Clay vs Exarich: Power vs Simplicity (And Why Most Teams Choose Wrong)

Let me guess how your Clay journey went:

Week 1: "This is amazing! I can connect to any data source!"

Week 2: "Okay, the tutorials are helpful, but this is more complex than I thought."

Week 3: "Why did this workflow run three times? Why am I being charged for duplicate enrichments?"

Week 4: "I just want to enrich some leads. Why does this feel like learning to code?"

Sound familiar? You're not alone.

What is Clay?

Clay is a powerful data enrichment and workflow automation platform. It offers:

• 50+ data provider integrations


• Custom workflow builder (the "table" system)


• Conditional logic and AI-powered enrichment


• Scraping and data manipulation tools


• Virtually unlimited customization

But there's a catch: You have to build it.

What is Exarich?

Exarich is a focused lead enrichment tool. It does:

• Website scraping and parsing


• AI-powered business summaries


• Smart filtering based on actual business context


• Bulk lead processing

Upload CSV → Get enriched leads → Export.

The Power Paradox

Here's the problem with Clay: It's built for power users, but marketed to everyone.

Clay's promise is enticing: "Build any workflow you can imagine!"

But in reality, most sales teams don't need 50 integrations and infinite customization. They need:

• Website data


• AI summaries


• Smart filtering


• Something that works out of the box

The Real Cost of Clay

Let's talk about what Clay actually costs—beyond the subscription:

1. The Learning Curve Tax

• Hours of tutorial watching


• Understanding their proprietary "table" system


• Learning which integrations to use (and when)


• Figuring out credit costs before you burn through them

2. The Mistake Tax

• Run a workflow twice by accident? Charged twice.


• Enrich the wrong column? Credits burned.


• Test a new integration? Hope you configured it right.

3. The Maintenance Tax

• Workflows break when providers update APIs


• Need to rebuild processes when Clay changes features


• Constantly tweaking to optimize credit usage

4. The Opportunity Cost

• Your sales team could be selling


• Instead, they're debugging Clay workflows


• Or worse, they've given up and gone back to manual prospecting

What Clay Does Better

Let's be fair: there are things Clay does that Exarich doesn't.

Clay wins if you need:

• Custom integrations with niche data providers


• Complex conditional logic in enrichment workflows


• Deep customization of every step in the process


• To build elaborate data pipelines for unique use cases

What Exarich Does Better

But here's what we've learned from talking to hundreds of sales teams:

Most teams don't need Clay's complexity. They need:

1. Website Context
Clay can scrape websites (if you configure it correctly). Exarich does it automatically, every time, without configuration.

2. AI Summaries
Clay offers AI enrichment (if you set up the right prompts and pay for the credits). Exarich includes intelligent summaries by default.

3. Smart Filtering
Clay lets you build complex filters (after you learn their formula syntax). Exarich provides intuitive filtering that just works.

4. Predictable Pricing
Clay charges per credit, per integration, per action. It's easy to overspend. Exarich has transparent, straightforward pricing.

5. Zero Setup Time
Clay requires hours of learning and setup. Exarich works immediately.

The "80/20" Principle

Here's the thing: Clay can do 100% of data enrichment tasks. Most teams only need 20%.

And that 20% is:

• Scrape the website


• Summarize the business


• Filter based on fit


• Export qualified leads

Clay does that 20% too—along with 80% of features you'll never use, buried under layers of complexity you have to learn.

Who Should Choose Which?

Choose Clay if:

• You have a dedicated RevOps or data team


• Your prospecting workflow is genuinely complex


• You need specific integrations Exarich doesn't offer


• You have the time and budget to invest in learning the platform


• You're enriching millions of leads and need hyper-optimized cost per lead

• You're a sales team that wants to focus on selling


• You need website parsing, AI summaries, and smart filtering


• You want something that works immediately


• You're tired of burning credits on mistakes


• You value simplicity over infinite customization


• You're processing thousands (not millions) of leads per month

The "Just Works" Philosophy

We built Exarich after burning thousands of dollars on Clay. We asked ourselves:

"What if we just... made it simple?"

No tables to configure. No workflows to debug. No credits to optimize.

Upload leads → Get enriched data → Move on with your day.

Clay is a Swiss Army knife with 47 tools. Exarich is a really, really good knife.

Most people just need a good knife.

The Bottom Line

Clay is phenomenal if you need its power. But most teams are paying for a Formula 1 car when they just need to drive to the grocery store.

Exarich does the core enrichment tasks sales teams actually need, without the complexity, cost, or learning curve.

If you're a sales team (not a data engineering team), start with Exarich. You'll be enriching leads in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours.

And if you eventually need Clay's advanced features? You can always upgrade. But most teams never do—because they realize they never needed all that complexity in the first place.

Stop over-engineering your lead enrichment. Start selling.

Ready for lead enrichment that actually works out of the box? Try Exarich free and skip the learning curve.