Salmon vs ZoomInfo

You're paying for a database.
We do the research.

ZoomInfo sells you a snapshot of who people were. Salmon tells you who they are right now — and finds the ones you didn't know to ask for.

The real problem

B2B data decays the moment it's exported.

ZoomInfo's model was built for a world where data moved slowly. Quarterly refreshes made sense when people stayed at companies for years.

That world is gone. 30-40% of B2B contact data goes stale every year. Job changes, reorgs, new titles — your CRM is a graveyard of who these people used to be.

When you buy ZoomInfo, you're buying a frozen moment in time. Salmon doesn't have a database — we research in real time, every time you ask.

40%
of CRM data decays each year
20%
of SDR time lost to bad leads
5-6hr
per manual research query

Common ZoomInfo frustrations

  • Contacts showing the wrong title — they left that role 8 months ago
  • Phone numbers and emails that bounce or reach the wrong person
  • Missing coverage on niche roles, emerging companies, and non-US markets
  • Credit system that incentivizes hoarding, not enriching
  • Annual contracts locking you into pricing for data you don't trust
  • No way to ask nuanced research questions — filter and keyword search only
Side by side
Where it matters most
Capability
ZoomInfo
Salmon
Data freshness
Quarterly batch refresh
Live at time of query
Research method
Static database lookup
Multi-source AI research
Complex research queries
Filter/keyword only
Natural language queries
Multi-source verification
Single database
Web + partners + your data
Confidence scores
Binary yes/no
Scored with reasoning trace
Intent signals
Intent add-on (extra cost)
Included — hiring, funding, org changes
CRM integration
Salesforce, HubSpot
Salesforce, HubSpot, API, CSV
Self-healing CRM
Manual re-exports
Continuous refresh, auto-update
Pricing model
Annual contract + credit packs
Flat monthly, unlimited research
The bottom line

Choose based on what you're actually buying.

ZoomInfo works if you need a large, fast database of rough-cut records and you're running high-volume outbound where contact decay is an acceptable tax.

If accuracy and freshness actually matter to your business — if a wrong title costs you a deal, if a bad number burns a relationship, if your compliance team needs to trust the data — ZoomInfo will disappoint you.

Salmon is built for teams who need to trust what they're working with. Real-time research means you get the truth about a contact today, not who they were six months ago.

ZoomInfo is better for

High-volume, low-precision outbound

If you're blasting thousands of contacts and bounce rate is a tax you've accepted, ZoomInfo's scale and speed makes sense. Freshness is the tradeoff.

Salmon is better for

Every situation where accuracy matters

Complex research, CRM hygiene, mid-market deals, compliance use cases — any workflow where stale data costs you real money. Salmon researches. ZoomInfo retrieves.

"We switched from ZoomInfo and immediately saw a 3x improvement in email deliverability. The data is just more current."
Head of Revenue Operations — Series B SaaS Company

See it work on your actual data.

We'll run a live enrichment on a sample from your CRM. You'll see the difference in minutes — not a slideshow.