Buying B2B leads vs building your own list (2026)

Adam Badar, Founder and CEOUpdated October 16, 20269 min read

Key takeaway

You can get B2B leads three ways. A list broker sells a file of business emails, at $0.07 to $0.14 a record at Telephone Lists. A database sells monthly credits, and Lusha's paid plans start at $49.90 a month. Or an agency does the outreach, with the list built for you. Bavlio charges from US$3,000 a month for done-for-you outbound.

Three ways to get B2B leads

You can buy a file of contacts from a list broker, pay a B2B database for credits and pull the contacts yourself, or have an agency do the outreach for you, with the list built for your niche.

	A list broker	A B2B database	Done for you
What you get	A file of business contacts, picked by industry, size and place	Searches and exports from a database of people and companies, paid for in credits	The outreach, sent to a list of the people worth reaching in your niche
What it costs	Business emails from $0.07 to $0.14 a record at Telephone Lists, by volume	Paid plans from $49.90 a month for 400 credits at Lusha, and $99 a month for 170 at UpLead	About $3,000 to $14,000 a month for outsourced SDR programs, by Leadium's 2026 guide
Who reaches out	You	You	The agency
Fits	Emailing, calling and mailing from one file	One person on your team who searches and sends	B2B companies where the founder or a small team does the selling

What a lead broker is

boberdoo defines a lead broker as "an individual or business entity that buys leads with the intention of reselling each lead to their own network of buyers." The broker keeps a margin on each lead and sells it to one or more buyers.

Its examples are home improvement and auto insurance leads. boberdoo also says to know whether a lead is exclusive (sold only to you) or non-exclusive (could be sold multiple times).

For B2B, the closer match is a list broker, which sells a file of business contacts priced by the record.

What a B2B email list costs

Telephone Lists publishes its prices for business emails, and the price per record falls as the list grows:

Business emails	Price per record	Total
5,000	$0.140	$700
10,000	$0.120	$1,200
25,000	$0.100	$2,500
50,000	$0.085	$4,250
100,000	$0.070	$7,000

Portal plans start at $99 a month, and the FAQ tells buyers to "expect some bounces on any purchased list, ours included".

Before you buy any list, ask when it was last updated, where the addresses came from and what happens to the records that bounce.

What a B2B database costs

A database sells credits. At UpLead, "One credit = one contact", and a credit gets you the contact's email and mobile number. At Lusha, an email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5.

Database	Plan	A month, billed monthly	Credits a month
Lusha	Starter	$49.90	400
Lusha	Professional	$69.90	600
UpLead	Essentials	$99	170
UpLead	Plus	$199	400
Lusha	Premium	$399.90	3,400

Prices are from Lusha and UpLead, billed monthly, from the lowest to the highest. Both sell annual plans for less a month.

The database hands you contacts. Someone on your team still picks who to contact, writes the messages and sends them.

Published monthly prices, low to highEach company's own published price a month, billed monthly. A bar that fades out is a price that starts there, and a hollow mark is another plan's price.

Lusha$49.90 a monthStarter, 400 credits. Professional and Premium are the hollow marks
Telephone ListsFrom $99 a monthEmail list portal plans
UpLead$99 a monthEssentials, 170 credits. Plus is the hollow mark
BavlioFrom US$3,000 a monthLinkedIn and email

The chart shows paid monthly plans only. Lists priced by the record are in the table above it.

Prices from each company's own pricing page, linked in the tables on this page.

The rules for emailing a bought list

In the US, the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide says "The law makes no exception for business-to-business email." Each email needs accurate header information and a subject line that matches the content. It has to say clearly that it is an advertisement, and it has to carry your physical postal address and a way to opt out. You must honor an opt-out within 10 business days, and each email in violation can cost up to $53,088.

In Canada, section 6 of CASL bans a commercial electronic message unless the person "has consented to receiving it, whether the consent is express or implied". Section 6(2) also requires the message to identify the sender, give a way to contact them and carry an unsubscribe mechanism. Section 10(9)(b) counts consent as implied when the person published the address conspicuously, with no statement against unsolicited messages, and the message is relevant to their role. Ask the seller where each address came from.

A bad list also hurts your sending accounts. Google's sender guidelines require everyone sending to personal Gmail accounts to "Keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%".

This section quotes parts of each rule. It isn't legal advice.

Building the list yourself

You can build a list yourself from company websites, job postings and LinkedIn, by hand or with a lead scraping tool. Someone researches each company, finds the right person and their contact details, and keeps the list current.

Someone on your team still picks who to contact, writes the messages and sends them.

Which one fits

Buy a list to email, call and mail from one file

Telephone Lists pitches one list for three channels: "Send the campaign, call the openers, mail the holdouts." It also advises "Buy the tight list, not the big one", meaning the contacts that match your actual customer.

Use a database when one person on your team searches and sends

UpLead's Essentials and Plus are single-user accounts. The credits go to the person who searches, checks each contact against your buyer and writes to them.

Have the outreach done for you when you want the calls

An agency picks the people, writes the messages and sends them. Your part is telling it who you sell to and taking the calls.

Option	What you get	Who reaches out	Price
Telephone Lists	A file of business emails	You	$0.07 to $0.14 a record, by volume, or portal plans from $99 a month
Lusha	Database credits	You	Paid plans from $49.90 a month, billed monthly
UpLead	Database credits	You	From $99 a month, billed monthly
Bavlio's self-serve app	Leads from your own LinkedIn searches, on your own LinkedIn account	You	From US$19 a month
Bavlio	Done-for-you outbound, with the list for your niche, the messages, the sending and the data	We do	Pay after results: nothing until your first 3 qualified sales calls are held, then US$5,000 a month. Prepay: US$9,000 for your first 3 months, which is US$3,000 a month.

The options are in the order of the sections above.

Where Bavlio fits

With Bavlio, B2B companies get sales calls with the buyers in their niche. We do done-for-you outbound. We find the people worth reaching out to in your niche and reach out to them on LinkedIn and email. Your only job is to take the calls.

Bavlio charges from US$3,000 a month for done-for-you outbound, and the list is part of it.

The list. We look on LinkedIn, Google search, job postings, press releases and company websites, and pick the signals that fit your niche.
Data and tools. We cover the signal data, the contact data and the sending tools, and we set up the email for you.
Messages and calls. Each first message is about something specific to the person, so it doesn't sound like slop. A reply that says yes, with a day and a time, goes on your calendar.

What you get with Bavlio

To hire for in the US, over 90 days	What you get
Up to US$28,180An SDR on full pay	People in your niche ranked by their recent LinkedIn activity, with new ones every week. Every first message is written for the person it goes to. A reply desk in Slack, where LinkedIn replies arrive with the answer already written.
Up to US$7,500A personal-brand firm	We rewrite your LinkedIn headline and About, and make your banner images.
Up to US$12,500A direct-response copywriter	Your own video sales letter script, written from our calls, with a shot list.
Up to US$6,341A fifth of an account manager's time	A private portal for your lists and messages. Every Monday: who we reached, who replied and who is next.
Up to US$2,200A market sizing report	We count the buyers in your niche, so you know how many people we can reach.
Up to US$1,206Tools at list price	Signal data, contact data and sending tools.
	We test your messages against each other on your own campaign.

No outreach for your direct competitors at the same time.
You don't pay if you're not satisfied, and if you pay after results, nothing is due until your first 3 qualified sales calls are held.

Up to US$111,721 to hire for all of this in the US over 90 days. It's all included, from US$3,000 a month.

The total adds recruiting, ramp time, training, a manager and payroll for the SDR. Each figure is the top of its sources' range: The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR report, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Payscale, Top Echelon, ATD, JSM, The Barefoot Writer and Business Plan Firm, and list prices from LinkedIn, Clay, Instantly and OnPay. The account manager's share of time and the ramp curve are our estimates.

See the whole offer.

Bavlio's self-serve app starts at US$19 a month. You connect your own LinkedIn account and pull leads from your own LinkedIn searches.

Questions

Where can I buy B2B leads?

From a list broker, which sells a file of business contacts priced by the record, or a B2B database, which sells monthly credits. Telephone Lists prices business emails at $0.07 to $0.14 a record, by volume. Lusha's paid plans start at $49.90 a month for 400 credits, and UpLead's Essentials plan is $99 a month for 170, both billed monthly. An agency can also do the outreach for you, with the list built for your niche.

What is a lead broker?

By boberdoo's definition, a lead broker buys leads and resells each one to its own network of buyers, keeping a margin on each lead. Its examples are home improvement and auto insurance leads. Know whether a lead is exclusive, sold only to you, or non-exclusive, which could be sold multiple times.

How much does a B2B email list cost?

At Telephone Lists, 5,000 business emails cost $700, which is $0.140 a record, and 100,000 cost $7,000, which is $0.070 a record. Its portal plans start at $99 a month.

Is it legal to send cold email to a bought B2B list?

In the US, the FTC says CAN-SPAM makes no exception for business-to-business email. Each email needs accurate headers and a matching subject line, has to say it is an advertisement and has to carry your postal address and a way to opt out, and you must honor an opt-out within 10 business days. In Canada, CASL requires the person's consent, express or implied, and a message that identifies the sender, gives a way to contact them and carries an unsubscribe mechanism. This isn't legal advice.

Does Bavlio sell lead lists?

We build the list when you need one, as part of our done-for-you outbound, which is from US$3,000 a month. We find the people worth reaching out to in your niche and reach out to them on LinkedIn and email, and your only job is to take the calls. Bavlio's self-serve app starts at US$19 a month. You connect your own LinkedIn account and pull leads from your own LinkedIn searches. See outbound lead generation, done for you.

What if it doesn't work?

You don't pay if you're not satisfied, and if you pay after results, nothing is due until your first 3 qualified sales calls are held. On prepay, if your first 3 qualified sales calls aren't held by the end of month 3, we keep going at no charge until they are, for up to 90 more days. The 3-call terms are offered when the list we show you on the call has enough people in your niche, and the agreement defines a qualified call. See the whole offer.