- VendBuddy (our product) is the pick for finding local businesses by ZIP and radius: free search, 5 free credits, Starter $49 a month for 150 credits. It was built for vending operators.
- Apollo has the biggest free plan we read (900 credits per seat per year) and suits selling to job titles; Hunter finds emails from a known website. Neither was tested by us.
- ZoomInfo and Seamless.AI show no prices on their pricing pages, only trial or demo options.
- All prices were read from each vendor pricing page on 2026-10-08; confirm before you buy.
The best b2b lead generation tools for a small business depend on how you find your buyers. If you sell to local businesses in a ZIP code, a local prospecting tool fits. If you sell to companies by job title, a contact database fits. This guide compares seven options on price, free plans and what each is built for. Every price below was read from the company's own pricing page on 2026-10-08.
The short answer
- Pick VendBuddy (our product) if you sell to local businesses near you, such as apartments, hotels, gyms, offices and clinics, and you want the person who decides there. Searching is free, a free account comes with 5 contact credits and no card, and Starter is $49 a month for 150 credits. It was built for vending operators, so read the downsides below before you buy.
- Pick Apollo if you sell to companies anywhere and find them by job title and industry. Its free plan gives 900 credits per seat per year, and paid plans start at $49 per seat per month billed annually. Not tested by us.
- Pick Hunter if you already know the company websites and only need the emails. Free is 50 credits a month; the first paid plan lists at $49 a month. Not tested by us.
- Pick RocketReach or Lusha if the missing piece is a direct phone number for a named person. Not tested by us.
- Skip ZoomInfo and Seamless.AI unless you are ready to talk to a sales rep. Neither pricing page we read showed a price.
VendBuddy is our product. Free account: 5 credits, no card.
One more disclosure up front. VendBuddy is our product, and we list it first because it is the one we can describe from the inside, not because it suits everyone. For the other six tools we only have what their public pages say, and every entry below is marked "not tested by us".
How we checked
On 2026-10-08 we read the pricing page of each tool and copied plan names, prices and limits. For VendBuddy we read the live site: the home page, the pricing page and the app's search screen. We did not run Apollo, ZoomInfo, Hunter, RocketReach, Lusha or Seamless.AI, so we give no accuracy numbers, no "hit rate" and no score out of five. A score for something we have not used would be made up. The questions we asked of every tool were the same four. How do you find people with it? What does the free plan allow? What is the cheapest paid plan, and how is it billed? Who is it a poor fit for?
Side-by-side table (checked 2026-10-08)
| Tool | You search by | Free plan | First paid plan as listed | Price on the page? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VendBuddy (ours) | ZIP code, radius and location type | 5 credits, no card; searching is free | Starter $49/mo, 150 credits; annual $470 a year | Yes |
| Apollo | Job title, industry, company filters | 900 credits per seat per year | Basic $49 per seat per month, billed annually | Yes |
| ZoomInfo | Company and contact filters | Free trial offered | Not shown | No: trial or demo |
| Hunter | A company domain or a name | 50 credits a month | $49/mo, or $34/mo billed yearly ($408) | Yes |
| RocketReach | Name, company or title | 5 free lookups, no card | Essentials $33/mo, $399 billed annually | Yes |
| Lusha | Name, company or title | 40 credits a month | Starter $37.45/mo billed yearly, 4,800 credits a year | Yes |
| Seamless.AI | Company and contact filters | Not shown | Not shown: Pro or Enterprise by demo | No |
Sources: VendBuddy pricing, Apollo, ZoomInfo, Hunter, RocketReach, Lusha and Seamless.AI, all read on 2026-10-08. Plans change, so confirm on the vendor page before you buy.
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Start building free →VendBuddy: the local-prospecting pick (our product)
Best for: a seller whose buyers are physical places near them. You pick a ZIP, a search radius of 1, 5, 10, 25 or 50 miles and a location type. The app lists businesses of that type with address, category, website and a rating. One credit then reveals the best contact on file for a business you chose, with the name, title, email and phone it has. Price: Free is 5 credits with no card. Starter is $49 a month for 150 credits, or $470 billed once a year. Pro is $79 a month for 300 credits. Credit packs run $32 for 50, $119 for 200 and $295 for 600.
The part that matters for a small business is the pricing logic. Searching and exporting company data is free, so you spend a credit only on a business you picked. On Starter that works out to about 33 cents a contact.
Real downsides:
- VendBuddy is built for vending operators. The revenue-potential rating on each result estimates how good a spot is for a vending machine, and the guides, kits and pitch tools are written for that job. If you sell something else, the search and the contact reveal still work, but the rating will not tell you whether the business is a good customer for you.
- A reveal returns "whatever name, title, email and phone are on file". Some will come back with a title and a phone but no email.
- It is not a national database of every person at every company. If you sell to a job title across a whole industry, a tool like Apollo is built for that.
Skip it if you need technographics, buying-intent data or exports of tens of thousands of contacts. Read the full VendBuddy review for what the app does step by step.
Apollo: the filter-by-title pick
Affiliate link: VendBuddy may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Best for: a seller who can describe the buyer as a job title at a certain kind of company, and wants to email them in sequences from the same tool. Price: Free is $0 with 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly. Basic is $49 per seat per month billed annually with 30,000 credits per seat per year. Professional is $79, with 48,000 credits. Organization is $119 per seat per month with a three-seat minimum and 72,000 credits.
The free plan limits are tight: two sequences and basic filters. Basic adds unlimited sequences and advanced filters. Downside from the page: every paid plan is quoted as "billed annually", so a month-to-month price was not shown on the page we read. Credits also cover different actions, and we did not verify how many credits one email or one phone number costs. Skip it if your buyers are corner shops and gyms that have no LinkedIn-style job titles to filter on. Not tested by us. Head to head: Apollo.io alternatives.
ZoomInfo: the sales-call pick
Best for: a team with a budget and a rep who will run a demo. The pricing page lists product names (Professional, Copilot Advanced, Copilot Enterprise) with "start free trial" buttons, and marketing products with "get a demo" buttons, but no dollar amounts. Skip it if you want to know the price before you talk to anyone. Not tested by us. Read ZoomInfo alternatives for small business for cheaper routes.
Hunter: the email-finder pick
Best for: a seller who already has a list of company websites. You enter a domain, it shows the emails it has found there. Price: Free is 50 credits a month. The first paid plan lists at $49 a month, or $34 a month billed yearly ($408), with 2,000 credits a month. The next one is $149 a month, or $104 billed yearly ($1,248), with 10,000 credits a month.
Downside: it finds emails, not businesses. You need to bring the list of companies from somewhere else, such as a Google Maps search. The page shows credits, not a count of contacts, so check how many credits a single lookup uses before you plan around it. Skip it if you do not know which companies to target yet. Not tested by us. Head to head: Hunter.io alternatives.
RocketReach: the named-person pick
Best for: getting an email or phone for a person you already identified. Price: 5 free lookups, no card. Essentials is $33 a month ($399 billed annually) and covers email only, with 1,200 exports a year. Pro is $75 a month ($899 billed annually) and adds mobile and direct phone numbers, with 3,600 exports a year. Ultimate is $142 a month ($1,699 billed annually), with 20,000 exports a year, intent data and healthcare data.
Downside: phone numbers cost you the jump to Pro. Skip it if you need a list of businesses to start from. Not tested by us. Head to head: RocketReach alternatives.
Lusha: the small-credit-pack pick
Best for: a seller who needs a few phone numbers and emails a month. Price: Free is 40 credits a month. Starter is $37.45 a month billed yearly with 4,800 credits a year. Pro is $52.45 a month billed yearly with 7,200 credits a year. Premium is $299.95 a month billed yearly with 40,800 credits a year, and Scale is custom. Downside: the page showed yearly billing prices only, so a month-to-month price was not visible to us. Skip it if you want a search that starts from a location. Not tested by us. Head to head: Lusha alternatives.
Seamless.AI: the demo-first pick
Best for: teams that want a rep to set up a plan. The pricing link on its site lands on an inquiry page that asks whether you need the Pro or the Enterprise plan and offers a demo. No prices appear. Skip it if you want to compare costs on your own before talking to sales. Not tested by us. Read Seamless.AI alternatives.
What one person pays over 12 months
This uses each tool's cheapest paid plan for one user, as listed on 2026-10-08. It compares price only. A credit is not the same thing in every tool, so a lower number does not mean more contacts.
| Tool and plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| VendBuddy Starter | $588 | $470 | 150 contact credits a month; annual adds bonus credits |
| Apollo Basic | Not shown | $588 | 30,000 credits per seat per year |
| Hunter first paid plan | $588 | $408 | 2,000 credits a month |
| RocketReach Essentials | Not shown | $399 | Email only, 1,200 exports a year |
| Lusha Starter | Not shown | $449 ($37.45 x 12) | 4,800 credits a year |
| ZoomInfo, Seamless.AI | Quote only | Quote only | Not published |
The cheapest route is the one that matches how you already think about your buyers. If you think in places, pay for a place search. If you think in job titles, pay for title filters. Paying for a 30,000-credit plan to email 40 local shops is the most common way to overspend on this.
After you find a contact: sending the email
A lead tool gives you the address. You still need something to send the message and follow up. For a handful of contacts, your normal email works and costs nothing. For a few hundred, a cold-email tool saves hours. Smartlead is one we link to. Its Base plan is listed at $39 a month, or $32 a month billed yearly, with 2,000 contacts and 6,000 sends a month. We have not tested it. Whichever you pick, US rules for marketing email require your mailing address and a working unsubscribe link, and a cold list should get a short one-to-one message, not a blast. Our cold email scripts show what a short first message looks like.
Affiliate link. We earn a commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which tool we recommend.
How to choose
Start with what you know about your buyer today. If you know the area but not the businesses, search by place. If you know the business names, look up the emails and phones. If you know only the job title and industry, filter by title. If you already have a name, a named-person lookup is the shortest path.
Then check three things before you pay. Does the free plan let you run a real search on your own market? How is the paid plan billed, and can you leave after a month? And what does one useful contact cost you, counting the ones that come back empty? Run the same ten businesses through two tools on their free plans and compare. That test costs nothing and is better than any review, including this one.
Finding the right person at a site is a skill on its own. See how to find business owner contact information and the decision-maker map for who to ask for at different kinds of buildings. Our cost per lead comparison shows the math for paying per contact versus buying a list.
Lists for specific jobs
- Best prospecting tools for medical sales reps: clinics, urgent care, dental offices and hospitals.
- How real estate investors find apartment owner and manager contacts.
- Best tools to sell to hotels and gyms.
Alternatives to each tool
- Apollo.io alternatives
- ZoomInfo alternatives for small business
- Hunter.io alternatives
- RocketReach alternatives
- Lusha alternatives
- Seamless.AI alternatives
Start with the free plan of the tool that matches how you find buyers, run ten real businesses through it, and only then pay.
VendBuddy is our product. 5 credits, no card.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best b2b lead generation tools for a small business?
It depends on how you find buyers. For local businesses found by ZIP code and radius, VendBuddy (our product) is built for it. For companies found by job title, Apollo has the most generous free plan we read, at 900 credits per seat per year. For emails from a known website, Hunter. For direct phone numbers of named people, RocketReach or Lusha. Prices checked on each pricing page on 2026-10-08; we have not tested the competitors.
This is where your website starts to compound. A Google Business Profile comes first, then around machine three to five a site that catches inbound requests. AI builders like Wix and Base44 make that an evening job, and the Wix vs Base44 comparison helps you pick. Affiliate link, so we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Is there a free lead generation tool?
Most have a free tier. VendBuddy gives 5 contact credits with no card and free searching. Apollo gives 900 credits per seat per year, Hunter 50 credits a month, Lusha 40 credits a month, RocketReach 5 free lookups. ZoomInfo offers a free trial. Seamless.AI showed no free plan on the page we read. Free tiers are enough to test ten real businesses, not to run a campaign.
How much do lead generation tools cost for one person?
On the cheapest paid plans we read: RocketReach Essentials $399 a year, Hunter $408 billed yearly, Lusha Starter about $449 a year, VendBuddy Starter $470 billed yearly or $588 monthly, and Apollo Basic $588 billed annually. ZoomInfo and Seamless.AI do not list prices. These are price-only comparisons; a credit means different things in each tool.
What is the difference between a contact database and a local prospecting tool?
A contact database such as Apollo, ZoomInfo or Lusha starts from people and companies and lets you filter by title, industry and size. A local prospecting tool starts from a place: you pick an area and a type of business and get the businesses there. If your customers are shops, gyms, hotels or clinics near you, the second approach usually fits better. If your customers are software companies in any city, the first does.
Can I email the contacts I find with these tools?
You can send one-to-one business email, but US rules for commercial email still apply: include your mailing address and a clear way to opt out, and honor opt-outs. Keep first messages short and personal. This is general information, not legal advice.
Should a small business use ZoomInfo?
Only if you are ready for a sales conversation and a contract. The ZoomInfo pricing page we read lists product names and free-trial or demo buttons but no prices. Most small businesses will find Apollo, Hunter or a local prospecting tool cheaper and faster to start.
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