Overview

Apollo is a prospecting and sales engagement platform for go-to-market teams, from solo sellers to larger sales organizations. Its strongest case is bringing contact research and outreach operations into one workflow; teams that need extensive automation should weigh its credit rules and plan limits before committing.

Apollo says its database covers more than 240 million contacts and 30 million accounts, supported by more than 200 integrations. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Covina, California, it offers access through web, API, and browser extension.

It spans Sales Intelligence Software, B2B Contact Data Providers, Email Outreach Software, Lead Qualification Software, AI Lead Generation Software, and Sales Prospecting Software.

Key features

Prospecting and qualification

Apollo combines contact and account data with direct-dial information, intent data, and technographic filters. That breadth can help teams qualify and prioritize prospects without separating research from sales outreach. The database figures are substantial, though size alone does not establish how well individual records fit a team's target market.

Engagement and automation

Email sequencing, outreach automation, dialing, call recording, and pipeline tools carry prospects from discovery into follow-up. Apollo's agents can research accounts, prioritize leads, draft outreach, follow up, and book meetings, making the platform relevant to teams looking to automate more than list-building. The trade-off is that activity draws on credits, and unused credits expire each billing cycle.

Integrations and extension

Apollo names Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo, Sendgrid, LinkedIn, and major email providers among its integrations. Its free Chrome extension provides contact and account insights, email finding, dialing, and the ability to add prospects to lists or sequences. This gives individual sellers a way to work from the browser, while the integration range suits teams connecting prospecting to existing sales systems.

Security

Apollo says it is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified, GDPR compliant, and encrypts data in transit and at rest. It also cites encrypted passwords, two-factor authentication, intrusion detection, and VPC firewall settings for its databases.

Pricing

Apollo is freemium, with a free plan and a free trial. The trial grants credits and access to most features of the selected plan, subject to trial-specific limits; it is not a substitute for checking ongoing plan allowances.

Plan	Price	What it includes	Best suited to
Free	0.00 USD per free	900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly; 2 sequences; API access; 1 intent topic	Founders, early-stage teams, or individual sellers testing a limited prospecting and sequencing workflow.
Basic	49.00 USD per month (billed billed annually)	30,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront; email sequencing; core integrations	Full-time reps or small teams that need more annual credits and sequencing with core integrations.
Custom	custom pricing	Dedicated support	Larger teams seeking a plan with dedicated support.

The Free plan's credits arrive monthly, while Basic grants its annual allowance upfront; neither carries unused credits into the next billing cycle. Free's two-sequence and one-intent-topic caps make it a constrained ongoing option, while Basic is a clearer fit for regular outreach. The free plan's credit allowance is per seat, so teams should account for seat count when estimating capacity. Basic's stated price is annual-billing monthly pricing, not a month-to-month rate.

Platforms

Apollo supports web, API, and extension access. Its free Chrome extension covers prospect insights, email finding, dialing, and list or sequence additions; API access is also included on the Free plan.

Who it's for

Apollo suits founders and early-stage teams who want a modest free prospecting setup, individual sellers who value browser-based contact discovery, and sales reps who need data and engagement in one product. Larger teams may benefit from its integrations and custom plan with dedicated support. It is less compelling for buyers who need predictable unused-credit carryover or whose workflow does not call for Apollo's bundled prospecting and outreach tools.

Pros and cons

Pros: Contact and account data, engagement tools, and AI-assisted sales tasks sit in one platform, reducing the need to split prospecting and follow-up across products.
Pros: The Free plan includes API access and the Chrome extension provides practical prospecting actions without a paid plan.
Pros: More than 200 integrations and named connections to major sales and email tools support use alongside existing systems.
Cons: Free is capped at 900 annual credits per seat, two sequences, and one intent topic, limiting sustained or broad prospecting.
Cons: Credits expire at the billing-cycle end, so unused allowance cannot be saved for a later busy period.
Cons: Basic's 49.00 USD per month price is billed annually, which is a commitment for teams still validating their needs.

Alternatives

Choose Factors.ai if tracked users, identified companies, and seat counts are the priority: its Basic plan is 6.00 USD per year and covers up to 10,000 monthly tracked users, up to 3,000 companies identified per month, and 5 seats. Choose Lead411 if its API and extension access or its 7-day Pilot Light trial with 50 free exports better matches your evaluation needs.

Regie.ai is an alternative for teams focused on research, enrichment, drafting, and agents, with 250 one-time credits per person that never expire and up to 10 people sharing a pool on its Free plan. Salesmotion offers a free plan with 100 credits per month, all eight endpoints, and three-month credit rollover, which may suit buyers prioritizing API access and longer-lived credits.

LeadIQ is another freemium option, with a Free plan for one user and 50 credits. Dealmayker, Leadfeeder, and MagiQ AI are also freemium alternatives.

Verdict

Apollo is a strong fit for sales teams that want prospect data, engagement, and account-focused automation together, particularly if the Free plan is enough to start and Basic's annual commitment fits their needs. Its main reason to look elsewhere is the credit model: allowances vary by plan, unused credits expire, and the free tier's sequence and intent-topic caps quickly constrain heavier use.

	Apollo	coldBirds
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	$49/mo	$20/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, extension, Web	api, Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	—	20 /mo
Outreach channels	—	email_only
Email warm-up	—	Yes
Reply detection	—	Yes

Apollo vs coldBirds

Apollo

coldBirds