Compare
Hyves vs Clay.A workbench, or a login.
Clay is the category leader, and for good reason. It is a workbench: you, or a GTM engineer, build the research in a table. Hyves takes the other road. You sign in, and the research, the ranking, the business case and the plan for each account are done in an order you can read.
Clay facts checked against clay.com on 13 September 2026 · sources below
The work
Two waysto the same account.
The pink dot marks a step you do yourself. Clay puts you in the middle of the research; Hyves puts you at the two ends of it.
- Start a table from a template or your own list
- Choose the enrichment providers and their order
- Write Claygent prompts for what the data doesn't cover
- Build the scoring as formulas or AI columns
- Send rows to a sequencer, or to Clay's own
- Account research agents keep chosen fields current (beta)
- Sign in with your work email
- Research on your company, twenty-one stages
- Twelve dimensions written for your product
- A market search of about fifty companies, every score sourced
- A business case and stakeholder map for each A and B account
- A contact plan in waves, paced one person a day
- Choose the send mode for each account
Side by side
Questionby question.
What you give it
ClayA table: your list or a search, plus the columns you design.
HyvesYour work email.
Who writes the scoring
ClayYou, as formulas and AI columns in the table.
HyvesHyves, from its research on your company: twelve dimensions, each with the evidence for a 0, a 1 and a 2.
Where the data comes from
ClayA waterfall across 150+ data providers, plus Claygent on the open web.
HyvesEight web searches per company, plus its homepage, vacancies, about page, LinkedIn and trade register.
Missing evidence
ClayHandled however you build the column.
HyvesCounted as unknown, never as zero, and named in the score.
Inside the account
ClayThe contacts you find and filter. A buying-committee view is something you build.
HyvesSeven roles mapped for each account. Users first, the buyer last, blockers never.
Sending
ClayIts own email sequencer, generally available since 1 September 2026, or the sequencer you already use.
HyvesEmail from your own inbox when a verified address exists; otherwise a LinkedIn message or a call for your rep.
Over time
ClayAccount research agents, in open beta since July 2026, keep account fields current.
HyvesOne agent per account reads the business case every cycle, decides the next step and logs it.
Pricing model
ClayCredits for data and for actions, with a free plan.
HyvesPer seat. Every plan has every feature; usage grows with the plan.
Built for
ClayTeams with a GTM engineer, or the time to become one.
HyvesB2B teams without one, who want the research done and each account worked with judgment.
Fair is fair
Where Clay is stronger
Breadth of data
Clay's waterfall reaches 150+ data providers, and its homepage says 200+. If a fact is in a paid database, Clay can probably buy it.
Flexibility
A table can model any workflow you can describe. If you know exactly what you want to build, Clay lets you build it.
Ecosystem
Templates, Clay University, an active community, and a job board for the GTM engineers who run it.
Scale
More than 17,000 customers, and a $115 million Series D at a $7.1 billion valuation in September 2026.
The difference
Where Hyves is different
It starts from a login
No table to design and no prompts to write. The research on your company, the rubric and the first market search run on their own.
A case, not a row
Every Tier A and B account gets a business case: why now, with the source and date, and where you would land. When nothing was found, the case stays empty rather than invented.
Worked from the inside
Everyone involved is mapped and contacted in waves, users first and the buyer last, paced like a person would.
The short version
Pick the onethat fits your team.
Choose Clay if
- You have a GTM engineer, or want to hire one
- You need a data point only a paid provider has
- You want to design every step of the research yourself
Choose Hyves if
- Nobody on your team has time to build research tables
- You want the business case and the people inside each account, not only the rows
- You want to decide what gets sent, not how the research is built
See the researchdone from a login.
Request access. Once you’re in, sign in and watch Hyves research your own company first.