Sistava

Clay.com

Spreadsheet-style data enrichment and outbound research, often paired with sequencers

About Clay.com

Clay.com is a New York-based GTM data platform built around a spreadsheet that talks to 150+ enrichment providers. You pull in a list of companies or contacts, run waterfalls across providers (Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, and so on), enrich with AI research agents called Claygents, and push the result to your CRM, sequencer, or ad platform. The credit system is two-layered: Data Credits pay for the external data, Actions pay for Clay's orchestration. After the March 2026 pricing overhaul, data-marketplace costs dropped 50 to 90 percent across most providers. Clay is loved by RevOps teams and outbound power-users. It is the right tool when the job is structured: build the list, enrich it well, and route the cleaned data into the next system. It does not run the campaign for you, does not write the persona, does not host the team that owns the work. That is where Sistava sits. We give you a salesperson who decides who to chase, drafts the messaging, runs the cadence, and reports back.

Platform details

Official website

What does Clay.com actually do?

Clay is a GTM data platform built on a spreadsheet. You drop in a list of companies or people, run waterfalls across 150+ enrichment providers, layer in AI research with Claygents, and push the cleaned data to your CRM, sequencer, or ad platform. After the March 2026 pricing overhaul, data-marketplace costs dropped 50 to 90 percent and CRM and HTTP API features moved down from the old $800 Pro tier into the $495 Growth tier. The credit system has two parts. Data Credits pay for the actual data: an email, a phone, a firmographic detail. Actions pay for Clay's orchestration: routing the request, calling the provider, running the workflow, and writing the answer back. Failed lookups still cost credits, which is a real consideration for cost-sensitive teams. Clay is at its best when the job is to build, enrich, and route a list. RevOps teams use it as the engine behind outbound, account scoring, and territory planning. It is not designed to be the salesperson. It is designed to feed the salesperson the cleanest possible context, then hand off. Sistava covers the other half. Tom takes the list, decides who to chase, writes the message, sends it, follows up, logs it, and reports outcomes. Many teams run both, which is the cleanest design.

How much does Clay.com cost?

Clay has four tiers. Free includes 100 Data Credits, 500 Actions per month, unlimited seats, and 200 rows per table. Launch starts at $185 per month with 2,500 Data Credits and 15,000 Actions. Growth is the recommended tier at $495 per month with 6,000 Data Credits and 40,000 Actions, plus CRM sync, HTTP APIs, and web intent. Enterprise is custom-priced with annual commitment and lands around $30k per year median, with outliers above $150k. The credit system is honest but variable. List size, provider mix, and enrichment depth all drive credit burn. A team running 5,000 enrichments per month can spend Launch credits in a week if they are not careful. Sistava is flat. The Personal plan covers most solo-founder use cases, and the higher tiers scale capacity without retiring you behind a per-action meter. The full ladder is self-serve on the pricing page. Net effect: Clay shines on the enrichment line of the budget, Sistava shines on the headcount line. They sit in different columns of the same spreadsheet for most growth teams.

When does Clay.com beat Sistava?

Clay wins on data depth. Nothing in our product matches the breadth of 150+ enrichment providers stacked through waterfalls. If you need a 30-field-deep view of 10,000 companies with verified emails and phones, Clay is built for it. Clay also wins when you already have a sequencer and an SDR (human or AI) downstream. Their job is to feed that pipeline the cleanest possible context, and they are excellent at it. The Claygent research agents add another lift for personalized lines and one-off lookups. RevOps power users love the spreadsheet interface. It is composable, debuggable, and easy to share across a team. Building a custom enrichment recipe in Clay is faster than wiring the same thing in a custom script. Sistava is not trying to be a better Clay. We are trying to be a better SDR. The buyer who wants both runs Clay as the data layer and Sistava as the salesperson on top, and the architecture works well together.

Where does Clay.com fall short for solo founders?

Clay does not run campaigns end to end. Their built-in sequencer is basic, and most teams route the enriched list to Smartlead, Instantly, Apollo, Outreach, or another sender. That means a solo founder using Clay still needs to choose, learn, and pay for a separate sending tool and write the messages themselves. The credit system rewards discipline and punishes experimentation. A founder testing a new outbound playbook can burn through a month of Launch credits in a few days while iterating waterfalls and Claygent prompts. Sistava's flat pricing removes that anxiety. There is no role layer. Clay does not give you a salesperson, only a workspace where one would work. For a solo founder who does not have an SDR and is not planning to hire one, the gap is unsolved. And there is no cross-function coordination. Tom on Sistava can hand a hot lead to the marketing or support team and the work continues. Clay is a single-purpose tool that does its job extremely well and stops at the table edge.

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