The best free B2B leads databases give you 40 to 75 contact credits a month (Lusha, Hunter, Apollo), and the only sources that are free without a cap (SEC EDGAR, Companies House) list companies with no people attached. If you went looking for a free database and kept landing on 7-day trials, that's why.
I read the free plan of 8 sources on November 5, 2026, from Apollo.io's 900 credits a year to the UK's monthly Companies House download. Below is what each one gives you for $0, where the limit sits, and how to stack them into about 200 contacts a month without paying.
What is a free B2B leads database?
A free B2B leads database is a searchable list of companies, people or both that you can use without paying. It comes in two kinds. Freemium contact databases (Apollo, Hunter, Lusha, Snov.io, ZoomInfo Lite) let you search millions of records but cap how many emails or phone numbers you can reveal each month. Public registers (SEC EDGAR, Companies House) are free and open, but they list companies and filings, and they hold no work emails.
That split decides what you can do with a $0 budget. A freemium tier gets you a handful of named contacts. A public register gets you a long list of companies that you then have to research by hand.
8 free B2B leads databases and what $0 gets you
The list below runs from the most free credits to the most free data. When free stops being enough, my guide on how to buy b2b leads compares the paid side.
1. Apollo.io Free: the largest published free allowance
Apollo's Free plan gives each seat 900 credits a year, granted monthly, so about 75 a month. One credit reveals one email; a phone number costs 8 credits, so the same 75 credits buy only 9 numbers. The plan also includes basic search filters, 2 email sequences and 100 CRM enrichments a month (Apollo pricing).
How to use it: build your search with the filters first (title, industry, headcount, location), save the companies, and only spend credits on the 1 or 2 people per company you'd really email. Example: a two-person agency selling to US dental groups can search "practice manager" at dental groups with 10 to 50 employees and reveal 75 emails in month one.
The catch is data age. One G2 reviewer wrote: "Occasionally, some contact details or direct phone numbers are outdated or inaccurate, which can lead to bounced emails." (Arman S., September 2026) Paid starts at $49 per seat per month, billed annually.
2. Hunter Free: 50 credits for finding and verifying
Hunter's Free plan gives you 50 credits a month across Email Finder, Email Verifier and Domain Search, plus basic filters in Discover, its B2B database. Discover's AI assistant gets 30 searches a month on the free plan, and you can add unlimited team members (Hunter pricing).
How to use it: Hunter works best when you already have the company. Paste a domain into Domain Search to see who works there, then verify the 1 or 2 addresses you'll use. Example: you have 30 target companies from a public register. A found email costs 1 credit and a verification half a credit, so 50 credits cover about 33 found and checked addresses, roughly one per company (and searches that find nothing cost nothing).
Paid starts at $34 a month billed yearly ($408 a year) or $49 month to month, for 2,000 credits a month.
3. Lusha Free: 40 credits, no card
Lusha's Free plan gives you 40 credits a month with no credit card and 1 seat. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 5, so you can reveal 40 emails or 8 phone numbers (Lusha pricing).
How to use it: Lusha's browser extension is the quick path. Open a prospect's profile or company page and reveal only the person you need. Example: a recruiter checking 8 hiring managers before a call spends the full 40 credits on 8 direct phone numbers.
Paid starts at $37.45 a month billed yearly, for 4,800 credits a year.
4. Snov.io Trial: 50 credits that renew every month
Snov.io calls its free plan a Trial, but it doesn't end: the 50 credits renew every 30 days. Credits cover prospect search, email search and verification at 1 credit each. The catch: the Trial shows only the first 20 prospects of a database search, and the plan table lists no data export (Snov.io pricing).
How to use it: Snov.io works best as a finder and checker for companies you already have. Example: you have 20 SaaS companies on your own list; Snov.io's Domain Search finds the founder's address at each one for 20 credits and verifies them with 20 more.
Paid starts at $29.25 a month on an annual plan or $39 month to month.
5. ZoomInfo Lite: free access, unknown allowance
ZoomInfo Lite is a free version of ZoomInfo with a "Standard monthly allowance" of credits, and ZoomInfo's own FAQ doesn't say how many. You need a valid business email, and Lite is closed to current or past subscribers of ZoomInfo's premium services. Unused credits don't roll over (ZoomInfo Lite FAQ).
There's a trade on offer: join the Community Edition and you get more monthly credits in exchange for connecting your Outlook, Google or CRM contacts. Read that part twice before you click, because it means your contacts feed their database.
How to use it: as a second opinion on the contacts you care most about. Example: before a big account call, check whether ZoomInfo lists a newer title for your champion than Apollo does.
6. Crunchbase Free: company facts, 5 results per search
Crunchbase Free shows company profiles with limited growth insights, but search results stop at 5 per search and there's no data export. Pro raises that to 1,000 results per search and 2,000 exported rows a month (Crunchbase help center).
How to use it: use Crunchbase Free to check a company you already have in mind. Example: a dev shop that heard about a startup at a meetup can look it up, check what it does, where it's based and how big it is, and decide whether it fits before spending any credits elsewhere.
Pro costs $49 a month billed annually for the first year (list price $79) or $99 month to month (Crunchbase pricing).
7. LinkedIn (free account): self-updated titles, a hidden cap
A free LinkedIn account lets you search people and companies, but searches that look like prospecting count toward a monthly commercial use limit. LinkedIn says it can't show how many searches you have left and can't lift the limit on request; it resets at midnight PST on the 1st of each month (LinkedIn Help).
How to use it: LinkedIn gives names and titles that people update themselves, so it's a good place to confirm who holds a role today. It shows no work emails, though. Example: you have 30 target companies; open each one's People tab (that counts toward the limit) and note the current head of sales.
Name searches in the top search box and browsing your own connections don't count toward the limit. Sales Navigator, the paid route, starts at $119.99 a month or $1,079.88 a year per license (LinkedIn Sales Navigator plans).
8. Public company registers: free and unlimited, companies only
Of the 8 sources here, government registers are the only ones free without a monthly cap, and they list companies and filings with no contact data. Three worth knowing:
- SEC EDGAR (US): the filings of every company that reports to the SEC, free to search and download. Scripts may send at most 10 requests a second (SEC, Accessing EDGAR Data).
- Companies House (UK): a free monthly CSV snapshot of every live UK company, with type, registered office, industry (SIC) code, status and accounts dates. It's out within 5 working days of each month end (GOV.UK, Companies House data products).
- OpenCorporates: company records from official registers in 140+ jurisdictions in one search; the API and bulk data sit on its pricing page (OpenCorporates).
How to use it: filter by industry code and region to get your company list, then use Hunter or Snov.io credits to find the people. Example: filter the Companies House file to SIC code 62012 ("Business and domestic software development", per the Companies House SIC list) and you have a list of live UK software firms in an afternoon.
Free B2B leads databases compared
| Source | What's free | Free limit | Emails or phones on the free plan? | Paid from | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo.io | Contact and company search | 900 credits a year (about 75 a month) | Yes, 1 credit per email, 8 per phone | $49/seat/month, billed annually | Pricing |
| Hunter | Discover search, finder, verifier | 50 credits a month | Emails only | $34/month, billed yearly | Pricing |
| Lusha | Contact search and extension | 40 credits a month | Yes, 1 per email, 5 per phone | $37.45/month, billed yearly | Pricing |
| Snov.io | Finder, verifier, database search | 50 credits a month, first 20 search results | Emails, no export | $29.25/month, billed annually | Pricing |
| ZoomInfo Lite | Database access | Not published | Yes, within the allowance | Custom pricing (sales call) | FAQ |
| Crunchbase | Company profiles | 5 results per search, no export | No | $49/month, billed annually | Plans |
| People and company search | Monthly commercial use limit, number not shown | No | $119.99/month (Sales Navigator Core) | Help | |
| SEC EDGAR | US public company filings | 10 requests a second for scripts | No | Free | SEC |
| Companies House | Monthly snapshot of UK companies | None | No | Free | GOV.UK |
Prices and limits from each vendor's pricing or help page, checked on November 5, 2026. Annual prices are per month, billed once a year.
Stack the four freemium tiers and you get about 215 email credits a month (Apollo 75, Hunter 50, Snov.io 50, Lusha 40), before verification. That's enough for a founder testing one segment, and it runs out fast once a team prospects every day.
A $0 workflow for your first 30 accounts
Here's how I'd combine them for one segment, using each free tier for the part it does best:
- Companies from a register or Crunchbase. Pull 30 companies that fit: a SIC code filter on the Companies House file for UK firms, or Crunchbase Free to check startups one by one.
- Names from LinkedIn. Open each company's People tab and note the 1 or 2 people in the role you sell to. That's about 30 views toward the commercial use limit.
- Emails from Hunter. Run each name through Email Finder and verify the result: 1.5 credits per person, so 30 people use 45 of the 50 monthly credits.
- Misses through Snov.io or Apollo. Names Hunter can't find go to Snov.io's 50 credits or Apollo's 75.
- One sheet with the source and date per row. When someone replies that they left the company months ago, you'll know which tool to stop trusting.
That's 30 named, verified contacts for $0 and a few evenings of work. The time is the real price, and it's the point where a paid plan starts to make sense, usually once you work a second segment.
6 mistakes that make free leads expensive
Free data still costs you time, and these are the places where it goes.
- Downloading a "free B2B leads database" PDF or CSV: a file with no source and no date gives you no way to tell how old the records are or who else has emailed them. Use data where you can see where each record came from, like a register or a tool that shows its source.
- Spending credits on phone numbers first: at 8 credits per number on Apollo and 5 on Lusha, phones eat a free allowance in days. Reveal emails first and save phones for the 5 or 10 accounts you'll really call.
- Skipping verification: even paid data goes stale (see the Apollo review above). Verify every address before a send; a check costs half a credit on Hunter and 1 credit on Snov.io.
- Searching LinkedIn without a target list: browsing burns the commercial use limit, and it resets only on the 1st. Build the company list elsewhere, then open LinkedIn for the 1 or 2 people you need at each.
- Opening extra accounts to get more credits: ZoomInfo Lite already requires a business email and excludes past premium subscribers, and other tools have their own terms. Read them before you try it.
- Forgetting the rules for cold email: in the US, CAN-SPAM covers business email too; the FTC says the law "makes no exception for business-to-business email" (FTC compliance guide). Rules in the EU and UK differ, so check them before you email people there.
Find the companies that fit with Openlead
Openlead does the step before the free tiers above: it finds which companies fit and who to talk to at each. I built Openlead for that step, and it sells no contact data.
You describe your customer in one sentence, for example "US accounting firms with 10 to 50 employees that serve construction companies", and Openlead searches the live web and returns up to 25 companies per search, each with its website, what it does, its location and why it matches, plus 1 to 3 people in the roles you ask for (say, managing partner) with a link to their profile and the page it found them on. It gives no email addresses or phone numbers, so you'd take those names to Hunter or Snov.io for the address. It's a paid tool with launch credits to start: $50 of searches with no card, then plans from $29 a month billed yearly (pricing). Try Openlead free
Frequently asked questions
Is there a completely free B2B leads database?
Not for contact data. Every freemium contact database caps reveals, from 40 credits a month on Lusha to about 75 on Apollo. Company data is different: SEC EDGAR and Companies House are free with no monthly limit, but they hold no work emails.
Where can I download a free B2B leads database as a CSV?
Companies House publishes a free monthly CSV snapshot of every live UK company, and SEC EDGAR lets anyone download US filings. Among the freemium tools, Snov.io's Trial and Crunchbase Free list no export at all, so check a plan's export row before you build a list inside it.
What is the best free B2B leads database?
It depends on the job. Apollo gives the most credits (about 75 a month), Hunter is the best fit when you already know the company and want a verified address, and Companies House is the best free source for a full list of UK companies by industry.
Is there a free alternative to ZoomInfo?
ZoomInfo has its own: ZoomInfo Lite, free with a business email and a monthly credit allowance it doesn't publish. Apollo Free is the other common pick, with 900 credits a year and basic filters.
How many free leads can I get a month?
About 215 email reveals if you use Apollo, Hunter, Snov.io and Lusha together (75 + 50 + 50 + 40), fewer if you spend credits on phone numbers or verification. Public registers add as many companies as you like, without names.
About the author
Julian KrethFounder, Openlead
