Pick by how often you call and how hard the expert is to find.
If you run expert calls every week and need hard-to-find people recruited to order, sign with 1 or 2 full-service networks such as GLG, AlphaSights or Guidepoint. Their price buys custom recruiting, scheduling and compliance. If your team already reads expert transcripts in a research platform, add calls there: AlphaSense sells expert calls as an add-on. If your deals are B2B software, a specialist network built on customer data, such as Arbolus, starts with data before the call. If you call a few times a quarter, an aggregator such as Inex One lets you post one request to many networks without a prepaid contract.
Read the credit terms first. The credit multiplier decides the price.
Why expert networks matter
Some strategy questions are not answered in any document. How do hospital buyers choose between 2 suppliers? Why did a competitor's largest customer switch? What does a plant manager pay for a part this year? The people who know are former executives, customers, suppliers and distributors.
An expert network finds them, checks they can speak, pays them and keeps the call within compliance rules.
Without a network, teams rely on their own contacts. Those contacts are few, often biased toward one side of the market, and rarely screened for confidentiality obligations to a current or former employer. The compliance risk falls on you.
Who buys it
Buyers include private equity, hedge fund and investment teams, and management consultancies running due diligence and strategy projects. Corporate strategy, corporate development, product and market research teams at large companies also buy. Triggers include an acquisition, a commercial due diligence deadline, a market entry case, a new product category, and a pricing decision that needs customer evidence.
Before you buy: what teams do without one
Without a network, teams call their own contacts, recruit through LinkedIn, hire a market research agency for interviews or surveys, or read expert call transcripts that someone else commissioned.
Own contacts work for a few calls in a familiar market. Transcript libraries answer common questions about public companies at a lower cost per insight. A network pays when you need specific people fast, such as former employees of a named competitor or buyers of a niche product, and when someone has to screen them for conflicts and confidentiality before the call.
What good looks like
| Capability | What good looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Custom recruiting | Experts sourced to your brief, not only from an existing database, with screening questions answered before you choose. | Database-only matching misses experts the network has not yet recruited. |
| Compliance screening | Written checks for current employment, confidentiality duties and material non-public information, with records you can audit. | Your firm, not only the network, carries the legal risk of a bad call. |
| Speed | First relevant profiles within 24 to 48 hours, stated in the contract or service levels. | Due diligence timelines are measured in days. |
| Formats beyond 1-to-1 calls | Surveys of experts, moderated calls, written Q&A and deal advisors, from the same account. | A survey of 100 buyers can size a pattern that 10 calls only suggest. |
| Transcripts and AI summaries | A transcript of every call, searchable across your team's past calls, with clear ownership of the content. | Untranscribed calls cannot be searched or reused by the next project. |
| Global coverage | Recruiters and experts in the countries and languages your projects need. | Networks strong in the US and Europe can be thin in Asia, and the reverse. |
| Transparent pricing | A rate card that shows the credit cost of each expert type before you book. | Credit multipliers for senior or scarce experts change the real price per call. |
How expert networks are built, and who sells each kind
Vendors in this category can take a labeled Spotlight slot on this guide. How Spotlight works
Full-service global networks
Large networks with recruiting teams in many countries that source experts to order, schedule calls, run surveys and handle compliance. GLG, AlphaSights and Guidepoint work this way.
Fits: Investment firms, consultancies and corporate teams that run frequent calls and need hard-to-find people.
- GLGInvestors, corporations, law and consulting firms that want calls, research, events and expert placements from one network.
- AlphaSightsInvestment funds, consultancies and businesses that want custom-sourced experts, surveys and moderated calls.
- GuidepointResearch teams that want expert calls and a library of more than 130,000 transcripts from one supplier.
- Third BridgeInvestors and business leaders who want custom-sourced experts plus a library covering over 75,000 companies.
- DialecticaTeams that want custom expert calls, B2B surveys and company and market intelligence from one supplier.
- AtheneumTeams that want expert interviews and B2B or B2C expert surveys run by one partner.
- VisasQ/ColemanInvestors and companies that want an expert network with reach in both Asia and the West.
Research platforms with expert calls
A research platform that sells expert calls as an add-on next to its search, transcripts and documents. AlphaSense works this way.
Fits: Teams that already use the platform for research and want calls in the same place.
- AlphaSenseAlphaSense subscribers who want to add expert calls next to their transcripts and research.
Specialist networks built on data
A network focused on one kind of expert that starts with structured data, such as customer reviews, then moves to calls and surveys. Arbolus works this way for B2B technology.
Fits: Investment and consulting teams doing repeated diligence in one sector.
- ArbolusPrivate equity and consulting teams doing B2B technology diligence that want customer data before calls.
Aggregators across networks
One platform that sends a project to many expert networks at once and shows the results in one list. Inex One works this way.
Fits: Teams that call occasionally and do not want a prepaid contract with one network.
- Inex OneTeams that want to send one request to 30+ expert networks and pay per project with no contract.
How to choose
Custom sourcing or database matching
Ask what share of experts on a typical project are recruited to order. VisasQ/Coleman states about 20% are custom sourced. Others promote custom search as their main model.
Compliance model
Who screens experts, what they attest to before each call, whether calls can be chaperoned or recorded, and what audit trail you receive.
Pricing unit
Credits, cash per call or per hour, or a project fee. Ask how many credits a senior or scarce expert costs and what happens to unused credits.
Formats offered
1-to-1 calls, surveys, written Q&A, moderated calls and deal advisors. Using one network for all formats simplifies contracts and compliance.
Transcript ownership
Whether transcripts of your calls are yours alone, or added to a library the network sells. Some networks price calls lower when you give up those rights.
Coverage where you work
Recruiter headcount and expert depth in your sectors and countries. Test with a real brief, not a sales deck.
How pricing works
Large networks sell annual contracts, often prepaid in credits, and charge 1 or more credits per call. Senior or scarce experts can cost more than 1 credit. Unused credits may expire or roll over, depending on the contract. Surveys, transcripts and moderated calls are priced separately.
Published figures are scarce and mostly come from competitors. Inex One, an aggregator that competes with the large networks, wrote in February 2026 that an expert interview usually costs $1,000 to $1,400 per hour, and that the expert's own fee is typically $200 to $500 of that. Treat these as one vendor's estimate.
Aggregators and some specialist networks charge per project or per call in cash, with no annual commitment.
| Model | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Prepaid credits | An annual commitment buys a block of credits, deducted per call, survey or transcript. | Credit multipliers for senior experts, expiry dates and rollover terms for unused credits. |
| Pay per call | Each call billed in cash, usually per hour, with no prepaid block. | Minimum call lengths and premium rates for urgent or scarce experts. |
| Platform add-on | Expert calls sold as an add-on to a research platform subscription. | Whether call transcripts stay private to you or enter the platform's shared library. |
| Per project fee plus call costs | A fixed fee to launch a project across networks, then the price of each call you take. | Different compliance terms across the networks that fulfill the project. |
Implementation
- Set compliance rules firstAgree with legal which experts are off limits, such as current employees of targets or competitors, and whether calls are recorded or chaperoned.
- Run a test briefSend the same live brief to 2 or 3 networks. Compare speed, fit of profiles and screening answers.
- Negotiate the rate cardFix credit costs by expert type, rollover terms and survey prices in the contract, not in an email.
- Store transcripts centrallyPut every transcript and summary in one searchable place so the next project starts from what you already paid for.
- Review spend each quarterTrack cost per call, credits per call and calls per project by team, and move occasional users to pay-per-call terms.
Confirm before you sign
- A rate card showing credits or cash per expert type, in the contract.
- Expiry and rollover terms for unused credits.
- The compliance attestations each expert signs before every call.
- Screening for current employees of companies you name.
- Call recording, transcript and chaperone options, and their cost.
- Ownership of transcripts, and whether the network may resell them.
- Service levels for time to first profiles.
- Survey pricing per respondent and minimum sample sizes.
- Data protection terms for the questions and materials you share.
- Named account team and coverage hours in your time zones.
Questions to ask in a demo
- Here is a live brief. How many profiles can you send in 24 hours, and how many will be recruited to order?
- How many credits would each of these 5 profiles cost, and who decides which experts count as premium?
- What does an expert attest to before a call, and can we see the record afterward?
- How do you screen out current employees of the company we are researching?
- Who owns the transcript of our call, and could it appear in a library you sell to others?
- What happens to credits we have not used at the end of the term?
- Show us a survey you ran with 100 or more expert respondents. What did it cost and how long did it take?
- How many recruiters do you have in our sector and in each country we need?
Frequently asked questions
What is an expert network?
A firm that finds people with first-hand knowledge of an industry, such as former executives, customers or suppliers, screens them for conflicts and confidentiality, and arranges paid calls, surveys or meetings with clients. Investors, consultancies and corporate strategy teams use them for due diligence, market entry and competitive questions that documents cannot answer.
How much does an expert network call cost?
Large networks rarely publish prices and mostly sell prepaid credits on annual contracts. Inex One, an aggregator that competes with them, wrote in February 2026 that an expert interview usually costs $1,000 to $1,400 per hour. Senior or scarce experts can cost more than 1 credit. Ask each network for a written rate card before you sign.
Expert networks vs expert call transcript libraries: which do we need?
A transcript library sells calls that someone else already ran, so it is fast and cheaper per insight, but you cannot choose the questions. An expert network arranges calls on your own questions with experts you select. Read transcripts first to learn a market, then book calls for the questions the library cannot answer.
What are the alternatives to GLG?
Other full-service networks include AlphaSights, Guidepoint, Third Bridge, Dialectica, Atheneum and VisasQ/Coleman. AlphaSense sells expert calls as an add-on to its research platform. Arbolus specializes in B2B technology diligence. Inex One sends one request to many networks at once.
Are expert network calls legal and compliant?
Expert calls are legal, but they carry insider trading and confidentiality risk if an expert shares material non-public information or breaches a duty to an employer. Networks screen experts and ask them to attest to their obligations before each call. Your own compliance team should still set rules on who you may speak to and whether calls are recorded or chaperoned.
Sources
Written by Stratrix editors from public sources and checked claim by claim by a second AI model against those sources. Vendors named in the editorial sections did not pay to be included. Spotlight listings are paid and labeled. Methodology and corrections