ZoomInfo vs. Demandbase: Which should you choose?

About ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo maintains a database of hundreds of millions of B2B contacts — emails, phone numbers, company intel, plus tech stack tracking and research intent signals. It syncs directly with your CRM and sales stack, but here's the catch: pricing starts around $15k annually and scales up fast. This makes it a play for larger teams that need to find business contacts at scale.

About Demandbase

Demandbase fuses first-party website engagement with third-party firmographic and intent data — helping B2B teams identify and target specific accounts. You get an end-to-end ABM platform: IP identification, website personalization, advertising, and sales intelligence that integrates with your CRM systems.

What do users say?

ZoomInfo users are split — praising the extensive contact database while expressing serious frustration with business practices. The wins? Accurate email addresses and phone numbers from a massive database. The pain points? Inaccurate company data, expensive pricing ($200 to $7,000+ monthly), and aggressive contract terms that make canceling nearly impossible. Users frequently call out deceptive sales tactics, poor customer service, Chrome extension crashes, and data accuracy issues where "direct" contacts route to general reception desks.

Demandbase earns praise as an effective ABM platform — users love the intent data, engagement tracking, and targeting capabilities for account-based campaigns. The standout features include journey stage tracking, account scoring, website visitor identification, and integrations with Slack and Outreach that drive sales adoption. The skepticism? Users question intent data accuracy and whether the high cost (often $150k+ annually) delivers better ROAS than LinkedIn advertising or organic approaches.

Comparison

ZoomInfo

• ZoomInfo excels with its massive contact database — hundreds of millions of records with emails, direct dials, and org charts. The drawbacks? High costs that price out smaller businesses and interface complexity that overwhelms new users.

Demandbase

• Demandbase delivers a complete ABM platform with strong integrations and end-to-end functionality — from identification to measurement. The complexity and steep pricing challenge smaller teams, while some users hit occasional bugs and workflow disruptions.

ZoomInfo works best for organizations needing extensive contact data for outbound prospecting at scale. Sales teams and recruiters benefit most from the vast database and ability to quickly identify decision-makers across target accounts. Demandbase serves enterprise marketing teams focused on account-based strategies — particularly those running coordinated campaigns across multiple touchpoints within large target accounts.

Both platforms support contact-based marketing, but ZoomInfo dominates with its extensive individual contact database. Contact-based marketing remains crucial for B2B teams because it enables personalized outreach, precise segmentation, and direct engagement with specific decision-makers rather than generic account-level messaging. Without robust contact data, marketers struggle to create targeted campaigns that resonate with individual prospects and move them through the buying journey effectively.

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 of intent-based marketing? 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 alignment with actionable, lead-level insights.