Intent data for startups: what each budget buys

Intent data is a sign that someone is looking into a topic you sell into. For a startup with one to five people selling, the useful kind names a person. It says what they looked at, and when. A signal that names only a company still leaves you to find who to write to.

Under $500 a month, you mostly get the visitors to your own website. Tools that join many signals start at about $2,500 a month, billed by the year.

Four kinds of signal, in plain words

Kind of signal	What it tells you	What it leaves to you
Visits to your own website	A company, sometimes a person, that opened your pages	Only people who already found you. A small site gives few names
Job changes and hiring	A buyer moved to a new company, or a team is hiring	Whether they care about your topic at all
Topic research by companies	A company reads more than usual about a topic, across many sites	Who at the company is reading. Usually a score, not a name
A person engaged with content	One named person engaged with a report or guide on your topic, on a date	Writing to them. They may not remember the content

The last kind is what we sell: leads. Each lead is a person who engaged with content on your topic, with the date. A person checked them online, and a call confirmed the company. See one on the sample leads page.

What each budget buys

We read each vendor's own pricing page on 2026-10-30. Prices change, so treat the table as a snapshot of that day. A yearly price is shown per month, rounded.

Budget a month	What you can buy	Example, from its own page	What the signal names
Under $500	Visitors to your own site	RB2B: free plan, then $79 to $199 a month	A company; on paid plans, some US people
Under $500	Visitors to your own site	Leadfeeder: free plan, then from €79 a month, billed yearly	A company
Under $500	Job-change and hiring signals	Unify: $20 to $60 per seat a month	A person who moved, or a company that hires
Under $500	A contact database with topic data	Lead411: $490 a year, about $41 a month, with intent on the yearly plan only	A company reading about a topic
$500 to $3,000	Visitors to your site, with contacts	Warmly: from $10,000 a year, about $833 a month	A company and its people
$500 to $3,000	Community, website and topic signals	Common Room: $2,500 a month, billed yearly	A company, sometimes a person
$500 to $3,000	A pack of leads, paid once	Us: $2,000 for 50 leads, no contract	A person, with the content and its date
$3,000 or more	Many signals in one tool	Vector: from $36,000 a year, about $3,000 a month	Companies and people, from many signals

Three things the table shows. Under $500, you mostly learn about people who already visit you. Topic research across many sites is sold by the year. A pack of leads is the one row you pay for once.

What a lead costs elsewhere, and what each check adds to the price: B2B lead cost in 2026. All our prices are on the pricing page.

How to check if a signal is fresh

A signal loses value with every week. Run these four checks on any sample, ours included.

Ask for a date on every row. No date means you cannot tell a signal from last week from one from last year
Ask what the date means. It should be the day the person or company acted. A date the vendor scored or exported the row says less
Count the rows under 30 days old. In our packs, 90% engaged in the last 30 days. None did so more than 90 days ago
Write within days, not weeks. A fresh signal you act on next month is an old one

When you do not need intent data

You can name your buyers already. If you sell to 40 companies you can list, research them by hand. Team pages and job posts are free
Your website gets little traffic. A visitor tool can only name people who come. Fix the traffic first
Your buyers work at very small companies. Few of them read B2B reports and guides, so every kind of signal is thin. Ask any vendor for sample rows at your company size before you pay
Nobody can write to the people this week. A signal is worth most in the first days. Without time to write, buy later
You want meetings booked for you. Intent data and leads give you people to write to. Someone still has to write and follow up

To work out the most you can pay for one lead, use the CPL calculator. CPL means cost per lead. It starts from your deal size and two rates.

We have special offers for startups with a fresh funding round and for accelerator founders.

Questions

What is intent data?

A sign that a company or a person is looking into a topic. It comes from website visits, content they engaged with, or research across many sites. It is one fact, not a promise to buy.

How much does intent data cost for a startup?

From free to $36,000 a year and more. On 2026-10-30, tools that name the visitors to your own site started at $0 to $79 a month. One contact database added company topic data for $490 a year. Tools that join many signals started at about $2,500 a month, billed yearly.

Is company-level intent useful for a small team?

Less than it sounds. It tells you a company reads about a topic. It does not tell you who to write to, and finding that person is the slow part.

How fresh should intent data be?

As fresh as the vendor can prove with a date on each row. We aim for 30 days. In our packs, 90% engaged in that time, and none more than 90 days ago.

Do you sell intent data?

We sell leads. Each one is a person who engaged with content on your topic, with the date, checked online and by phone. You get a work email and a phone, so you can write the same day. How we check: how we find and check each lead.

See it on your own buyers

Give us your work email, then tell us who you sell to. We send 10 leads that fit, with contacts, free. If fewer fit, we tell you how many and why.

Get 10 free leads

Sources

A question about this guide? Write to hello@intentchart.com. A person answers within 1 business day