Sluice vs Cognism
Cognism is a premium B2B contact database, strongest in Europe, known for phone-verified mobile numbers and sold on annual contracts reportedly from $15,000 to over $60,000 a year. Sluice is a monthly lead finder from $9 that reads public signals and scores people against your customer profile. Pick Cognism for EMEA mobiles at scale; Sluice for finding buyers cheaply.
What Cognism is good at
Cognism is one of the best sources of mobile numbers for people in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its Diamond Data numbers are verified by phone, which matters to teams whose meetings come from cold calls, and its EMEA coverage is where many US-built databases are thinnest. The credit model is generous in one useful way: one credit reveals a contact and looking at that contact again is free, so a team sharing records does not pay twice. Plans include five seats, and the Pro plan adds intent data, so a European sales team can get contacts, mobiles and account-level intent from a single supplier.
Use Cognism if: Pick Cognism if your team sells into Europe and books meetings by phone, needs verified mobile numbers more than anything else, has five or more people who will use it daily, and can commit to an annual contract.
| Cognism | Sluice | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Premium contact database, EMEA focus | Lead finding and scoring from public signals |
| Published prices | None; quote only | $9, $39 and $149 a month |
| Reported contract size | $15k to $60k+ a year, annual (third-party) | $108 to $1,788 a year at list prices, monthly |
| Seats | Five included on Standard and Pro | No seats; invite your team |
| Credit | One credit reveals one contact; re-viewing free | One credit is one cent; only usable results billed |
| Mobile numbers | Phone-verified, a core strength | Available, expensive |
| Intent | On Pro | Public signals: posts, reviews, ads, hiring, visitors |
| Strongest region | EMEA; weaker US/APAC reported | Follows wherever the public signal is |
| Several clients | One contract, shared seats | Agency plan: one customer profile per client, unlimited |
What Cognism is for
Cognism is a contact database built for sales teams that call. Its reputation rests on mobile numbers in Europe that have been checked by a person ringing them, and on coverage of EMEA companies that other databases treat as an afterthought. It sells to teams, not individuals: five seats on its main plans, annual contracts, prices on request.
Sluice is not a database in that sense. It finds people where they leave public traces (engaging with posts, reviewing competitors, advertising on Google, hiring, sitting in a local listing, visiting your website) and scores each one against a customer profile. It has a directory you can search by title, seniority, location and company size, but it does not compete with Cognism on phone-verified mobiles, and we would not suggest it does.
An agency with eight clients
Say you run a lead generation agency with eight clients: four B2B software companies, two consultancies and two firms selling to local trades. Each client wants about 150 qualified contacts a month.
On Cognism. You would buy one contract (third-party reports put these between $15,000 and $60,000 or more a year) and share five seats across your team. Every contact revealed uses a credit; re-viewing is free. You build each client's lists by filtering the database. For the software and consultancy clients, especially any selling into Europe, the data quality is a real advantage. For the two trades clients, a B2B database is the wrong tool: plumbers and roofers are better found from their business listings.
On Sluice. The Agency plan is $149 a month with 14,900 credits (20,000 the first month) and unlimited customer profiles, so each client gets its own profile and its own scoring. At 5 cents per revealed person who scores 70 or more, 150 contacts per client is $7.50, and eight clients is $60, or 6,000 credits. That leaves room for email lookups, signals and the trades clients' local listing searches, which are judged on gaps such as no website or a slipping rating. If you already pay a data supplier, you can bring your own key and pay no markup on lookups. Leads go into HubSpot with a note on why each is a lead, and existing customers are never cold-pitched.
| Eight clients, 150 contacts each | Cognism | Sluice Agency |
|---|---|---|
| Yearly commitment | $15k to $60k+ (reported), annual | $1,788 at list price, monthly |
| Separate scoring per client | You manage it in filters | One customer profile per client |
| Local trades clients | Not the use case | Listings by trade and town |
| Verified EMEA mobiles | Strong | Weak |
The table is not a verdict. An agency whose clients all sell to European enterprises, and whose service is calling, may well get more from Cognism. An agency with a mixed book of clients will find it hard to justify an annual database contract for the two or three it suits. More on the second case in finding local business leads.
Data quality, honestly
Cognism's mobile numbers are its standout. Third-party reviews report weaker accuracy outside EMEA, so test a sample of your actual targets before signing.
Sluice verifies every email independently and bills only verified addresses, with a bounce refunded exactly. That is about not paying for bad data, not about having more of it. We are new, have no public customer reviews yet, and have not been tested at Cognism's volume.
Where Cognism is ahead
- Phone-verified mobile numbers, especially in Europe.
- A large, curated database with intent on Pro.
- Free re-viewing of revealed contacts across seats.
- CRM coverage beyond HubSpot, which is Sluice's only CRM.
Where Sluice is ahead
- Monthly billing from $9; no annual contract.
- People found from what they said, reviewed or advertised, then scored.
- Local businesses and competitor reviewers, which a B2B database does not hold.
- Worst-case price shown before each pass runs.
Which to choose
Calling into Europe at scale with a team of five or more: Cognism. A mixed client book, a small team, or a buyer who shows up in conversations rather than filters: Sluice, starting on the pricing page. If you are weighing enterprise databases, the ZoomInfo comparison covers the other big name, and the Lusha comparison a cheaper route to phone numbers.
Questions people ask
- How does Cognism pricing work?
- Cognism does not publish prices. Its Standard and Pro plans include five seats, and one credit reveals one contact, with re-viewing free. Third-party reports put contracts at $15,000 to $60,000 or more a year, on annual terms.
- What is Cognism Diamond Data?
- It is Cognism's name for mobile numbers that have been verified by phone. It is the main reason teams calling into Europe choose it.
- Is Cognism good for US contacts?
- It is strongest in EMEA. Third-party reviews report weaker accuracy in the US and APAC, so test a sample of your own target list before signing.
- Can an agency use Sluice for several clients?
- Yes. The Agency plan at $149 a month has unlimited customer profiles, one per client, and you can bring your own data key to pay no markup on lookups.
Sources
Try it on your own market
Sluice quotes the worst-case price before anything runs and charges only for lookups that found something, so finding out costs close to nothing.
Get started