Sales.co sells 71 industry lists at $295 each, paid once, as a CSV. Other sellers price per order with no monthly plan. LeadsPlease has business email lists from $299.75 for 500 records. Veritas Data charges $0.14 a B2B record with a $99 minimum. ListBolt charges $0.14 a business record with email, $25 minimum. Contactify charges $1.00 a contact from 500, and AeroLeads sells credit packs from $49 for 2,000. Prices read October 28, 2026.
| Seller | What you buy | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Sales.co | One ready-made file per industry, CSV within 24 hours | $295 per list; $0.003 to $0.053 a contact across the 38 lists with a published count |
| LeadsPlease | Business email records built from your filters | $299.75 for 500, $400 for 1,000, $2,800 for 10,000 (28 cents a record) |
| Veritas Data | B2B email and contact records with firmographics | $0.14 a record, $99 minimum order; its page prices 5,000 records at $630 |
| ListBolt | Business records from a filter builder | $0.12 a record up to 5,000 plus $0.02 for an email, falling with volume; $25 minimum |
| Contactify | Contacts in price bands, from 500 per order | $1.00 a contact for 500 to 2,499, $0.75 to 9,999, $0.45 from 10,000 |
| AeroLeads | Credit packs spent in its search tool, valid 12 months | $49 for 2,000 credits, $149 for 8,000, $299 for 20,000; 1 credit a contact, 6 with a phone number |
Each price read on the seller's own pricing page on October 28, 2026. Sales.co publishes this page and sells one of these options.
Buy a one-time list when your target audience is a stable, well-defined segment and you need volume now: a flat $295 file works out to about 2.4 cents per contact at the median list of 12,445 contacts, and under one cent on lists above 29,500. Pay for a subscription when your ideal customer profile shifts, or when you need intent signals, CRM sync, and enrichment APIs. Published subscription entry tiers start at $49 to $99 per user per month, and ZoomInfo-class contracts have reported entry pricing around $15,000/yr, with typical mid-market contracts reported at $30,000 to $60,000/yr — unpublished; get a direct quote.
The structural difference
These are not two prices for the same product. They are two different products.
- A one-time list is a file. You pay once, you own the rows, you keep them forever, and they start decaying the day they are delivered. There is no seat count, no credit meter, and no renewal.
- A subscription database is access. You pay per seat per month for search across a live database, spend credits to reveal or export contacts, and lose access when you stop paying. Records refresh, and platform features (intent data, CRM sync, enrichment APIs, sequencing) come attached.
The question is not which is cheaper. It is whether you are buying rows or buying continuous access.
Published pricing, 2026
Figures below are the vendors' published plan pricing where it exists. ZoomInfo does not publish list pricing at all, so its row is a reported range and should be treated as an estimate, not a quote.
| Vendor / model | Entry price | Structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales.co email lists | $295 one time | Flat per list, no seats, no credits | 71 US lists; the 38 with a published count hold 5,556 to 105,224 contacts, median 12,445 |
| UpLead | $99/mo (Essentials, 170 credits) | Credit subscription, per month | Plus tier $199/mo for 400 credits; annual billing lowers both. Professional is custom, annual only |
| Apollo.io | $49/user/mo (Basic, annual billing) | Per-seat subscription plus credits | Professional $79 and Organization $119 per user per month on annual billing; monthly billing is higher, and Organization carries a 3-seat minimum |
| ZoomInfo | Not published | Annual contract, quoted per deal | Entry deals commonly reported near $15,000/yr; mid-market contracts widely reported in the $30,000–$60,000/yr range. Verify with a quote |
Two things are missing from that table on purpose. Apollo's export-credit allowances differ by plan and change often enough that a per-contact figure would be misleading, so we have not published one. And no vendor's review scores appear here, because they are not a pricing input.
Cost per usable contact
The only comparison that matters is what one deliverable contact record costs you. Using published credit allowances where they exist:
| Source | Cost | Contacts | Per contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales.co flat list | $295 one time | Median 12,445 (5,556 to 105,224) | $0.024 at the median ($0.003 to $0.053) |
| UpLead Essentials | $99/mo | 170 credits/mo | About $0.58 |
| UpLead Plus | $199/mo | 400 credits/mo | About $0.50 |
| LeadsPlease business email records | $2,800 one time | 10,000 records | $0.28 |
| ListBolt business records with email | $0.11 a record | 5,001 to 25,000 records | $0.11 |
| AeroLeads credit pack | $299 one time | Up to 20,000 contacts (1 credit each, no phone) | $0.015 ($0.025 on the $49 pack) |
At the median list, a flat file costs roughly one twentieth to one twenty-fifth of a credit subscription at entry tiers. Per-record sellers, read October 28, 2026, sit at 11 to 28 cents. AeroLeads one-time credit packs work out to 1.5 to 2.5 cents a contact, about the same as a Sales.co list at the median. The lower price comes with a trade-off. Credits buy you the ability to pick individual companies, filter on live signals, and pull only the 400 records you want this month. The flat file gives you the whole dentist list as counted and no way to narrow it beyond the fields in the CSV. Not every subscription meters credits either: TAM Graph charges a flat $199 a month and does not cap CSV exports, so the cost per record there depends on how much you pull.
What each model gives you
| One-time list | Subscription database | |
|---|---|---|
| You keep the data if you stop paying | Yes | Only what you already exported |
| Refreshes over time | No, static from delivery | Yes, continuously |
| Coverage of a whole segment | Complete for the professions offered | Limited by your monthly credits |
| Narrow targeting on live attributes | No, only CSV fields | Yes, headcount, tech stack, funding, intent |
| CRM sync and enrichment API | No | Yes on most platforms |
| Built-in sequencing | No | On some, notably Apollo |
| Seat costs as the team grows | None | Per user, and it compounds |
| Commitment | None | Usually annual for the better price |
| Predictable cost | Exact, one line item | Variable with credits and overages |
Which to pick
Match the model to how stable your target list is.
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Your buyer is a licensed profession or trade (dentists, lawyers, contractors) | One-time flat list |
| You need 20,000+ contacts to send to this quarter | One-time flat list; credit tiers cannot supply the volume affordably |
| Your ICP is defined by headcount, funding stage, or tech stack | Subscription |
| You need intent signals or website-visitor identification | Subscription |
| You want records pushed into a CRM automatically | Subscription |
| Your team is one or two people running outbound in bursts | One-time list, or a single subscription seat |
| You have a large SDR team that prospects daily | Subscription, priced per seat |
| You want a fixed, predictable data line item | One-time list |
Plenty of teams run both, and that is usually correct: a subscription seat for account research and account-based work, plus flat files for the high-volume profession segments where paying $0.50 per record makes no sense.
Hidden costs on both sides
Subscriptions: credit overages billed at a premium, seat minimums (Apollo's Organization tier requires three), annual prepay to reach the advertised price, and renewal increases. The advertised per-user monthly figure is generally the floor, not the total.
One-time lists: decay. B2B contact data goes stale at roughly 2 to 2.5 percent a month through job changes, so a file bought today is meaningfully weaker in a year. Budget for repurchase, or accept a shrinking usable set. Sales.co lists are assembled and validated at order time rather than pulled from a static archive, which sets the clock at delivery instead of at scrape date, but nothing stops the clock.
Neither model includes the parts that actually determine results: sending infrastructure, copy, deliverability management, and reply handling. Those costs are laid out in cold email tools vs managed services and in done-for-you cold email outreach.
Bottom line
One-time lists win decisively on cost per contact for stable, well-defined B2B segments, at about 2.4 cents a contact on the median list versus $0.50 or more per subscription credit. Subscriptions win on precision, freshness, and workflow integration, which are worth real money when your targeting criteria are dynamic. Buy the one that matches how your ICP is defined, not the one with the smaller sticker price. Sales.co's 71 flat-price lists are at sales.co/email-lists, and whether to buy a list at all is covered in this breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I buy a one-time email list without a monthly subscription?
Sales.co sells 71 industry lists at $295 each, paid once, as a CSV. Other sellers price per order with no monthly plan. LeadsPlease has business email lists from $299.75 for 500 records. Veritas Data charges $0.14 a B2B record with a $99 minimum. ListBolt charges $0.14 a business record with email, $25 minimum. Contactify charges $1.00 a contact from 500, and AeroLeads sells credit packs from $49 for 2,000. Prices read October 28, 2026.
Is a one-time email list cheaper than a subscription?
On cost per contact, by a wide margin. A $295 flat list works out to about 2.4 cents per contact at the median Sales.co list of 12,445 contacts. UpLead's published Essentials plan is $99 per month for 170 credits, about $0.58 per credit, and the Plus plan is $199 for 400 credits, about $0.50. The subscription buys precision and freshness rather than volume, so the comparison is only fair when your targeting needs are simple.
How much does Apollo.io cost in 2026?
Apollo publishes four tiers. On annual billing, Basic is $49 per user per month, Professional is $79, and Organization is $119 with a three-seat minimum. Month-to-month billing is higher at $59, $99, and $149 respectively. Credit allowances and add-ons sit on top of those figures and vary by plan.
How much does ZoomInfo cost?
ZoomInfo does not publish list pricing; every contract is quoted. Entry-level deals are commonly reported around $15,000 per year, and mid-market contracts are widely reported in the $30,000 to $60,000 per year range on annual prepay. Treat those as third-party reported estimates and get a direct quote before budgeting.
What does UpLead cost?
UpLead's published plans are Essentials at $99 per month for 170 credits and Plus at $199 per month for 400 credits, both lower on annual billing. The Professional tier is custom and annual only. Extra credits beyond the plan allotment are sold separately.
When should I buy a one-time list instead of a subscription?
When your buyer is defined by a stable attribute such as a licensed profession, trade, or geography, when you need tens of thousands of contacts this quarter, or when you want a fixed and predictable data line item. Choose a subscription when your ideal customer profile is defined by headcount, funding stage, tech stack, or intent signals, or when you need CRM sync and enrichment APIs.
Do purchased lists go stale?
Yes. B2B contact data decays at roughly 2 to 2.5 percent per month through job changes alone, so a one-time file is meaningfully weaker after a year. Buying lists that are assembled and validated at order time rather than pulled from a static archive starts that clock at delivery instead of at scrape date, but does not stop it. Budget for repurchase.