InsightBee vs Cognism
Mobiles and direct dials from your own CRM instead of a database.
InsightBee surfaced mobiles our data provider swore didn’t exist. Our connect rate doubled inside a quarter – and legal signed off without a single follow-up question.
At a glance
InsightBee or Cognism?
Choose InsightBee if…
- You want numbers for the contacts already in your CRM.
- You want them kept current automatically.
- Your legal team asks where your numbers come from.
Choose Cognism if…
- You need contact data for brand-new accounts in Europe.
- You need on-demand lookups.
- You want intent data.
The core difference
Where the numbers come from
Numbers come from a source databases don’t have: out-of-office replies from your own contacts. An out-of-office reply names who is covering right now and how to reach them.
Connect your CRM
Any CRM, live in under a day.
Out-of-office replies surface
InsightBee surfaces out-of-office replies from your existing contacts. Nothing is ever sent to them.
Numbers are written back
Mobiles, direct dials and replacement contacts are verified and written back to your CRM.
Comparison
Side by side
As of October 2026. Based on publicly available information; see sources below.
| Criterion | InsightBee | Cognism |
|---|---|---|
| Where numbers come from | Out-of-office replies from your own CRM contacts | Its own B2B contact data |
| How current the data is | Current by design – the reply names who is covering now | — |
| Mobiles and direct dials | Yes, business numbers only | Yes, including phone-verified mobile numbers |
| Day-to-day workflow | Automatic inside your CRM – no lookups, no credits to manage, no extension | — |
| Look up a specific person on demand | Not available. Numbers arrive automatically from out-of-office replies. | Yes |
| Contacts are emailed or notified | No – 0 emails sent | — |
| Data broker chain | None | — |
| Company location | Cologne, Germany (EU) | — |
| CRM support | Any CRM, writes back automatically | — |
| Setup | Minutes to connect, live in under a day | — |
| Brand-new accounts not yet in your CRM | Not covered – for these, a contact database remains the right tool | Yes, from its contact data |
Cognism in brief
Why it matters
Why database numbers go stale
People change roles, teams and employers all the time. A contact database can only record a change once it has picked it up, so the record in front of your rep may still describe the job the person had before.
The typical result is a number that still connects – to a switchboard, or to whoever held the role last. That is a property of the category, not of any one provider: a data set collected in advance starts to age the day it is collected.
Out-of-office replies work the other way round. They are written by your contacts themselves and name who is covering right now and how to reach them. InsightBee surfaces them from your own CRM and writes the numbers back, so your records follow the change instead of trailing it.
Customer case study
Six weeks at Boardwise
Boardwise is a German software company. It connected its HubSpot, with 91,000 contacts, to InsightBee.
Results after 6 weeks
- 14,440phone numbers found
- 19,035new decision makers found
- 1,564contacts who left the company
- 4,861job changes
- 42,269out-of-office messages found
InsightBee surfaced mobiles our data provider swore didn’t exist. Our connect rate doubled inside a quarter – and legal signed off without a single follow-up question.
- 100+companies trust InsightBee, from scale-ups to enterprises
- 0emails sent to your contacts
- 100%business data – never private numbers
- 98%number accuracy at first dial
Compliance
Compliance you can show your DPO
- Business data only, never private numbers
- No data broker chain – numbers come from your own business correspondence
- Nothing is sent to your contacts
- EU company based in Cologne
- Documentation available on request
When you buy contact data, you’re responsible for knowing where it came from. With InsightBee, the source is your own CRM.
Use both
Using InsightBee alongside Cognism
Many teams keep a database for new accounts and use InsightBee to keep their existing CRM reachable and current.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Cognism provides B2B contact data that you search when you need someone’s details. InsightBee works on the contacts already in your CRM: it surfaces business mobiles and direct dials from their out-of-office replies and writes them back automatically, with no lookups.
Yes. Many teams keep a database for new accounts and use InsightBee to keep their existing CRM reachable and current.
Not today. InsightBee works automatically: numbers arrive when your contacts send out-of-office replies. With active email traffic that happens at scale – at Boardwise, 42,269 out-of-office messages surfaced across 91,000 contacts in six weeks. For brand-new accounts that aren’t in your CRM yet, a contact database remains the right tool.
Yes. We process business contact data only, nothing is sent to your contacts, and our numbers don’t come from data brokers. Documentation is available on request.
Minutes to connect, under a day to go live. The first enriched contacts typically land in your CRM the same week.
Any CRM – Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics, Pipedrive or your own build.
It depends on what you use Cognism for. For the contacts already in your CRM, InsightBee can take over keeping mobiles and direct dials current, automatically. For prospecting net-new accounts, a contact database remains useful – and many teams keep one for exactly that.
Notes and sources
Comparison as of October 2026, based on publicly available information. If anything here is out of date, let us know at jonathan@pomelos.co.
All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. InsightBee is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Sources
- Cognism – company websitehttps://www.cognism.com/
- Cognism – pricinghttps://www.cognism.com/pricing
- Cognism newsroom – Kaspr acquisition (2022)https://www.cognism.com/newsroom/kaspr-press-release