Clay vs Context.dev
Clay and Context.dev are both data integration & ETL tools. Clay is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Context.dev is aimed at developers and small businesses. Context.dev costs less, from $20/mo versus $185/mo for Clay. Both have a free plan.
Data enrichment and research automation for GTM
One API for scraping, search, brand data and people search
| Pricing | Freemium · $185 | Freemium · $20 |
| Starting price | $185/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2017 | — |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Clay if
GTM operations and outbound teams with volume and a willingness to learn.
- Dramatically better enrichment coverage via waterfalls
- AI research personalization at scale
- Flexible, spreadsheet mental model
Look elsewhere if: Solo founders who need a simple list (Apollo) or teams without ops capacity.
Choose Context.dev if
Developers and AI agent builders who want scraping, search, brand data and people search behind one API and one credit balance.
- One credit pool covers scraping, search, brand and people data
- Free tier with 1,000 monthly credits and no credit card
- Strong agent tooling: MCP server, Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor guides
Look elsewhere if: Sales teams that want a ready-made prospecting app with sequences rather than an API (Apollo), or pure neural web search (Exa).
Clay vs Context.dev pricing
Clay
- Free$0500 actions and 100 data credits per month
- Launch$185/mo$167/mo billed annually; 15K actions, 2.5K data credits
- Growth$495/mo$446/mo billed annually; 40K actions, 6K data credits
- EnterpriseCustom100K+ data credits, 200K+ actions, annual contract
Context.dev
- Free$0/mo1,000 credits/mo, no overage, no credit card required
- Developer$20/mo10,000 credits, $3 per 1,000 overage; 2 months free yearly
- Pro$90/mo100K credits; tiers up to 2.5M cost up to $950/mo; $2/1K overage
- EnterpriseCustomCustom credits, dedicated Slack, 99.9% uptime SLA
Clay · Key features
- Waterfall enrichment across 100+ data providers
- Claygent AI agents for custom web research
- Formulas, conditional logic and scoring
- CRM and sequencer integrations with two-way sync
- Signals: job changes, hiring, funding, tech installs
- Templates and shared workspaces
Cons
- Credit costs add up quickly
- Steep learning curve
- Easy to build fragile tables
Context.dev · Key features
- Scrape any URL to Markdown, HTML, screenshots or JSON with JS rendering
- Crawl and Map endpoints for whole-site content and URL discovery
- Web Search and Answers that return source-backed JSON in your shape
- Brand, Styleguide and Logo Link endpoints for logos, colors and fonts
- People Search in fast or ultra mode with country and experience filters
- Company search, person enrichment and news search endpoints
Cons
- Credit cost per call ranges from 1 to 100, which complicates budgeting
- Larger credit tiers cost $300 to $950 a month before Enterprise
- 99.9% uptime SLA only on the custom Enterprise plan
Clay vs Context.dev: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Clay or Context.dev?
Context.dev starts at $20/mo and Clay at $185/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Clay and Context.dev have a free plan?
Yes, both Clay and Context.dev have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.