Clearcue finds warm leads by detecting buying signals across LinkedIn, X, Reddit, news, jobs, podcasts, and events. Clay enriches and processes data you already have. Clearcue starts at €79/month with built-in AI qualification. Clay starts at $149/month with 75+ data integrations.
Clearcue and Clay solve different problems. Clearcue finds warm leads by detecting buying signals across LinkedIn, X, Reddit, news, jobs, podcasts, and events. Clay enriches and processes data you already have. Choosing between them depends on whether your bottleneck is finding leads or enriching them.
For most B2B sales teams, the bigger challenge is finding people who are actually ready to buy. Clearcue solves that problem directly. Clay assumes you already know who to target and helps you build workflows around that data. Many teams use both, but if you can only pick one, start with signal detection.
This comparison breaks down what each tool does, how pricing works, and which problems each one solves best.
| Feature | Clearcue | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Primary function | Signal detection and lead qualification | Data enrichment and workflow automation |
| Signal setup | Describe what you want in natural language | Manual workflow building required |
| Starting price | €79/month | $149/month |
| Pricing model | Per signal rule (unlimited leads) | Per credit (actions consume credits) |
| Finds new leads | Yes, automatically | Possible (advanced setup required) |
| Signal sources | LinkedIn, X, Reddit, News, Jobs, Podcasts, Events | Build yourself via 75+ providers |
| AI qualification | Yes, built-in | No (must build custom logic) |
| Technical skill required | None | Moderate to high |
| Time to first lead | Same day | Weeks to months |
| Best for | Teams wanting results now | Teams building custom data infrastructure |
| Free trial | Yes | 14 days with 1,000 credits |
Clearcue monitors the internet for buying signals and delivers qualified leads to your team. You define what signals matter (competitor mentions, job postings, event attendance, social engagement), and Clearcue watches LinkedIn, X, Reddit, news sites, job boards, podcasts, and events continuously.
When someone matches your criteria, Clearcue:
The output is a list of warm leads ready for outreach, not raw data requiring processing.
Clay connects to 75+ data providers and helps you build automated workflows for processing contact data. You start with a list of companies or people, and Clay enriches that data with firmographics, technographics, contact information, and more.
Clay excels at:
The output is enriched data ready for outreach sequences, but you need to provide the input list.
This is the fundamental distinction:
Clearcue answers: "Who should I be talking to right now?" (out of the box)
Clay answers: "Here are the building blocks to create whatever you want." (assembly required)
Clay is powerful enough to do signal detection, but it requires significant investment. You need to understand which signals matter for your business, build custom workflows to monitor them, connect multiple data providers, and manage credit consumption carefully. Teams that master Clay can build impressive signal detection systems, but most never get there.
Clearcue packages signal detection into a ready-to-use product. You describe what you are looking for, and qualified leads arrive. No workflow building, no credit management, no technical expertise required.
The question is not which tool is more powerful. Clay's flexibility is unmatched. The question is whether you have the time, expertise, and budget to unlock that power for signal detection, or whether you want results immediately.
Choose Clearcue when your primary need is discovering warm leads.
Clearcue is the better choice if you:
Typical Clearcue user: A founder or sales leader who needs warm leads delivered daily without building complex data pipelines. They want to know who is ready to buy, not just who exists in a database.
Choose Clay when your primary need is enriching and processing known contacts.
Clay is the better choice if you:
Typical Clay user: A RevOps team at a growth-stage company with defined target accounts who needs to enrich contacts, score leads, and automate handoffs to sales sequences.
This is where the tools differ most dramatically.
With Clearcue, you describe what you are looking for in natural language. "Find VPs of Sales at B2B SaaS companies who are complaining about their current tools or hiring SDRs." Clearcue understands your intent and configures the right signals, sources, and filters. You do not need to know which specific triggers to monitor or how to configure them. The platform handles it.
With Clay, you must know exactly what signals to track and manually build workflows to capture them. Want to find people complaining about competitors? You need to identify which data providers track social mentions, connect them via API, build monitoring logic, create filters for sentiment, and configure triggers. If you do not already know which signals predict buyers in your market, you cannot build the workflow.
The expertise gap:
Clearcue: "I want to find people showing buying intent for sales tools." → Signals configured automatically across LinkedIn, X, Reddit, news, jobs, and events.
Clay: "I want to find people showing buying intent for sales tools." → Which providers track this? What keywords? What sentiment filters? What trigger logic? What scoring? You must answer all of these yourself.
This is why Clearcue users see qualified leads on day one, while Clay users spend weeks building workflows before seeing any results.
Clearcue automatically discovers new leads by monitoring buying signals across seven channels. You define your ideal customer profile and signal criteria once, then receive qualified leads daily without additional input.
Clay requires you to provide input data. You can import from LinkedIn, Google Maps, or upload CSVs, but Clay does not proactively find new prospects. It enriches and processes data you already have or can manually source.
Practical impact:
With Clearcue: You wake up to 15-25 qualified leads in Slack who showed buying signals yesterday. You start outreach immediately.
With Clay: You need to first identify who to research, import them into a Clay table, run enrichment workflows, then review the output. Discovery happens before Clay, not inside it.
Clearcue monitors LinkedIn engagement, X posts, Reddit discussions, news mentions, job postings, podcast appearances, and event registrations out of the box. Signals are detected automatically and stacked to identify patterns.
Clay can do signal detection, but you have to build it yourself. You need to connect the right data providers, create monitoring workflows, define trigger logic, and manage ongoing credit consumption. Teams with GTM engineers and deep platform knowledge can build powerful signal systems in Clay. Most teams never get there.
The expertise gap:
Building signal detection in Clay requires:
Clearcue eliminates this learning curve. You describe your ideal signals, and the platform handles detection, qualification, and delivery.
Example scenario:
Your ideal customer is a VP of Sales at a B2B SaaS company who is frustrated with their current tools.
With Clearcue: Create a signal for "complaining about sales tools" across LinkedIn, X, and Reddit. Receive alerts when matching prospects post about their frustrations. AI qualifies each lead and provides context. Time to first lead: same day.
With Clay: Research which providers track social mentions. Build a workflow to monitor competitor keywords. Connect sentiment analysis. Create scoring logic. Test and iterate. Manage credit consumption. Time to first lead: weeks, possibly months. Cost: potentially hundreds of dollars in credits during setup alone.
Clearcue charges per signal rule with unlimited leads. Create effective signals and receive unlimited qualified prospects without worrying about per-lead costs.
Clearcue pricing:
Clay charges per credit, with different actions consuming different amounts. Basic enrichment might cost 1-2 credits, while detailed research can cost 5-15 credits per record.
Clay pricing (annual billing):
Note: Clay prices shown are for annual commitments with upfront credit allocation. Monthly billing is higher.
Cost comparison for finding and qualifying 100 leads:
With Clearcue: €99/month (one signal rule can generate 100+ qualified leads)
With Clay: Depends heavily on workflow complexity. Finding, enriching, and researching 100 leads could consume 500-1,500 credits, costing $75-225 in credits alone, plus the base subscription. And you still need to find the leads somewhere first.
Clearcue requires no technical setup. Define your signals in plain language, connect Slack or your CRM, and start receiving qualified leads. Most users are operational within 30 minutes.
Clay has a steeper learning curve. Users report needing weeks to understand the platform fully. Building effective workflows requires understanding credits, waterfalls, formulas, and integrations. The spreadsheet-like interface is powerful but complex.
User feedback patterns:
Clay users frequently mention:
Clearcue users report:
Clearcue uses AI to qualify leads and provide research. The AI filters signals to match your criteria, surfaces insights about why someone matters, and provides on-demand research about any prospect or company.
Clay uses AI primarily for message personalization. Claygent can research web pages and write personalized outreach, but it does not qualify or prioritize leads. You still need to decide who is worth contacting.
The difference in workflow:
Clearcue AI: "Here are 20 qualified leads who showed buying signals. Sarah is highest priority because she complained about competitor pricing, attended a sales conference, and her company is hiring SDRs."
Clay AI: "Here is a personalized email for Sarah based on her LinkedIn profile and company website." (But you had to identify Sarah as worth contacting first.)
Clearcue monitors seven data sources continuously:
Clay connects to 75+ data providers for enrichment:
These serve different purposes. Clearcue sources tell you who is showing intent. Clay sources tell you more about people you already identified.
| Capability | Clearcue | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic lead discovery | ✓ Built-in | Possible (advanced setup) |
| LinkedIn signal monitoring | ✓ Built-in | Possible (requires workflow) |
| X (Twitter) monitoring | ✓ Built-in | Possible (requires workflow) |
| Reddit monitoring | ✓ Built-in | Limited |
| News monitoring | ✓ Built-in | Via providers |
| Job posting signals | ✓ Built-in | Via providers |
| Event tracking | ✓ Built-in | Limited |
| Signal stacking | ✓ Built-in | Manual (build yourself) |
| AI lead qualification | ✓ Built-in | Manual (build yourself) |
| Deep profile research | ✓ Built-in | Via Claygent |
| Data enrichment | Basic | Advanced (75+ providers) |
| Waterfall enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflow automation | Basic | Advanced |
| AI message writing | ✗ | ✓ |
| CRM integration | ✓ All plans | ✓ (Pro plan+) |
| Slack integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team collaboration | ✓ | ✓ |
| No-code setup | ✓ | Partial |
| Time to value | Same day | Weeks to months |
Yes, and many teams do. The tools complement each other:
Clearcue → Clay workflow:
This makes sense if you need deep enrichment beyond what Clearcue provides. But for many teams, Clearcue's built-in qualification and research is sufficient, making Clay unnecessary.
When to use both:
When Clearcue alone is enough:
Your goal: Find 500 qualified prospects for a new product in 30 days.
With Clearcue:
With Clay:
The fundamental difference: Clearcue helps you find the 500 prospects. Clay helps you enrich them once found.
Your goal: Find prospects complaining about a competitor.
With Clearcue:
With Clay:
For signal-based prospecting, Clay is not the right tool.
Yes, but it requires significant expertise. Clay is flexible enough to build custom signal detection workflows by connecting the right providers, creating monitoring logic, and managing triggers. Teams with GTM engineers and deep Clay knowledge can build powerful systems. However, this takes weeks or months to set up, costs significantly more in credits, and requires ongoing maintenance. Clearcue offers signal detection out of the box.
Not by default. Clay enriches and processes data but requires input. You can build automated workflows that monitor for certain triggers (job changes, funding events), but this requires advanced setup and continuous credit consumption. Most Clay users import lists manually rather than relying on automated discovery.
For many teams, yes. Clearcue finds qualified leads with built-in research and context. If that provides enough information for effective outreach, you do not need Clay. If you require deep enrichment (technographics, org charts, waterfall email finding) or want to build highly custom workflows, Clay adds value on top.
Only if you need specific enrichment Clearcue does not provide or want to build custom automation workflows. Many teams find Clearcue's AI research sufficient for personalized outreach. Adding Clay increases complexity and cost. Evaluate whether the additional data points justify the investment.
Clearcue is significantly easier. Most users are productive within 30 minutes. Clay requires weeks to understand fully, according to user reviews. Building signal detection in Clay requires even more expertise. If you lack dedicated RevOps resources, Clearcue's simplicity is a major advantage.
Clearcue costs scale with signal rules, not volume. €99/month gets unlimited leads from 7 signals. Clay costs scale with credit consumption. Building and running signal detection workflows in Clay can consume thousands of credits monthly. For teams wanting signal-based prospecting, Clearcue often costs significantly less.
Note: Clay's CRM integrations require the Pro plan ($800/month). Clearcue includes CRM integrations at all paid tiers.
Most users never need support because the product is intuitive.
Clay's power comes with complexity. Expect to invest time learning the platform.
| Dimension | Clearcue | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Core function | Find warm leads | Enrich known contacts |
| Lead discovery | Automatic | Manual input required |
| Signal detection | 7 sources, continuous | None built-in |
| AI focus | Qualification and research | Message personalization |
| Pricing model | Per signal (unlimited leads) | Per credit (variable cost) |
| Starting price | €79/month | $149/month |
| Technical complexity | Low | High |
| Time to value | Same day | Weeks |
| Best for | Finding who to contact | Processing known data |
Clay is incredibly powerful. In the right hands, it can do almost anything, including signal detection. But that power comes with complexity, cost, and a steep learning curve.
Choose Clearcue if you want signal detection that works out of the box. You describe what you are looking for, and qualified leads arrive. No workflow building, no credit management, no weeks of setup. Most B2B sales teams get better results faster with Clearcue because they can focus on selling instead of building data infrastructure.
Choose Clay if you want maximum flexibility and have the expertise to use it. If you have GTM engineers, deep platform knowledge, and the budget for extensive credit consumption, Clay lets you build exactly what you need. For teams that have mastered Clay, it becomes a competitive advantage.
The honest assessment: Clay can do what Clearcue does, but most teams will never build it. The expertise required, the time investment, and the ongoing cost put advanced signal detection out of reach for typical sales teams. Clearcue makes signal detection accessible to everyone.
If you want to start finding warm leads today, Clearcue gets you there immediately. If you want to invest in building custom data infrastructure over months, Clay offers unlimited flexibility.
Stop guessing who to contact. Clearcue watches the internet and delivers warm leads showing buying signals across LinkedIn, X, Reddit, news, jobs, podcasts, and events.
Start your free trial and see qualified leads before end of day.
Start using Clearcue today and never miss a buying signal again.