> SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents. This is the Markdown copy of https://specstream.ai/alternatives/cognism. Every page, with what SpecStream does and costs: https://specstream.ai/llms.txt # Best Cognism alternatives in 2026 | SpecStream Compared on Nov 9, 2026. # Cognism alternatives in 2026 **Every account that fits, with its buying committee, at 15¢ a row.** Cognism publishes no price. Its pricing page sells Standard and Pro by personalised quote, each with 5 seats included, and one credit reveals one contact. Spendflo estimates $15,000 plus $1,500 per user for scaling teams and $25,000 plus $2,500 per user for enterprises. You search the people and companies in its database with its filters. SpecStream is the best alternative to Cognism for sales and RevOps teams whose best accounts share a trait no filter lists. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents: describe the accounts in plain words, and each one that meets every condition reaches your CRM as a structured row with its buying committee. A row costs 5¢, 15¢ or $1, an email adds 5¢ and a phone 15¢, and you approve the most a run can cost before it starts. [Describe your data](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-cognism&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fask%3Fq%3DB2B%2520software%2520companies%2520in%2520Germany%252C%2520France%2520and%2520the%2520Netherlands%2520with%252050%2520to%2520500%2520employees%2520that%2520are%2520hiring%2520for%2520RevOps%2520or%2520sales%2520operations%252C%2520with%2520the%2520VP%2520of%2520Sales%252C%2520the%2520head%2520of%2520RevOps%2520and%2520the%2520CRO%252C%2520and%2520a%2520work%2520email%2520for%2520each) New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ## SpecStream and Cognism side by side | | SpecStream | Cognism | | --- | --- | --- | | What you send | The accounts you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet | Filters over its database of people and companies. Its API searches with `POST /persons/filter` and `POST /companies/filter` | | What you get back | Structured rows, one record per company or person, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every value | Person and company records from its database. One credit reveals one contact, and each row an API search returns takes one search token | | What a row costs | A delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 by how much the row needs, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The same rate on every plan | Sold by quote. Spendflo estimates $15,000 plus $1,500 per user for scaling teams and $25,000 plus $2,500 per user for enterprises | | How to start | $10 of credit, no card. Pro $19, Scale $99 and Team $499 a month, all spent as credit at the same row rates. A yearly plan adds 20% more credit | A personalised quote for your team, on Standard, Pro or CRM Enrichment | | Seats | No seats. Your team and your agents spend from one balance | 5 seats included in Standard and 5 in Pro | | A list you already have | Import a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base of up to 20,000 rows. SpecStream fills in or checks each row and matches it to one identity, with any namesakes shown alongside their evidence. Import is free. A row that matches pays its rate, and a row that does not costs 5¢ | CRM Enrichment, a separate plan priced on subscription structure, usage and delivery requirements | | Failed or empty work | Nothing. Duplicates, rows you already own and rows a page contradicts are not charged, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing | An empty result page is not charged. Every row a search returns takes one search token, and one credit when it carries contacts | | The cost cap before a run | The most the run can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overages | The API checks your budget before a search runs and charges it after the search returns | | When the credit runs out | Top up at any time and spend it at the same row rates. A top-up never expires | Additional credits can be purchased at any point, at a price the pricing page leaves to the quote | | API and delivery | MCP server, REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. Rows go to Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks | A REST API limited to 500 requests a minute per operation. For more, you contact your Cognism account team | ## Why Cognism buyers move to SpecStream ### Accounts by the trait no filter lists Your best accounts share a trait no filter lists. Describe it, and every account that has it reaches your CRM with its buying committee and a link to where the trait shows. The trait can be the tools a company runs, the roles it hires for or the markets it entered. SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, then searches the live web and joins what it finds into one record per account. ### A price you can read today Cognism sells Standard and Pro by personalised quote, and Spendflo's estimate starts at $15,000 plus $1,500 per user. SpecStream's rates are on [pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism): 5¢ for a row with up to 5 facts, 15¢ for up to 15 facts and one set of related records, and $1 for a deep row with no limit. At 15¢ a row, 1,000 accounts with the buying committee cost $150, plus 5¢ for each email. ### You pay for the accounts that fit A Cognism search takes a token for every row it returns. On SpecStream an account that fails one of your conditions is not delivered and not billed. Every request gets a quote of the most it can cost, good for 30 minutes. Nothing runs until you approve it, the charge never goes past that amount, and whatever the run does not use goes back to your balance. ### Signals from data read every morning SpecStream holds the public databases a sales team watches for a reason to call. In the week of November 2, 2026, 494 operating companies filed a Form D reporting $29.51 billion sold, and each one is a row on [specstream.ai/data/form-d](https://specstream.ai/data/form-d?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism). Funding rounds, new executives and layoffs are at [specstream.ai/signals](https://specstream.ai/signals?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism). Ask for your own cut of any of them, with the people you sell to on each row. ### Up to date in your CRM Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching, a changed or new row costs half its rate and an unchanged row costs 1¢. New matches and changes land in HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Sheets, Slack or Teams with no code. Rows you already own are never charged again. ## Other Cognism alternatives ### SpecStream The live web data engine for teams and agents. One request in plain words returns every account that meets your conditions, with its buying committee, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. New accounts get $10 of credit, no card. ### Lusha A contact database sold in credits. The Free plan gives up to 40 credits a month, and Starter costs $49.90 a month for 400 credits. The Scale plan has no price on the page. On SpecStream every plan spends at the same public row rates, and each row meets the conditions you wrote. ### Apollo A contact database with a free plan that has no time limit and exports of up to 10,000 leads in one click. Its pricing page shows no price per user. SpecStream returns the accounts that share your trait, found on the live web, and quotes the most the run can cost before it starts. ### Hunter An email finder billed in credits: 1 credit for an email found and 0.5 for an email verified, with 50 free credits a month and paid plans of 2,000, 10,000 and 25,000 credits a month. If no emails are found, no credits are used. SpecStream finds the accounts that fit your trait, then adds the email to the row for 5¢. ## How SpecStream scores The same numbers as the benchmarks page, from the official tasks and scorers. ResultsWideSearchCostSimpleQA Verified | | SpecStream | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/parallel.svg)Parallel | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/exa.svg)Exa | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/tavily.svg)Tavily | ![](https://specstream.ai/images/benchmarks/perplexity.svg)Perplexity | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Web research**WideSearch, GPT-5.6 Luna | 60.9 | 45.5 | 53.0 | 47.9 | 47.0 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Luna | 96 | 94 | 91 | 94 | 94 | | **Factual accuracy**SimpleQA Verified, GPT-5.6 Sol | 99 | 97 | 91 | 92 | 95 | ## How to switch from Cognism Write the accounts you want in plain words, in place of the filters you set today. Or import the accounts you exported from Cognism, up to 20,000 rows, and SpecStream fills in or checks each row. Sign up and you get $10 of credit, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows. Or send the request from code. This call spends nothing: the `402` reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost. ``` curl -i https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"request": "B2B software companies in Germany, France and the Netherlands with 50 to 500 employees that are hiring for RevOps or sales operations, with the VP of Sales, the head of RevOps and the CRO, and a work email for each", "count": 25}' ``` On an account, your team uses the workspace and your agent uses the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`, from the same balance. [Describe your data](https://specstream.ai/signup?src=alternatives-cognism&utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism&returnTo=%2Fworkspace%2Fask%3Fq%3DB2B%2520software%2520companies%2520in%2520Germany%252C%2520France%2520and%2520the%2520Netherlands%2520with%252050%2520to%2520500%2520employees%2520that%2520are%2520hiring%2520for%2520RevOps%2520or%2520sales%2520operations%252C%2520with%2520the%2520VP%2520of%2520Sales%252C%2520the%2520head%2520of%2520RevOps%2520and%2520the%2520CRO%252C%2520and%2520a%2520work%2520email%2520for%2520each) ## Frequently asked questions Something we didn't answer? [Talk to a human](https://specstream.ai/talk-to-a-human.md) How much does Cognism cost? Cognism publishes no price: Standard and Pro each include 5 seats and are sold by personalised quote. Spendflo estimates $15,000 plus $1,500 per user for scaling teams and $25,000 plus $2,500 per user for enterprises. SpecStream's rates are public: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. What is the best Cognism alternative? SpecStream, at 5¢, 15¢ or $1 a delivered row with no seats. You describe the accounts in plain words, approve the most the run can cost, and get one structured row per account that meets every condition, with its buying committee, in your CRM or your sheet. How do Cognism credits work? 1 credit reveals 1 contact, and viewing a contact you already revealed is not charged. In the API, each row a person or company search returns takes one search token, and the limit is 500 requests a minute. Additional credits can be bought at any point, at a price the pricing page leaves to the quote. On SpecStream the unit is a delivered row at a public rate, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing. Does SpecStream find emails and phone numbers? Yes, for 5¢ an email and 15¢ a phone, added to the row that carries it. Each email says whether a page printed it, and one built from the company's published pattern is labeled likely. Can SpecStream fill in a list I exported from Cognism? Yes, up to 20,000 rows from a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base. Importing is free. Each row that matches your request pays its row rate, and a row that does not match costs a 5¢ check. Does SpecStream have an API? Yes. Deep Search runs through the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and the MCP server at `https://api.specstream.ai/mcp`. The same account runs the Search API at $5 per 1,000 searches of up to 10 results and the Extract API at $0.80 per 1,000 pages. How accurate is SpecStream? The Search API scores a 97.9 F-score on all 1,000 official SimpleQA Verified questions (978 correct) and 64.0 item F1 on all 200 official WideSearch tasks. The scores and method are on [benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks?utm_source=alternatives&utm_campaign=cognism). Every value in a row carries its source URL and read time. ### Sources SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page, and the estimate of Cognism's price from Spendflo. 1. [SpecStream pricing](https://specstream.ai/pricing)specstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 2. [SpecStream for agents](https://specstream.ai/agents.md)specstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 9, 2026 3. [SpecStream benchmarks](https://specstream.ai/benchmarks)specstream.ai/benchmarks, read Nov 9, 2026 4. [SpecStream Form D data](https://specstream.ai/data/form-d)specstream.ai/data/form-d, read Nov 9, 2026 5. [SpecStream signals](https://specstream.ai/signals)specstream.ai/signals, read Nov 9, 2026 6. [Cognism pricing](https://www.cognism.com/pricing)cognism.com/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 7. [Cognism API credits and search tokens](https://docs.cognism.com/docs/credits-and-search-tokens.md)docs.cognism.com/docs/credits-and-search-tokens.md, read Nov 9, 2026 8. [Cognism API endpoints](https://docs.cognism.com/docs/endpoints.md)docs.cognism.com/docs/endpoints.md, read Nov 9, 2026 9. [Cognism API rate limits](https://docs.cognism.com/docs/rate-limits.md)docs.cognism.com/docs/rate-limits.md, read Nov 9, 2026 10. [Spendflo, Cognism pricing](https://www.spendflo.com/vendors/cognism)spendflo.com/vendors/cognism, read Nov 9, 2026 11. [Lusha pricing](https://www.lusha.com/pricing/)lusha.com/pricing/, read Nov 9, 2026 12. [Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing)apollo.io/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026 13. [Hunter pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing)hunter.io/pricing, read Nov 9, 2026