Cognism Review 2026: Features, Pros & Cons, Pricing

What is Cognism?

Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence platform that provides businesses with accurate, compliance-focused contact and company data. Built with a strong emphasis on GDPR and CCPA compliance, Cognism has become popular among European sales teams who need verified contact information without legal concerns.

The platform gives sales, marketing, and revenue teams access to millions of verified B2B contacts across EMEA, North America, and APAC regions. What sets Cognism apart is its commitment to data quality through phone-verified contacts (Diamond Data®) and its focus on helping businesses prospect safely within regulatory frameworks.

Cognism serves mid-market to enterprise companies, particularly those with sales development teams that rely heavily on cold calling and email outreach. The platform is designed for SDRs, BDRs, account executives, and revenue operations professionals who need reliable data to power their outbound campaigns.

Cognism key features

Let’s break down what makes Cognism work and which features actually deliver value for sales teams.

Diamond Data® (phone-verified contacts)

Cognism’s Diamond Data® is their flagship feature. Unlike many data providers that scrape phone numbers from public sources, Cognism manually verifies mobile numbers before adding them to their premium dataset.

Here’s how it works: Cognism’s team physically calls numbers to verify they’re correct and currently in use. This verification process means when you pull a Diamond Data® contact, you can be confident that number will actually reach your prospect.

In practice, users report connect rates of up to 3x higher when using Diamond Data® compared to standard contact databases. The catch? These verified numbers come at a premium price point and aren’t available for every contact in the database. You’ll find Diamond Data® particularly strong for UK and European contacts, with coverage expanding but still more limited in North America.

For sales teams where cold calling is a primary channel, Diamond Data® can significantly reduce time wasted on wrong numbers and disconnected lines.

Sales Companion

Sales Companion is Cognism’s AI-powered prospecting assistant that helps sales reps work smarter. Think of it as having a research assistant that never sleeps.

The tool provides recommended contact suggestions based on your existing successful deals, learning your ideal customer profile and surfacing similar prospects. It also delivers real-time signals like job changes, funding announcements, and company hiring trends, so you can reach out at the right moment.

What makes Sales Companion particularly useful is the one-click business summaries feature. Instead of spending 15 minutes researching a company before a call, you get an AI-generated overview that gives you the context you need in seconds.

The feature integrates directly into your prospecting workflow, whether you’re building lists in the web app or using the Chrome extension on LinkedIn. For busy SDRs juggling dozens of prospects, this kind of intelligent automation can be the difference between hitting quota and falling short.

Data enrichment

Cognism offers three types of data enrichment to keep your CRM healthy: Instant, Scheduled, and On-Demand CSV enrichment.

Instant Enrich runs in real-time, automatically filling in missing contact details as leads enter your CRM. This is particularly valuable for inbound leads, where you might only have an email address but need job title, company size, and phone number to properly qualify and route the lead.

Scheduled Enrich runs on a cadence you set (weekly, monthly, etc.) to refresh your entire database and catch updates like job changes or outdated phone numbers. This prevents the slow database decay that plagues most CRMs.

On-Demand CSV Enrich lets you upload a list of contacts or companies and get back enriched data. Perfect for one-time projects or cleaning up imported lists from events or partnerships.

The enrichment pulls from Cognism’s database of over 400 million contacts and uses a waterfall approach, checking multiple data sources to find the most accurate, up-to-date information. Users report particularly strong enrichment results for European contacts, with solid coverage in North America that continues to improve.

Intent data and buying signals

Cognism partners with Bombora to provide intent data that shows which companies are actively researching topics related to your solution. This feature is available on higher-tier plans and can be a game-changer for timing your outreach.

Here’s the value: instead of cold prospecting randomly, you can identify accounts showing buying intent and prioritize them. The platform tracks signals like job changes, funding rounds, company expansions, technology adoption, and web research behavior.

For example, if you sell marketing automation software, Cognism can show you companies whose employees are actively researching “marketing automation,” “email campaign tools,” or related topics. You can then reach out while the problem is top of mind, dramatically increasing your chances of a conversation.

The challenge is that intent data requires interpretation. A signal doesn’t guarantee readiness to buy, and you’ll need to combine it with other research to avoid false positives. Still, for account-based sales strategies, having this intelligence can help you focus your limited selling time on accounts most likely to convert.

Integrations

Cognism integrates with the tools your sales team already uses daily. The platform connects with major CRMs including Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as sales engagement platforms like Outreach, SalesLoft, and Apollo.

The Chrome extension is particularly useful, allowing you to pull verified contact data directly from LinkedIn profiles, Sales Navigator, or any company website. You can export contacts straight into your CRM with one click, eliminating the tedious copy-paste routine.

For advanced use cases, Cognism offers API access and webhooks, letting revenue operations teams build custom integrations or automate data flows. You can also connect Cognism with automation tools like Zapier, Make, and Phantombuster to build sophisticated prospecting workflows.

The integrations generally work smoothly, though some users report occasional sync delays or duplicate records when working with large datasets. The Salesforce integration is particularly robust, as that’s where many of Cognism’s enterprise customers live.

Cognism pricing

Here’s where things get tricky: Cognism doesn’t publish pricing on their website. You’ll need to request a demo and get a custom quote, which is common for enterprise sales tools but can be frustrating for smaller teams who just want a straight answer.

Based on user reports and third-party research, here’s what you can expect:

Platinum (Grow) plan

The Platinum plan typically starts around €15,000 per year as a platform fee, plus approximately €1,500 per user annually. This plan includes access to contact and company data, the Chrome extension, CRM integrations, and basic enrichment features.

What you get: verified emails, direct dial numbers (not phone-verified), job titles, company information, basic signals like job changes, and standard support.

Diamond (Elevate) plan

The Diamond plan usually starts around €25,000 per year platform fee, plus approximately €2,500 per user annually. This is where you get access to Diamond Data® (phone-verified contacts), advanced intent data from Bombora, Sales Companion AI features, and priority support.

What you get: everything in Platinum plus phone-verified mobile numbers, advanced intent signals, AI-powered prospecting suggestions, and enhanced enrichment capabilities.

Enterprise

For large organizations with complex needs, Cognism offers fully customized enterprise packages. Pricing typically ranges from €30,000 to €100,000+ annually depending on the number of users, data volume, API usage, and specific feature requirements.

What affects your final price

Several factors will influence your quote:

• Number of user licenses
• Geographic coverage needed (EMEA vs. global)
• Volume of contacts you plan to export
• API usage for enrichment
• Contract length (annual commitments are standard)

Pricing is not available publicly, and annual contracts are the norm. For smaller teams or startups, these entry costs can be prohibitive, especially when compared to more transparent, usage-based alternatives.

Cognism pros and cons

Let’s look at what users actually say about Cognism in their reviews.

User ratings

G2: 4.6/5 (based on 500+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (based on 240+ reviews)

Pros ✅

Exceptional data accuracy for European contacts
Users consistently praise Cognism’s data quality, particularly for UK and EMEA regions. The platform delivers verified phone numbers and emails that actually work, with many reviewers reporting connect rates 2-3x higher than previous data providers. Diamond Data® verified mobile numbers are especially valuable for cold calling teams who waste less time on disconnected numbers.

Strong GDPR and CCPA compliance
For companies selling into Europe, Cognism’s compliance-first approach provides peace of mind. The platform checks contacts against 13 global do-not-call lists and makes it easy to honor opt-out requests. This gives you protection if you’re worried about regulatory issues with your prospecting data.

Smooth CRM and tool integrations
The Chrome extension and integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator make Cognism easy to incorporate into existing workflows. Users appreciate being able to pull contact data directly into their CRM without switching between multiple tools or manual data entry.

Excellent customer support and onboarding
Multiple reviews mention Cognism’s responsive support team, with average live chat response times around 20 seconds. The onboarding process includes hands-on training sessions, and higher-tier plans include dedicated customer success managers who help optimize your data strategy.

Cons ❌

Data coverage gaps in North America and APAC
While European data is stellar, users report more limited coverage and lower accuracy for contacts in the United States, Canada, and Asia-Pacific regions. If your target market is primarily North American mid-market companies, you may find data gaps frustrating.

Pricing lacks transparency
The custom pricing model is a common complaint. Sales teams want to quickly assess if a tool fits their budget, but Cognism requires going through a demo and negotiation process. The annual contracts and high entry costs (typically €20,000+ for small teams) make it difficult for startups or companies wanting to test before committing.

Limited data for smaller companies
Cognism’s database skews toward larger enterprises and mid-market companies. If you’re prospecting into small businesses or startups with 10-50 employees, you’ll often find incomplete or missing contact information.

Diamond Data® availability is inconsistent
While Diamond Data® is a standout feature, it’s not available for every contact. Users report that phone-verified numbers are much more common for senior executives and UK contacts, but harder to find for individual contributors or prospects in certain industries and regions.

Have you thought about multichannel outreach?

Here’s the thing: Cognism gives you high-quality contact data, but data alone doesn’t book meetings. Once you’ve identified the right prospects with verified emails and phone numbers, you still need to reach out to them effectively.

That’s where multichannel outreach makes all the difference.

Multichannel prospecting drives 3.5x more responses than email-only campaigns. Your prospects aren’t sitting around waiting for your email; they’re active on LinkedIn, checking Twitter/X, and sometimes actually answering their phones. By meeting them across multiple channels, you dramatically increase your chances of starting a conversation.

This is where La Growth Machine comes in as the perfect complement to Cognism.

Think of it this way: Cognism provides the intelligence, La Growth Machine executes the outreach. You use Cognism to identify your ideal prospects and enrich your database with verified contact details. Then you import those leads into La Growth Machine to run automated, personalized sequences across LinkedIn, email, Twitter/X, and even voice messages.

How Cognism and La Growth Machine work together

The workflow is straightforward:

1. Build your list in Cognism. Use Cognism’s database and filters to identify prospects matching your ideal customer profile. Export contacts with verified emails, phone numbers, and enriched company data.
2. Import into La Growth Machine. Upload your Cognism list to La Growth Machine via CSV or direct CRM integration.
3. Create multichannel sequences. Build campaigns that reach prospects across LinkedIn (connection requests, messages, voice notes), email (with deliverability optimization), and Twitter/X engagement.
4. Let automation work. La Growth Machine automatically executes your sequence, adapting based on prospect behavior. If someone views your LinkedIn profile but doesn’t accept the connection, the system sends an email. If they’re active on Twitter/X, it engages there.
5. Manage responses in one inbox. All conversations from LinkedIn, email, and other channels flow into La Growth Machine’s unified inbox, making follow-up simple.

Why this combination makes sense

Cognism’s strength is data quality and compliance. Their verified contacts and Diamond Data® make sure you’re reaching real people with correct information, all while staying GDPR-compliant.

La Growth Machine’s strength is multichannel execution. The platform automates outreach across channels, personalizes at scale, and includes features like LinkedIn voice messages and social warming that make your prospecting more human and effective.

Together, you get the best of both worlds: clean, verified data feeding into sophisticated multichannel campaigns that actually get responses.

Plus, La Growth Machine’s pricing is transparent and starts at €60/month per identity, significantly more accessible than enterprise data tools. You can combine Cognism’s data intelligence with La Growth Machine’s outreach automation without breaking the bank.

Conclusion

Cognism is a solid B2B sales intelligence platform that delivers on its core promise: accurate, compliant contact data, especially for European markets. The Diamond Data® verified phone numbers and strong GDPR compliance make it particularly valuable for teams that rely on cold calling and operate in regulated industries.

Cognism is best suited for:

• Mid-market to enterprise sales teams with substantial budgets
• Organizations that prioritize data compliance and quality over cost
• Companies primarily targeting prospects in UK and EMEA regions
• Sales teams where cold calling is a primary outbound channel

Cognism may not be the right fit if:

• You’re a startup or small team with a limited budget
• Your target market is primarily North American SMBs
• You need transparent pricing and month-to-month flexibility
• You want an all-in-one solution that includes outreach automation

The reality is that data intelligence is only half the equation. Once you have accurate contact information, you still need to execute multichannel outreach that cuts through the noise and starts conversations.

If you’re serious about building a complete prospecting stack, consider pairing Cognism’s data with a multichannel automation platform like La Growth Machine. You’ll get the verified contacts you need from Cognism and the outreach execution to turn that data into booked meetings and pipeline.