Sales Navigator was built to help you find people and send them messages. Via was built to find who in your orbit can get you in front of them without a cold message at all. They solve different problems.
A direct comparison of what each tool does — and doesn't do — for teams running warm outbound.
| Capability | Via | LinkedIn Sales Nav |
|---|---|---|
| Core prospecting | ||
| Find target buyers by role, company, seniority | ✓Yes, with relationship context | ✓Yes, strong |
| Search by ICP criteria and filters | ✓Natural language search | ✓Complex filter UI |
| See your own 1st-degree connections | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Warm access & pathfinding | ||
| See your team's connections | ✓Full team network | —Your network only |
| Surface second-degree warm paths | ✓Core feature | —Not available |
| Include advisors, investors, customers in search | ✓Full orbit mapped | —LinkedIn connections only |
| Rank intro paths by relationship strength | ✓Ranked with context | —Not available |
| Start from a target, work backwards to a path | ✓Target-first workflow | —Browse-first only |
| Distinguish social connections from real relationships | ✓Grounded in work history | —Connection = connection |
| Alerting & timing | ||
| Proactive alerts when new warm paths appear | ✓Job changes, new connections | —Manual search only |
| Job change alerts for target accounts | ✓With warm path context | ✓Basic alerts |
| Workflow & integrations | ||
| CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot) | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Works without reps updating records manually | ✓Relationship data stays current | —Requires manual upkeep |
| Integrates with Clay, Apollo, Outreach | ✓Full stack integration | —Limited |
Sales Navigator was never designed to operationalize warm intros. Via was.
Sales Navigator shows who's connected. Via shows who's trusted — overlap depth, recency, shared work, real context. A connection on LinkedIn is not a working relationship. Via knows the difference.
Via surfaces the strongest connector and explains why they matter — instantly. You don't get a list of 40 loose mutuals. You get the two or three people actually worth asking, with context on how to frame the request.
Just ask: "Who can intro me to the CRO at Snowflake?" Via finds your path. No filter menus, no manual searching, no scrolling through 200 connections looking for a mutual you actually know.
Via watches your network and alerts you when new warm paths appear — job changes, new shared connections, relationship shifts. The right moment to reach out often isn't when you're searching. It's when something changes.