Clay vs Clearbit (Breeze Intelligence) compared on pricing, setup effort, and waterfall accuracy. See which one truly fits your HubSpot stack best in 2026.
Clearbit doesn't exist as a standalone product anymore. If you're comparing it to Clay in 2026, you're really comparing Clay's multi-provider waterfall against Breeze Intelligence, the enrichment layer HubSpot built from Clearbit's acquired technology, and that context changes the whole decision.
Clay is a data orchestration platform where you chain multiple enrichment providers into a waterfall, trading setup time for higher accuracy than any single source. Clearbit, now Breeze Intelligence, is a single-source enrichment add-on that only works inside HubSpot, trading flexibility for a native, no-setup integration. If you're not on HubSpot, Clearbit as it exists today isn't even an option. If you are on HubSpot and just want enrichment that works inside the CRM without building anything, Breeze Intelligence is the lower-friction choice.
This isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison anymore, and pretending otherwise is how most "Clay vs Clearbit" posts mislead you before the second paragraph.
Clay vs Clearbit, defined: Clay is a data orchestration and enrichment platform that lets teams build custom waterfalls chaining multiple providers, so a contact gets checked against several sources before being marked found. Clearbit, rebranded as Breeze Intelligence after HubSpot's acquisition, is a single-source enrichment tool sold exclusively as a HubSpot add-on, requiring a paid HubSpot subscription to use.
Clay is provider-agnostic and platform-agnostic. Clearbit, as Breeze Intelligence, is neither. That's the whole story of how these two products diverged after the HubSpot acquisition.
Clay's core mechanic is the waterfall: run a contact through one data provider, and if it doesn't return a verified result, automatically fall through to the next provider, stacking multiple sources until you get a hit or exhaust the list (Clay Pricing 2026, Landbase, checked August 2026). Breeze Intelligence is single-source, HubSpot's own enrichment layer, and it's only available as an add-on for existing HubSpot subscribers, with credits that reset every 30 days and no rollover (Cleanlist, checked August 2026).
The practical result: a team not already on HubSpot can't meaningfully evaluate Clearbit anymore, because the product doesn't run independently. A team already on HubSpot Professional or Enterprise gets a truly convenient, native enrichment layer without touching a third-party integration. Clay works regardless of CRM, but it works because you built the pipeline, not because it came bundled with your existing stack.
Clearbit's price now starts with a HubSpot subscription you may already be paying for. Clay's price stands alone but scales with usage in a way that's harder to predict upfront.
Breeze Intelligence costs $45/month for an annual commitment or $50/month billed monthly, covering 100 credits, but that's on top of a required paid HubSpot plan starting around $30/month for Starter, putting the real floor closer to $75/month combined (Cleanlist, checked August 2026). For meaningful enrichment volume, mid-market teams on HubSpot Professional typically pay $1,000 to $5,000-plus a month once combining the subscription with adequate credit packs (MarketBetter, checked August 2026).
Clay's self-serve tiers are Free (100 Data Credits, 500 Actions per month), Launch ($185/month), and Growth ($495/month), with usage split into Data Credits and Actions consumed per enrichment step. Legacy Starter ($149/month), Explorer ($349/month), and Pro ($800/month) plans remain for existing customers, and annual billing saves roughly 10% (Warmly, checked August 2026).
| Plan tier | Clay | Clearbit (Breeze Intelligence) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 Data Credits, 500 Actions/month | Not offered standalone |
| Entry paid | $185/month (Launch) | $45/month annual + required HubSpot Starter (~$30/month) |
| Mid tier | $495/month (Growth) | Scales with HubSpot tier and credit packs, $1,000+/month typical at mid-market volume |
| Platform requirement | None, works with any CRM | Requires a paid HubSpot subscription |
| Credit rollover | Varies by plan | No, resets every 30 days |
| Enrichment model | Multi-provider waterfall | Single-source (HubSpot's own data) |
| InboundLabs | Monthly plans, no annual lock-in | Monthly plans, no annual lock-in |
Sources: Clearbit Pricing Guide 2026, Cleanlist, checked August 2026; Clay Pricing 2026, Warmly, checked August 2026.
The HubSpot dependency is the number that should end this comparison for a lot of teams before pricing even matters. If you're on Salesforce, a standalone CRM, or no CRM at all, Breeze Intelligence simply isn't purchasable the way Clearbit once was. That's not a pricing disadvantage, it's a hard eligibility gate most comparison posts don't mention up front.
Neither Clay nor Clearbit publishes a single, audited accuracy percentage the way a contact database like Apollo or Cognism does, because both are enrichment layers whose output quality depends on configuration and underlying source data rather than a fixed claim.
For Clay, the structural advantage is real: waterfall enrichment stacking three or more quality providers reaches roughly 88% accuracy in third-party analysis, compared to 65 to 75% for single-source enrichment, with match rates improving from about 60% on one provider to above 85% across three to four sources (Bitscale, checked August 2026). That advantage depends entirely on the waterfall being configured with the right providers in the right order.
Breeze Intelligence, as a single-source tool pulling from HubSpot's own enrichment data, doesn't benefit from that same multi-provider check. [VERIFY: an independently audited accuracy figure for Breeze Intelligence specifically was not found in the sources checked this run; treat any specific percentage from other sources with caution until confirmed.] What's structurally true regardless of the exact number: single-source enrichment, by definition, can't catch what its one provider misses, which is precisely the gap waterfall enrichment is designed to close.
Say your HubSpot instance runs 300 contacts through Breeze Intelligence and 25% come back incomplete or unusable, a plausible range for single-source coverage before Google's bulk sender bounce threshold of 2% ever enters the picture (WebFX, checked August 2026). A Clay waterfall checking the same 300 contacts against three providers would be expected to close a meaningful share of that gap, at the cost of the setup time it took to build the waterfall in the first place.
Pros: Multi-provider waterfall structurally outperforms single-source enrichment on match rate and accuracy. Works with any CRM or no CRM, not locked to one platform. Usage-based pricing means light users aren't paying for a HubSpot subscription they don't need.
Cons: Requires real setup and maintenance time from someone comfortable building enrichment logic. No native, zero-configuration integration the way Breeze Intelligence has inside HubSpot. Costs scale with usage, which is harder to forecast than a flat add-on fee.
Pros: Native integration inside HubSpot means zero setup for existing HubSpot users, enrichment just runs. Predictable add-on pricing on top of a subscription many mid-market teams already pay for. Backed by HubSpot's broader platform investment and support.
Cons: Only available to HubSpot subscribers, a hard eligibility gate for any team on a different CRM. Single-source enrichment without the multi-provider check that meaningfully improves match rate and accuracy. Credits reset every 30 days with no rollover, so unused capacity is lost.
Enrichment tools split cleanly along the Waterfall vs Single-Source Line: platforms that chain multiple providers together so a miss on one source gets caught by the next (Clay), versus tools that pull from one source and stop there, trading coverage for simplicity and native integration (Clearbit, as Breeze Intelligence).
The Waterfall vs Single-Source Line, in one line: every provider misses some contacts, so the only question is whether a second source catches what the first one missed, or whether you accept the gap for the sake of zero setup. Neither side is wrong. The line just determines whether your accuracy ceiling is set by one provider or by however many you're willing to stack.
Wherever your team lands on that line, the gap that matters most is the one between what your enrichment tool marks "found" and what your sending domain can actually reach. Say a quarter of your HubSpot contacts come back enriched but the emails still bounce on first send. See how InboundLabs finds verified contacts instantly → inboundlabs.app. InboundLabs verifies contacts before they're returned, so the "found" and "deliverable" gap that single-source enrichment leaves open is closed before you export.
If your team is deep inside HubSpot and Breeze Intelligence's native, zero-setup integration already covers your enrichment needs well enough, there's little reason to add a separate contact database on top of it. InboundLabs is a standalone searchable database you filter by industry, headcount, region, and title, not a CRM-native enrichment add-on. And if your RevOps team already has a well-tuned Clay waterfall producing strong accuracy, that setup investment has already paid off and switching tools would waste it.
| Feature | Clay | Clearbit (Breeze Intelligence) | InboundLabs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Multi-provider waterfall | Single-source HubSpot add-on | Searchable database + intent |
| Entry price | Free, then $185/month (Launch) | $45/month + required HubSpot Starter (~$30/month) | Free to start, no credit card required |
| Contract | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual (HubSpot dependent) | Monthly plans, no annual lock-in |
| Platform requirement | None | Requires paid HubSpot subscription | None |
| Accuracy approach | Waterfall, up to ~88% with 3+ providers | Single-source, no waterfall check | 98% email deliverability on verified contacts |
| Direct dials | Depends on providers configured | Limited | Verified direct dials, not switchboard numbers |
Clay wins for teams that want the highest achievable enrichment accuracy and have the operator time to build and maintain a waterfall. Clearbit, now Breeze Intelligence, wins for HubSpot teams who want enrichment that just works with no setup, as long as you're comfortable with single-source coverage and the HubSpot dependency. Neither is the right call for a team without a CRM fit or the resourcing the choice assumes. If your enrichment is consistently coming back "found" but not actually deliverable, that gap is worth testing against a verified database before you invest more in either enrichment layer.
Is Clearbit still a standalone product I can buy without HubSpot? No. Clearbit's technology was acquired by HubSpot and rebranded as Breeze Intelligence, sold exclusively as an add-on requiring a paid HubSpot subscription. If you're not on HubSpot, it isn't purchasable as it exists today.
Is Clay more accurate than Clearbit's Breeze Intelligence? A well-configured Clay waterfall using three or more providers structurally outperforms single-source enrichment, reaching roughly 88% accuracy in third-party analysis versus 65 to 75% for a single source. Breeze Intelligence, being single-source, doesn't get the benefit of that multi-provider check.
How much does Breeze Intelligence actually cost with HubSpot included? The minimum combined cost runs about $75 a month, covering HubSpot Starter (~$30/month) plus Breeze Intelligence's 100-credit tier (~$45/month annual). Mid-market teams enriching real volume typically pay $1,000 to $5,000-plus a month once credit packs scale up.
Do Breeze Intelligence credits roll over if I don't use them? No. Credits reset every 30 days with no rollover, so an unused allotment in a light month is lost rather than carried forward to the next billing cycle.
Can I use Clay to enrich data that then flows into HubSpot? Yes. Many teams run Clay as an external enrichment layer and push the results into HubSpot, effectively getting waterfall-level accuracy without relying solely on Breeze Intelligence's single-source data.
Which tool requires less technical setup? Breeze Intelligence, by a wide margin, since it's a native HubSpot add-on with no configuration beyond enabling it. Clay requires building and testing a waterfall, which takes meaningfully more time and technical comfort.
What happens to my enrichment if I leave HubSpot? Breeze Intelligence's enrichment stops working entirely, since it's not available outside HubSpot. A Clay waterfall, by contrast, is CRM-agnostic and continues functioning regardless of which CRM you're using.
For deeper coverage of each tool, see our Clay review and Clearbit (Breeze Intelligence) Review 2026, along with 6 Best Clay Alternatives in 2026 (Real TCO) and 6 Best Clearbit Alternatives in 2026 (Post-HubSpot).
On the enrichment mechanics behind this comparison, What Is Email Waterfall Enrichment?, How to Automate a Lead Enrichment Workflow, and How to Enrich CRM Data Automatically go deeper than this post has room for. For the HubSpot angle specifically, What Sales Intelligence Tool Works Best With HubSpot? and What Is Data Enrichment in Sales? are useful companion reads.
Clearbit and Clay also come up in Apollo vs Clearbit, ZoomInfo vs Clearbit, and Clay vs Apollo, worth reading if you're comparing across the wider enrichment and database market. For the firmographic and technographic filtering both tools ultimately feed into, What Is Firmographic Data? and How to Use Technographic Data for Sales round things out.
LSI keywords: Clay vs Clearbit, Breeze Intelligence pricing, waterfall enrichment accuracy, single-source data enrichment, HubSpot enrichment add-on, multi-provider data orchestration, B2B contact enrichment, verified direct dials, technographic data, firmographic data, CRM-native enrichment
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