Agentic Index
Bardeen vs Clay (2026)
Bardeen and Clay both automate GTM data work, from opposite architectures. Clay is the table: 150 plus enrichment providers in waterfall workflows, Claygent research, and orchestration of scoring and outbound, from a free tier through 185 and 495 dollar monthly credit plans. Bardeen is the browser: agents that scrape, enrich, and act on web data wherever it lives, from 10 dollars a month. Serious teams often run Clay as the system and Bardeen as the collector.
| At a glance | Bardeen | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| Category | GTM / revenue agent | GTM / revenue agent |
| Entry price | From $10/mo · free tier | Free · Launch $185/mo (2,500 Data Credits) · Growth $495/mo (6,000 Data Credits) · Enterprise custom · usage-based (Data Credits + Actions) |
| Free / trial | Free; 7-day trial | Free plan with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions/mo, unlimited seats and tables, waterfalls, Claygent, and Sequencer (up to 200 rows/table). |
| Pricing confidence | public partial | public exact |
| Feature |
B
Bardeen
|
C
Clay
|
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
|
Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
|
Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
Partial | Full / Explicit |
|
Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
Full / Explicit | Full / Explicit |
| Knowledge & context | ||
|
Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
|
Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
Partial | No / Not documented |
| Control & trust | ||
|
Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
|
Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
|
Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
Partial | Partial |
|
Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
Partial | No / Not documented |
| Solution readiness | ||
|
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
Full / Explicit | Partial |
| Platform extensibility | ||
|
Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
No / Not documented | Partial |
|
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
Partial | Partial |
|
Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
Partial | Partial |
| Specialist automation | ||
|
Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
Full / Explicit | No / Not documented |
Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing |
B
Bardeen
|
C
Clay
|
|---|---|---|
|
Entry price Lowest public entry point |
From $10/mo · free tier | Free · Launch $185/mo (2,500 Data Credits) · Growth $495/mo (6,000 Data Credits) · Enterprise custom · usage-based (Data Credits + Actions) |
|
Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public — partial | Public — exact |
|
Billing Primary billing axis |
credits | Usage based: monthly subscription tier plus two credit pools, Data Credits (marketplace data/AI) and Actions (platform operations). Unlimited seats. |
|
Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
Medium variable cost | High variable cost |
|
Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tierTrial
|
Free tier
|
|
Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Self-serve |
Choose Bardeen if
- Web scraping from live pages, sites without APIs, is a real share of your data need.
- The 10 dollar entry makes it a free lunch tier for individual operators.
- Browser native automation extends beyond GTM into general ops work.
Choose Clay if
- Waterfall enrichment across 150 plus providers is the coverage and cost optimization play.
- Claygent research plus scoring plus outbound orchestration makes it the GTM data hub.
- The ecosystem matters: templates, community, and integrations compound your team's skill.