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 Data Protection Officer
Knows the company becomes controller the moment a list is exported. Wants the source and legal basis of every record stated, the Art. 14 notice actually sent, a removal route for the people in the database, and a visitor script that does not fire before consent.
Cognism
This judge's pick
Lusha
Criterion by criterion
Coverage, accuracy & freshness
Cognism
The vendor positions itself on quality over volume with a stated European focus, phone-verified mobiles, filters for verified mobile numbers and on-demand verification, plus firmographics well beyond name and domain. But we found no record counts, no per-country coverage breakdown for DACH or anywhere else, no refresh cadence and no bounce or credit-back terms on the captured pages.
Lusha
Headline counts are published (290M+ contacts, 165M+ emails, 117M+ direct dials, 29M+ companies) and a decay study of 148,000 records puts annual decay at 12.6%, but we found no public information on per-country or DACH coverage, on how contact records are verified, or on a re-verification cadence for the contact data itself. Only the buying signals carry a stated refresh, at weekly.
Data sources & lawful basis
Cognism
The privacy notice names its source categories — licensed third-party data vendors, customer data-sharing agreements and direct correspondence — and offers a self-service Privacy Centre opt-out with a stated five-year removal aim for platform contact data. What I cannot find is the legal basis: the GDPR question appears in the FAQ with no answer text captured, no legitimate-interest statement, and no public information on an Art. 14 notification practice or a balancing test.
Lusha
Source categories are named — trusted data brokers, publicly available APIs, and a Community Program whose members share CRM data, email headers and calendar information — with the contributory nature disclosed as such, and a suppression list that permanently removes opted-out people (1,119 deletion and opt-out requests processed in 2024, none denied). However, we found no public information on the legal basis claimed for EU records, on an Article 14 notice sent to the people added, or on a published balancing test.
Visitor identification & intent signals
Cognism
Intent signals such as buying intent, job changes, hiring and funding rounds are marketed as filters and for account prioritisation, but that is the whole of it. We found no public information on identifying companies behind website visits, on any tracking script and its behaviour before consent, or on who supplies the third-party intent data — as DPO I can only treat that as unevidenced.
Lusha
Website Visitor Identification is named as a product and buying-intent topics are sold in tiers (five topics on lower plans, twenty-five on Scale), with signals refreshed weekly. We found no public information on whether identification is company-level only, on how the script works, or on its behaviour under the TDDDG consent requirement before consent is given.
Prospecting workflow & outreach rules
Cognism
Targeted list building with firmographic, technographic and signal filters, AI search and export are documented, and the homepage promises current, legally compliant data for outreach in Europe — but nothing operational backs that promise. We found no guidance on cold-outreach rules in the main EU markets, no suppression or do-not-contact list, and no country-aware flagging of German or other contacts.
Lusha
The terms restrict use to defined B2B purposes, prohibit B2C use, and oblige the customer to remove records from its possession without undue delay, while call-recording consent and validation of AI output are placed solely on the customer. We found no public information on a buyer-side suppression or do-not-contact list, on country-aware flagging of German contacts, or on guidance for cold outreach rules in the main EU markets.
CRM sync, enrichment & export
Cognism
Direct export to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and further systems, an automatic CRM-enrichment add-on, CSV enrichment and API or bulk access via Data-as-a-Service are all documented. We found no public information on field mapping, deduplication, propagation of objections or deletions into synced records, or — the question that matters most to me — which exported data the buyer may keep once the subscription ends.
Lusha
Native connections to Salesforce, HubSpot, Monday and Zoho, enrichment of CRM and CSV records, and an API with webhooks and MCP are documented, and the terms state plainly that the customer may continue using the data after termination in most cases. We found no public information on propagation of objections into synced records, on per-call credit costs, or on field-level change history.
European sovereignty
Cognism
The privacy policy names joint controllers Cognism Limited in England and Wales and Cognism d.o.o. in Croatia, hosting on Amazon Web Services in Ireland with a statement that personal data is stored inside the EU, SCCs for third-country transfers, and named affiliate recipients including a North Macedonian entity. The chain is only partly evidenced, however: the third-party data-vendor list is available on request rather than published, governing law is England and Wales, and ownership and certification are unconfirmed on the captured pages.
Lusha
Two non-EU joint controllers (a Delaware-incorporated company and an Israeli affiliate) host the database on Amazon Web Services in the United States, with transfers to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Israel covered by Standard Contractual Clauses and a published sub-processor list naming purpose, location and transfer method. We found no public information on an EU contracting entity, EU hosting, or an Article 27 representative, so EU residents' contact data is processed outside the EU by default.
Pricing transparency
Cognism
The credit mechanics are unusually clear — one credit per unlocked contact, pooled account-wide, free reuse across prospecting, CRM enrichment and API, with browsing free — so a buyer knows the unit of billing. But neither the Standard nor the Pro plan shows a price, add-on pricing details sit collapsed in the FAQ, and every path leads to requesting an individual quote; we found no credit price, expiry terms or per-seat cost, so the invoice is not computable.
Lusha
Four tiers are priced with credit allowances, from Free at $0 with 40 credits per month to Premium at $299.95 USD per month billed yearly with 40,800 credits per year, and the captured pages give different figures for rollover: the pricing page describes rolling over monthly credits subject to a x2 monthly cap while the terms state credits expire at term end and do not roll over. We found no public information on what a credit buys per data type, per-seat costs beyond included seats, ad hoc credit pricing, overage rates, or VAT treatment.
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.