/// Head to head

Hound vs Cognism

Cognism is the strongest European contact database, with human-verified mobile numbers and serious compliance workflows — priced for enterprise sales teams, with an effective floor reported around £16,000 a year, a five-seat minimum, and no self-serve signup. Hound serves the people that pricing shuts out: solo founders, freelancers, and small UK agencies who want plain-English live prospecting from £19 a month, cancel anytime.

Choose Cognism if

·You run a 5+ seat enterprise sales team that needs phone-verified mobile numbers at scale
·You need DNC/TPS screening across 15 countries and procurement-grade compliance paperwork
·An annual five-figure data contract is normal for your organisation

Choose Hound if

·You're a solo founder, freelancer, or small agency — Cognism has no plan for you
·You want to start today: self-serve signup vs a sales-call gate
·You want live discovery of businesses (including ones with no contact-database presence), not a contact lookup
·£19–99 a month, monthly, beats £16K+ a year, annually, upfront

01 / side by side

The differences that matter

DimensionCognismHound

What it is

CognismStatic B2B contact database (440M+ claimed) with human-verified "Diamond" phone data

HoundLive search engine over maps, the UK company register, Reddit, social, and the open web

Who it's for

CognismEnterprise sales teams; five-seat minimum, annual upfront, no monthly option

HoundSolo founders, freelancers, small agencies; self-serve, month-to-month

Entry price

CognismNo public pricing; reconstructed effective floor ~£16,500/yr even for one seat

Hound£19/mo published, free tier to try, cost preview before every hunt

UK strength

CognismGenuinely strong UK/EU contact data — the field's best database for Europe

HoundUK-first by architecture: Companies House filings, FSA ratings, UK-local Maps sweeps, £ billing

Local businesses

CognismB2B professionals only — local businesses without office phone systems aren't the model

HoundHyperlocal discovery is the core: find every salon in a postcode and what each one is missing

Data accuracy story

CognismDiamond tier independently tested ~87% connect rate; ~62.5% of non-Diamond records incomplete in one test

HoundNothing stored to go stale — every lead found live, timestamped, with verification status shown per email

Compliance posture

CognismISO 27001, SOC 2, notified GDPR processing — plus a €240K CNIL fine at its Kaspr subsidiary (Dec 2024)

HoundICO-registered UK company; no stockpiled personal-data database at rest — results come from live public sources

Getting started

Cognism"See it in action" → sales call → contract

HoundType a hunt in plain English, watch it run

Competitor details compiled July 2026 from vendor pages, review platforms, and independent accuracy tests. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.

02 / straight answers

Common questions

Is there a cheaper Cognism alternative for UK freelancers and small agencies?

Cognism's reported effective floor is around £16,000/year with a five-seat minimum, which rules out solo operators by design. Hound is UK-first prospecting from £19/month, self-serve, month-to-month — a different product for a different buyer: live discovery of UK businesses rather than an enterprise contact database.

What does Cognism do better than Hound?

Phone-verified enterprise contact data at scale. If you need mobile numbers for named decision-makers across Europe, human-verified, with enterprise compliance workflows and CRM integrations, Cognism is the strongest option in the field. Hound doesn't sell phone databases at all.

Does Hound use Companies House data?

Yes — the UK company register is a named primary source. Hound can find companies incorporated this month by sector and area, spot share filings that indicate a recent raise, and watch for new registrations on a schedule. No contact-database competitor forefronts registry data this way.

03 / more comparisons

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