Kodo Leads vs. Schober:
Address list or finished call list
Schober sells you addresses, selected by target group. Kodo sells you the result of the research: which company needs your product, who decides there and why right now, with a source for every claim. The difference is not the volume but the design.
The short answer
You are planning a campaign to ten thousand addresses
→ Schober
An address publisher is built for breadth. Anyone who wants to reach an entire industry by post or e-mail, with qualification happening only in the response, gets the target group from Schober selected by firmographics. Kodo deliberately delivers small lists and would be the wrong and the more expensive tool for a mass campaign.
You need private consumers, not just companies
→ Schober
Schober selects B2B and B2C target groups. Anyone who sells to end consumers or runs mixed campaigns finds both in one stock there. Kodo works exclusively with companies and has no consumer addresses.
You want to know what a company can do, not just where it sits
→ Kodo Leads
An address says the company exists and where. It does not say whether it mills on five axes, which materials it processes or whether an IATF 16949 hangs on the wall. Kodo reads exactly that from the website and the PDF brochures. One proof from our own dataset: of 1,001 deeply profiled companies, 119 state an ISO 9001 verbatim, on their website, not in a register.
You need the trigger with a date
→ Kodo Leads
An address list is timeless, and that is its problem. Kodo says why a company is interesting right now: the new hall from the company news, the open production job, the KfW grant, the fresh certification, the change in management. Every signal with a date and a link to the source.
TL;DR, The Direct Comparison
All key differences at a glance
| Feature | Schober | Kodo Leads |
|---|---|---|
| Address selection by firmographics | All sectors, B2B and B2C | Industrial mid-market DACH |
| Consumer addresses (B2C) | ||
| Enrichment of existing data | ||
| Machine park, processes, certificates from the website | ||
| Dated buying signals with a clickable source | ||
| Source per record | ||
| Financials with year and source | ||
| Delivery format | Addresses for post, e-mail, phone | Call list as CSV or into Salesforce |
When is which tool the right choice?
Both tools have their strengths, the question is what your sales team really needs.
When is Schober the right choice?
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You are planning a campaign to ten thousand addresses
An address publisher is built for breadth. Anyone who wants to reach an entire industry by post or e-mail, with qualification happening only in the response, gets the target group from Schober selected by firmographics. Kodo deliberately delivers small lists and would be the wrong and the more expensive tool for a mass campaign.
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You need private consumers, not just companies
Schober selects B2B and B2C target groups. Anyone who sells to end consumers or runs mixed campaigns finds both in one stock there. Kodo works exclusively with companies and has no consumer addresses.
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You want to enrich your existing stock, not find new companies
Enriching existing customer data with missing fields is part of Schober's offering. Kodo is not built for that: we research companies that match your target profile and deliver them as a finished list.
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Your target market is broad, not manufacturing
Retail, services, construction, medical practices: an address publisher covers every sector. Kodo is tailored to machine building, plant engineering, machining, metal, plastics and automotive suppliers in the DACH region, and gets noticeably thinner outside these industries.
When is Kodo the right choice?
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You want to know what a company can do, not just where it sits
An address says the company exists and where. It does not say whether it mills on five axes, which materials it processes or whether an IATF 16949 hangs on the wall. Kodo reads exactly that from the website and the PDF brochures. One proof from our own dataset: of 1,001 deeply profiled companies, 119 state an ISO 9001 verbatim, on their website, not in a register.
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You need the trigger with a date
An address list is timeless, and that is its problem. Kodo says why a company is interesting right now: the new hall from the company news, the open production job, the KfW grant, the fresh certification, the change in management. Every signal with a date and a link to the source.
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You want the source behind every record
With a bought address list you do not know where a field comes from or how old it is. At Kodo every statement carries the link: the certificate page, the imprint, the job posting, the annual accounts in the Bundesanzeiger. We show no number rating; the evidence is the rating.
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You need 40 calls, not 4,000 letters
Industrial sales lives on the conversation, not on the print run. An address list only turns into calls once someone reads the websites, finds the contact and phrases the opener. At Schober your team does that; at Kodo it is included in the price.
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You want the decision-maker with a role
Kodo pulls managing directors and authorised officers from the imprint and team page, with function and e-mail address, and cleanly separates what is proven from what is derived. So the call reaches the person who decides on your equipment, not the switchboard.
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You want to start without a subscription
Researched companies from 0.70 euros per company, as a single list without subscription, without onboarding and without an annual contract per seat. You get ten companies free so you can see the depth on real companies before you pay anything.
Looking for an overview of tools for B2B lead generation? Then our overview B2B lead generation tools (2026) is the better starting point.
The difference in one sentence
Schober is an address publisher: you buy a target group, selected by industry, size and region, and work it by post, e-mail or phone. Kodo Leads is a research service: you describe which manufacturing companies you are looking for and receive the finished call list, with machine park, certificates, decision-maker and the documented reason why this company is interesting right now.
Both designs have their place. The choice comes down to one question: who at your company does the hours that lie between the address list and the first call?
What Schober does well, stated honestly
The Schober Information Group from Ditzingen is an address publisher and marketing data provider with broad stocks for B2B and B2C target groups. It can do three things Kodo cannot. First, breadth: anyone who wants to reach an entire industry by mailing gets ten thousand addresses there, selected by firmographics. Kodo deliberately builds small lists and would be the wrong and the more expensive tool for a mass campaign. Second, consumers: Schober also selects B2C target groups, while Kodo works exclusively with companies. Third, enrichment: anyone who wants to complete their existing customer base with missing fields finds that at Schober as a product of its own. Kodo is not built for that.
For direct marketing at scale, where qualification only happens in the response, an address publisher is the right tool, and we say so here explicitly.
Where an address list structurally ends
The limit lies not in Schober's diligence but in the design. An address list answers where a company sits and which drawer it belongs in by industry and size. It does not answer what it can do, who decides there and why it should take a conversation right now. Exactly these three things decide the meeting in industrial sales.
An example that can be quantified. For the market overviews on this website we captured 2,276 manufacturing and trade businesses and deeply profiled 1,001 of them, that is, we machine-read their websites, brochures, imprints and register data. Result: 119 of these companies state an ISO 9001 verbatim, 15 an ISO 14001, 5 an IATF 16949, on their website, not in a register. The same applies to the machine park, the manufacturing processes, the materials and the industries served. In no address stock are these traits selectable, because they were never recorded.
Then there is the source. With a bought address list, no record carries proof of where a field comes from or how old it is. Anyone who opens a conversation with an outdated detail loses the meeting in the first minute. And the trigger is missing: the news item about the new hall, the open production job, the fresh certification sit on the company's website and on job portals. An address list is timeless, and that is exactly its problem. What we mean by a buying signal is explained in the glossary on buyer signals.
What Kodo makes of this
Kodo starts from the company's website. We read machine park, manufacturing processes, materials and certificates from the website and PDF brochures, pull decision-makers from the imprint and team page, with role and e-mail address, add financials from the Unternehmensregister and Bundesanzeiger with year and source, and look for dated buying signals: new hall, capex announcement, open production job, KfW grant, new certification, change of decision-maker. Behind each of these statements is a link to where it was found. We show no number rating; the evidence is the rating.
The result is not an address list you work through with mailings, but a call list you work through with calls. It arrives as CSV or straight into Salesforce, without onboarding and without an annual contract per seat.
The honest calculation
Per address, Kodo is more expensive than an address list. That is not a weakness but a consequence of the design: for every company we read the website, brochures, imprint, job postings, registers and news. So the comparison is not worth making per address, but per meeting.
The calculation you can do yourself: how many hours does your team need to turn an address list into a qualified call list, that is, to read websites, look for certificates, find the production manager and phrase the opener? Multiplied by your hourly rate. If that is above the price of the list, the question is answered. If it is below, for instance because you are planning a mailing to an entire industry anyway, stay with Schober, and that sentence is here on purpose. You get ten researched companies from us free of charge so you can do the calculation with real numbers. The prices are public.
Frequently asked questions about the comparison
Answers to the most important questions about Kodo vs. Schober
What is the main difference between Kodo and Schober?
Is Kodo an address publisher like Schober?
Can Kodo enrich my existing data like Schober?
How do I know a detail on a Kodo list is correct?
Who is Schober better suited for?
Who is Kodo better suited for?
What does Kodo cost compared with Schober?
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