Clay and Telescope both target lead generation and outreach but serve different needs. Clay excels at deep data enrichment using numerous sources and offers high workflow customization, making it powerful but complex and potentially costly. Telescope focuses on AI-driven lead list generation from its own database combined with an integrated outreach engine, aiming for a more streamlined, automated experience from-scratch lead-finding process.
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Clay is a data enrichment and outreach tool that helps businesses improve sales outreach. It offers access to over 75 data providers, AI-powered research, and personalized messaging features, all within a user-friendly spreadsheet interface. Clay aims to streamline the lead generation process, improve data accuracy, and automate repetitive tasks, allowing sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
Telescope is a lead generation software that uses artificial intelligence to help businesses build lists of potential customers. It offers access to a vast database of company and contact information and uses AI to identify and recommend the most relevant leads based on your criteria. This enables efficient lead generation without manual research. Telescope is trusted by numerous companies and backed by prominent investors.
Summary
Main difference
Clay's main strength is its powerful data enrichment engine, drawing from over 100 sources within a highly flexible workflow builder. Telescope's core differentiator is its AI-powered lead generation based on smart criteria and natural language search within its proprietary database, coupled with a built-in outreach system.
Relative strengths of Clay (compared to Telescope)
Broader Data Enrichment: Clay offers access to over 100 premium data sources, allowing for more comprehensive enrichment of contact and company details compared to Telescope's apparent reliance on its internal database.
Workflow Flexibility and Control: Clay provides a highly flexible, spreadsheet-like interface for building custom data enrichment and outreach workflows, offering more granular control for teams wanting to design specific processes.
Established User Base and Support: Clay has a significantly larger review base on G2 and is noted for its rather positive customer service and strong community support via Slack, which can be valuable for mid-sized teams needing assistance.
Relative weaknesses of Clay (compared to Telescope)
Complexity and Ease of Use: Clay is rated poorly for ease of use and implementation, suggesting a steeper learning curve compared to Telescope's focus on automation and natural language search, which might be challenging for teams without dedicated technical resources.
Pricing Model & Value Perception: Clay's credit-based system is perceived negatively, can be confusing, and potentially expensive, especially with heavy AI usage, posing a challenge for businesses seeking predictable costs and clear value for money.
Integrated Outreach Engine: Telescope offers a specific, built-in outreach engine covering domain setup, warmups, and AI copy personalization, potentially providing a simpler all-in-one solution for generating leads and starting outreach compared to Clay, which requires integration with other tools for full outreach execution.
Clay seems like a powerful tool for sales teams needing better data and outreach. It pulls info from tons of sources and uses AI to help personalize messages, all in a spreadsheet-like view. While we hear it's incredibly versatile, especially for tech and marketing teams aiming to scale their efforts, some users find the credit system and initial setup a bit tricky. Still, its data capabilities get rave reviews for improving lead generation and targeting accuracy for the right customers
Telescope looks like a solid choice for sales and marketing teams needing to boost their lead generation without spending ages on manual research. We find its AI really helps pinpoint the right prospects from its huge database. If you're looking to automate finding new potential customers, especially using smart criteria or even just plain language search, Telescope is designed to streamline that process effectively, helping you replicate your best customers easily and efficiently through its specialized features like finding similar companies based on your best customers input description of your criteria or just natural language description of your leads profile
We see Clay working well for tech companies of all sizes, from small businesses just starting out to large enterprises looking to scale outreach.
In our experience, Clay is particularly effective for B2B tech companies, especially in software, IT, marketing, and advertising sectors.
In our experience, Telescope delivers the most value for small to medium-sized businesses (up to 1000 employees) aiming to automate lead gen.
We see Telescope performing particularly well for companies in the Software, IT, Telecommunications, Marketing, and Advertising sectors.
Clay and Telescope features
Supported
Partially supported
Not supported
Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need
AI-powered data research
10
sources
Supported
Clay offers AI-powered research by combining premium data access with AI agents.
Not supported
TelescopeAI uses AI to analyze existing data but does not offer access to premium data sources or AI research agents.
Flexible workflow builder
10
sources
Supported
Clay supports workflow automation for tasks like enrichment, research, and outreach.
Not supported
Telescope does not appear to offer a workflow builder.
GTM stack consolidation
10
sources
Partially supported
Clay streamlines GTM operations by integrating with 200+ tools and automating tasks.
Not supported
Telescope does not appear to support GTM stack consolidation.
Email enrichment
10
sources
Supported
Clay supports email enrichment by gathering email addresses from multiple sources, validating their accuracy, and integrating this data into various sales and marketing tools.
Not supported
Telescope does not seem to support email enrichment with validation based on the provided materials.
Lead routing
10
sources
Not supported
Clay does not seem to have built-in automatic lead routing based on criteria like company size, industry, geography, or product interest. While it excels in lead generation, enrichment, and outreach automation, it doesn\'t explicitly mention lead routing in the provided sources.
Not supported
Telescope does not seem to support automatic lead routing based on predefined criteria.
Social media enrichment
10
sources
Partially supported
Clay might offer social media enrichment via third-party data providers.
Not supported
Telescope does not support social media enrichment.
Browse all features
Qualities
Value and Pricing Transparency
-0.43
Rather negative sentiment
No data
Customer Service
+1
Strongly positive sentiment
No data
Ease of Use
+0.41
Rather positive sentiment
No data
Reliability and Performance
+0.6
Rather positive sentiment
No data
Ease of Implementation
-0.14
Neutral sentiment
No data
Scalability
+1
Strongly positive sentiment
No data
Clay and Telescope Pricing
Clay's pricing is credit-based and does not follow a traditional subscription model. Users purchase credits to access data and features. The more credits purchased, the lower the cost per credit. Unused credits roll over up to twice the purchased amount.
Plans
FreeFree
Unlimited users, Up to 100 searches per company/people, Exporting, AI/Claygent, Rollover credits
$134 per credit/yearStarter
Unlimited users, Up to 2,000 searches per company/people, Exporting, AI/Claygent, Rollover credits, Use your own API keys
$314 per credit/yearExplorer
Unlimited users, Up to 10,000 searches per company/people, Exporting, AI/Claygent, Rollover credits, Use your own API keys, Integrate with any HTTP API, Webhooks, Email sequencing integrations
$720 per credit/yearPro
Unlimited users, Up to 25,000 searches per company/people, Exporting, AI/Claygent, Rollover credits, Use your own API keys, Integrate with any HTTP API, Webhooks, Email sequencing integrations, CRM integrations
CustomEnterprise
All pro features, Unlimited rows (API), Custom automation templates, Sources sync hourly, 40 action columns per table, AI prompting support, Snowflake, Dedicated Slack support, Credit reporting analytics, Private Clay recipes
Highly praised for its powerful and versatile data enrichment capabilities, consolidating access to numerous data providers.
Intuitive spreadsheet-like interface makes it user-friendly even for those without coding experience.
AI features, including ChatGPT integration, enable advanced personalization and automation for outreach campaigns.
Strong community support and responsive customer service via Slack contribute to a positive user experience.
No data
Users dislike
The credit system can be confusing, especially for new users, leading to unintentional overspending.
Credit costs can be high, especially for AI features and extensive data enrichment.
Some integrations, while numerous, may require further refinement and polishing for seamless functionality.
Occasional glitches or slow performance can hinder workflow, especially when handling large datasets.
No data
Clay and Telescope Ratings
G2
4.9/5
(149)
G2
5.0/5
(6)
Company health
Employee growth
263% increase in the last year
33% increase in the last year
Web traffic
No data
76% decrease in the last quarter
Financing
July 2024 - $62M
June 2023 - $1M
How do Clay's data enrichment sources compare to Telescope's database size for lead quality?
Clay focuses on lead quality through deep data enrichment, drawing from over 100 different external data providers and using AI for research to add detailed context to leads. In contrast, Telescope emphasizes lead quality by leveraging the sheer size of its internal database, reportedly containing over 900 million person profiles and 50 million company profiles, and using AI to identify the most relevant leads within that vast pool based on user criteria. Essentially, Clay prioritizes quality via the depth and variety of external data sources for enrichment, while Telescope prioritizes quality via the breadth of its internal data and AI-driven matching.
Which product offers better control over outreach automation, Clay or Telescope?
Based on the descriptions, Telescope appears to offer more specific, built-in control over outreach automation. While Clay offers flexible workflows and AI for personalized outreach campaigns, Telescope explicitly lists a "Built-in Outreach Engine" which includes features for managing technical aspects like domain setup, mailbox creation, warmups, cycling, and monitoring, alongside AI-powered personalization. This suggests more direct management of the outreach execution process within Telescope itself compared to Clay's focus on flexible workflow building that incorporates outreach.
What are the advantages of Clay?
Clay's main advantages lie in its access to over 100 premium data sources combined with AI agents, enabling powerful data enrichment, research, and personalized outreach within a single platform. It offers flexible workflows for automation and aims to consolidate the Go-To-Market tech stack. Users particularly appreciate its versatile data capabilities, the intuitive spreadsheet-like interface, strong community support, and responsive customer service, contributing to its high user ratings.
What are the disadvantages of Clay?
Clay's disadvantages center around its pricing structure, which uses a credit system that users find confusing, potentially leading to overspending and high costs, particularly for AI features and extensive data enrichment; this contributes to negative perceptions of its value and pricing transparency. The platform is also rated poorly for ease of use and ease of implementation. Furthermore, users report that some integrations could be more polished, and occasional glitches or slow performance can hinder workflows, especially with large amounts of data.
Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT
management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs
of any business and find solutions to its problems.
TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio
Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech
department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX,
HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.
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