Clay vs Dropcontact
We give Clay a 2.8 GPA and Dropcontact a 2.6, out of 4.0. Clay grades higher on features. Dropcontact grades higher on ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Clay
Data enrichment tables that query 150+ data providers in one place
Dropcontact
GDPR-focused email finder that charges only for emails it finds
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAClayGood | 2.6GPADropcontactGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | B€24 a month billed yearly for 500 credits, and a credit goes only when a verified email comes back. It's priced by credits, not seats, and even for one person that's inside this category's cheaper quarter ($34). The listing doesn't say how many can share it. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | C50 free credits to try it, and no free plan after that. You can also pay for a month, run one file and cancel. |
| Features | 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. | CEmail finding and checking from a file, one at a time or by API, with company data and job-change alerts on Growth. It does the email job fully, but that's a smaller job: no database to search, and no phone numbers below Entreprise. |
| Ease of use | 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. | BNo App Store rating on record, but there's almost nothing to learn: drop in a CSV or Excel file and get it back with the emails filled in. |
| Platforms and 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. | BWeb, with an API, an MCP server and a Google Sheets add-on, plus HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zapier and n8n. No desktop or phone apps. |
| Best for | building custom lead lists from many data sources | GDPR-minded email finding for European teams |
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: Clay and Dropcontact. How we grade
Price against what you get
Clay starts at $167 a month and scores 3.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Dropcontact starts at about $26.89 a month and scores 2.7.
Clay scores higher, and starts $140.11 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other lead and email finders on the chart, none scores higher than Clay for less, and none scores higher than Dropcontact for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Clay starts at $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually. Dropcontact starts at €24 per month for 500 credits, billed annually.
- Clay has a free plan. Dropcontact does not, though it has a free trial.
- Clay also covers workflow automation and email campaigns.
At a glance
| Clay | Dropcontact | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually | €24 per month for 500 credits, billed annually |
| Free plan | 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. | None |
| Free trial | 14-day trial of paid plans | 50 free credits to try it |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Clay Labs Inc. | Dropcontact |
| Price read from | clay.com | dropcontact.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Clay
- Growth and operations teams building custom lead lists
- Teams that want several data providers behind one bill
- People comfortable setting up spreadsheet-style workflows
Dropcontact
- European teams that want GDPR-compliant email enrichment
- Enriching a one-off file, then cancelling
- Teams that only want to pay for emails actually found
Worth knowing
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.
Dropcontact
- Prices are in euros only; the pricing page shows no dollar prices.
- Email finder credits cannot be used for CRM enrichment, which is a separate subscription with its own pricing.
- Unused credits carry over only on Growth with an active subscription; Starter quotas reset at each renewal.
- The pricing page lists business emails only; mobile numbers are mentioned for the Entreprise CRM offer.
Key features
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.
Dropcontact
- Pay on success
- A credit is charged only when a verified email is returned or an address is checked; if nothing is found the credit is refunded.
- Own algorithms, no database
- Emails are worked out and validated by Dropcontact's own algorithms on EU servers, including catch-all checks, rather than drawn from a contact database.
- File, single and API enrichment
- Drop in a CSV, XLS or TXT file, look up one person at a time, or use the API, MCP server and Google Sheets add-on.
- LinkedIn and company enrichment
- Growth adds enrichment from LinkedIn URLs without logging in, company data, job title cleaning and AI job classification.
- Company change detection
- Flags contacts who have moved to a new company, on the Growth plan and in the CRM product.
- CRM enrichment and deduplication
- A separate subscription works inside HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive to enrich records and merge duplicate contacts and companies.
Plans
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.
Dropcontact
Starter€24
per month for 500 credits, billed annually (€29 billed monthly)
Email finding and verification, file and single searches, API, MCP and Google Sheets. €166 a month at 11,000 credits, billed annually.
Growth€29
per month for 500 credits, billed annually (€35 billed monthly)
Adds credit carryover, LinkedIn URL enrichment, AI job classification and company data. €253 a month at 11,000 credits, billed annually.
EntrepriseCustom
From 200,000 credits a month, with priority enrichment, real-time notifications, dedicated support and native CRM integrations.
Ways to pay less
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.
Dropcontact
- Annual discount
About 20% off with yearly billing
Dropcontact's pricing page marks yearly billing -20%: Starter at 500 credits is €24 a month billed yearly against €29 monthly.
