They're Not Even Competitors
Let's be honest: if you're weighing Affistash vs Cognism, something went sideways in your research. Affistash recruits affiliate partners. Cognism sells B2B sales intelligence. Comparing them is like comparing Canva to QuickBooks - the names showed up in the same search, but they solve completely different problems.
Why People Compare These Two
Both tools involve "finding contacts" and "outreach," which creates surface-level confusion. A marketing manager gets asked to find an "outreach tool," sees Cognism's price tag, and starts googling cheaper options. Affistash shows up because it also finds contacts and runs outreach - but it's finding affiliate partners, not sales prospects. The overlap is cosmetic.
What Each Tool Does
Affistash
Affistash is an affiliate and partner recruitment platform, now part of FMTC. It searches the web for potential affiliate partners - publishers, editors, content creators - and gives you their contact details, audience analytics, and a built-in CRM.
Features include a keyword explorer, lookalike partner discovery, competitor partner finder, AI-powered email campaigns, and a centralized CRM portal. Affistash's founder posted early traction metrics on Reddit in 2023 - 300 users, 20-30 daily signups - which tracks with the thin review base on G2 (4.0/5, 2 reviews) and Capterra (5.0/5, 3 reviews). This is still an early-stage product with a small user community.
Use this if: You manage an affiliate program and spend hours manually hunting for publishers. Affistash consolidates discovery, contact finding, and outreach at $97/mo (Premium) or $247/mo (Agency). Month-to-month, 3-day free trial.
Skip this if: You need B2B sales data, verified direct dials, or intent signals. Affistash doesn't do any of that.
G2 reviewers flag limited advanced features and insufficient affiliate detail. Capterra users want better filtering of merchants and competing brands. Trial carefully before committing.
Cognism
Here's the thing about Cognism: it's expensive, and the sticker price is just the start.
Negotiated deals typically land around $22,500/yr for a 5-user Grow plan and $37,500/yr for Elevate. Then add onboarding ($500-$5,000), intent topics at $200-$400 per topic annually, and 10-15% renewal increases. There's also a fair-use cap of ~2,000 records per user per month - "unlimited" isn't quite unlimited.
What you get for that spend: Diamond Data phone-verified mobile numbers with a claimed 98% accuracy rate, Bombora intent data on the Elevate tier, 31 CRM integrations, and a Chrome extension. G2 reviewers rate it 4.5/5 across 1,318 reviews, with ease of use and verified contacts as top positives. But 99 of those reviewers cite inaccurate data, and Cognism's verification is strongest in the UK and Europe. North American coverage is noticeably thinner.
Use this if: You're running outbound into European markets with budget for a $22K+/yr commitment and you're okay adding a sequencing tool like Outreach or Salesloft on top.
Skip this if: You need strong North American coverage, built-in sequencing, or you can't absorb the hidden costs. For teams selling primarily into the US and Canada, we've found the data gaps frustrating enough to look elsewhere.
Cognism's $22K/yr price tag buys you fair-use caps and European-heavy coverage. Prospeo gives you 300M+ profiles across North America and Europe, 98% email accuracy, and 15,000 Bombora intent topics included - all at roughly $0.01 per email with no annual lock-in.
Get enterprise-grade B2B data without the enterprise invoice.
Pricing Compared
| Category | Affiliate recruitment | B2B sales intelligence | B2B sales intelligence | Depends on your problem |
| CRM integrations | Built-in partnerships CRM | 31 integrations | Salesforce, HubSpot, + 8 more | Cognism |
Cognism remains the strongest option for teams selling exclusively into the UK and Europe who need phone-verified mobiles and have budget to burn. But most teams don't sell exclusively into Europe - and for everyone else, the math doesn't work.
Which Tool Do You Actually Need?
We've seen teams waste months trying to force one tool into the other's use case. Don't do that. Three paths, zero overlap:
Affiliate/partner recruitment: Affistash at $97/mo. Trial it, but go in knowing the product is early-stage and the review base is thin.
B2B sales data, Europe-heavy: Cognism if your budget supports $22K+/yr and you'll add a sequencing tool on top. Expect a month-long implementation and annual lock-in.
A Closer Look at Prospeo for B2B Prospecting
If you came here looking for B2B prospecting data, Cognism and Prospeo are in the same category. Affistash is not.
The search interface lets you stack 30+ filters - buyer intent topics, tech stack, recent job changes, headcount growth - and export verified contacts in one click. In our testing, email accuracy held at 98% across both North American and European contacts, with data refreshed every 7 days versus the industry average of 6 weeks. That freshness gap matters more than people realize; stale data is the number one reason outbound campaigns tank.
The cost difference is stark. At ~$0.01 per email versus Cognism's effective cost of ~$0.19 per record ($22,500/yr divided across 2,000 records x 12 months x 5 users at the fair-use cap), Prospeo runs roughly 95% cheaper per lead. The 15,000 Bombora intent topics come included - Cognism charges $200-$400 per topic as an add-on in many deals. Over 15,000 companies already use the platform, and teams like Snyk have cut bounce rates from 35-40% to under 5% after switching.
Stale data kills outbound campaigns. Cognism refreshes on the standard 6-week cycle. Prospeo refreshes every 7 days - which is why teams like Snyk cut bounce rates from 35-40% to under 5% after switching. 125M+ verified mobiles with a 30% pickup rate included.
Stop paying $22K for data that's already outdated when you get it.
FAQ
How much does Cognism cost per year?
Cognism doesn't publish pricing. Based on negotiated deal data, a 5-user Grow plan costs ~$22,500/yr and Elevate hits ~$37,500/yr. Add onboarding fees ($500-$5,000), intent topic add-ons at $200-$400 each, and expect 10-15% annual renewal increases.
What's the cheapest way to get verified B2B emails?
Prospeo offers a free tier with 75 verified emails per month - no credit card required. Paid plans start at ~$0.01 per email with no contracts and no sales calls. The database covers 300M+ profiles at 98% email accuracy, with 125M+ verified mobile numbers available at 10 credits each.