Top 6 of 19 alternatives
6 Clay alternatives (2026)
The closest alternatives to Clay in October 2026 are Argorant, Apollo and SEOmatic.
6 agents compared · 5 with a free plan · prices checked 3 September–19 October 2026
Reviewed by The Agents Index editorial team.
Clay and its alternatives at a glance
| Agent | Best for | Starts at | Better than Clay at | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | GTM and RevOps teams, ideally with a GTM engineer, who want best-in-class enrichment, AI research, and now orchestrated multi-step workflows to power outbound at scale. | Free, then $185/month source | 14 October 2026 | |
| Apollo | B2B sales and SDR teams running outbound prospecting on bought-in contact data | Free, then $65/seat/month source | Seat model | 19 October 2026 |
| Warmly | RevOps/GTM teams with meaningful inbound website traffic who want one connected system for identifying, engaging and routing visitors, plus coordinated outbound account orchestration, rather than two separate tools. | Free, then $99/month source | Runs autonomously, Multi-agent | 3 September 2026 |
| Lead Scorer | A solo founder or small B2B team who wants an autonomous outbound SDR with human-in-the-loop approval and a free CRM underneath. | Free, then about $111/month source | Multi-agent, Getting out | 18 September 2026 |
| Artisan | Funded B2B sales and RevOps teams that want to scale outbound volume with a genuinely autonomous AI BDR and are willing to run a sales-led evaluation to get pricing. | Free, then $280/month source | Runs autonomously, Seat model | 10 September 2026 |
“About” figures are converted at the European Central Bank rate of 22 October 2026.
- 01
ArgorantVerified
Verified B2B contact data, email verification and outbound campaigns, drivable by your own AI agent over MCP.
From $99/monthWhy it's on this listDone-for-you service · YesArgorant Managed is a done-for-you engagement where their team buys domains, warms inboxes, writes and runs campaigns and works replies; it is quoted on a call rather than priced publicly.Source ↗
Where it improves on Clay
- +Seat model · YesEach plan includes a named seat count from 1 to 20 with extra seats priced per user per month, and a seat is only consumed when an invite is accepted.Source ↗
- +Audit log · YesA Profile Activity tab records reveals, exports, verification runs, sign-ins and key creation with cost and actor, and the vendor states no spending path is unlogged across app, API, CLI or MCP.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −Open source · NoThe terms reserve the software, models and database compilation to Argorant and grant no rights beyond using the service, so nothing is source-available.Source ↗
- −Free tier · PartlyYou can start without a card, but it is a 14-day trial rather than a standing free plan: campaigns pause and unused trial credits expire at day 14.Source ↗
- −Bring your own key · PartlyYou bring your own agent and therefore your own model subscription, and your own Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailboxes do the sending; there is no key or cloud choice for Argorant's own hosted assistant.Source ↗
- 02
Apollo
AI go-to-market platform with B2B contact data, agents and outreach execution.
From FreeWhy it's on this listSeat model · YesPricing is per seat per month with a three-seat floor on the Organization tier, and the whole account must sit on one plan: seats cannot be mixed across Basic and Professional.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −Model choice · PartlyApollo normally picks the model, but its plan comparison table carries a 'Use your own LLM API key' row, so some tiers let a buyer substitute their own provider; the table did not show which columns include it.Source ↗
- −API access · PartlyA public REST API with 70+ endpoints and self-serve keys is advertised, yet the pricing FAQ says advanced or custom integrations need a Custom plan, so the breadth available on cheap tiers is not settled.Source ↗
- −Bring your own key · PartlyThe privacy policy states a customer may independently select, connect or route data through another third-party AI provider, and the plan table carries a 'Use your own LLM API key' row; there is no bring-your-own-cloud or self-hosted inference option described.Source ↗
- 03
SEOmaticVerified
Autonomous SEO agents that read Search Console data and publish approved fixes into your CMS.
From FreeWhy it's on this listShips it · PartlyIt does publish live: agents write straight into the connected CMS, and for sites built in code the fix arrives as a GitHub pull request that you merge yourself, so on that surface it stops at the diff.Source ↗
Where it improves on Clay
- +Multi-agent · YesSeveral named role agents (Strategist, Content Writer, Technical SEO, On-Page Optimizer, Link Builder) run one approved campaign in sequence, managed from a single board.Source ↗
- +Seat model · YesSeats are bundled per plan with a hard ceiling rather than sold individually: 1 on Free, 3 on Launch, 5 on Scale, 10 on Infrastructure, each paired with a site limit.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −GPT · PartlyOpenAI is used for images, embeddings and some text tasks rather than as the main writer, though a workspace may elect to run its text generation on OpenAI with its own key.Source ↗
- −Model choice · PartlyThe vendor picks the default stack; your choice is limited to flagging a workspace EU-sensitive or supplying your own Anthropic/OpenAI key, not free model selection.Source ↗
- −API access · PartlyReads and insight calls work on the free plan, but any REST call that stages a change requires the top Infrastructure tier, so programmatic acting is gated to the most expensive plan.Source ↗
- 04
Warmly
Identifies anonymous website visitors and runs AI inbound and outbound GTM agents on one shared context graph.
From FreeWhy it's on this listRuns autonomously · YesThe GTM Brain layer decides and executes without waiting for a human to act on a dashboard.Source ↗
Where it improves on Clay
- +Multi-agent · YesInbound Agent and TAM Agent coordinate through one Context Graph; the top plan adds unlimited AI Studio agents plus an Autopilot agent.Source ↗
- +Seat model · PartlySeats are named one-per-person for licence-based services, but no per-seat price, floor or ceiling is published; plans are priced by credits.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −Agent permissions · PartlyAgents act on their own; humans get visibility and an override on each decision rather than an approval gate.Source ↗
- −Claude · NoThe AI FAQ names OpenAI as the provider of all Warmly AI.Source ↗
- −Open models · NoInference is OpenAI-only by the vendor's own statement; no open-weight option is offered.Source ↗
- 05
Lead Scorer
AI SDR that finds, scores and drafts to B2B leads, with the whole workflow exposed as an MCP server.
From FreeWhy it's on this listMulti-agent · YesA fixed vendor pipeline rather than a crew you compose: separate agents handle discovery, enrichment and scoring, a drafting agent writes, and a second model proofreads every message before review.Source ↗
Where it improves on Clay
- +Getting out · YesCSV export of leads and companies is a free-plan feature and the Terms point to export before closure; what is not stated is whether monthly credits roll over or expire.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −Model choice · PartlyInside the app the vendor picks the models and bills them against an AI budget; over MCP you supply the model, because classification and drafting happen in your assistant and Lead Scorer only stores the result.Source ↗
- −On the command line · PartlyThere is no Lead Scorer CLI of its own; terminal use means connecting the MCP server from Claude Code or Codex, for which the vendor publishes a plugin bundling the OAuth MCP and its skills.Source ↗
- −Open source · NoThe product itself is proprietary; what is published openly is the playbook layer, 25 downloadable SKILL.md files, not the application the vendor retains rights in.Source ↗
- 06
Artisan
Autonomous AI BDR that sources B2B leads, sends personalized outbound, handles replies and books meetings.
From FreeWhy it's on this listRuns autonomously · YesAva runs prospecting, sending, replies and booking without a human in the loop by default, and approvals are an optional setting you can switch on per campaign rather than a stage you graduate out of.Source ↗
Where it improves on Clay
- +Seat model · PartlyThe platform itself is not seat-priced and invites are unlimited and free, but calling is: each rep who dials needs a paid dialer seat at $67 per seat per month on annual billing, $75 on monthly.Source ↗
Trade-offs against Clay
- −Claude · PartlyArtisan ships an official Claude connector on all plans, so Claude can drive your Artisan account from a chat. That is Claude acting as a client, not disclosure that Claude powers Ava. The vendor names no model behind Ava, and the connector is flagged as early.Source ↗
- −Open models · NoAva runs on models Artisan owns; no open-weight or self-supplied model option appears in the four-tier plan comparison, including Enterprise.Source ↗
- −Model choice · NoThe vendor picks the model. Artisan describes the models as its own, and the 30-plus row plan comparison contains no model-selection row on any tier.Source ↗
What to watch for
- ClayCosts scale non-linearly with row count and AI usage; budget the Actions and Data Credits sliders carefully and remember failed lookups still consume credits.
- WarmlyNo permanent free tier or self-serve monthly plan today — evaluating the product means committing to at least a quarterly contract.
- Lead ScorerPrimary discovery is the French SIRENE registry; web discovery fills gaps but the platform is tuned for French B2B sourcing.
- ArtisanNo self-serve pricing shown on the live site. Every tier requires a sales conversation to get a quote.
Side by side
Compare Clay with the shortlist
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The digest
Which agents actually ship. New agents and articles, by email, at most once a week.
Questions buyers ask
What are the best alternatives to Clay?
Argorant, Apollo and SEOmatic are the closest. They share the most of Clay's features.
What is the cheapest alternative to Clay?
Apollo, SEOmatic and Warmly and 2 more have a free plan. The lowest paid plan is Argorant, from $99/month. Price checked on 26 September 2026.
Which agents here have a free plan?
5 of the 6: Apollo, SEOmatic, Warmly, Lead Scorer and Artisan.
When were these prices checked?
Between 3 September 2026 and 19 October 2026, each read on the maker's own pricing page.
Sources and method
Closest first: most of Clay's features, then the fewest gaps. How we rank
Every price here was read on the agent maker's own pricing page.
- Clay: clay.com/pricing, checked 14 October 2026
- Argorant: argorant.com/pricing, checked 26 September 2026
- Apollo: apollo.io/pricing, checked 19 October 2026
- SEOmatic: seomatic.ai/pricing, checked 3 October 2026
- Warmly: help.warmly.ai/articles/4646691220-warmly-technical-documentation-mcp-server, checked 3 September 2026
- Lead Scorer: lead-scorer.com, checked 18 September 2026
- Artisan: artisan.co/pricing, checked 10 September 2026
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