Bardeen vs Clay (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Clay grades higher than Bardeen: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Clay grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Bardeen
Lead scraping, enrichment and qualification with AI agents
Clay
Data enrichment tables that query 150+ data providers in one place
Which one is for you
Pick Bardeen if
- Fits if you build lead lists and want scraping and enrichment in one place
- Works for a go-to-market person who pays by the row
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you scrape at volume: 1 credit a row, 3 for enrichment, and unused credits expire each period
- Not for you if you want general personal automation, as it is aimed at lead sourcing
- Pricey if you scale: Premium is $50 a month for 1,000 credits
- Watch out: the page does not say whether the free 100 credits refill
- Skip it if you want a desktop or phone app, as none is listed
Pick Clay if
- Fits if you build lists with odd criteria no single database sells
- Works for teams that want several data providers behind one bill and don't mind building spreadsheet workflows
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're on your own, as the first paid plan is $167 a month billed yearly, or $185 monthly
- Tight if you're staying free, with 200 rows per table, 100 data credits a month and no phone enrichment
- Watch out: two meters apply, data credits and actions, and extra credits cost 30% more than plan credits
- Skip it if you just want to look someone up, as it's built for building workflows
- Watch out: CRM auto-sync and webhooks start on Growth at $446 a month, and the Clay API is Enterprise only
How we grade them
| 2.4GPABardeenFair | 2.8GPAClayGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$10 a month for 100 credits is inside the cheapest quarter, but 100 credits is 100 scraped rows or about 33 enrichments. | BLaunch is $167 a month billed yearly with unlimited seats, about $33.40 a head for five, just inside this category's cheaper quarter ($34). It buys 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions a month. On your own, the whole $167 is yours to pay. |
| Free plan and trial | C100 free credits on every account, and the page does not say if they refill, so you will run out fast. | CA free plan with 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats, waterfalls and Claygent, plus a 14-day trial. But tables stop at 200 rows and there's no phone enrichment. |
| Features | CScraper, web search, enrichment, AI qualification and exports, but it is aimed at lead sourcing and not general automation. | AWaterfalls across 150-plus providers, where a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing, plus Claygent for web research, job-change signals, its own sequencer and CRM and warehouse sync. No rival here draws on so many sources. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You build scrapers and credit usage by row, with a learning curve. | CNo App Store rating on record, and this is a web app where the work is building the table itself. If spreadsheet formulas make you nervous, expect a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, no desktop or mobile apps on the pages read, with four named integrations. | BWeb only, but with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio, Outreach, Instantly, lemlist, Apollo.io and Snowflake on the list, and webhooks from Growth. No desktop or phone apps. |
| Best for | scraping and enriching leads in the browser | building custom lead lists from many data sources |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Bardeen and Clay. How we grade
Where they differ
- Bardeen also covers AI agents and no-code.
- Clay also covers email campaigns.
At a glance
| Bardeen | Clay | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $10 per month for 100 credits, billed monthly | $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually |
| Free plan | Every account gets 100 credits free; the pricing page does not say whether they refill each month. | 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats and tables, up to 200 rows per table, waterfalls and Claygent. No phone number enrichment. |
| Free trial | None listed | 14-day trial of paid plans |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Bardeen Inc. | Clay Labs Inc. |
| Price read from | bardeen.ai | clay.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Bardeen
- Pricing is by credit: 1 per scraped row, 1 per search or AI row, 3 per enrichment row. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing period.
- The pricing page shows paid plans only as add-on credit amounts per month; the free 100 credits are described without a refill date.
- The product is aimed at lead sourcing and go-to-market work, not general-purpose personal automation.
- The pages read list no desktop or mobile apps; the product is described as an app used in the browser.
Clay
- Two meters apply: data credits pay providers for data, and actions count each enrichment or export. Both are sized separately on paid plans.
- Data credits start at $0.05 each; extra credits cost 30% more than plan credits on Launch and Growth.
- Actions reset each billing cycle; data credits roll over up to twice the monthly amount on Launch and Growth.
- The free plan has no phone number enrichment and stops at 200 rows per table.
Key features
Bardeen
- Web scraper
- Build your own scraper or use premium ones to pull leads from sites such as Product Hunt, Zillow and GitHub, at 1 credit per row.
- Web search
- Researches or generates leads at scale with AI and web search providers, or finds answers on a given website, at 1 credit per row.
- Contact enrichment
- Looks up validated emails and phone numbers for leads. Enrichment costs 3 credits per row.
- AI qualification
- You describe the ideal lead and AI marks each row as qualified or not, with a short reason, at 1 credit per row.
- Exports
- Results download as CSV or go to Google Sheets, Airtable and Notion. Importing and exporting data is free.
Clay
- Waterfall enrichment
- A column asks one data provider after another until a value is found, drawing on more than 150 providers. A lookup that returns nothing costs nothing.
- Claygent
- An AI agent with web research that fills in custom data points a provider does not sell. It is included on every plan, the free one too.
- Audiences and search
- Build lists of companies and people from Clay's search and imports. Paid plans add unlimited search and CSV uploads.
- Signals
- Track job changes, promotions, new hires, company news and social posts from Launch, and website intent from Growth.
- Sequencer and integrations
- Send email from Clay's own sequencer or push leads to Instantly, lemlist, Outreach and HubSpot sequences.
- CRM and warehouse sync
- Growth syncs and enriches CRM records automatically and connects to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and Postgres.
Plans
Bardeen
Basic$10
per month for +100 credits, billed monthly
Adds 100 credits a month; steps up to +500 credits for $50. Includes custom scrapers, premium scrapers and enrichment.
Premium$50
per month for +1,000 credits, billed monthly
Adds 1,000 credits a month; steps up to +10K credits for $500. Adds Teams. Annual billing starts at $480 per year for +12,000 credits.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom bulk credits on annual billing, with custom scrapers built and maintained by Bardeen and premium support.
Clay
Free$0
100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats, 200 rows per table, waterfalls, Claygent and your own API keys.
Launch$167
per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually ($185 monthly)
Plus 15,000 actions a month, phone enrichment, job-change signals and email sending. Data credits alone are $414 a month at 10,000 a month, billed annually.
Growth$446
per month for 6,000 data credits, billed annually ($495 monthly)
Plus 40,000 actions a month, CRM auto-sync, HTTP API and webhook automation, web intent signals, ad audiences and priority support.
EnterpriseCustom
Annual commitment, 100,000+ data credits, Clay API access, SSO, SCIM, role-based access and a dedicated growth strategist.
Ways to pay less
Bardeen
- Annual discount
Save 20% on annual Premium billing
The pricing page offers Premium on yearly billing at a 20% saving, starting at $480 per year for 12,000 credits.
Clay
- Annual discount
Save 10% with annual billing
Clay's pricing page marks annual billing as a 10% saving: Launch starts at $167 a month billed yearly against $185 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Bardeen or Clay?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Bardeen is cheaper to start with: $10 a month, against $167 a month for Clay. Bardeen starts at $10 per month for 100 credits, billed monthly, and Clay starts at $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually.
Which has a free plan, Bardeen or Clay?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Bardeen and Clay have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.