Forrester Wave Intent Data Providers: 2026 Guide

Forrester Wave Intent Data Providers: 2026 Guide

$25,000 to $150,000 a year. That's what intent data from a Forrester Wave Leader costs, and most providers require annual contracts - so you're committing serious budget before you've even dialed in your topics and workflows.

We've spent months watching vendors cherry-pick their Forrester placement to run self-congratulatory ad campaigns. Here's what we actually found when we stripped away the marketing spin: a neutral breakdown of the Wave vendors we can confirm publicly, plus real pricing and the evaluation criteria that matter for your buying decision.

The most recent Forrester Wave for Intent Data Providers for B2B, Q1 2025 evaluated 15 B2B intent data providers across 21 criteria, naming six Leaders: Bombora, 6sense, Intentsify, Demandbase, ZoomInfo, and Informa TechTarget. It remains the current evaluation as of 2026.

Quick version: The 15 vendors span $7K-$150K+. Pure data feed? Bombora. Full ABM platform? 6sense or Demandbase. Intent signals plus verified contacts without a five-figure contract? Prospeo bundles Bombora-powered intent across 15,000 topics with 300M+ profiles - starting free.

What B2B Intent Data Actually Is

Third-party intent data tells you which companies are researching topics relevant to your product. It works at three levels: company, topic, and surge - meaning a company's research activity spikes above its historical baseline. Useful, but limited in ways that matter.

The gap between "Company X is surging on cloud security" and "Here's the VP of IT's verified email" is where a lot of intent programs stall. Account-level signals are valuable, but without contact data and an activation workflow, teams end up with an expensive dashboard that SDRs ignore after week two.

Wave Leaders and Confirmed Participants

Below is a reconstructed view of the Wave's Leaders plus additional vendors we can confirm from public disclosures and community discussions.

Bombora

Forrester described Bombora as "the gold standard for account-level intent data feeds." Its co-op model aggregates content consumption signals from roughly 5,000 business websites with exclusive relationships, creating a dataset that's genuinely hard to replicate. Over the past 18 months, Bombora grew its co-op by about 20% and expanded topic coverage by 13%, receiving the highest score possible in 10 of 21 criteria - including uniqueness of signals and buying cycle analysis.

With 100+ partners embedding Company Surge data, these signals show up in tools you're already using. The tradeoff: you're buying a data feed, not a platform. Activation is entirely on you. Expect $25K-$80K/year.

6sense

If you want a single vendor handling everything from signal detection to ad targeting, 6sense is a top pick. It's a broad ABM platform - intent, predictive analytics, audience building, and activation in one subscription.

The flip side is complexity and cost. We're talking $35K-$150K+/year depending on modules and seats, and deployment can take months. For enterprise teams with dedicated RevOps resources, it's powerful. For a 20-person sales team? Overkill.

Intentsify

Intentsify earned the highest score in Forrester's Current Offering category, with perfect marks (5/5) in 12 of 21 criteria - including persona-based analysis, identity resolution, and accuracy and noise filtering. Forrester highlighted the Intentsify Orbit identity graph (introduced in 2024) as a major innovation driving persona-based analysis and improved buying group prediction. Pricing runs ~$30K-$100K depending on scope.

The Rest of the Leaders

Demandbase works well for Salesforce-centric go-to-market teams. Customers consistently praise its integration depth and activation functionality. Pricing commonly lands around $40K-$120K/year.

ZoomInfo Streaming Intent is one of the most affordable Leaders at $7.2K-$36K/year - intent bolted onto ZoomInfo's contact database, not standalone. The data isn't as deep as Bombora's co-op, but activation friction is low. If you remember DiscoverOrg's intent signals, that's the lineage here - ZoomInfo acquired DiscoverOrg in 2019 and folded those signals into the current Streaming Intent product.

Informa TechTarget brings first-party publisher signals from its owned media properties. Narrower than co-op data but often higher-fidelity for tech buying decisions, estimated at $30K-$100K+/year.

Strong Performers

Anteriad earned highest possible scores in future-proofing data collection, data integration and delivery, and data security and compliance. It's a fit for teams where governance is non-negotiable, at an estimated $20K-$60K/year.

G2 Buyer Intent operates as a walled garden: signals come from G2's review platform, making them unique but limited in scope ($10K-$87K+).

Four Types of Intent Providers

Forrester classifies intent vendors into four business-model categories, which explains why pricing varies so wildly:

1. Traditional data providers - standalone signal feeds priced by volume. Bombora and Anteriad live here.
2. ABM platform providers - intent bundled with analytics and activation. 6sense, Demandbase, and ZoomInfo (intent as a module).
3. Campaign execution firms - mixed third- and second-party signals with activation services. Intentsify fits this model.
4. Walled gardens / publisher networks - signals from owned properties like review sites and publisher ecosystems. G2 and Informa TechTarget.

Understanding which type you're evaluating saves you from comparing a $25K data feed against a $150K platform and wondering why the prices are so different. Vendors outside the Wave - like DemandScience intent data feeds or Foundry intent products - also fall into these categories, so the framework applies even if you're evaluating providers Forrester didn't include.

How to Evaluate Providers

Forrester recommends evaluating on three axes: scale of relevant signals in your core accounts, relative accuracy, and overlap with sources you already have. That's the theory. Here's the practical playbook we've seen work:

Run a tight PoC. Narrow your keyword focus, define a specific geo and industry, and set a timeframe of weeks, not months. Overly broad samples with generic keywords obscure real differences between providers.

Test for uniqueness. If you're adding a second intent source, look for signals that are roughly 30-40% unique compared to what you already have. Below that, the incremental value rarely justifies doubling your spend. The consensus on r/sales and r/b2bmarketing threads is that stacking two providers with 80%+ overlap is just paying twice for the same data.

Budget 15-25% above license cost for implementation, integration, and topic configuration. Every team we've talked to underestimates this.

Demand sample data. Any credible provider will share a limited feed or short PoC trial showing signal velocity against your target accounts. If they won't, that's a red flag.

Cross-reference analyst coverage. The Forrester Wave isn't the only lens - Gartner's Digital Markets intent data reports and independent reviews can surface providers or use cases the Wave doesn't cover.

Here's the thing: if your average deal size sits below $10K, you probably don't need a dedicated intent platform at all. Layer intent filters onto a B2B database and skip the six-figure commitment.

From Intent Signal to Closed Deal

Intent data tells you which companies are surging. It doesn't tell you who to email. That activation gap is the single biggest reason intent investments fail - teams end up with a list of company names and no way to act on them quickly.

Prospeo closes that gap by layering Bombora-powered intent data across 15,000 topics directly onto 300M+ professional profiles with 143M+ verified emails and 125M+ verified mobile numbers. You filter by intent topic and pull verified decision-maker data in the same workflow - no exporting a surge list from one tool and manually cross-referencing it in another. Email accuracy runs 98%, data refreshes every 7 days, and there's no $25K+ annual contract to negotiate.

If you're building this into your outbound motion, pair intent with a clean ideal customer profile and a simple sales outreach strategy so SDRs know exactly who to contact and when.

FAQ

Is the Forrester Wave report free?

No - the full report sits behind Forrester's paywall at $2,000+. Several vendors including 6sense and Intentsify offer complimentary downloads through their landing pages in exchange for your contact info, so you can read the complete evaluation without paying Forrester directly.

How many vendors did Forrester evaluate?

Fifteen B2B intent data providers across 21 criteria in the Q1 2025 Wave - the most recent evaluation as of 2026. If you've seen references to the 2023 cycle, the Q1 2025 report supersedes it with updated criteria and a refreshed vendor roster.

What's the cheapest intent data option?

ZoomInfo Streaming Intent starts at roughly $7,200/year, one of the lowest entry points among Wave Leaders. Prospeo includes Bombora-powered intent data starting on a free tier with no annual contract, bundling intent signals with verified emails and mobile numbers in a single workflow.

Do I need more than one intent provider?

Only if the second provider's signals are 30-40% unique compared to your existing source. Below that threshold, the incremental value doesn't justify doubling your spend. Run a two-week overlap test before committing.

What's the difference between first-party and third-party intent data?

First-party intent comes from your own website and content - visitor behavior you directly observe. Third-party intent comes from external sources like publisher co-ops or review sites, revealing which companies research relevant topics across the broader web. Most Forrester Wave intent data providers sell third-party signals, though some like Informa TechTarget blur the line with their owned publisher properties.