Bombora has been the default name in B2B intent data for years. When someone says “we use intent data,” they usually mean Bombora’s Company Surge data feeding into their ABM platform.
But Bombora has a fundamental limitation: it only tells you which company is showing intent. Not which person. You get “Acme Corp is surging on CRM Software,” and then your team spends hours trying to figure out who at Acme Corp to actually contact.
Orbit takes a different approach. Instead of company-level signals from a publisher network, Orbit delivers person-level intent from a cross-site pixel network. You don’t get “Acme Corp is interested.” You get “Sarah Chen, VP of Marketing at Acme Corp, has been researching CRM alternatives for the past 7 days. Here’s her email, phone, and LinkedIn.”
Same question. Very different answer. Here’s how they compare on every dimension.
The Fundamental Difference
| Bombora | Orbit | |
|---|---|---|
| Core output | Company-level surge data | Person-level intent data |
| You learn | ”Acme Corp is researching CRM" | "Sarah Chen at Acme Corp is researching CRM” |
| Next step | Research who to contact at Acme | Reach out to Sarah directly |
| Time to action | Hours (contact research required) | Minutes (contact data included) |
This is the same distinction that separates company-level from person-level visitor identification - and it matters just as much for intent data.
Full Comparison Table
| Dimension | Bombora | Orbit (Leadpipe) |
|---|---|---|
| Data Level | Company | Person |
| Topics Tracked | ~12,000 | 20,735 |
| Data Source | Publisher co-op network | Cross-site pixel network |
| Profile Coverage | ~40M companies | 4.44 billion person profiles |
| Contact Data Included | No (company name only) | Name, email, phone, LinkedIn, title |
| Refresh Rate | Weekly | Daily |
| ICP Filtering | Limited (via downstream tools) | Native (seniority, industry, size, dept, geo) |
| Self-Serve Access | No (requires enterprise contract) | Yes (included in Leadpipe plans) |
| API Access | Enterprise only | REST API included |
| Pricing | $25,000-$300,000/yr | Included in Leadpipe ($147/mo+) |
| Implementation Time | Weeks-months | Minutes |
| Minimum Contract | Annual | Month-to-month |
| Trial | No (demo only) | 500 free leads |
Data Source: Publisher Co-op vs Pixel Network
How Bombora Collects Data
Bombora operates a “Data Co-op” - a network of ~5,000 B2B publisher websites. When someone reads an article on a co-op member site, Bombora tracks that consumption event, maps the IP address to a company, and aggregates the signal into a “surge” score.
The strength: broad coverage across major B2B publishers. The weakness: IP-to-company mapping means you know the COMPANY consumed the content, not the PERSON. Multiple people at the same company appear as a single company-level signal.
How Orbit Collects Data
Orbit uses a cross-site pixel network that tracks individual browsing behavior and maps it to specific people using identity resolution. The data covers 4.44 billion person profiles across 20,735 topics.
The strength: person-level specificity. You know exactly who is researching what, with full contact data attached. The weakness: newer network, so historical data depth is still growing.
This is similar to the distinction between deterministic and probabilistic matching - Orbit resolves to a specific person rather than inferring company-level interest.
Topic Coverage
| Aspect | Bombora | Orbit |
|---|---|---|
| Total topics | ~12,000 | 20,735 |
| Topic granularity | Category-level | Keyword-level |
| Custom topics | Limited | Search any keyword |
| Competitor name tracking | Partial | Yes |
| Website URL analysis | No | Yes (paste URL, get topics) |
Orbit’s topic coverage is 72% broader than Bombora’s, and the granularity is finer. Where Bombora might have a topic called “CRM Software,” Orbit has “CRM Software,” “Salesforce CRM,” “HubSpot CRM,” “CRM Migration,” “CRM for Small Business,” and dozens more.
This matters because intent is specific. Someone researching “Salesforce alternatives” is in a very different buying stage than someone researching “CRM software” generally. Orbit lets you distinguish between the two. Bombora largely doesn’t.
Pricing: Enterprise vs Self-Serve
This is where the comparison gets uncomfortable for Bombora.
| Pricing Aspect | Bombora | Orbit |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25,000/yr | $147/mo ($1,764/yr) |
| Enterprise | $100,000-$300,000/yr | Custom plans available |
| Contract | Annual minimum | Month-to-month |
| Trial | No | 500 free leads |
| Self-serve signup | No | Yes |
| Implementation cost | $5,000-$20,000+ | $0 (self-serve) |
At the low end, Bombora costs 14x more per year than Orbit. At the high end, the multiplier is 170x.
The pricing gap matters even more when you consider what you get for the money. Bombora delivers company names. Orbit delivers person-level contacts with full data. You’re paying more for less actionable data with Bombora.
Actionability: What Happens After the Signal
Here’s where the person-level vs company-level distinction becomes concrete.
Bombora Workflow
- Bombora surfaces: “Acme Corp is surging on CRM Software (score: 85)”
- Your team asks: “Who at Acme Corp?”
- Someone searches LinkedIn for relevant contacts at Acme
- They find 3-5 possible people
- They run those names through an enrichment tool for contact data
- They guess which person is actually doing the research
- They send outreach to all of them, hoping to hit the right one
- Total time: 30-60 minutes per account
Orbit Workflow
- Orbit surfaces: “Sarah Chen, VP Marketing at Acme Corp, intent score 85 for CRM Software”
- Sarah’s email, phone, and LinkedIn are already in the export
- Your rep sends personalized outreach referencing CRM evaluation
- Total time: 2-3 minutes per contact
The Orbit workflow is 15-20x faster per lead and hits the right person the first time.
This efficiency gain compounds across your entire pipeline. A sales team processing 50 intent signals per week saves 25-50 hours by using person-level data versus company-level.
ICP Filtering
| Filter | Bombora | Orbit |
|---|---|---|
| Seniority | Via downstream tools | Native |
| Company size | Via downstream tools | Native |
| Industry | Via downstream tools | Native (346 industries) |
| Department | Limited | Native |
| Job title | Via downstream tools | Native (free-text search) |
| Geography | Via downstream tools | Native (US state-level) |
| Revenue range | Via downstream tools | Native |
| Contact availability | N/A | Native (email, phone, LinkedIn) |
Bombora delivers raw company-level surge data. To filter by ICP criteria, you need a downstream platform (6sense, Demandbase, or a custom integration) that maps companies to contacts and applies filters. That adds cost, complexity, and delay.
Orbit has ICP filtering built in. You set your criteria in the audience builder, preview the results, and activate - all in one workflow. No additional tools required.
When to Use Bombora
Bombora still makes sense in specific situations:
1. You’re running enterprise ABM at scale. If you’re already invested in 6sense or Demandbase and Bombora is your intent data layer, switching has a high organizational cost. The integration is built, the team is trained, and the workflows exist.
2. You need account-level signals for advertising. If your primary use case is targeting accounts (not people) with display ads or LinkedIn account targeting, company-level signals are sufficient. You’re targeting the account, not a specific contact.
3. You have a large data team that can operationalize company-level data. Some enterprise teams have the resources to take a Bombora signal, research contacts, enrich them, score them, and route them efficiently. If that infrastructure exists, Bombora feeds it well.
When to Use Orbit
Orbit is the better choice for most teams because it removes the research step entirely:
1. You do outbound sales or AI SDR outreach. Person-level data means your reps (or AI agents) can act on intent signals immediately without researching who to contact.
2. You want self-serve access without a $25K+ commitment. Orbit is included in Leadpipe plans starting at $147/mo with month-to-month billing. No annual contract, no implementation project.
3. You need person-level precision. When you know the actual person researching your category - not just the company - your outreach is more relevant, your response rates are higher, and your pipeline converts faster.
4. You want both visitor identification AND intent data. Leadpipe combines on-site visitor identification (who visits YOUR website) with Orbit’s cross-web intent data (who’s researching your category across the web). Bombora only provides the latter, and only at the company level.
5. You want to feed data into AI agents. AI SDRs need person-level data with contact information to take action. Company-level surge data requires human research before an AI agent can do anything with it.
Integration and Workflow
Bombora Integration Requirements
Bombora doesn’t sell direct to most companies. It typically flows through a platform partner:
| Platform | What You Get | Additional Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 6sense | Bombora surge data in ABM platform | $50K+/yr (platform) |
| Demandbase | Bombora intent in advertising platform | $50K+/yr (platform) |
| HubSpot | Limited intent signals | Enterprise plan required |
| Salesforce | Via AppExchange partners | Varies |
The total cost of a Bombora-powered workflow is often Bombora license + platform license + enrichment tool + sales engagement tool. That stack can exceed $100K/year easily.
Orbit Integration Requirements
Orbit is built into Leadpipe. No additional platform required:
| Integration | What You Get | Additional Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Leadpipe dashboard | Full audience builder + results | $0 (included) |
| CSV export | Direct import to any tool | $0 |
| REST API | Programmatic access | $0 |
| CRM integrations | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive | $0 |
| Webhooks | Real-time data delivery | $0 |
Total cost of an Orbit-powered workflow: your Leadpipe subscription. That’s it.
The Hybrid Approach
Some enterprise teams use both: Bombora for broad account-level monitoring and Orbit for person-level targeting within those accounts.
| Stage | Tool | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Account identification | Bombora | Surface companies showing intent |
| Person identification | Orbit | Find the specific people to contact |
| Contact enrichment | Leadpipe | Full contact data (email, phone, LinkedIn) |
| Outreach | Sales team / AI SDR | Personalized, person-level messaging |
This hybrid stack works but is expensive (Bombora’s $25K+ plus Leadpipe). For most teams, Orbit alone covers both the account discovery and person identification in a single workflow at a fraction of the cost.
The Bottom Line
Bombora pioneered intent data. That’s worth acknowledging. But the company-level limitation means every Bombora signal requires manual research before it’s actionable.
Orbit skips that step entirely. Person-level intent data means you know WHO is researching, not just which company. And at $147/mo vs $25,000+/yr, the pricing makes the decision even easier.
If you’re currently spending $25,000-$300,000/year on Bombora, run a side-by-side test. Take 10 Bombora surge accounts, research the contacts manually, and compare to what Orbit delivers automatically. The time savings alone will make the case.
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