Koala vs. Bombora: Which should you choose?

About Koala

Koala de-anonymizes your website visitors — revealing which companies are showing buying intent. Their AI prioritizes the hottest accounts for your sales team's outreach. Limited integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, and Apollo only), but starts at $350/month after a free tier covering 250 accounts.

About Bombora

Bombora tracks company research activity across B2B websites — generating intent scores that reveal which companies are actively researching specific topics. It feeds this data into your existing CRM and marketing systems through integrations rather than providing a standalone interface. The catch? No contact information, so you'll need other tools to actually reach people at the companies it identifies.

What do users say?

Users praise Koala for reigniting their sales teams' enthusiasm after struggling with traditional intent tools. Many appreciate Koala's simplicity and speed — identifying website visitors in real-time without the complexity of enterprise-grade platforms. The tool delivers immediate value for sales teams, with users recommending it as an excellent companion to existing CRM systems for companies looking to maximize their website traffic conversion.

Users describe Bombora as the gold standard for B2B intent data — helping identify companies actively researching specific products and services across their vast network. They praise its filtering capabilities, seamless integrations (particularly with HubSpot), and ability to provide insights that enable proactive outreach rather than waiting for inbound inquiries. The downside? Users note limitations including insufficient historical data, dashboard interface issues, and the lengthy 3-4 month process required to add new keywords.

Comparison

Koala

• Pros: Quick deployment with immediate results from first-party website intent data — featuring AI-powered prioritization and transparent pricing starting at $350/month. The platform provides hands-on startup support and includes agentic AI features for automated lead research and qualification.

• Cons: Integration options are severely limited to three platforms: HubSpot, Salesforce, and Apollo.io. Data coverage restricted to YOUR website visitors only. Identifies companies but not specific contacts, and pricing scales up quickly with only 30-50% visitor identification rates.

Bombora

• Pros: Industry-leading third-party intent data across hundreds of topics through their extensive B2B website co-op — with full GDPR/CCPA compliance built-in. Integrates seamlessly into existing marketing stacks and offers broad global coverage with weekly data refreshes.

• Cons: Completely opaque pricing with custom quotes only. Provides ZERO contact information for identified companies. Steep learning curve for effective implementation, plus potential long-term challenges from browser privacy restrictions killing third-party cookies.

Koala works best for small to mid-size B2B companies wanting to maximize value from existing website traffic — without technical complexity. Perfect for organizations just beginning their intent marketing journey who need immediate implementation and actionable insights for sales teams.

Bombora serves larger enterprises with mature marketing organizations requiring comprehensive third-party intent data across multiple topics and accounts. Valuable for established ABM programs that can integrate intent signals into sophisticated marketing workflows — though you'll need additional tools for contact identification and outreach.

Neither tool provides comprehensive contact-based marketing capabilities on its own. While Koala integrates with Apollo.io for contact data and Bombora relies on separate contact databases, this fragmentation means you're still cobbling together multiple platforms to execute complete campaigns from intent identification through personalized outreach.

Do you need account-based marketing, or something else?

Here's what's flipping ABM on its head: your funnel isn't about anonymous accounts. It's about the EXACT decision-makers and influencers within those accounts.

That's what makes contact-based marketing (CBM) a breakthrough. Instead of chasing broad account intent signals, contact-based marketing pinpoints the exact people engaging with your content in real-time — even when they don't convert.

How does this solve the traditional tension? It eliminates the guesswork.

With contact-level data, you can reveal high-priority leads by identifying the individuals behind key touchpoints. Deliver hyper-targeted ads based on specific contact behaviors. Bridge the gap between marketing and sales with actionable, lead-level insights.