of 95% on delivered mobiles, from 10,000 real calls across 100 separate files of 100 numbers each, between May and September 2026, internal and not audited, with numbers delivered as the denominator.
Where Cognism is ahead: a published verification study with a stated sample, DNC screening across more than a dozen territories as a database-level process, a 30-day refresh commitment on senior contacts, and a notified-contacts claim. Those are real, and if your compliance team needs a vendor with that paper trail, that is a legitimate reason to stay.
Where we think we are ahead: no commitment, a published price, a right-person rate whose denominator and method we state, and the ability to be tested on your own sample before you buy anything. And on French coverage specifically, because companies are resolved against the official national registers rather than a reconstructed directory.
Verify both of us
Same list, same day, one scoring grid, decide on cost per usable contact. No form, no email required, and it applies to us exactly as it applies to Cognism.
FAQ
How much does Cognism cost? Cognism does not publish a price. Its pricing page shows two prospecting packages, each with five seats included, and a CRM enrichment add-on, with every call to action routed to sales. Any figure you see quoted comes from buyers or third parties.
Is Cognism's data 98% or 87% accurate? Neither figure is a first-party Cognism accuracy claim. The 87% appears in a customer testimonial on its compliance page. Cognism's own published claim is a connect-rate study, not an accuracy rate, and it does not publish a mobile accuracy percentage anywhere we could find.
What does Cognism mean by phone-verified? In its own words, a routine process that calls the numbers and confirms the right person picks up. That is a level-four verification claim, attaching a line to a named person, which is the standard worth asking every vendor about.
Does Cognism require an annual contract? It does not publish its contract terms. The credits FAQ refers to a contract period without stating its length, so ask for the term, the notice period and the renewal uplift in writing.
Is there a free trial of Cognism? No trial and no free plan are published. What is offered is a manual data sample, form-gated, with a stated turnaround of around 72 hours and no published record count.
What is the best Cognism alternative for a small team? The usual blocker is the commitment rather than the data, so the question to lead with is whether a vendor will sell month to month and publish a per-unit price. Settle the data question with a test on your own list rather than with a roundup.
Sources
All first-party Cognism pages, consulted 11 November 2026.
- Cognism pricing, on the credit model and on-demand verification
- Cognism Diamond Data, on the connect-rate study, the verification process and the 48-hour turnaround
- Cognism, Our data, on the five-step process and the counter-based coverage figures
- Cognism compliance, on legitimate interest, DNC territories and certifications, and the location of the 87% testimonial
- Cognism FAQ, on credits, notified contacts and regions covered
- Cognism data sample, on what is offered in place of a trial