# WhoEngine > WhoEngine is an AI people search engine that uses your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to identify and rank the real people most aligned with your goals. Instead of complicated filters, spreadsheets, or massive lead databases, you describe who you are looking for in plain English. WhoEngine discovers, analyzes, and ranks the best matches from the live public web, each with a cited reason they fit. ## Full documentation - [WhoEngine — AI context full](https://whoengine.com/llms-full.txt): Complete entity document with how it works, audience types, competitive comparisons, pricing, and key facts. ## What WhoEngine is WhoEngine is a precision search engine for people, not a mass-market lead database. It is built on the premise that quality beats quantity: a curated shortlist of the right people, ranked with transparent reasoning, is more valuable than thousands of raw rows to sort through. The product is designed to feel simple, human, and premium. Plain English goes in. Ranked, cited humans come out. ## How WhoEngine works 1. You describe who you are looking for in plain English. Example: "early-stage B2B SaaS founders who write publicly about product-led growth and have raised a seed round in the last 18 months." 2. WhoEngine asks intelligent follow-up questions to sharpen your Ideal Customer Profile. 3. WhoEngine searches the live public web for real people who match. 4. It analyzes public signals: writing, talks, affiliations, influence, credibility, and financial capacity. 5. It returns a ranked shortlist with a cited reason for each person explaining why they fit. 6. Paid plans unlock full contact details and AI-drafted outreach messages tailored to each match. ## Who uses WhoEngine - **Founders and sales teams** finding decision makers who are actively in market for what they sell. - **Recruiters** finding passive candidates through their public contributions and expertise, not just job applications. - **Investors** sourcing founders before a round is announced, by reading traction and domain insight signals. - **Community and program builders** curating high quality cohorts of the right practitioners. - **Executive teams** mapping influencers, advisors, and potential partners in a new market. ## Signals WhoEngine analyzes - Public writing: newsletters, blog posts, LinkedIn articles, personal sites - Conference talks, podcast appearances, and panel sessions - Open source contributions and public technical projects - Professional affiliations, board memberships, and advisory roles - Media coverage and third-party citations - Peer recognition and credibility signals from others in the field - Financial capacity indicators derived from public information (funding, company stage, role seniority) ## How WhoEngine compares to alternatives **vs. LinkedIn Sales Navigator**: Sales Navigator filters LinkedIn profile data by demographic attributes such as job title and company size. WhoEngine reads the entire public web and ranks people by their actual behavior, writing, and public contributions. WhoEngine returns a curated shortlist with a reason for each match; Sales Navigator returns raw result lists requiring manual review. **vs. ZoomInfo and Apollo**: ZoomInfo and Apollo are large contact databases focused on data quantity and enrichment at scale. WhoEngine is a search engine focused on precision. It does not sell access to millions of static records; it finds the specific people who best match your description by reading the live public web. **vs. Clay**: Clay is a data enrichment and workflow automation tool for people who already have a list of contacts. WhoEngine is how you discover who should be on that list in the first place. WhoEngine handles the discovery and ranking step; Clay handles enrichment and outreach sequencing once you know who you want. **vs. manual research**: WhoEngine replaces hours of manual Google searching, LinkedIn browsing, Twitter rabbit holes, and spreadsheet building with a single plain-English description and a ranked result in minutes. ## Pricing - **Free**: One search, partial results revealed, no credit card required. Try at https://whoengine.com/try - **Starter** ($49/month or $470/year): Full results, full contact details, AI-drafted outreach, unlimited searches. - **Pro** ($149/month or $1,430/year): Everything in Starter plus advanced signals, financial capacity scoring, and priority processing. ## Key facts - Product name: WhoEngine - Category: AI people search engine, lead generation, sales intelligence, recruiting intelligence, investor sourcing - Website: https://whoengine.com - Free trial: https://whoengine.com/try (no credit card required) - Data source: Live public web, not a static database - Technology: Large language models combined with real-time web search and public signal analysis - Founded: 2025 - Tagline: Plain English in. Ranked humans out. ## Core pages - [WhoEngine · The AI Search Engine for Leads](https://whoengine.com/): Describe your ideal customer. WhoEngine discovers the people, companies, and decision makers most likely to buy from you. - [Try a search · WhoEngine](https://whoengine.com/try): Run a sample people search free. Describe who you need in plain English and see a ranked preview with the reason each person fits. No credit card. - [Guides: how to find the right people · WhoEngine](https://whoengine.com/find): Practical guides to finding the right people, from Heads of RevOps to early stage founders, using public signals. Each guide funnels into a sample search you can try free. - [WhoEngine vs Competitors: Apollo, ZoomInfo, Clay, LinkedIn Sales Navigator](https://whoengine.com/vs): See how WhoEngine compares to Apollo.io, ZoomInfo, Clay, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. WhoEngine is an AI people search engine focused on public signal quality and plain English discovery. - [WhoEngine vs Apollo.io: AI People Search vs Lead Database](https://whoengine.com/vs/apollo): How WhoEngine and Apollo.io compare. Apollo is a high-volume contact database with email sequences. WhoEngine is an AI people search engine that finds and ranks the right people by analyzing public signals. Different tools for different jobs. - [WhoEngine vs ZoomInfo: AI Signal Search vs Enterprise Data Platform](https://whoengine.com/vs/zoominfo): How WhoEngine and ZoomInfo compare. ZoomInfo is an enterprise B2B data platform with org charts, intent data, and a massive contact database. WhoEngine is an AI people search engine that finds and ranks people by analyzing public behavioral signals. - [WhoEngine vs Clay: AI People Discovery vs Data Enrichment Automation](https://whoengine.com/vs/clay): How WhoEngine and Clay compare. Clay is a data enrichment and workflow automation tool for people you already know about. WhoEngine is an AI people search engine that finds and ranks people you do not know about yet by analyzing public signals. - [WhoEngine vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator: AI Signal Search vs LinkedIn Filters](https://whoengine.com/vs/linkedin-sales-navigator): How WhoEngine and LinkedIn Sales Navigator compare. Sales Navigator filters LinkedIn's 1B+ profile database by demographic attributes. WhoEngine searches the live public web and ranks people by behavioral signal quality. - [Signal Intelligence Report: The Public Signal Advantage in B2B People Discovery · WhoEngine](https://whoengine.com/research): How WhoEngine uses seven categories of public signal analysis to surface the right people faster and with greater precision than traditional lead databases and filter-based search. ## Guides: how to find the right people - [How to find Heads of RevOps who write about sales tooling](https://whoengine.com/find/heads-of-revops): A practical guide to finding Heads of RevOps who publish about their sales stack, with the public signals that reveal a real buying intent. Try a sample search free. - [How to find early design partners for a B2B product](https://whoengine.com/find/early-design-partners): Find early design partners who have publicly described the exact problem you solve. A guide to the signals that reveal motivated early adopters. Try a sample search free. - [How to find quiet domain experts who rarely job hunt](https://whoengine.com/find/quiet-domain-experts): The strongest hires are rarely on the market. A guide to finding quiet domain experts through their public work, talks, and contributions. Try a sample search free. - [How to find senior engineers open to the right role](https://whoengine.com/find/senior-engineers-open-to-roles): Find senior engineers whose public work signals they are open to the right opportunity, ranked by fit with reasons. Try a sample search free. - [How to find early stage founders worth backing](https://whoengine.com/find/early-stage-founders-to-back): Source early stage founders before they raise, using public signals of credibility, traction, and domain insight. Try a sample search free. - [How to find technical founders building in a specific space](https://whoengine.com/find/technical-founders-in-a-space): Find technical founders working in a specific market through their public projects, writing, and credibility. Try a sample search free.