Sluice vs ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is enterprise contact and company data sold on annual contracts, reportedly from about $15,000 a year for three seats, with intent data and deep firmographics. Sluice is month-to-month lead finding from $9: it reads public signals, scores each person against your customer profile and bills only lookups that returned something usable. Different budgets, different jobs.
What ZoomInfo is good at
ZoomInfo has one of the largest B2B databases there is, and it is built for organisations that sell to other organisations at scale: deep company records, org charts, direct dials, intent data that shows which accounts are researching a topic, and the admin, permissions and integrations a large sales floor needs. If you run territories, have a RevOps team and sell six-figure contracts, the annual price is small next to the pipeline one good account produces, and no small tool covers the same ground.
Use ZoomInfo if: Pick ZoomInfo if you are a mid-market or enterprise sales team with a defined territory model, need direct dials and intent across thousands of target accounts, have the budget for an annual commitment, and have someone to manage renewals and credit allocation.
| ZoomInfo | Sluice | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is built for | Mid-market and enterprise sales teams | Founders, small sales teams and agencies |
| Published prices | None; quote only | $9, $39 and $149 a month |
| Entry cost | About $15k/yr for 3 seats and 5k credits (reported) | $9/mo, no seats |
| Contract | Annual, auto-renewal reported | Monthly, no annual contract |
| Unused credits | Lost at term end (reported) | Monthly allowance; top-ups available |
| Intent | Aggregated research intent | Public signals: posts, reviews, ads, hiring, own-site visitors |
| Database size | Very large | A directory, smaller, revealed at 5 cents for people scoring 70+ |
| CRM | Broad, including Salesforce | HubSpot only |
What ZoomInfo is for
ZoomInfo is infrastructure for a sales organisation. It holds records on companies and the people in them, adds direct dials and intent, and plugs into the CRM and engagement tools a large team already runs. Its pricing assumes you will use it all year across several seats, which is why it is sold on annual contracts and not listed on a price page.
Sluice is a tool for one person or a handful. It starts from public traces (a comment, a review, an ad, a job post, a business listing, a visit to your site), works out who is behind each one, and ranks them against a customer profile you wrote. It is billed monthly in credits that are one cent each.
Comparing them feature by feature misses the point. The honest question is which kind of buyer you are.
A three-person team's first year
Say you are a three-person sales team at a 20-person software company. You want a steady list of people to contact for the next twelve months.
| ZoomInfo (reported entry) | Sluice Working | Sluice Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front commitment | About $15,000, annual | $39 a month | $149 a month |
| Seats | 3 | Not counted | Not counted |
| Credits | About 5,000 for the year | 3,900 a month (5,000 the first) | 14,900 a month (20,000 the first) |
| Cost over 12 months | About $15,000 | $468 | $1,788 |
| If you stop in month 4 | Still committed for the year | Stop paying | Stop paying |
The ZoomInfo figures are third-party estimates; ZoomInfo quotes each buyer separately and the reported median is about $33,500 a year. On those numbers, a ZoomInfo credit at entry level costs roughly $3. A Sluice directory reveal costs 5 cents. That gap is not because one is overpriced. ZoomInfo's credit carries deeper data, direct dials and enterprise tooling, and its price reflects that.
What matters for a small team is the commitment. A year's contract makes sense when you already know the segment works. If you are still finding out who buys, paying monthly and stopping when a channel dies is cheaper than being right about the data and wrong about the market.
Renewal terms to check
Third-party reports describe auto-renewal with a 60 to 90 day notice window, renewal increases of 10 to 20%, and unused credits lost at term end. None of this is unusual for enterprise software, but it catches small teams out. If you sign, note the notice date and track credit use monthly so you are not renewing for capacity you never used.
Intent data versus public signals
ZoomInfo's intent data tells you which companies are researching a topic, aggregated from behaviour you cannot see. It is useful for prioritising a long account list.
Sluice's signals are things you can open and read: the post someone engaged with, the review they wrote, the job ad, the listing with no website. You get the person and the reason in their own words, which is what a first message needs. You do not get account-level research intent. Our guide to buying signals that convert covers which public signals are worth acting on.
Where ZoomInfo is ahead
- Breadth and depth of data, including direct dials and org charts.
- Intent across thousands of accounts.
- Enterprise administration, permissions and integrations, including Salesforce.
- Years in market. Sluice is new and has no public reviews yet.
Where Sluice is ahead
- No annual contract and no seats.
- Every person scored against your profile, with a reason and a link to the source.
- Sources a database does not hold: competitors' reviewers, local businesses, people in a conversation.
- The worst-case price of each pass shown before it runs.
Which to choose
If you have a territory plan, a RevOps team and the budget for a year, ZoomInfo is the stronger platform. If you are a small team testing segments month by month, start with Sluice, or compare the middle ground in our Apollo comparison. Cognism is the other enterprise option worth pricing, especially for EMEA. Our plans are on the pricing page.
Questions people ask
- How much does ZoomInfo cost?
- ZoomInfo does not publish prices. Third-party reports put entry contracts around $15,000 a year for three seats and 5,000 credits, with a median contract of about $33,500, all on annual terms.
- Can I buy ZoomInfo monthly?
- No. ZoomInfo sells annual contracts. Reviewers report auto-renewal with a 60 to 90 day notice window and renewal increases of 10 to 20%, so put the notice date in your calendar the day you sign.
- Does Sluice have intent data like ZoomInfo?
- Not the same kind. ZoomInfo sells intent data aggregated from research behaviour. Sluice reads public signals you can see: who engaged with a post, who reviewed a competitor, who is advertising or hiring, and which companies visited your site.
- Is Sluice a cheap ZoomInfo?
- No. It has a much smaller directory and fewer enterprise features. It is a different approach for teams that cannot justify an annual data contract.
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.
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