clearbit.com

One-line overview

Clearbit is a B2B data enrichment and intent intelligence tool acquired by HubSpot. It focuses on turning vague visitor emails or domains into detailed company profiles and contact information, and is well known in international marketing circles for its data accuracy and real-time performance.

Business overview

Clearbit was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, USA. In 2024, it was acquired by HubSpot for around $150 million and became a core component of HubSpot’s data ecosystem. It mainly provides two types of services: Data Enrichment, which automatically fills in 100+ fields such as company size, industry, tech stack, and contact job title based on an email, domain, or IP address; and Intent Data, which analyzes website visitor behavior, such as page views and form submissions, to identify which companies are actively researching your product. Its customers are mainly mid-to-large SaaS companies, including Stripe, Atlassian, and Segment. Common use cases include ABM, lead scoring, and CRM automation. In terms of market position, Clearbit is often regarded as a leading player in B2B data enrichment, alongside ZoomInfo and LeadIQ, but it focuses more on real-time API integration than static databases.

Who it’s for

• Mid-to-large B2B marketing teams: Teams that need to turn anonymous website visitors into trackable company-level leads for ABM strategies.
• Sales development representatives (SDRs): Users who want to automatically pull contact background information from business emails submitted via forms and reduce manual research.
• Technology-driven teams: Teams with developers who can integrate Clearbit’s REST API or Webhooks to build real-time data flows.
• HubSpot users: Since Clearbit has been acquired by HubSpot, its integration depth and stability with HubSpot CRM are better than most third-party tools.
• Less suitable scenarios: Individual bloggers or micro-businesses with a monthly budget below $500, because Clearbit does not offer a public free plan and charges based on API usage, making it relatively expensive.

Key features and highlights

• Real-time company profiles: Enter a domain and receive 50+ fields including company name, employee count, revenue range, industry, and tech stack, such as whether the company uses AWS or Salesforce, with response times under 200ms.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches business emails with contact name, job title, LinkedIn profile, and phone number in some cases, covering 200 million+ contacts globally.
• Intent scoring: Tracks visitor behavior on your website, such as visits to pricing pages or whitepaper downloads, and outputs a company-level “purchase intent score” to help sales teams prioritize follow-up.
• API-first architecture: Provides SDKs for Python, Node.js, and more. Supports batch processing and custom field mapping, making it suitable for teams that need customized data pipelines.
• Native HubSpot integration: After the acquisition, Clearbit data can be written directly into HubSpot contact properties without middleware, with real-time sync available.
• Data quality commitment: The company claims company data accuracy of over 95%, email verification pass rates above 90%, and weekly updates to its core database.

Pricing analysis

Clearbit does not publish standard monthly or annual pricing. Its website only provides a “contact sales” button. Based on industry experience and user feedback from third-party review sites such as G2 and TrustRadius, its pricing is in the mid-to-high range. Typical scenarios include:

• Basic data enrichment API: Usage-based pricing, around $0.01 - $0.05 per call, usually starting from 100,000 calls per month, with monthly costs around $1000 - $5000.
• Intent intelligence module: Charged separately and usually requires an annual contract, starting at $15,000 per year.
• Hidden costs: May include overage fees for usage beyond the package allowance and premium technical support fees. Compared with ZoomInfo, which starts at $15,000 per year, Clearbit is more flexible for small-to-mid-scale API usage, but the lack of fixed packages means teams with unclear budgets should be cautious. There is no clear refund policy, so it is recommended to apply for a 7-day free trial first, which requires a credit card.

How Chinese users can use it

• Network accessibility: Clearbit’s API and web console are generally usable from mainland China, but accessing the official website, clearbit.com, may require a VPN or proxy because it can be blocked by HubSpot’s CDN. API calls are usually stable, but may occasionally be affected by DNS pollution. Using an enterprise-grade VPN or an overseas server as a proxy is recommended.
• Payment methods: Only international credit cards, such as Visa and Mastercard, are supported. Alipay and WeChat Pay are not supported. Domestic users need a dual-currency credit card or a third-party payment platform, such as Stripe proxy payment, which may involve extra exchange-rate and service fees.
• Whether a VPN is needed: Day-to-day API usage usually does not require one, but accessing the admin dashboard and documentation may. Developers are advised to deploy a local reverse proxy, such as Nginx, to speed up API responses.
• Domestic alternatives: There are no direct local competitors. Similar services such as 明略数据 for company profiles or TalkingData for mobile intent focus more on the domestic Chinese market, but their data dimensions, such as tech stack and LinkedIn information, are far less comprehensive than Clearbit. For companies expanding overseas, Clearbit remains a top choice, provided network and payment issues can be resolved.
• Invoicing: As a US company, Clearbit provides electronic invoices by default, but cannot issue Chinese VAT invoices. Domestic companies that need compliant reimbursement must either use a third-party agent, such as a cross-border payment service provider, to issue invoices on their behalf, or accept overseas invoices.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• ✅ High data quality: Company information accuracy is above 95%, and email verification pass rates are among the best in the industry.
• ✅ Strong real-time performance: API response times are under 200ms, making it suitable for high-concurrency scenarios such as real-time form enrichment on websites.
• ✅ Native HubSpot integration: Deep integration after the acquisition, with zero-configuration data sync, making it ideal for HubSpot users.
• ✅ Developer-friendly: Clear documentation, SDKs for mainstream languages, and support for custom field mapping.
• ✅ Accurate intent identification: Based on first-party behavioral data rather than third-party cookies, offering better privacy compliance.

Cons:

• ❌ Opaque pricing: No public packages; you must contact sales, making it hard for SMBs to estimate costs.
• ❌ Poor experience in China: The official website may require a VPN or proxy, payment is limited to international credit cards, and Chinese invoices are not available.
• ❌ Limited contact coverage: Compared with ZoomInfo, Clearbit’s global contact database is smaller, especially in Asia-Pacific markets such as China and India.
• ❌ Unclear refund policy: No explicit refund guarantee; after the trial, you may not be able to get a refund if dissatisfied.
• ❌ Dependent on API call volume: If data volume suddenly increases, such as during a marketing campaign, overage costs may become difficult to control.

Comparison with similar products

• ZoomInfo: A static database product, starting at $15,000 per year. Its contact volume, 300 million+, is far larger than Clearbit’s, but data is updated less frequently, typically monthly, and real-time API performance is weaker. It is better suited to sales teams that need large volumes of cold leads rather than real-time scenarios.
• LeadIQ: Focuses on LinkedIn data scraping and sequencing, offers a Chrome extension, and is cheaper, at around $50/user/month. However, its enrichment is mainly limited to contacts and lacks company profiling and intent intelligence. It is suitable for small teams that need to quickly acquire contacts, rather than enterprise-grade data pipelines.
• HubSpot native data (Breeze): A free data enrichment feature launched by HubSpot in 2024. Basic fields such as company name and industry are free, while deeper fields such as tech stack and revenue require payment, and data quality is not as strong as Clearbit. It is suitable for HubSpot users with limited budgets, but cannot replace professional-grade requirements.

Final recommendation

Best fit: If you are a mid-to-large B2B company already using HubSpot CRM or with an in-house development team, and you need to turn website visitors into trackable company-level leads in real time with a sufficient budget, around $1000+ per month, Clearbit is one of the best options available. Its data quality, API performance, and HubSpot integration are hard to beat in its category.

Not a good fit: Individual developers, micro-businesses with monthly budgets below $500, teams mainly targeting the Chinese market and needing domestic data, or teams unable to pay with international credit cards should avoid it. In these cases, consider LeadIQ for lower costs or domestic alternatives such as 明略数据.

Actionable advice: First apply for a 7-day free trial through the official website, which requires a credit card, and test data accuracy and API speed with a small batch of real emails. If you can solve network and payment issues during the trial, and the data match rate is above 80%, you can consider an annual contract, which usually saves 15-20% compared with monthly payment. Note that if you do not actively cancel after the trial ends, the system will automatically charge you, so be sure to set a reminder.