Lead generation software and tools

Manually prospecting for sales is time-consuming, stealing hours away from other sales activities that could drive profits. Lead generation software—or lead gen software—automates and refines the prospecting process. It allows sales and marketing teams to bring in higher-quality prospects by automating inbound and outbound lead generation.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll introduce you to the top 22 lead generation tools so you can target your ideal customers with precision and equip your agents to surpass their sales targets.

More in this guide:

• What is lead generation?
• Why is lead generation important?
• What is lead generation software?
• Comparison chart of the top 22 lead gen tools
• The 22 best B2B lead generation software solutions
• How to choose the right lead generation software
• Easily integrate your lead gen tool with Zendesk for customer service
• Trust Zendesk for a 360-degree customer view

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting potential customers (leads) who show interest in your business's products or services. It involves capturing their contact information through various methods, such as online forms, content downloads, or social media engagement.

Lead generation is crucial because it serves as the foundation for acquiring potential customers and driving business growth. By identifying and attracting leads interested in a product or service, your business can build a pipeline of prospects to nurture and convert into a paying customer base.

Effective lead generation strategies help companies:

• Target the right audience.
• Optimize marketing efforts.
• Increase sales opportunities.
• Gather valuable target market data.
• Refine product or service offerings.
• Improve customer engagement.
  Ultimately, lead generation fuels revenue growth and ensures long-term sustainability—after all, new customers are necessary to scale your business.
  

Lead generation software is a tool to help sales teams create or identify sales lead opportunities, find contact information, and manage prospects as they travel through the sales funnel. The two types of lead generation are inbound and outbound:

• Inbound lead generation software typically comes with tools that allow businesses to collect contact information from online channels like email, social media, landing page interactions, and other website forms. Inbound lead generation is more popular with B2C industries, where “salesy” tactics can sometimes seem disingenuous or pushy. If you use outbound lead generation, you might look for tools with web forms, live chatbots, and visitor tracking.
• Outbound lead generation software helps salespeople find leads and reach out to the point of contact to pitch their product through data enrichment, lead scoring, messaging, and meeting scheduling. Outbound lead generation is a top strategy for B2B industries because the sales tactics are effective with business decision-makers, but B2C sales teams can also use it. It involves activities like cold calling or sending sales prospecting emails.

Notably, most software solutions only offer features for a single type of lead gen. Make sure your chosen software can generate the right type of leads for your business.

The lead generation tool you select to prospect will depend on several factors. Some factors you should consider when choosing a B2B lead generation software solution include:

• Budget: Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) when selecting a tool to ensure that onboarding or add-on fees aren’t making the software too expensive for you to see an ROI.
• Needs: Survey your customers and agents to identify any current service gaps and determine which features work well and which don’t to guarantee your new software checks all the boxes.
• Resources: Take inventory of your internal resources and the support your lead gen software vendor provides to make sure you have everything you need to implement the new tool.
  Next, determine whether you will conduct inbound or outbound lead generation or a combination. Remember: With outbound lead generation, you'll initiate contact with people with little to no knowledge of your company. Meanwhile, with inbound lead generation, you’re constructing materials that organically attract leads to you.
  

Our comprehensive comparison chart shares pricing information, free trial details, and key features of the 20 best lead gen tools so you can quickly gauge which systems may be the right fit for your business.

There are multiple B2B lead generation tools on the market. The solution you choose should fit your business’s needs, grow with your organization, and support high-volume lead management efforts. To help you narrow down your options, we’re sharing some of the best lead generation tools available today.

1. Pipedrive

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Visual sales pipeline management

Pipedrive is a lead management and customer relationship management (CRM) platform for sales teams that includes visual pipeline management and code-free development. If you purchase its LeadBooster add-on, you’ll also gain access to the Pipedrive prospect database for outbound lead generation.

Pipedrive also has a mobile sales app, making this lead gen software a viable solution for traveling salespeople. Whether your sales team is hitting the road or sitting in a cubicle, they can talk to customers via live chat and collect prospects’ information from web forms and chatbot conversations.

Features

• Pipeline management
• Deal Rotting
• Prospecting
• Web forms
• Smart contact data
• Visual contact history timeline
• Lead inbox

What users are saying:

• “Powerful CRM fit to scale.”
• “Okay…Not very intuitive and doesn’t learn well.”
• “It is incredibly confusing and frustrating.”

G2 rating: 4.3

Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: Plans start at $14 per seat/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how Pipedrive integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Pipedrive compare.

2. HubSpot Marketing Hub

Inbound software

Best for: All-in-one inbound marketing

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a marketing software for growing teams. The platform contains a lead management system with contact and campaign management functions.

The Marketing Hub helps businesses capture inbound leads with website forms, pop-ups, live chat, and chatbots with their lead capture tool. It also offers a free plan with some limited lead gen features.

According to HubSpot, the tool can also integrate with your preferred CRM software, email system, and customer data platform (CDP).

Features

• Performance metrics
• Pipeline management
• Prospecting tools
• Lead qualification
• Lead nurturing

What users are saying:

• “HubSpot has turned our marketing strategy around.”
• “Powerful and diverse, yes! Complete all-in-one solution, no!”
• “Complicated to use and too many interfaces to implement.”

G2 rating: 4.4

Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per seat/month. A free plan is available.

Learn more: Discover how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.

3. Agile CRM

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Small business automation

Agile CRM is a customer relations and auto-dialer program for small to mid-sized sales and marketing teams.

Sales teams can use Agile CRM to capture and nurture leads. With a user interface, custom workflows, and functionalities like finding unknown email addresses and monitoring lead activity on social media, it’s versatile enough for businesses to customize it to their specifications.

Features

• A/B testing
• Automated routing
• Appointment management
• Blended call center
• Call logging
• Dynamic web pop-ups
• Drag and drop landing page designer
• Email finder
• Auto dialer
• Lead scoring

What users are saying:

• “The application is easy to use and provides a range of great content management services.”
• “Good, but not the best CRM.”
• ““Emails just stopped working for us.””

G2 rating: 4.0

Capterra rating: 4.1

Pricing: Paid plans start at $8.99 per user/month, billed biennially. A free plan is available.

4. CallPage

Inbound software

Best for: Instant callback generation

CallPage is a sales call platform for small and medium-sized companies with outbound lead management features, including auto-dialer, live chat, and lead capture.

The platform promises automated callbacks in 28 seconds or less through its click-to-call widget, which makes it possible for customers to instantly receive a call from a business representative to convert inbound sales leads.

However, as a full-service lead capture tool, CallPage also offers several additional features that aid in lead generation.

Features

• Lead qualification and distribution
• Sales lead dashboard
• Call list management
• Contact database
• Lead capture
• Automated meeting scheduler

What users are saying:

• “Great for international businesses.”
• “A few more integrations would be awesome.”
• “The pricing can be steep for small businesses.”

G2 rating: 4.7

Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: Plans start at $31 per month for one user, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

5. AeroLeads

Outbound software

Best for: B2B prospecting

AeroLeads is an outbound B2B prospect generation program that allows users to find personal and business contact information.

AeroLeads can integrate with the CRM of your choice and also offers a Chrome extension and prospecting plugin to simplify finding phone numbers and email addresses.

Its database currently has more than 650 million emails, and the AeroLeads system regularly validates them to reduce prospecting time.

Features

• Pipeline management
• Prospecting tools
• Lead qualification
• Lead capture
• Lead database integration

What users are saying:

• “Great for sales leads.”
• “Great foundation, but limited data and no flexibility.”
• “Very poor customer service.”

G2 rating: 4.0

Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: Plans start at $39 per month for one user, billed annually. A free plan and a free trial are available.

6. LeadFuze

Outbound software

Best for: Automated lead list building

LeadFuze is a contact finder for salespeople, recruiters, and marketers. The software’s automated lead generation system includes features like lead verification and segmentation.

LeadFuze users can adjust filters to perform a market-based search and find hyper-specific leads based on factors such as industry or number of employees. Or, they can conduct an account-based search to find contact details for specific customer segments. For example, salespeople can run a bulk query to find the emails of all C-level execs in a specific list of companies. This frees up your sales people’s time to focus on their pitch rather than list building.

Features

• Prospecting tools
• Contact database
• Lead distribution
• Lead nurturing and qualification
• List-building AI assistant
• Prospect background insights

What users are saying:

• “A good tool for establishing contacts and details.”
• “Easy to use, but app integrations don’t work.”
• “The automation is overwhelming and we got a lot of negative feedback.”

G2 rating: 4.6

Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing: Contact LeadFuze.

7. LeadsBridge

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Integration between ad platforms and CRMs

LeadsBridge is a lead generation program for advertising agencies, retailers, financial services, and real estate businesses. It includes social media marketing tools and offers more than 380 integrations.

These integrations allow businesses to capture leads from various sources like ad platforms and upload that data to the CRM of their choice. LeadsBridge is primarily a marketing automation tool that assists users with email workflows, lead qualification, and segmentation to help businesses make the most of inbound leads.

Features

• Lead capture
• Lead nurturing
• Data import/export
• Lead management
• Lead segmentation

What users are saying:

• “Amazing integration with Facebook and our CRMs.”
• “Sometimes I have to use Webhooks for integrations, which can get over my head technology-wise.”
• “Bad commercial management.”

G2 rating: 4.5

Capterra rating: 4.4

Pricing: Plans start at $22 per month for three bridges, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Learn more: Discover how LeadsBridge integrates with Zendesk.

8. OptinMonster

Inbound software

Best for: Conversion rate optimization

OptinMonster is a marketing-based lead generation tool for small businesses, bloggers, marketing agencies, and e-commerce websites to optimize their conversion rates.

The platform offers numerous functionalities that help businesses convert website visitors into buyers. Some useful tools for lead capture include exit intent detection, landing page templates, and gamified wheels.

OptinMonster also shares its path to success and provides the necessary tools to help customers follow it, too. The platform includes everything from landing pages and message personalization with behavior automation to campaign reporting and analytics.

Features

• Prospecting tools
• Lead capture
• Lead segmentation
• Email integration
• Drag-and-drop pop-up builder

What users are saying:

• “It is an essential tool for boosting online performance.”
• “UX might be better, as the visual editor is not that intuitive.”
• “They nickel and dime you for every little feature.”

G2 rating: 4.4

Capterra rating: 4.3

Pricing: Plans start at $7 per month, billed annually.

9. Dealfront

Inbound software

Best for: Account-based marketing (ABM)

Dealfront—formerly Echobot and Leadfeeder—is an ABM and lead generation tool compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Its functionalities help sales and support teams generate leads and keep their sales funnels full of prospects.

The tool has more than 100 unique filters to help salespeople identify prospects that fit seamlessly into their target customer profile. This feature then leads users to complete customer profiles that offer complete, contextual information that supports sales efforts without infringing on an individual’s right to privacy.

Dealfront differs from many other solutions because it supports not only outbound lead generation, but also inbound. The lead generation system alerts users with sales triggers when a strong candidate visits their website or appears in the news.

Features

• Data access
• B2B look-alike recommendations
• Sales triggers
• CRM integrations
• Buyer intent signals
• Web visitor tracking

What users are saying:

• “The platform is very easy to use and helps find the right information quickly.”
• “It could be a little cheaper.”
• “The system is full of errors.”

G2 rating: 4.6

Capterra rating: 4.2

Pricing: Paid plans start at $99 per month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

10. Extole

Outbound software

Best for: Referral marketing

Extole is a cloud-based referral marketing software platform businesses can use to build engagement and advocacy among existing customers.

Extole primarily assists with inbound lead generation. Its software helps businesses attract qualified leads by incentivizing existing customers to refer friends and family members.

Features

• Advocate management
• Gamification
• Lead engagement
• Analytics/ROI tracking
• Bonus management
• Multi-channel marketing

What users are saying:

• “Great account management.”
• “I wish it were a little bit easier to track our influencers and affiliates.”
• “Some customizations take some time to implement.”

G2 rating: 4.7

Capterra rating: 4.8

Pricing: Contact Extole.

11. RollWorks

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: B2B account-based advertising

Extole is a cloud-based referral marketing software platform businesses can use to build engagement and advocacy among existing customers.

Extole primarily assists with inbound lead generation. Its software helps businesses attract qualified leads by incentivizing existing customers to refer friends and family members.

Features

• Collaboration tools
• Engagement tracking
• Data extraction
• Contact management
• Lead qualification

What users are saying:

• “A refreshing ABM experience.”
• “More documentation would help a lot.”
• “It often will misidentify traffic.”

G2 rating: 4.3

Capterra rating: 4.5

Pricing: Contact RollWorks

12. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Enterprise-level CRM and lead management

Salesforce helps businesses manage leads and automates several simple tasks. The company’s sales and marketing clouds work together to simplify inbound and outbound lead generation.

The Marketing Cloud Account Engagement tools allow sales teams to collect customer data from web forms, social media, email, or any inbound channel.

For outbound lead gen, sales teams can use the Salesforce CRM to create prospect lists, automate outreach and lead scoring, and route the best opportunities to salespeople.

Features

• Lead management
• Automated lead scoring
• Lead alerts
• Lead routing

What users are saying:

• “The ultimate B2B marketing tool for creating leads.”
• “Can be complex to navigate for beginners.”
• “Still a work in progress.”

G2 rating: 4.0

Capterra rating: 4.2

Pricing: Plans start at $25 per user/month. A 30-day free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how Salesforce integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Salesforce compare.

13. Keap

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Automated follow-ups and sales funnels

Keap—formerly Infusionsoft—is an email marketing company, but also offers lead generation tools that sales teams can implement into their workflows.

Businesses can use Keap to automate email campaigns and follow-ups, personalize bulk messages, and nurture sales leads until they win the deal.

Features

• Lead capture forms
• Landing page templates
• Appointment scheduling
• Dedicated business line
• Invoicing
• Payment processing

What users are saying:

• “The central nervous system for my business.”
• “It is not as comprehensive and integrative as a medium-sized business would care for.”
• “Keap does many things, but none of them well.”

G2 rating: 4.2

Capterra rating: 4.1

Pricing: Plans start at $249 per month for two users, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

14. Ocean.io

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: B2B company discovery

Ocean.io’s lead generation software is useful for B2B businesses conducting outbound sales lead prospecting.

The Ocean.io AI look-alike search helps businesses find prospective customers within their target audience by analyzing current and former clients’ websites. The Ocean.io AI can then scan website text for context to verify that a lead is a good fit. If it is, the system creates an outbound opportunity for the sales department to pursue.

Features

• AI look-alike search
• Machine learning
• Advanced lead filters
• Pipeline management

What users are saying:

• “Great tool to find lookalike audiences.”
• “It generates leads that are similar to our current customers.”
• “Ocean might be out of your budget.”

G2 rating: 3.4

Capterra rating: 4.4

Pricing: Plans start at $59 per user/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

15. Zoho CRM

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Customizable workflows

Zoho CRM’s platform helps businesses capture leads and gather key data from email marketing campaigns to identify additional opportunities.

With Zoho, sales teams can collect leads from inbound marketing efforts like web forms or through social listening. Zoho also helps users host virtual events for an extra prospecting push.

Along with 800+ integrations and rich analytics, Zoho helps company representatives customize workflows, keep tabs on prospects, and close more high-profit deals.

Features

• Sales activity scheduling
• Advanced lead filters
• Lead scoring
• Sales forecasting
• Smart web forms

What users are saying:

• “Zoho CRM is a complete and flexible tool.”
• “A versatile tool with room for improvement.”
• “Bait and switch pricing, nonexistent support.”

G2 rating: 4.1

Capterra rating: 4.3

Pricing: Plans start at $14 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how Zoho CRM integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Zoho compare.

16. Unbounce

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Landing page optimization

Unbounce is an inbound lead generation landing page builder for agencies, e-commerce, and SaaS companies. The marketing tool helps these businesses keep their funnels full by offering landing page builders, website pop-ups, and sticky bars. It also has an AI conversation feature to help agents identify conversion opportunities.

If you want an influx of inbound leads, Unbounce can help you turn web traffic into sales. Use Unbounce to create high-conversion landing pages for all of your pay-per-click (PPC), social media, and email marketing campaigns.

Features

• Customizable templates
• Form builder
• Real-time editing
• Reporting and analytics
• SEO management

What users are saying:

• “Best landing page for non-coders.”
• “Some of the drag-and-drop features have slightly different usage than other tools we use, but the learning curve is minimal.”
• “Customer service doesn’t exist.”

G2 rating: 4.4

Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing: Plans start at $74 per month for one user, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

17. Leadpages

Inbound software

Best for: Quick landing page creation

Leadpages is a landing page builder program for small businesses. Unlike some other prospecting tools in this roundup, this platform supports SMBs with inbound prospecting, increasing conversion rates by providing landing page templates and generating sales copy with their proprietary AI engine.

Businesses can use the tool to create beautiful landing pages, track key metrics, and easily collect payments. Leadpages also provides ongoing support to help users make the most of their purchases by offering live chat support, tutorials, and guides.

Features

• Form builder
• Pre-built templates
• A/B testing
• Lead magnet delivery
• Pop-ups and alert bars
• Automated lead notifications

What users are saying:

• “The resources and support are top-notch.”
• “Would like to see more template options released more often.”
• “Customer service is not helpful or friendly.”

G2 rating: 4.3

Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing: Plans start at $37 per month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

18. ActiveCampaign

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Email marketing automation

ActiveCampaign offers email marketing automation, CRM, and marketing automation features. It includes functionalities for email campaigns, segmentation, autoresponders, and lead scoring.

Contact management features allow for storing information and tracking interactions. Automation tools enable the creation of workflows based on triggers and actions. Reporting and analytics provide insights into campaign performance and contact behavior. Users can integrate with third-party software to customize workflows further.

Features

• Automated lead notifications
• A/B testing
• Lead scoring
• Landing page templates
• Pipeline management

What users are saying:

• “The most scalable CRM out there.”
• “The UI needs some fine-tuning.”
• “Used to be best-in-class; now they’re somewhat lagging behind.”

G2 rating: 4.5

Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing: Plans start at $15 per month for one user. A 14-day free trial is available.

Learn more: Discover how ActiveCampaign integrates with Zendesk.

19. Zapier

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Automating workflows between apps

Zapier is an automation tool that connects apps and services to streamline workflows. It focuses on automating tasks between apps, such as automated lead notifications and sales activity scheduling. It supports a wide range of integrations across various categories, such as marketing, CRM, and productivity tools.

Users can create "Zaps" that trigger actions in one app based on events in another. Zaps can involve multiple steps and data transformations. Zapier offers pre-built Zap templates and a visual interface for creating custom workflows.

Features

• Lead engagement
• Multi-channel marketing
• Third-party integrations
• Workflow analytics

What users are saying:

• “It’s the digital component that brought us all together.”
• “I find that understanding and using "zaps" is not easy enough.”
• “Glitches often.”

G2 rating: 4.5

Capterra rating: 4.7

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19.99 per month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Learn more: Discover how Zapier integrates with Zendesk.

20. Demio

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Webinar lead generation

Demio is a webinar platform designed for marketing and sales. It offers AI features for creating and hosting live and on-demand webinars.

Users can manage customer registration, send automated reminders, and monitor attendee engagement. Demio also provides customization options for branding and appearance, and to customize further, integrations with marketing automation platforms are available. Analytics keep track of webinar performance and attendee data for future insights.

Features

• Demio AI
• Email automation
• Lead magnet delivery
• Registrant activity and event insights
• Automated webinar replays

What users are saying:

• “Used for five years now and have zero complaints.”
• “The interactive items seem to go haywire on my machine.”
• “Too confusing and glitchy.”

G2 rating: 4.6

Capterra rating: 4.7

Pricing: Plans start at $45 per month for one host, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

21. Hunter

Outbound software

Best for: Email outreach and domain search

Hunter is an email outreach and lead generation tool that helps users find and verify email addresses. It includes lead capture forms and advanced lead filters for targeted outreach. Users can also search for emails by domain name or name.

The tool provides an email verification feature to check deliverability and a browser extension for finding emails while browsing. API access is available to integrate Hunter's functionality into other applications.

Features

• Lead capture forms
• Advanced targeting filters
• Email campaign analytics
• Bulk domain search
• Email verifier

What users are saying:

• “Easy to implement, and customer service is very helpful.”
• “I would love to pay for the premium features but they’re a bit too expensive.”
• “Way too expensive to use at scale for email verification.”

G2 rating: 4.4

Capterra rating: 4.6

Pricing: Paid plans start at $34 per month for three users, billed annually. A free plan is available.

22. Calendly

Inbound and outbound software

Best for: Scheduling and appointment setting

Calendly is a scheduling automation tool that allows leads and existing customers to set up appointments and meetings. It includes automated lead notifications for booking confirmations.

Users can create customizable meeting slots and share them with others. Invite recipients can choose a convenient time and automatically book the meeting. To reach customers on different platforms, Calendly integrates with calendar platforms and video conferencing tools. And team scheduling features are available for coordinating multiple schedules.

Features

• Team scheduling
• Event buffers
• Time zone detection
• Round-robin scheduling
• Customizable branding

What users are saying:

• “Does the job and works well.”
• “A great service, but easily replaceable.”
• “You will likely lose money using Calendly.”

G2 rating: 4.7

Capterra rating: 4.7

Pricing: Paid plans start at $10 per seat/month. A free plan is available.

Learn more: Discover how Calendly integrates with Zendesk.

For streamlined workflows and deeper customer insights, integrate your lead generation tool with a customer service platform like Zendesk. Zendesk plugs seamlessly into your existing sales technology, ensuring that any lead gen software you choose feeds directly into your customer service operations.

Benefits of customer service solution integration:

• Centralized customer data for a 360-degree view of leads
• More personalized and timely customer interactions
• Context-aware support for nurturing leads

With access to 1,800+ apps and integrations, the Zendesk Marketplace enhances lead management, allowing teams to provide high-quality customer support throughout the entire lifecycle.