Apollo.io is worth it for a small B2B team doing outbound mostly in North America: from $49 a seat a month (billed annually) you get a large contact database, email sequences and a dialer in one tool, and the free plan lets you try it first. It falls short on record freshness, on phone numbers (8 credits each) and on support, and those complaints sit behind its 3.2 on Trustpilot (it scores 4.7 on G2).
For this review I read Apollo's pricing page with both billing options, its own documentation on where the data comes from, and a few dozen recent reviews on G2 and Trustpilot, all on 4 November 2026. I haven't run a paid Apollo seat for this article, so every claim about how it behaves comes from Apollo's docs or from the users I quote. Short version: good value for founders and small teams, with costs that climb once you need phone numbers or volume.
Quick verdict
Apollo puts prospecting data and outreach in one tool at a published price from $49 a seat, and Apollo says over 600,000 companies use it. The catch is the credit system: emails cost 1 credit, phone numbers 8, and unused credits expire every billing cycle. Pick it if you're a founder or a team of up to ten selling mostly in the US; look harder if you need fresh data in a narrow niche or a support team that answers quickly.
How I reviewed Apollo.io
I didn't buy a seat for this piece. What I did on 4 November 2026: read apollo.io/pricing with annual and monthly billing, read Apollo's data overview and removal-request docs, and went through the G2 pros-and-cons page (9,857 reviews behind it) and the latest two pages of Trustpilot reviews. A hands-on test on a real prospecting job is on my list; this article will say so when it's done.
What is Apollo.io?
Apollo.io is a sales platform that combines a B2B contact database with the tools to reach those contacts: email sequences, a dialer, browser extensions for prospecting, Gmail and Salesforce, and basic deal tracking. Apollo describes its database as more than 210 million contacts and 35 million companies (in its own profile on Trustpilot). It's built for small and mid-size sales teams that want one tool instead of a database, a sequencer and a dialer from three vendors.
The data comes from four sources, according to Apollo's documentation: a contributor network of Apollo users who share their business contacts, reply and bounce signals from its own outreach tools, a crawler that reads public websites, and third-party providers that send it over 200 million records a month.
Apollo.io features
People and company search
Searching the database doesn't use credits; revealing an email or a phone number does. Apollo has 65+ filters (title, seniority, industry, headcount, location, technologies, intent topics), so you can size a market before you spend anything. The limitation: filters describe companies by their database fields, so a narrow ICP ("B2B SaaS selling to HR teams") can need manual cleanup. A Trustpilot reviewer, Lorin, put it this way in October 2026: "If your target segment is really narrow, you'll need to scrub your data with other tools."
Contact data and credits
One verified email costs 1 credit; one phone number costs 8. Basic includes 30,000 credits a seat a year on annual billing (2,500 a month on monthly), which is plenty for emails and tight for phones: 30,000 credits buy 3,750 phone numbers. Apollo also runs waterfall enrichment on paid plans to fill gaps from other sources. The limitation: unused credits, including add-on credits you bought, expire at the end of each billing cycle.
Sequences and the dialer
Every account, including Free, can send email campaigns; paid plans add unlimited sequences, mailbox warmup and a US dialer. The dialer charges 1 credit per 30 seconds of calling. Free accounts can only connect Gmail. The limitation users raise most is the interface: with prospecting, sequences, calls and deals in one app, G2's summary counts 166 mentions of a cluttered interface and 93 of a steep learning curve.
Website visitors and intent
Paid plans identify up to 100 companies a month that visit your website and track 6 intent topics on Basic and Professional (12 on Organization). That's enough to spot a few warm accounts a week. Bigger inbound volume sits in a separate Inbound add-on from $119 a team a month, billed annually. The limitation, in the words of G2 reviewer Srijita G.: "Some contact details are outdated, and not every website visitor can be identified."
Apollo.io reviews: what real users say
Apollo rates 4.7 out of 5 on G2 from 9,857 reviews and 3.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 1,390. On Trustpilot the scores split hard: 46% five-star, 36% one-star. The praise is about ease and value; the complaints are about data freshness, credits and support.
Pros
- ✅ Easy to start: the most common praise on G2 (358 mentions). "I like how Apollo.io is easy to use and navigate." (Kacey M., G2)
- ✅ Strong filters: 210 G2 mentions. "The search filters are genuinely top-tier." (Kumar G., G2)
- ✅ One place for search and contact data: "I like being able to search for companies and find the right decision maker in one place." (verified small-business user, G2)
Cons
- ❌ Records go stale: the top complaint on G2 (225 mentions). "The contact data can sometimes be outdated or incomplete, so I occasionally have to double-check information." (Anshul S., G2)
- ❌ Credits add up: "Credits also require planning, since enrichment adds up quickly." (Roxann McCrady, Director of Business Development, October 2026, Trustpilot)
- ❌ Support: "Support was bad, they did not give any resolution but keep upselling it without understanding the problem at hand." (Anand, October 2026, Trustpilot)
If you're comparing Apollo with another contact database, my seamless ai reviews piece looks at Seamless.AI the same way.
Apollo.io pricing
| Plan | Price per seat | Credits | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 75 a month | Trying the search and a first sequence |
| Basic | $49/month billed annually, $65 billed monthly | 30,000 a year (2,500 a month on monthly) | A founder or rep sending email outreach |
| Professional | $79/month billed annually, $99 billed monthly | 48,000 a year (4,000 a month on monthly) | Full-time reps who want AI features, call recording and more credits |
| Organization | $119/month, minimum 3 seats, annual only | 72,000 a year | Teams that need more intent topics and inbound routing |
Prices checked on 4 November 2026 on apollo.io/pricing. Prices exclude taxes. Basic and Professional come with a 14-day trial and 75 trial credits.
What it actually costs: one Basic seat on annual billing is $588 a year, which works out to about 2 cents a credit. If you only reveal emails, that's 30,000 emails a year. If half your credits go to phone numbers, you get 15,000 emails and 1,875 phones. A three-person team on Organization pays $4,284 a year. Annual billing saves 24%, but you can't switch an annual plan to monthly until it expires, and downgrades aren't refunded. I go through every plan and add-on in apollo.io pricing.
My take on Apollo.io
What impresses me is how much Apollo puts in the free and Basic plans. Free search, sequences on every account and a free tier make it easy to test a market for $0, and the pricing page spells out what an email, a phone number and 30 seconds of calling cost in credits.
What frustrates me is the gap between the two review sites. My reading of a 4.7 on G2 next to a 3.2 on Trustpilot: the product works for people who stay on its main path, and support struggles when something breaks (billing, account deletion, a dialer cap). The recent one-star Trustpilot reviews I read (October and November 2026) were mostly about support, billing and account issues, while the G2 cons were mostly about data freshness.
That matches the user pattern above: Apollo is a good default for a small team in the US, and the costs (money and time) grow with volume, phone numbers and niche targeting.
Apollo.io vs ZoomInfo
Apollo wins on price and self-serve access; ZoomInfo wins on depth and enterprise workflows. Apollo publishes its prices from $49 a seat; ZoomInfo sells through a sales call, and third-party reports put entry contracts near $15,000 a year. ZoomInfo adds deeper org charts, more intent data and enterprise workflows, which larger sales teams use every day. For the full comparison, see apollo vs zoominfo.
Is Apollo.io right for you?
You will like Apollo.io if you:
- Are a founder or a team of up to ten selling mostly in North America
- Want contact data, sequences and a dialer for one price
- Mostly need emails (1 credit each)
- Want to test the database for free before paying
You should skip Apollo.io if you:
- Need many phone numbers (8 credits each adds up fast)
- Sell into a narrow niche or a small international market where records thin out
- Need quick human support when something breaks
- Already have a sequencer and only want data (a pure data tool may cost less)
If you fall in the second group, my apollo alternatives roundup covers the tools people switch to.
An Apollo.io alternative for building the list
If you use Apollo mostly to decide which companies and people to go after, and the filters keep returning near-misses, that step can happen before Apollo. I built Openlead for it: you describe your ideal customer in plain words ("B2B SaaS in Germany, 20 to 200 people, selling to HR teams"), and it returns up to 25 companies that fit, with the reason each one matches and 1 to 3 relevant people at each with their profile links. You save them to lists and export a CSV.
It doesn't give email addresses or phone numbers, so keep Apollo (or another contact-data tool) for those, and reveal contacts only for the companies on your list. Try Openlead free.
Final verdict
If you need affordable contact data and outreach in one tool, mostly for US prospects, Apollo.io works, and the free plan makes it a low-risk first step. If you need many phone numbers, a narrow niche or responsive support, compare it with the alternatives first, and if picking the right companies is the hard part, build that list in Openlead before you spend Apollo credits.
Frequently asked questions
How did Apollo get my information?
Apollo collects business contact data from four sources: Apollo users who share their business contacts (including from connected mailboxes and calendars), reply and bounce signals from its outreach tools, a crawler that reads public websites, and third-party data providers. You can ask Apollo to delete your profile through its Privacy Center; Apollo then removes you from prospecting results.
How much is Apollo.io monthly?
Apollo's Basic plan costs $65 a seat a month on monthly billing, or $49 a seat a month billed annually. Professional costs $99 monthly or $79 a month billed annually, and Organization costs $119 a seat a month on an annual plan with at least 3 seats (prices checked on 4 November 2026).
Is Apollo AI free?
Apollo's AI assistant is included on the free plan with a limit of 5 chats, and AI research costs 1 credit per run on every plan. More AI features, such as AI lead scoring, start on Professional.
Why was Apollo shut down?
That was a different Apollo: a third-party Reddit app that closed on 30 June 2023 after Reddit raised its API prices, as TechCrunch reported. Apollo.io, the sales platform, is still running.
Is Apollo.io trustworthy?
Apollo.io is a legitimate company with a 4.7 rating on G2 from nearly 10,000 reviews, and it says its data practices follow GDPR, CCPA and SOC 2. Two things to know: its Trustpilot score is 3.2, mostly over support and billing, and in 2018 it had a data breach that Have I Been Pwned lists at 125.9 million email addresses (the exposed data included names, job titles, employers and phone numbers; HIBP lists no passwords).
About the author
Julian KrethFounder, Openlead
