How I Replaced ZoomInfo with Free Government APIs (and Saved $15K/Year)

I was paying for ZoomInfo. Then I realized most of the data I actually used -- company verification, officer names, filing status, industry classification -- comes from public government databases. For free. Here is the stack I built to replace it. Total cost: $0 for the data, about $5/month in compute. The Problem with ZoomInfo (and Clearbit, and Apollo) These tools are great if you need intent data, technographics, or email guessing. But most sales teams use them for basic company verification: Is this a real company? Who are the officers? Are they still active? What state are they incorporated in? That data is public. Every state Secretary of State office publishes it. The IRS publishes nonprofit financials. The SEC publishes public company filings. You are paying $15K/year to access data the government gives away. The Free Stack Company Verification: Secretary of State Databases Every US company is registered with a state SOS office. You can search by name and get: Entity name, typ