Apollo has made quite a name for itself in the sales engagement space. The platform combines various solutions to streamline prospecting, data enrichment, and many other processes throughout the sales cycle.
Now, you don’t get all of this for cheap. This guide breaks down the Apollo pricing structure and weighs the platform’s pros and cons based on:
- User reviews and experiences
- The feedback we got from our industry experts
- Our careful assessment
You’ll also learn about an alternative worth considering if you feel like Apollo isn’t for you.
Apollo at a Glance
Before we break down Apollo’s pricing structure, it’s worth examining what the platform offers in the first place. As mentioned, it’s a diverse solution that simplifies tasks like:
- Data enrichment 📚
- Customer engagement 👥
- Goal tracking 🎯
- Sales coaching 🙏
One of Apollo’s main selling points is a massive database of over 280 million contacts. You also get over 65 filters to fine-tune your search and zero in on your ideal prospects.
Once you’ve gathered the necessary information, you can manage it through Apollo’s Data Health Center. You get a real-time overview of your leads and can instantly update incorrect or outdated data.
Apollo also uses AI to free up sales teams’ time in many ways, from generating conversation intelligence to creating email drafts in seconds. You can then send emails directly through Apollo or leverage the platform’s built-in dialer to conduct sales calls.
It’s clear that Apollo does a lot, so it’s no surprise that many sales teams have adopted it. Let’s find out if you should follow suit.
Apollo.io Pricing—Available Plans and Features
Apollo’s pricing structure has good and bad sides. Specifically, the platform offers two benefits you may not find with many of its alternatives—transparent pricing and a free plan.
Unlike many platforms that make you ask for a quote, Apollo leaves all the pricing details on their website. This is a small but welcome benefit because it makes it easier to decide whether you should invest.
As for the free plan, it doesn’t have time limits or other caveats—you get access to some of the platform’s core features and three types of credits:
- Email credits—Unlimited
- Phone credits—5 per month
- Export credits—10 per month
Unfortunately, email credits aren’t exactly unlimited as advertised, as there’s a cap of 10,000 credits/account per month. Apollo states that this limitation was imposed to prevent abuse, and you must have a valid and verified corporate domain to use them. If you don’t, you only get 100 credits per month.
If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, you have three options shown in the following table:
Note that the email credit limitations also apply to paid plans, so you get 10,000 credits per month. If you opt for annual billing, you’ll get a 20% discount on paid plans and 120,000 email credits per year.
💡 Bonus read: To compare Apollo’s pricing to some of the notable alternatives, check out these plans and pricing breakdowns for:
Is Apollo Worth It?
Apollo’s pricing isn’t as outrageous as some of its alternatives’ like ZoomInfo and Cognism, and the free plan has a solid set of features that let you get a taste of the platform’s capabilities, most notably:
- Up to two automated email sequences
- Buying intent data and filters
- LinkedIn and Gmail extensions
- Up to 5,000 words of AI-assisted emails
- Zapier integration
The free plan is generous enough to let you decide whether to upgrade to one of the paid tiers. Each higher plan unlocks additional useful features, but there’s one notable drawback—the prices you saw above apply to a single user.
If you have a large team, such seemingly low costs can add up quickly and put a significant dent in your budget. With 10 sales reps, you’re looking at five figures a year if you opt for one of the more robust plans.
Besides, you might’ve noticed that Apollo doesn’t offer nearly as many phone or export credits as email credits. If you need more than what you get with the plan, you must buy the credits separately. This additional splurge further increases the investment and damages the platform’s overall cost-effectiveness.
Such high costs are only justifiable if you can rest assured Apollo will give you the ROI you’re looking for. A good way to determine if that’s the case is to look at existing customers’ opinions and results. 🗣️
What Users Say About Apollo
Users are generally happy with Apollo, as evidenced by its high ratings on various reputable review platforms. The following table highlights Apollo’s ratings as of this writing:
It’s clear that the platform does a decent job of delivering on the advertised promises and helps many sales teams reach their goals. Still, Apollo has its share of drawbacks.
Firstly, its feature variety isn’t necessarily a good thing, as users have complained that Apollo tries to do too much, which leads to half-finished features delivering a lackluster performance. This is a common issue with sales engagement apps that try to focus on too many processes, so Apollo doesn’t seem to be an exception.
Worse yet, there have been complaints about the platform’s data quality, especially when it comes to mobile numbers. Unreliability is a significant issue, as no bells and whistles can make up for a lack of accurate, up-to-date data.
The user who commented on Apollo’s data quality said they started using another service for phone numbers. This limitation leads us to a major problem with not only Apollo but all single-source data providers.
Let’s take a closer look at these limitations. 🔎
💡 Bonus read: See what users said about popular Apollo alternatives:
Limitations of Single-Source Enrichment
Picture this: you sign up for Apollo or some of its alternatives and pay the monthly/annual fee. You start searching for prospect data, only to realize the platform doesn’t have what you’re looking for. The hit rate is low, so you’re left with a bunch of leads whose contact information you don’t have.
In this case, you have two options:
- Take what the platform gives you and miss quite a few opportunities
- Pay for another solution
Many users choose the second option and pay for another platform. Sadly, it’s not uncommon for data availability and quality issues to repeat. As they keep happening, you keep signing new contracts and wasting a lot of money.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be like this. Instead of juggling a bunch of providers and hunting for information all over their databases, use a platform that encompasses numerous data providers and does all the heavy lifting—Clay. 🏋️
Clay—One Platform, 50+ Providers
Clay combines robust data enrichment with outbound automation to eliminate manual labor and guesswork from your campaigns. It lets you find various data points from over 50 sources, such as:
You don’t need separate contracts for each provider—they’re all available through Clay, so you can find all the data you need without ever leaving the platform. Better yet, gathering contact information is effortless thanks to waterfall enrichment—an automated process that searches providers one by one to find the data you need. 🌊
All you have to do is tell Clay what you need (emails, phone numbers, etc.), and it’ll automatically examine each source until it gets you the information you’re looking for. This ensures maximum coverage, so you don’t need to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
To further streamline your outbound campaigns, Clay offers many other useful features, most notably:
- Claygent—A web scraper and AI assistant that makes research a breeze. Claygent can visit, search, and summarize any website to provide answers to all your questions 🤖
- AI enrichment—A nifty feature that lets you qualify leads based on any specific criteria. You can leverage the power of GPT-4 to go beyond basic targeting and set up hyper-personalized campaigns 💥
- Email builder—A powerful way to automate entire email sequences without tedious work. Use the AI-powered email builder to create highly relevant email drafts in no more than a few clicks 💌
Want to see the power of these features in action? See how they helped IntroCRM cut their prospecting data budget by 65%!
Pay for the Data You Get and Not a Dime More
Clay uses a credit-based system for data enrichment, and you only pay once the information you need has been found. Paired with outstanding coverage, this system ensures you don’t waste any money like you would with most single-source providers.
You can use Clay’s free plan to see how the platform works without any commitments or obligations. Once you get a taste of its features, you may fall in love with it like these folks:
If you do fall head over heels for Clay, and you wish to upgrade, you can choose from four plans:
- Starter—$149/month
- Explorer—$349/month
- Pro—$800/month
- Enterprise—Custom
Unlike Apollo, Clay offers support for unlimited users with each plan, so your costs won’t increase as your team grows. You also get a 14-day free trial to test Clay’s paid plans and decide whether to stick to the platform.
If all this sounds appealing, you can create your Clay account in three steps:
- Go to Clay’s signup page
- Leave your name, email, and password
- Explore Clay’s various features
Need more info to decide? Check out Clay’s Learn hub and join the Slack community to see the platform in action. You can also sign up for the newsletter to get all kinds of advice for running successful outbound campaigns. 📨
Apollo has made quite a name for itself in the sales engagement space. The platform combines various solutions to streamline prospecting, data enrichment, and many other processes throughout the sales cycle.
Now, you don’t get all of this for cheap. This guide breaks down the Apollo pricing structure and weighs the platform’s pros and cons based on:
- User reviews and experiences
- The feedback we got from our industry experts
- Our careful assessment
You’ll also learn about an alternative worth considering if you feel like Apollo isn’t for you.
Apollo at a Glance
Before we break down Apollo’s pricing structure, it’s worth examining what the platform offers in the first place. As mentioned, it’s a diverse solution that simplifies tasks like:
- Data enrichment 📚
- Customer engagement 👥
- Goal tracking 🎯
- Sales coaching 🙏
One of Apollo’s main selling points is a massive database of over 280 million contacts. You also get over 65 filters to fine-tune your search and zero in on your ideal prospects.
Once you’ve gathered the necessary information, you can manage it through Apollo’s Data Health Center. You get a real-time overview of your leads and can instantly update incorrect or outdated data.
Apollo also uses AI to free up sales teams’ time in many ways, from generating conversation intelligence to creating email drafts in seconds. You can then send emails directly through Apollo or leverage the platform’s built-in dialer to conduct sales calls.
It’s clear that Apollo does a lot, so it’s no surprise that many sales teams have adopted it. Let’s find out if you should follow suit.
Apollo.io Pricing—Available Plans and Features
Apollo’s pricing structure has good and bad sides. Specifically, the platform offers two benefits you may not find with many of its alternatives—transparent pricing and a free plan.
Unlike many platforms that make you ask for a quote, Apollo leaves all the pricing details on their website. This is a small but welcome benefit because it makes it easier to decide whether you should invest.
As for the free plan, it doesn’t have time limits or other caveats—you get access to some of the platform’s core features and three types of credits:
- Email credits—Unlimited
- Phone credits—5 per month
- Export credits—10 per month
Unfortunately, email credits aren’t exactly unlimited as advertised, as there’s a cap of 10,000 credits/account per month. Apollo states that this limitation was imposed to prevent abuse, and you must have a valid and verified corporate domain to use them. If you don’t, you only get 100 credits per month.
If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, you have three options shown in the following table:
Note that the email credit limitations also apply to paid plans, so you get 10,000 credits per month. If you opt for annual billing, you’ll get a 20% discount on paid plans and 120,000 email credits per year.
💡 Bonus read: To compare Apollo’s pricing to some of the notable alternatives, check out these plans and pricing breakdowns for:
Is Apollo Worth It?
Apollo’s pricing isn’t as outrageous as some of its alternatives’ like ZoomInfo and Cognism, and the free plan has a solid set of features that let you get a taste of the platform’s capabilities, most notably:
- Up to two automated email sequences
- Buying intent data and filters
- LinkedIn and Gmail extensions
- Up to 5,000 words of AI-assisted emails
- Zapier integration
The free plan is generous enough to let you decide whether to upgrade to one of the paid tiers. Each higher plan unlocks additional useful features, but there’s one notable drawback—the prices you saw above apply to a single user.
If you have a large team, such seemingly low costs can add up quickly and put a significant dent in your budget. With 10 sales reps, you’re looking at five figures a year if you opt for one of the more robust plans.
Besides, you might’ve noticed that Apollo doesn’t offer nearly as many phone or export credits as email credits. If you need more than what you get with the plan, you must buy the credits separately. This additional splurge further increases the investment and damages the platform’s overall cost-effectiveness.
Such high costs are only justifiable if you can rest assured Apollo will give you the ROI you’re looking for. A good way to determine if that’s the case is to look at existing customers’ opinions and results. 🗣️
What Users Say About Apollo
Users are generally happy with Apollo, as evidenced by its high ratings on various reputable review platforms. The following table highlights Apollo’s ratings as of this writing:
It’s clear that the platform does a decent job of delivering on the advertised promises and helps many sales teams reach their goals. Still, Apollo has its share of drawbacks.
Firstly, its feature variety isn’t necessarily a good thing, as users have complained that Apollo tries to do too much, which leads to half-finished features delivering a lackluster performance. This is a common issue with sales engagement apps that try to focus on too many processes, so Apollo doesn’t seem to be an exception.
Worse yet, there have been complaints about the platform’s data quality, especially when it comes to mobile numbers. Unreliability is a significant issue, as no bells and whistles can make up for a lack of accurate, up-to-date data.
The user who commented on Apollo’s data quality said they started using another service for phone numbers. This limitation leads us to a major problem with not only Apollo but all single-source data providers.
Let’s take a closer look at these limitations. 🔎
💡 Bonus read: See what users said about popular Apollo alternatives:
Limitations of Single-Source Enrichment
Picture this: you sign up for Apollo or some of its alternatives and pay the monthly/annual fee. You start searching for prospect data, only to realize the platform doesn’t have what you’re looking for. The hit rate is low, so you’re left with a bunch of leads whose contact information you don’t have.
In this case, you have two options:
- Take what the platform gives you and miss quite a few opportunities
- Pay for another solution
Many users choose the second option and pay for another platform. Sadly, it’s not uncommon for data availability and quality issues to repeat. As they keep happening, you keep signing new contracts and wasting a lot of money.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be like this. Instead of juggling a bunch of providers and hunting for information all over their databases, use a platform that encompasses numerous data providers and does all the heavy lifting—Clay. 🏋️
Clay—One Platform, 50+ Providers
Clay combines robust data enrichment with outbound automation to eliminate manual labor and guesswork from your campaigns. It lets you find various data points from over 50 sources, such as:
You don’t need separate contracts for each provider—they’re all available through Clay, so you can find all the data you need without ever leaving the platform. Better yet, gathering contact information is effortless thanks to waterfall enrichment—an automated process that searches providers one by one to find the data you need. 🌊
All you have to do is tell Clay what you need (emails, phone numbers, etc.), and it’ll automatically examine each source until it gets you the information you’re looking for. This ensures maximum coverage, so you don’t need to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
To further streamline your outbound campaigns, Clay offers many other useful features, most notably:
- Claygent—A web scraper and AI assistant that makes research a breeze. Claygent can visit, search, and summarize any website to provide answers to all your questions 🤖
- AI enrichment—A nifty feature that lets you qualify leads based on any specific criteria. You can leverage the power of GPT-4 to go beyond basic targeting and set up hyper-personalized campaigns 💥
- Email builder—A powerful way to automate entire email sequences without tedious work. Use the AI-powered email builder to create highly relevant email drafts in no more than a few clicks 💌
Want to see the power of these features in action? See how they helped IntroCRM cut their prospecting data budget by 65%!
Pay for the Data You Get and Not a Dime More
Clay uses a credit-based system for data enrichment, and you only pay once the information you need has been found. Paired with outstanding coverage, this system ensures you don’t waste any money like you would with most single-source providers.
You can use Clay’s free plan to see how the platform works without any commitments or obligations. Once you get a taste of its features, you may fall in love with it like these folks:
If you do fall head over heels for Clay, and you wish to upgrade, you can choose from four plans:
- Starter—$149/month
- Explorer—$349/month
- Pro—$800/month
- Enterprise—Custom
Unlike Apollo, Clay offers support for unlimited users with each plan, so your costs won’t increase as your team grows. You also get a 14-day free trial to test Clay’s paid plans and decide whether to stick to the platform.
If all this sounds appealing, you can create your Clay account in three steps:
- Go to Clay’s signup page
- Leave your name, email, and password
- Explore Clay’s various features
Need more info to decide? Check out Clay’s Learn hub and join the Slack community to see the platform in action. You can also sign up for the newsletter to get all kinds of advice for running successful outbound campaigns. 📨
