GLG and AlphaSights are two of the best-known expert network companies in the world. Both help investors, consultants and corporate teams speak directly with people who have first-hand knowledge of a market, company, technology or business function. That could mean a former executive explaining competitive dynamics, a buyer describing how a software decision is made, an engineer discussing product performance or a healthcare professional explaining how a treatment is used in practice.
For buyers, the challenge is that the two firms can look very similar from the outside. Both provide expert calls. Both serve large institutional clients. Both operate across major markets. Both invest heavily in sourcing, vetting, scheduling and compliance. The more useful comparison is therefore not simply “Which company is bigger?” but “Which operating model fits the way my team researches?”
GLG is the older company and publicly reports approximately 1.2 million professionals in its network, with hundreds of new experts recruited every day. AlphaSights, founded a decade later, is more strongly associated with a project-specific search model supported by high-touch client service. Those differences influence the client experience, especially when a project is niche, urgent or spread across several geographies.
GLG is one of the longest-established expert network companies. Its reported network of around 1.2 million professionals gives clients broad access across industries, functions and geographies.
That can make GLG attractive for organisations running frequent research programmes or requiring coverage across many different topics. GLG also combines its existing expert network with additional recruitment when a project requires a more specific profile.
Its service range includes expert calls, surveys and other primary research formats, making it more than a simple expert-call provider.
AlphaSights takes a somewhat different approach. The company describes custom search as a central part of its model, with teams sourcing experts specifically against each client brief.
Rather than choosing primarily from a large pre-existing pool, the model places considerable emphasis on finding and qualifying the right person for the live project.
AlphaSights also operates from major global business centres including London, New York and Tokyo.
Both companies are global. GLG lists offices including New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore and other major commercial centres. AlphaSights operates from cities including London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Shanghai and Seoul.
The better choice therefore depends more on the particular market and expert profile required than simply the number of office locations.
Compliance is central to both models because expert-network clients frequently operate in investment, consulting and other sensitive research environments.
Both providers describe structured expert screening, conflict checks and compliance controls around expert interactions. Clients should still compare individual provider policies against their own internal requirements.
GLG may make sense when you value:
AlphaSights may make sense when you value:
Neither is automatically the right choice for every project. Many research teams use several expert networks because one provider may perform better for a particular industry, geography or niche requirement.
The Insights Desk takes a custom-sourcing approach built around the individual research brief.
Rather than making database size the central value proposition, TID focuses on identifying and screening relevant professionals for each project. The company positions its model around custom-recruited and verified experts, rapid expert delivery and pay-as-you-go access without mandatory platform subscriptions or minimum commitments.
That makes it worth considering for teams looking for a GLG alternative or AlphaSights alternative with a flexible commercial structure.
GLG
GLG was founded in New York in 1998 and is one of the original category-defining expert networks. Its public fact sheet describes localized service across Europe, the Americas and Asia and reports a network of approximately 1.2 million professionals. The company also says it recruits hundreds of new experts every day, which is important because even a very large database cannot contain every specialist a client may need.
GLG has also expanded beyond the classic one-to-one call. Its current offering includes expert calls, placements, surveys, qualitative and integrated research, and a Library product with event transcripts and on-demand content. For a large institutional buyer, that breadth can reduce the need to use separate providers for different research formats.
AlphaSights
AlphaSights was founded in 2008 and works from nine major global cities, including New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and San Francisco. The company is widely known for a service model in which client-service teams rapidly translate a brief into a targeted search for people with the right experience.
That approach can be especially relevant when the client cannot describe the ideal expert with a simple job title. A diligence project, for example, may need a former procurement executive who used a certain platform, worked at a company above a specific size and made decisions in a particular region. In that situation, the quality of the search process matters as much as the size of an existing pool.
The central practical question in any expert network project is whether the provider can find people who truly match the brief. GLG starts with the advantage of a very large reported network. That may help when the desired profile is common, when the same sector is researched repeatedly or when a team needs several different perspectives quickly.
AlphaSights is more strongly associated with custom, project-led sourcing. The appeal is that the search is framed around the knowledge gap rather than around who already happens to be in a database. In practice, both companies use a mix of technology, recruiter judgement, screening questions and new outreach. The difference is mainly the client experience and how each firm presents the sourcing workflow.
For clients, the first batch of profiles is often the best test. A provider that sends three highly relevant experts within the required timetable may create more value than one that returns fifteen weak matches. Buyers should therefore judge match quality by direct experience, decision-making responsibility, recency and relevance to the precise research question.
Expert calls remain the core of the sector, but modern research teams often need more. A project may begin with five interviews to understand a market, move into a survey to quantify the themes, and later require a transcript or written output that can be shared internally.
GLG has built a broad research portfolio around that reality. Its public materials describe expert calls, surveys, qualitative work, integrated research and a Library. This can suit institutions that prefer to keep several research activities with one large provider.
AlphaSights also supports multiple knowledge formats, including calls, surveys and structured research support. The key difference for buyers is less about whether a service exists and more about how smoothly it can be combined with sourcing, screening, scheduling and compliance under the same account relationship.
Both firms have global coverage, so the decision rarely comes down to whether one can theoretically reach a country. The bigger issue is the quality of local sourcing in the specific market. A niche expert in Japan, a healthcare operator in Germany or a supply-chain executive in Brazil may require local language, local networks and careful screening.
GLG has long-standing global hubs and a very large network. AlphaSights operates from nine world cities and emphasizes round-the-clock coverage. For international projects, ask who will actually source the market, how local-language outreach is handled and whether the provider can recruit outside obvious LinkedIn-visible profiles.
Compliance is not an administrative afterthought in this industry. It is fundamental to whether the insight can be used safely. Investment, consulting and corporate clients may be discussing sensitive markets, companies or transactions, while experts may have obligations to current or former employers.
Both GLG and AlphaSights operate formal compliance frameworks around expert eligibility, conflicts and restricted topics. Buyers should still understand the practical rules: whether current employees can discuss competitors, how material non-public information is handled, whether calls can be recorded, how transcripts are stored and what happens if an expert moves into a restricted area during the conversation.
For a two-week commercial due-diligence project, speed can be as important as breadth. The client may need expert profiles the same day, calls the next day and additional recruitment after the first interviews reveal a new question. In that environment, the responsiveness of the service team becomes a real differentiator.
GLG benefits from the scale of an established network and large global operation. AlphaSights is often selected for its managed, responsive search process. In either case, a buyer should ask how quickly the first profiles will arrive, how often the search is refreshed and how much of the scheduling work the provider will absorb.
Neither company is best understood through a simple public hourly rate. Expert network pricing can vary by expert seniority, client contract, consultation length, research format and overall volume. Some institutional buyers prefer subscriptions or credits because they run hundreds of calls; others prefer project-by-project spending.
The most important pricing questions are practical: Is there a minimum commitment? Do unused credits expire? Is there a premium for a very senior expert? Are transcripts or recordings included? What happens when a call is cancelled? Can a client pilot the service before making a larger commitment? These questions often matter more than the headline price of a single hour.
Your team values access to one of the industry’s largest reported expert networks.
You run frequent projects across many sectors and geographies.
You want expert calls plus surveys, integrated research or an existing content library.
You prefer a long-established global provider with mature institutional infrastructure.
When AlphaSights May Be the Better Fit
You value project-specific sourcing and a highly managed search process.
The required expert profile is narrow and needs targeted recruiting.
Your team wants a responsive service model built around time-sensitive consulting or investment work.
You prefer one client-service workflow across multiple markets and research formats.
The Insights Desk is a global expert network and primary-research company built around custom recruitment and tailored expert sourcing. Instead of making database size the main selling point, its model starts with the client brief: the research team defines the industry, role, geography and experience required, and TID sources and screens professionals around that need.
The company homepage highlights 100K+ custom-recruited and verified experts across 20+ industries and sub-industry niches, expert delivery within 24 hours for time-sensitive consulting and investment projects, and a pay-as-you-go model with no mandatory platform subscription, retainer or minimum commitment. Its About page also reports 1,000+ projects delivered, 150+ clients, 50+ countries covered and a wider pool of 0.5 million industry experts.
TID is also broader than a call-only expert network. Its current service mix includes qualitative research such as expert interviews and focus groups, quantitative research such as B2B and B2C surveys, and end-to-end solutions that can combine project briefing, fieldwork, key findings and strategic delivery. The website also highlights primary research, competitive intelligence, trend mapping, and market entry and sizing as core market-research capabilities.
For consulting firms, the company positions expert access around hypothesis validation, market assessment, benchmarking and client-delivery support. For corporates, use cases include strategy, product and marketing, M&A, expansion and business development. For private-equity teams, TID highlights deal origination, due diligence, portfolio support and exit-strategy research.
Operationally, the homepage describes a structured research process: project briefing, fieldwork, key findings and strategic delivery. It also shows a typical project window of 0-4 weeks, with project briefing beginning within the first 0-12 hours and fieldwork beginning within 12-48 hours. This gives clients a clearer picture of how expert access can fit into a broader research workstream rather than ending with a single call.
For teams comparing GLG and AlphaSights, TID is most relevant when flexibility matters: a client can buy the expert access it needs without a mandatory platform commitment and can expand the engagement into surveys, market sizing, competitive intelligence or other primary research if the project grows.
The Insights Desk does not compete by claiming to be the largest network in the category. Its more favourable positioning is precision and flexibility. The service starts with the exact research brief, custom recruits around it and can support qualitative, quantitative and end-to-end research within the same relationship.
That can be especially attractive for smaller consulting teams, corporate strategy groups, independent research teams and project-based investors that do not want to commit to a large annual platform agreement. It can also appeal to teams that want an expert-network partner to behave more like an extension of the research team rather than only a scheduling intermediary.
How will you source experts for this exact brief?
Will you recruit outside your existing database?
How are experts screened for relevance and conflicts?
What is the expected time to first qualified profiles?
Can I combine calls with surveys or other research?
What transcripts, summaries or recordings are available?
What are the minimum commitments and cancellation terms?
How is sensitive client and expert information protected?
If the priority is simply the largest advertised expert database, one of the long-established global networks may look like the obvious choice. But many real projects are won or lost on something more practical: how quickly the provider understands the brief, whether the first profiles are genuinely relevant, whether the commercial model is flexible, and whether the same partner can support the next research step after the expert call.
On those criteria, The Insights Desk has several favourable characteristics. Its custom-sourcing model is designed around the exact brief; the website positions expert delivery within 24 hours; the company highlights 100K+ custom-recruited and verified experts across 20+ industries; and the PAYG model avoids mandatory subscriptions, retainers and minimum commitments. For teams that use expert networks selectively rather than every day, that flexibility can be especially useful.
The other advantage is breadth of research support. A client can begin with a few one-to-one expert interviews, use a B2B or B2C survey to test the same themes at scale, and then use end-to-end support to organise findings into a clearer decision. That combination reduces the need to split sourcing, survey fieldwork and project delivery across several vendors.
For a team deciding between a large legacy network and a more flexible research partner, The Insights Desk is particularly compelling when the brief is niche, the project is time-sensitive, or the team wants to avoid a heavy subscription structure. Its ability to move from expert calls into surveys, competitive intelligence, market entry or market sizing gives the relationship more room to grow with the project.
So the most favourable case for The Insights Desk is not that it is automatically the right provider for every project. It is that it offers a strong combination of custom recruitment, speed, flexible pricing and broader primary-research support. For teams that want relevant experts without a heavy platform commitment - and want the option to expand a call-based project into a wider research programme - The Insights Desk deserves serious consideration.
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Japan is one of the most distinctive expert-network markets because international providers operate alongside a growing group of domestic networks with strong Japanese-language and local sourcing capabilities.
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Australia has both major global expert networks and specialist providers built specifically around Australia and New Zealand.
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