LinkedIn vs andzup: which tool should you choose for B2B prospecting?
You have been prospecting with LinkedIn Sales Navigator for weeks, and you keep hitting the same wall: there is no way to get a usable email address or phone number. You are not alone. It is the limitation most often cited by sales reps who use the tool every day.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is excellent at spotting the right decision-makers, thanks to its vast professional network. But between targeting and sending that first email, an entire step is missing: verified contact data and automation. That is precisely the gap andzup fills, with a unique specialisation in the media and communications sector across Europe.
In this comparison, you will find what Sales Navigator really does, its three plans and their prices in 2026, its practical limitations (export, GDPR, contact details), and a detailed andzup vs Sales Navigator table, so you can make an informed choice, whether you are looking for a LinkedIn Sales Navigator alternative or a tool to use alongside it.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's premium solution for B2B sales prospecting. It draws on the platform's professional network, which has 1.2 billion members worldwide according to Microsoft's FY2025 annual report, to help sales teams identify decision-makers, follow their professional news and contact them through InMail messaging.
In practice, the tool offers advanced search with more than 50 filters (job function, seniority, company size, headcount growth, technologies used and more), saved lead and account lists, job change alerts, and newer AI features such as Account IQ and Lead IQ, which automatically summarise an account or a prospect's profile.
The 3 Sales Navigator plans and their prices in 2026
LinkedIn offers three subscription tiers, with significant feature gaps between the first and second levels.
| Plan | Indicative price (monthly billing) | Best for | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | £94.99 / €120.99 per month | Individual sales rep | Advanced search, 50 InMails per month, lead and account lists, alerts |
| Advanced | £130.00 / €148.21 per month | Sales team | + Account IQ, Lead IQ, TeamLink, Smart Links, Buyer Intent, team reporting |
| Advanced Plus | On request | Team with a CRM | + Real-time CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365), automatic record creation |
Official list prices taken from the LinkedIn Sales Navigator pricing page in September 2026, excluding VAT and subject to change depending on region and billing period. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost.
One point is worth highlighting: the Core and Advanced plans include the same quota of 50 InMails per month. The price difference mainly pays for sales intelligence (Buyer Intent, Account IQ) and team features, not for a higher volume of outreach.
The limitations of Sales Navigator for end-to-end B2B prospecting
Sales Navigator is an excellent targeting tool, but several structural limitations hold it back as a standalone prospecting solution.
No email addresses or direct phone numbers
Sales Navigator gives you the name, job title, company and profile link, but never a verified business email address or phone number. Contact details are only visible if the prospect has made them public, which remains rare. The result: most sales teams add a third-party enrichment tool on top of Sales Navigator, which means an extra cost and an extra step in the process.
No native export and a cap on results
LinkedIn does not offer a native CSV export button in Sales Navigator: the data stays inside its closed ecosystem. On top of that, LinkedIn's own Sales Navigator help centre confirms that searches are capped at 2,500 lead results (across 100 pages) and 1,000 account results, even when LinkedIn reports tens of thousands of matches.
A tool that stops before outreach
Sales Navigator identifies the right profiles and tracks their news, but it does not manage email sequences, multichannel scenarios or response rate tracking. You need to connect an automation tool downstream to turn your targeting into an active campaign.
By way of comparison, the average InMail response rate generally sits between 10 and 25% according to figures shared by LinkedIn, against an average cold email reply rate of 3.43% according to Instantly's Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026. That gap argues in LinkedIn's favour, provided you have identified the right contact in the first place, which already assumes a qualified database upstream.
Sales Navigator and GDPR: what the CNIL ruling tells us
Reconstructing email addresses from LinkedIn profiles, without a lawful basis and without informing the people concerned, is a real legal risk under the GDPR, and the same lawful basis and transparency principles apply under UK GDPR. The CNIL, France's data protection authority, has already sanctioned a company for this practice: in decision SAN-2020-018 of 8 December 2020, it fined the meal delivery company NESTOR SAS €20,000 after it built prospecting lists with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, then reconstructed email addresses using the firstname.lastname@company.com pattern and, according to DataGuidance, emailed 653,033 recipients without their consent from 2017 onwards.
This point is central: using Sales Navigator to identify decision-makers is legitimate, but then manually building unverified, undeclared contact databases exposes you to a genuine compliance risk.
andzup vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator: the detailed comparison
andzup and Sales Navigator do not meet exactly the same need. The table below compares the two solutions on the criteria that really matter for a B2B sales team in Europe.
| Criterion | andzup | LinkedIn Sales Navigator |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified contacts verified daily | ✔ Included | Not provided (profiles only) |
| Sector specialisation | ✔ Media and communications | Generalist, all sectors |
| Geographic coverage | ✔ 6 European countries | Global, self-reported data |
| Data export | ✔ Native (andzup reach plan) | Not available |
| Multichannel automation | ✔ Built in (andzup flow) | Not included |
| Sector market data | ✔ Ad spend, pitches, appointments | Not available |
| Documented GDPR compliance | ✔ Servers in France | To be secured downstream |
| Social network and real-time signals | No | ✔ Key strength |
This comparison points to complementarity rather than head-on rivalry. Sales Navigator remains relevant for monitoring an account's news or getting in touch through a shared connection (TeamLink). But as soon as you need to build a reliable prospecting database that you can export and plug straight into an outreach sequence, andzup covers a step that LinkedIn simply does not address.
Why media and communications teams choose andzup
andzup is not a generalist database. For more than 20 years, the platform has been built for agencies, media sales houses and publishers in the media and communications sector, with data that Sales Navigator cannot offer: detailed information on advertisers and agencies, recent appointments, a pitchlist (won and ongoing pitches), brands linked to each advertiser and each agency, and influencer marketing activity data through its partner Inflead. The database is verified daily, hosted on servers in France, and covers six European markets: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Unlike Sales Navigator, andzup does not stop at identifying the right contacts. Three plans take you all the way to activating your prospecting, depending on the level of autonomy you need:
| Feature | andzup one | andzup reach | andzup flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enriched B2B database and advanced segmentation | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pitchlist, appointments and market data | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| European coverage and GDPR compliance | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Contact export to Excel | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ |
| Built-in marketing automation module (simple scenarios) | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ |
| Full multichannel automation (email, LinkedIn, calls, follow-ups) | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ |
| Lead tracking and full reporting | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ |
Plan details taken from andzup.com/offers, subject to change.
andzup one lays the foundations of a reliable market view to structure your market segmentation. andzup reach adds export and simple automation so you can run campaigns from your own tools. andzup flow goes further, with full multichannel sequences (email, LinkedIn, calls, follow-ups), lead tracking and detailed reporting built directly into the platform: everything you need to automate your sales prospecting from end to end, exactly where Sales Navigator stops at targeting.
For a wider view of the tools on the market, read our analysis of B2B prospecting software trends for media companies in 2026.
Want to see what andzup could bring to your media and communications prospecting? Request a demo and our team will walk you through the platform.
Sales Navigator or andzup: how to choose?
- You want to monitor news from accounts you have already identified and activate your network of shared connections: Sales Navigator remains a useful complement.
- You need to build a reliable prospecting database that you can export and contact directly: andzup meets this need with verified contact details.
- You specifically target the media, advertising or communications sector in Europe: andzup offers sector data that no generalist solution provides.
- You want to move from targeting to outreach without switching tools: the built-in multichannel automation in andzup flow covers the step that Sales Navigator does not handle.
Frequently asked questions
Does LinkedIn Sales Navigator give you access to email addresses and phone numbers?
No. Sales Navigator shows the prospect's profile, job title and company, but provides neither a verified business email address nor a verified phone number. You need a complementary tool such as andzup to obtain these contact details.
How much does LinkedIn Sales Navigator cost in 2026?
On monthly billing, the Core plan costs £94.99 (€120.99) per month and the Advanced plan £130.00 (€148.21) per month, excluding VAT. The Advanced Plus plan is priced on request, depending on team size and CRM integration needs.
Is there an alternative to LinkedIn Sales Navigator for B2B prospecting?
Yes. Solutions such as andzup offer a database of verified contacts that you can export, with built-in automation. andzup stands out in particular for its specialisation in the media and communications sector in Europe, a segment that Sales Navigator does not cover in a dedicated way.
Can you use andzup and Sales Navigator at the same time?
Yes. The two tools are complementary rather than competing across every use case. Sales Navigator remains relevant for tracking accounts already identified on LinkedIn, while andzup takes over for verified contact data, sector segmentation and prospecting automation.
Is Sales Navigator GDPR compliant?
The tool itself operates within LinkedIn's framework, but the way companies use it can create problems. The CNIL, France's data protection authority, has already sanctioned a company for reconstructing email addresses from Sales Navigator profiles without a lawful basis and without informing the people concerned.
Sales Navigator remains a benchmark for exploring LinkedIn's professional network and spotting the right contacts. But for complete B2B prospecting, with verified contacts, unique sector data on media and communications, and ready-to-use automation, andzup covers the step that LinkedIn is missing.
