Comparison · QD vs Cognism
Excellent in Europe. We verify everywhere you’re selling.
Cognism is a platform your team subscribes to, and one of the sources we ourselves buy from — for EU, UK and GCC phone data specifically. This page sets the two side by side on what each one checks, how far the scope reaches and what it costs, with a source and a date on every figure.
- 92%+
- Deliverability target
- Stated guarantee · 2026
- 750
- Verified leads, Pilot
- 250 companies · 3 contacts each · 2026
- 5–7d
- Turnaround
- From a confirmed brief · 2026
The difference
What each side checks, and how far it reaches.
| Measure | Cognism | Qualified Deals |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A data platform sold by package with seats included — sales prospecting, CRM enrichment, or data delivered as a feed. No dialer or sequencing is listed.cognism.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | A research project. You brief a senior analyst once, and a finished file comes back.Pilot scope · 2026 |
| Where the strength is | They describe themselves as EMEA-centric, citing 200M+ European contacts and European coverage they call unrivalled against US-centric providers.Cognism published positioning · 18 Aug 2026 | We research into the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East. The same person-level check runs in each, because the check is a person reading, not a regional dataset.Pilot scope · 2026 |
| What gets checked | Mobile numbers are phone-verified: their team calls the number to confirm the right person answers.Cognism published positioning · 18 Aug 2026 | Every contact is cross-checked by a person against LinkedIn and the company website — name, exact title and current employer — and the date of that check is recorded on the row.Delivery SOP stages 1–5 · 2026 |
| What you receive | Platform access with seats, or a data feed priced on volume and delivery method.cognism.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | 750 verified leads across 250 companies, as XLSX and a CSV that imports cleanly, 5–7 days from a confirmed brief.Pilot scope · 2026 |
| Bounce policy | None stated on Cognism’s published pricing page.cognism.com/pricing · checked 18 Aug 2026 | Seven-day bounce replacement. Report above 8% inside the window and every bounced record is replaced, re-verified, within 5 working days.Stated guarantee · 2026 |
Cognism is one of the sources our own analysts buy from, specifically for EU, UK and GCC-compliant phone data. Where they are strong is where they say they are, and a team selling only into Europe is well served by them. The question this page answers is what happens when your ICP spans more than that.
No accuracy percentage appears above, for either side of that row. Cognism publishes one for its phone-verified mobiles; independent testing disputes it, and we have not tested it ourselves. A contested number about another company is worse than no number, so the row states what each side checks instead.
On the US question specifically: independent reviews report comparatively thinner mid-market coverage there, while Cognism’s own material says every package includes all regions at no extra charge. Both are shown because we cannot settle it — we have not run the test that would.
How we verify
Brief, Source, Verify, QA and deliver.
| Stage | What happens | Artifact produced |
|---|---|---|
| 01Brief | A 30-minute Project Brief call with a senior analyst — not an SDR — to scope the ICP, territory, titles, volume and timeline. Ten fields, all required before research begins. If the brief shows we are not a fit, we say so before any work starts. | The signed research brief |
| 02Source | Analysts map the territory across twenty-plus sources — ZoomInfo, Apollo, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Cognism, Lusha, Crunchbase, PitchBook and company websites — triangulated rather than exported. Accounts outside the brief are dropped here. | The raw master source sheet |
| 03Verify | Every contact is cross-checked by a person against LinkedIn and the company website: current role confirmed, employer matched, email format validated. The date of that check is recorded on the row. SMTP-only verification is the floor, not the ceiling. | The LinkedIn cross-check log |
| 04QA and deliver | A 10% spot-check by a second person, with zero QA failures permitted — anything that fails goes back to the analyst. Records that cannot be confirmed are removed, not shipped as Pending. Then a CRM-ready XLSX and CSV with a count summary. | The QA spot-check sheet |
What you receive
One workbook, four sheets, and a CSV that imports cleanly.
Delivered as QD_[Client]_[Package]_[YYYYMMDD].xlsx with a matching UTF-8 CSV for direct CRM import. Phone columns are formatted as text, so long numbers do not arrive as scientific notation.
1 · Read Me
Client, package, ICP summary, delivery date, record counts, the verification method, and the guarantee stated verbatim.
2 · Verified Leads
One row per person. Company, contact, exact title, LinkedIn URL, verified email, confirmation date, status.
3 · Companies
One row per company. Domain, employee band, HQ country, sector, and the accounts we excluded.
4 · Method
Sources used, the verification steps applied, the exclusions, and the QA sample size.
| Company | Contact | Title | Confirmed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N•••••• Systems | D. R••••• | VP Engineering | 2026-07-28 | Verified |
| C•••••• Labs | R. M••••• | Head of Infrastructure | 2026-07-29 | Verified |
| A••••••• Digital | S. T••••• | Director, Service Delivery | 2026-07-29 | Verified |
| V•••••• Cloud | J. P••••• | Chief Technology Officer | 2026-07-30 | Verified |
If Cognism is already in the stack
Three things buyers say first.
We already use Cognism for EU and UK data.
So do we, for that exact job
Cognism is one of the sources in our own stack, bought for EU, UK and GCC-compliant phone data. The difference is scope. If your ICP also spans the US, that is a second market to be sure of — and we verify all of them the same way rather than buying strength in one.
Diamond Data is phone-verified — isn’t that the same thing?
Two checks, two questions
Phone verification confirms a number reaches the person. Ours confirms the person still holds that job at that company, against LinkedIn and the company website, with the date on the row. Both are real checks. A reachable number at a former employer is still a wasted send.
We need a dialer and sequencing too, not just data.
Neither of us sells one
No dialer or sequencing appears on Cognism’s pricing page either, so you are pairing whichever you choose with an engagement platform. Ours arrives CRM-ready and drops into the tool you already run, which is one subscription rather than two.
Cost
A quote you request, against a fee we publish.
Cognism’s figures are a third-party estimate published by SpendHound, read on 18 August 2026. They are not a Cognism quote and not a published rate: Cognism publishes no prices at all, and we have not been quoted. Treat the range as an order of magnitude rather than a number. Both rows exclude tax.
Figures outside USD are converted at the mid-market rates recorded for 16 August 2026. Our own prices are unchanged from the pricing page.
FAQ
What buyers ask when Cognism is already in the stack.
Is Qualified Deals a Cognism alternative, or does it complement one?
Complement, in most stacks — and we are unusually clear about that, because Cognism is one of the sources we buy from ourselves. If you sell only into Europe and the UK, they are strong where they say they are and a project from us is an addition rather than a replacement. The case for us gets stronger the further your ICP spreads beyond that.
Qualified Deals uses Cognism as one of its own sources. What do you add on top?
The step after sourcing, and the scope around it. Cognism is bought for EU, UK and GCC-compliant phone-verified data; it sits alongside twenty-plus other sources our analysts triangulate across. What you pay us for is what happens next: a researcher opens the person’s LinkedIn profile and the company website, confirms the name, the exact title and the current employer, records the date of that check on the row, and removes anything that cannot be confirmed. You are not paying us to re-export what a platform already holds.
Does Qualified Deals cover the same EU and UK compliance ground as Cognism?
For the data we deliver, yes. Our lawful basis is legitimate interest under GDPR Article 6(1)(f), with equivalents under CCPA and the UAE PDPL, and the source of any delivered record is auditable on request. We publish a DPA at /legal/dpa/ and honour deletion requests against a suppression list. What we do not offer is a platform-level compliance product — Cognism sells screening services as part of theirs. If your requirement is a tool your team operates under its own compliance controls, that is a different purchase from a delivered, audited file.
Do I still need a separate outreach tool if I use Qualified Deals?
Yes, and you would with Cognism too — neither of us sells a dialer or a sequencer. We hand off a CRM-ready XLSX plus a UTF-8 CSV with a BOM, with field mapping agreed before delivery, so it imports into HubSpot, Salesforce, Instantly, Smartlead or whatever you already run. Sequencing, sending and calling stay with your team, deliberately.
Related comparisons
Weighing more than one of these.
- A database you export from
- Apollo publishes an accuracy figure; we publish a guarantee with a replacement clause attached. Accuracy, verification method, bounce policy and price, each with its source.
- An enterprise contract
- Both of us put people on the problem — theirs on the database, ours on your file. Accuracy, where each one’s researchers work, coverage and what a contract runs to.
Book a project brief
Selling into more than Europe? Tell us the markets and we will verify all of them.
A senior researcher reads every brief and replies from a named address.