Lusha vs Cognism
 Lusha |  Cognism | |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | ||
| Score | 43/100 | 22/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 | #5 |
| Rated comments | 21 | 20 |
| Best for | Individual reps doing occasional lookups on a budget; A secondary source alongside another database; Small teams starting on a free plan | Teams prospecting into the UK and Europe; Cold callers who need European mobile numbers; Mid-market teams leaving ZoomInfo's contract terms |
| Skip it if | Enterprise or Fortune 500 prospecting; Large list building with fine-grained filters; Teams that cannot absorb bounces from unverified emails | US-only prospecting; Small teams that need transparent self-serve pricing |
| Pricing (vendor-stated) | Free plan with 40 credits per month. Paid plans per the pricing page's plan data: Starter $37.45/mo billed annually ($49.90 monthly) for 400 credits per month, Pro $52.45/mo annually ($69.90 monthly) for 600, Premium $299.95/mo annually ($399.90 monthly) for 3,400; Scale is custom. An email reveal costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. The page does not state whether prices are per user; teams above 5 users are sent to sales. No free trial beyond the free plan. | Sales-led pricing; no public prices. Standard and Pro plans each include 5 seats, with a credit allocation per seat (1 credit per revealed contact; re-viewing is free); extra credits are bought separately. CRM Enrichment is sold standalone or as an add-on. No free plan; the page offers a demo and a free data sample rather than a trial. |
Independent users see Lusha as a budget-friendly lookup tool that some find more accurate than Apollo for emails and phone numbers, useful as a second source or for one-off lookups. The trade-off is uneven accuracy (users report invented emails, invalid numbers and roughly 50/50 hit rates), thin coverage for enterprise and EMEA work, and weak filtering and credit terms. More than half of the Reddit mentions were promotional: one cluster of comments repeats 'Lusha for accuracy, Apollo for volume' in vendor terms, and many replies to Lusha complaints exist to plug alternatives (Bookyourdata, UpLead, ContactOut, FullEnrich and others), so this rests on about 21 independent opinions, most of them brief.
Users like
- Budget friendly, with free credits that make it easy to start and combine with Apollo[1][2][3]
- Some users find its emails and numbers more accurate than Apollo's or ZoomInfo's, though it returns fewer results[1][2][3][4]
- Phone numbers, including mobiles, work fairly well for some teams despite occasional misses[1][2]
- Useful as one of two sources: users pair it with Apollo, and one found it surfaced far more decision makers than Apollo for the same companies[1][2][3]
Users complain about
- Accuracy is unreliable for some: users report about 50/50 accuracy, invalid numbers that hurt domains, and one domain owner traced made-up email addresses sent to his company back to Lusha[1][2][3][4]
- Falls short against premium providers: it lost to ZoomInfo and Cognism in US and EMEA tests and was not enough for Fortune 500 IT prospecting[1][2][3]
- Filtering and user experience are weak, and one user calls the UX horrible enough to make it 2 to 3 times more expensive in practice[1]
- Credit terms frustrate users: no refunds for bad data, CRM saving gated on the first paid tier, and a search limit that appeared without notice[1][2]
Independent users who have used Cognism consistently point to European and UK data, and mobile numbers in particular, as its strength, with some finding it easier to deal with than ZoomInfo. The trade-offs are opaque pricing that some say rises after the first deal, thinner coverage outside Europe, and a minority who found its data poor or no better than cheaper tools. Nearly half of the Reddit mentions were promotional, including a large coordinated cluster praising Cognism for EU data as part of pitches for Crustdata and FullEnrich, a copy-pasted Cognism endorsement posted by two accounts, and plugs for ContactOut, Wiza and others, so this rests on about 20 independent opinions.
Users like
- Users who run several providers single it out for UK and European data, where one team found it beat ZoomInfo's international data[1][2][3][4][5]
- Mobile numbers are a highlight: users rate them above ZoomInfo and other tools, and one says it will source and phone-verify a missing number on request[1][2][3]
- Easier to do business with than ZoomInfo: users cite better support, cheaper pricing and less painful sales and retention practices[1][2]
Users complain about
- Pricing is opaque and can rise after signing: no prices on the site, a drastic change at renewal, and a low base price paired with a low export threshold that pushes buyers into extra credits[1][2]
- Weaker outside Europe: one user found Apollo plus Lusha beat it on email coverage in North America and Europe, another says it is weak in the public sector, and one recruiter claimed in 2025 that it had pulled back from the US[1][2][3]
- A minority found the data poor, rating it trash or worse than a cheaper tool, and a Dutch team found Lusha's database larger and more accurate[1][2][3][4]
- More manual and less feature-rich than ZoomInfo, with some integration issues reported[1][2]