ZoomInfo vs. Bombora: Which should you choose?

About ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo maintains a massive database — hundreds of millions of B2B contacts with emails, phone numbers, and company intel, plus intent data showing when companies research specific topics. Connects to your CRM and marketing stack to sync this data automatically. The catch? You're looking at $15k+ annually, and they'll make you talk to sales for actual pricing.

About Bombora

Bombora tracks content consumption across B2B websites to identify which companies are researching specific topics — no personal contact data included. Delivers Company Surge scores that reveal spikes in research interest. Integrates with CRMs and marketing platforms to feed intent signals into your existing workflows, helping sales and marketing teams prioritize accounts based on demonstrated interest.

What do users say?

ZoomInfo gets mixed reviews with clear patterns emerging. Users love the extensive contact database and solid data quality — especially for finding direct contact information including phone numbers and emails. But accuracy isn't perfect, and those phone numbers often connect to reception desks rather than decision-makers. The platform draws criticism for being extremely expensive (ranging from $200 to over $7,000 per month), zero pricing transparency, and complex setup that demands significant time investment and training. Users frequently complain about ZoomInfo's aggressive sales tactics, difficult contract terms, and technical issues including browser crashes and filtering problems.

Bombora users say it's an effective intent data platform that helps identify companies actively researching products — making it easier to target prospects before they even make contact. Users appreciate its data enrichment capabilities, comprehensive reporting, robust industry coverage, and seamless integrations with platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce that enable better lead generation and ABM campaigns. Areas for improvement include better historical data storage, more intuitive dashboard design, enhanced European coverage, and faster response times when adding custom keywords.

Comparison

ZoomInfo

• Provides extensive B2B contact data including emails, direct dials, and org charts, plus firmographic and intent data through an all-in-one platform. Comes with high costs (typically $15k+ annually) and can overwhelm users with feature bloat and complex interfaces.

Bombora

• Specializes in company-level intent data through its unique data co-op — delivering industry-leading signals about which companies are researching specific topics. Lacks contact information and has opaque pricing, requiring you to combine it with other tools for complete outreach capabilities.

ZoomInfo works best for mid-to-large B2B organizations that need comprehensive contact data and can justify the significant investment. The all-in-one approach serves teams wanting to consolidate multiple tools — particularly for outbound prospecting and lead generation at scale. Bombora serves organizations focused on ABM and sales prioritization, especially those with existing contact databases who need to identify which accounts are actively researching relevant topics.

Here's Bombora's critical limitation: you can't use it for direct contact-based marketing since it only provides company-level intent signals without individual contact information. Most B2B campaigns require reaching specific decision-makers within target accounts. Marketers need both intent signals to identify interested companies AND contact data to actually engage prospects — making tools like ZoomInfo more complete solutions for direct outreach, or requiring Bombora users to integrate additional contact databases to execute their marketing campaigns effectively.

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

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

That's what makes contact-based marketing (CBM) a breakthrough. Instead of focusing on 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 of intent-based marketing? It clears up the ambiguity.

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 alignment with actionable, lead-level insights.