# B2B intent data providers for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "B2B intent data provider" and as "B2B buyer intent data vendor", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/sales/b2b-intent-data/smb/

**Standing:** Apollo.io leads with 56% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apollo.io | 56% | 6% | 53 |
| 2 | Dealfront | 13% | 2% | 52 |
| 3 | G2 Buyer Intent | 6% | 4% | 26 |
| 4 | Saleshandy | 6% | 0% | 14 |
| 5 | Lead Onion | 4% | 7% | 14 |
| 6 | Bombora | 4% | 63% | 52 |
| 7 | Lusha | 2% | 9% | 22 |
| 8 | RB2B | 2% | 0% | 18 |
| 9 | Warmly | 2% | 10% | 20 |
| 10 | 6sense | 2% | 92% | 49 |
| 11 | Cognism | 0% | 24% | 21 |
| 12 | HubSpot Breeze Intelligence | 0% | 0% | 10 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Apollo.io; alternatives Bombora, Dealfront, G2 Buyer Intent, Lead Forensics
- GPT-5.4 mini: Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent; alternatives Lead Onion
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Apollo.io; alternatives Cognism, Dealfront, Factors.ai, RB2B
- Perplexity Sonar: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront, G2 Buyer Intent
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront, Lead Onion, Lusha, Warmly
- Mistral Small: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront, RB2B
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront, RB2B, Snitcher
- Llama 4 Maverick: WhiteWhale; alternatives Apollo.io, Bombora, Lusha
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Apollo.io; alternatives Cognism, Dealfront, G2 Buyer Intent, Lead Onion
- Kimi K2: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront, Lusha, Saleshandy, UpLead
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Apollo.io; alternatives Dealfront
- MiniMax M2.5: Dealfront, Lead Onion

## Sources the answers cite

22 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- demandbase.com: 11 answers, 17 citations
- percepture.com: 10 answers, 10 citations
- autobound.ai: 9 answers, 10 citations
- cognism.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- rb2b.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- visualping.io: 6 answers, 6 citations
- artisan.co: 5 answers, 5 citations
- default.com: 5 answers, 5 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://demandbase.com/blog/b2b-intent-data-providers (10 answers)
- https://percepture.com/sales-intelligence/best-b2b-intent-data-providers (10 answers)
- https://autobound.ai/blog/top-15-intent-data-providers-compared-2026 (8 answers)
- https://cognism.com/blog/intent-data-providers (8 answers)
- https://rb2b.com/learn/intent-data-providers (6 answers)
- https://visualping.io/blog/best-intent-data-providers (6 answers)
- https://artisan.co/blog/intent-data-providers (5 answers)
- https://default.com/post/b2b-intent-data-providers (5 answers)
- https://demandbase.com/blog/b2b-data-vendors (5 answers)
- https://saleshandy.com/blog/b2b-intent-data-providers (5 answers)

## Warned against

- 6sense: 45 of 49 labels negative. "I would *not* start with enterprise tools like 6sense or Demandbase, since the results describe them as too expensive and complex" (Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt)
- Demandbase: 37 of 43 labels negative. "Enterprise ABM platforms—massive investment that doesn't pay off until you have larger sales orgs." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt)
- Bombora: 33 of 52 labels negative. "Expensive for what you get; same data available through other providers; long waits for new topic tracking" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- ZoomInfo: 20 of 30 labels negative. "What to Avoid - ZoomInfo, 6sense, Demandbase, Bombora: These start at $15,000–$60,000+/year—overkill for most small businesses" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.