Cognism and Lusha split by criterion and judge; no overall winner emerges. Cognism leads sovereignty (5.5 vs 1.7; 6 judges lean Cognism, 0 Lusha, 0 tie) — its data residency attribute reads EU only, Lusha's US by default — and prospecting compliance (3.7 vs 3.0; 3 lean Cognism, 1 Lusha, 2 ties). Lusha leads CRM sync and export (4.8 vs 4.0; 5 lean Lusha, 1 Cognism) and pricing transparency (4.0 vs 2.0; 5 lean Lusha, 1 Cognism): Lusha publishes prices, Cognism's plans route to a quote. The splits: data coverage ties at 2.8 vs 2.8 (2 lean Cognism, 3 Lusha, 1 tie); data provenance, 1 Cognism, 2 Lusha, 3 ties (4.0 vs 3.7); visitor identification drew 5 ties (2.0 vs 1.7). Weighted totals: Lusha ahead for the SDR lead (4 vs 3.2), RevOps (4.1 vs 3.8), ABM marketer (3.6 vs 3) and skeptic (4 vs 3.5); Cognism for the data protection officer (4 vs 0).
Choose Cognism if
Your compliance mandate requires personal data stored in the EU — Cognism's data residency attribute reads EU only against Lusha's US by default, and sovereignty leans 6 judges to Cognism, 0 to Lusha, 0 ties.
Your procurement policy avoids US legal entities — Cognism's legal entity jurisdiction is GB, Lusha's is US.
A data protection officer signs off on the purchase — that judge's weighted total is 4 for Cognism against 0 for Lusha.
Your outbound calling puts prospecting compliance first — 3 judges lean Cognism on that criterion against 1 for Lusha, 2 ties.
You want a privacy notice that names its source categories with a self-service opt-out — cited in Cognism's provenance verdict, where its mean is 4.0 vs 3.7 though judges split 1 Cognism, 2 Lusha, 3 ties.
Choose Lusha if
Your team runs Salesforce, HubSpot, Monday or Zoho — CRM sync and export leans 5 judges to Lusha against 1 for Cognism, mean 4.8 vs 4.0.
You need published prices before a sales conversation — Lusha publishes prices, Cognism's plans route to an individual quote, and pricing transparency leans 5 judges to Lusha against 1, mean 4.0 vs 2.0.
Your buyer sits in the SDR lead, RevOps, ABM marketer or skeptic seat — Lusha's weighted totals lead each: 4 vs 3.2, 4.1 vs 3.8, 3.6 vs 3, 4 vs 3.5.
You need published volume figures — Lusha's data coverage verdict credits 290M+ contacts, 165M+ emails, 117M+ direct dials and 29M+ companies, with 3 judges leaning Lusha on coverage against 2 for Cognism, 1 tie.
You must keep exported data after ending the contract — Lusha's CRM sync and export verdict notes terms letting customers keep exported data after termination.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The ABM Marketer
Works a list of three hundred target accounts and wants to know which of them are in market. Cares about company-level visitor identification, intent data with a named source, and alerts that reach the account owner while the signal is still warm.
Cognism
Lusha
This judge's pick
Criterion by criterion
Coverage, accuracy & freshness
Cognism
The vendor positions itself on data quality over volume and shows what a record carries — revenue, headcount, roles, technologies, verified-mobile filters and on-demand mobile verification — but we found no public information on database size, per-country coverage including DACH, or any re-verification cadence. No accuracy methodology or credit-back guarantee is published either.
Lusha
Headline counts of 290M+ contacts, 165M+ emails and 117M+ direct dials across 78 fields per record are published, but we found no public information on coverage by country — nothing on DACH specifically — no description of how emails are verified, and no re-verification cadence for contact records; the weekly refresh claim attaches to the buying signals, not the contacts. A decay study of 148,000 records showing 12.6% annual decay is disclosed, but there is no bounce guarantee or credit-back that would make inaccuracy the vendor's cost.
Data sources & lawful basis
Cognism
The privacy policy names its source categories — licensed third-party data vendors with the list available on request, customers sharing data under agreement, and direct correspondence — and offers a self-service Privacy Centre opt-out plus a five-year retention aim for business contact data. We found no public information on the legal basis for EU records such as legitimate interest, on any balancing test, or on notifying the people listed under Article 14.
Lusha
Sources are named with real specificity — trusted data brokers, publicly available APIs, and a Community Program whose members share CRM data, email headers and calendar meeting details — alongside a suppression list, a toll-free opt-out line and published 2024 figures showing 1,119 delete/opt-out requests handled within four days. We found no public information stating the legal basis for holding EU records, no practice of notifying the people added to the database, and no published balancing test; the contributory collection is at least disclosed as such.
Visitor identification & intent signals
Cognism
Intent data appears as a filter and as a promise to prioritise target companies with real purchase interest, but we found no public information on where that intent is sourced, no website-visitor identification, and no statement on whether any tracking script needs consent under §25 TDDDG. For working a named account list, nothing on the pages shows how a signal would be scored, traced back to underlying activity, or pushed to the account owner while it is still warm.
Lusha
Website Visitor Identification appears in the product list and buying-intent topics are sold in tiers — five topics at entry, unlimited results across twenty-five at the top tier — with a stated weekly refresh, but we found no public information on what the identification returns, company or person, how the tracking works, whether consent is required where cookies are set, or where the intent signals originate. For my three hundred named accounts I cannot tell from these pages whether an alert reaches the account owner at all.
Prospecting workflow & outreach rules
Cognism
Search is well built for account-based work — firmographic, technographic and signal filters, verified-mobile filters, targeted lists and direct export into CRMs — and the vendor sells itself on compliant prospecting, but we found no public information on a suppression or do-not-contact list, on country-aware flags for German cold-outreach rules, or on checks against do-not-call registers. The homepage GDPR question is captured with no answer text on the page.
Lusha
Basic and advanced filters across 78 fields, signals and automated email sequences are in the paid tiers, and the vendor honours its own suppression list so opted-out people stop appearing in the database. We found no public information on country-aware handling, guidance on cold outreach rules in the main EU markets, or checks of phone numbers against national do-not-call registers — the terms place call-recording consent solely on the customer — and a do-not-call-list badge appears without any described mechanism.
CRM sync, enrichment & export
Cognism
Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive are named alongside further systems, CRM enrichment is an add-on that automatically refreshes CRM records, and one unlocked contact can be reused for prospecting, enrichment and the API without extra credits. We found no public information on field mapping or deduplication during sync, on API limits, or on whether exported records may be kept after cancellation.
Lusha
Native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Monday and Zoho, enrichment of existing CRM records through the extension, CSV or API, webhooks and MCP support, and a plainly stated right to keep using exported data after termination give me a workable route into the systems where my account owners sit. We found no public information on field mapping, deduplication, propagation of deletions when a person objects, or the credit cost of an API call.
European sovereignty
Cognism
Hosting is named as AWS in Ireland with a stated practice of storing personal data inside the EU, the UK and Croatian entities are identified as joint controllers under the ICO and AZOP, and SCCs are described for third-country transfers with named affiliate and sales-engagement recipients. The contracting entity and governing law sit in the UK, the third-party data vendor list is only available on request, and a Macedonia-based affiliate is among the recipients, leaving parts of the chain outside the EU.
Lusha
The contracting entities are Lusha Systems Inc. of Boston and Lusha Systems Ltd. of Tel Aviv acting as joint controllers, and the contact data is stored on Amazon Web Services in the United States, with recipients in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Israel covered by Standard Contractual Clauses. A full sub-processor list with purpose, location and transfer method is published and a DPA is available, but we found no public information on EU hosting or an EU contracting entity — for a database populated with European professionals, this is a US-hosted chain.
Pricing transparency
Cognism
Both tiers point to requesting an individual quote with no price shown on the page, and the CRM enrichment and Data-as-a-Service add-ons address pricing only in collapsed FAQ text. The credit unit is at least public — one credit equals one unlocked contact, browsing is free, and reuse across prospecting, enrichment and the API costs nothing extra — but we found no public information on credit prices, expiry, extra seats or API costs.
Lusha
Four tiers are priced publicly with credit allowances — Starter at $37.45 USD / month billed yearly with 4,800 credits per year, Premium at $299.95 USD / month billed yearly with 40,800 credits per year — but the top tier carries no price, additional seats are charged at an unstated prevailing rate, and no page defines what a credit buys per data type or states VAT treatment. The captured pages give different figures for credit rollover: the pricing page describes rolling over monthly credits up to a cap on some plans, while the terms state unused credits expire at the end of the term.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Cognism
Lusha
Legal entity
Incorporated in DE
Incorporated in US
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
Not determined
US by default
Subprocessors
US CLOUD Act reach
US CLOUD Act reach
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.