Clay vs Warmly

Clay and Warmly both use AI agents for go-to-market work, but they solve different problems: Clay is a usage-based data enrichment platform (Claygents,…

Best for Clay: Teams that want to build and enrich outbound lead lists using waterfall enrichment from 200+ data providers and no-code AI research agents (Claygents), starting on a free plan with 500 actions and 100 data credits per month.
Best for Warmly: Teams focused on inbound: identifying anonymous website visitors at the person level and engaging them immediately through an AI chatbot, smart popups, or ad retargeting, with budget for a $10,000+/year commitment.

At a Glance

 ClayWarmly
Primary categorySalesSales
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemium / Usage-based (credits)freemium
Starting priceFree (paid plans from ~$149-185/month)Free plan for up to 500 de-anonymized visitors per month; paid plans start in the hundreds of dollars per month
Free planYesNot documented
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsWebNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresYesYes
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

Pricing model and entry point

Clay: Clay has a Free plan ($0/month, 500 actions, 100 data credits, unlimited seats and tables) and scales through Launch (from $167/month) and Growth (from $446/month) before Enterprise.

Warmly: Warmly has no published free tier; its cheapest plan, AI Web-Deanonymization, starts at $10,000/year, rising to $30,000/year for AI Inbound Autopilot.

The cost of entry differs by roughly three orders of magnitude, which shapes who can even trial each product.

Primary data direction: outbound enrichment vs. inbound identification

Clay: Clay's Waterfall Enrichment pulls from 200+ external data providers to fill in contact and company records for outbound prospecting.

Warmly: Warmly's Inbound Agent identifies visitors already on your website at the person level and engages them in real time.

These serve opposite ends of the funnel, building lead lists versus converting existing traffic, so the choice depends on where a team's bottleneck is.

AI agent focus

Clay: Claygents are AI agents that research target companies and people using web data to fill in enrichment records.

Warmly: Warmly's TAM Agent adds ML-based intent scoring and automated buying-committee identification on top of visitor and firmographic data.

Both use AI agents, but Clay's are oriented around data collection while Warmly's are oriented around account prioritization and engagement.

Engagement and retargeting capability

Clay: Clay's Sequencer provides native email sequencing and automation, and its Audiences feature syncs first- and third-party data to ad platforms (Growth plan and above).

Warmly: Warmly directly engages identified visitors through an AI chatbot, smart popups, and ad retargeting synced to LinkedIn and email campaigns.

For Warmly, real-time engagement of identified visitors is the core product; for Clay, ad-audience sync is one feature among many.

Access channels

Clay: Clay is accessed as a table-based web app with API/webhook access on the Growth plan and above.

Warmly: Warmly explicitly states it is accessible via app, API, and MCP for custom workflows.

Warmly's documented MCP access may matter for teams building AI-assistant-driven workflows; Clay's facts do not mention MCP.

Feature-by-Feature

Core Capability

FeatureClayWarmly
Outbound data enrichment (waterfall/multi-provider)AvailableNot documented
Website visitor identificationNot documentedAvailable
AI research/scoring agentsAvailableAvailable
Intent signal trackingAvailableAvailable

Engagement & Outreach

FeatureClayWarmly
Native email sequencingAvailableNot documented
AI chatbot for engagementNot documentedAvailable
Ad platform sync/retargetingAvailableAvailable
Meeting booking/lead routingNot documentedAvailable

Pricing & Access

FeatureClayWarmly
Free planAvailableUnavailable
Published entry-level self-serve priceAvailableAvailable
API accessAvailableAvailable
MCP accessNot documentedAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Clay

Free — $0 Monthly
Launch — From ~$149-185/month Monthly or annual
Growth — From ~$446-495/month Monthly or annual
Enterprise — Custom Annual

Warmly

Free — $0 monthly
Paid plans — Starting in the hundreds of dollars per month, scaling with visitor volume monthly
Enterprise — Custom custom

Pros & Cons

Clay

Pros

  • Combines 100+ data sources in a single, unified workflow
  • AI research agent (Claygent) automates manual lookup tasks
  • No-code, spreadsheet-familiar interface lowers the barrier to complex workflows
  • Free plan available for evaluating the platform before committing to a paid tier

Cons

  • Credit-based pricing can become expensive and hard to predict at scale
  • Paid plans jump significantly in price between tiers
  • Learning curve for building advanced multi-step workflows
  • Effective use often requires understanding of the many underlying data providers

Warmly

Pros

  • Combines identification and orchestration in one platform rather than requiring separate tools
  • Free tier makes it easy to test visitor identification value before paying
  • Real-time Slack alerts help reps act on hot accounts immediately
  • Multiple identification data sources can improve match coverage
  • AI chat and sequencing reduce manual outbound work for smaller sales teams

Cons

  • Person-level identification coverage is inherently limited by data availability and privacy constraints
  • Pricing scales with visitor volume, which can get expensive for high-traffic sites
  • Match accuracy depends on third-party data providers and can vary by industry or region
  • Best value requires an existing CRM and sales workflow to plug the orchestration into

Use Cases

Choose Clay: Teams that want to build and enrich outbound lead lists using waterfall enrichment from 200+ data providers and no-code AI research agents (Claygents), starting on a free plan with 500 actions and 100 data credits per month.
Choose Warmly: Teams focused on inbound: identifying anonymous website visitors at the person level and engaging them immediately through an AI chatbot, smart popups, or ad retargeting, with budget for a $10,000+/year commitment.
Need both: GTM teams running both outbound enrichment and inbound visitor identification with AI chat engagement may use them side by side, Clay to build and enrich prospect lists, Warmly to catch and convert anonymous site traffic, since neither documents the other's core capability.

Clay

  • Outbound lead enrichment — Combining multiple data providers to build accurate, up-to-date contact and account records for outbound sales.
  • Signal-based prospecting — Tracking job changes and buying signals to identify and reach prospects at the right moment.
  • Personalized outreach automation — Using AI research to personalize outbound messaging at scale before syncing to a CRM or sequencing tool.

Warmly

  • Real-time inbound lead alerting — Sales teams get instant Slack notifications when a target account visits high-intent pages, allowing faster follow-up while interest is highest.
  • Pipeline generation from existing website traffic — Marketing and revenue teams convert previously anonymous website visitors into identified leads and automated outreach sequences without new ad spend.
  • AI-assisted on-site engagement — An AI chatbot engages qualifying visitors in real time to answer questions and qualify interest before a rep gets involved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Clay and Warmly both offer a free plan?

Clay does, its Free plan includes 500 actions, 100 data credits, and unlimited seats and tables (up to 200 rows per table). Warmly has no published free tier; its cheapest plan starts at $10,000/year.

What is the core difference between Clay and Warmly?

Clay is a data enrichment platform that pulls from 200+ providers to build and enrich outbound lead lists using AI research agents called Claygents. Warmly identifies anonymous visitors on your own website at the person level and engages them via an AI chatbot and retargeting.

What are Claygents and the TAM Agent?

Claygents are Clay's AI agents that research companies and people using web data. Warmly's TAM Agent builds dynamic audiences using AI ICP tiering, buying-committee identification, and ML-based intent scoring.

Can either platform sync data to ad platforms?

Yes. Clay's Audiences feature (Growth plan and above) syncs first- and third-party data to LinkedIn, Meta, and Google Ads. Warmly syncs identified visitors directly to LinkedIn and email retargeting campaigns as a core feature.

How is each platform priced at the top end?

Clay's Enterprise plan is custom-priced with 100,000+ actions/month and features like SSO, RBAC, and data warehouse integrations. Warmly's top plan, AI Inbound Autopilot, is $30,000/year and adds unlimited AI Studio Agents and autopilot goal-setting.

Does either tool support MCP for AI-assistant workflows?

Warmly explicitly states it is accessible via app, API, and MCP. Clay's own facts do not mention MCP support.

Read the full Clay review · Read the full Warmly review