Apollo.io Review: Here's What We Learned After Using For 30 Days

If you’re searching for Apollo.io reviews, you’re likely trying to decide whether it’s the right all-in-one sales platform for your outbound motion.

Apollo.io is an end-to-end sales engagement and B2B data platform that helps teams find prospects, enrich contact data, send emails, make calls, book meetings, and sync everything into CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.

To understand how Apollo performs in real-world use, we reviewed its data quality, outreach features, AI tools, email deliverability setup, pricing plans, and credit limits, along with how these features actually work in day-to-day sales workflows.

By the end of this review, you’ll know whether Apollo.io is a good fit for your sales team’s needs, scale, and budget, or if you should look for an alternative.

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Apollo.io Review: Key Takeaways

• Apollo.io is an all-in-one sales platform that helps teams find leads, contact them, manage deals, and track results from one place.
  
  
• The platform gives access to a large B2B database with over 210 million contacts and 35 million companies, which is useful for outbound sales teams.
  
  
• Apollo combines many tools into one, including prospecting, email outreach, calling, meeting scheduling, CRM syncing, and reporting.
  
  
• Emails are sent through your own Gmail or Outlook account, not Apollo’s servers, which helps you stay in control of email deliverability.
  
  
• Apollo includes strong email deliverability tools, such as email warmup, inbox ramp-up, sending limits, unsubscribe links, and domain authentication.
  
  
• Admins can use the Deliverability Suite to see mailbox health, domain performance, open rates, reply rates, and bounce rates across the team.
  
  
• The platform supports email, phone calls, LinkedIn tasks, and meetings, making it easy to run multichannel outreach.
  
  
• Data usage and some AI actions work on a credit system, so teams need to track usage carefully to avoid running out of credits.
  
  
• Apollo provides a free plan and 14-day free trials for paid plans, allowing users to test features before upgrading.

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What Is Apollo.io?

Apollo.io is an all-in-one sales platform that helps businesses find leads, contact them, and close deals faster.

Instead of using many different sales tools, Apollo puts prospecting, outreach, calling, meetings, data enrichment, and reporting into one system.

Apollo gives access to a large B2B database with over 210 million contacts and 35 million companies, so sales teams can find the right people to reach out to.

You can use Apollo to search for leads, filter them by job title, company size, industry, location, intent, and other signals, and then save them to lists or sequences.

Apollo lets you send emails directly from your own Gmail or Outlook account, which helps keep your emails out of spam and protects your domain.

Apollo keeps your data clean by enriching contacts and companies, updating job titles, company details, and other data points, and syncing everything with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.

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How Apollo.io Works?

Apollo.io helps sales teams run their outbound process from start to finish in one place. 

It combines lead data, outreach, automation, and tracking so teams can move faster without switching tools.

Here is how Apollo.io works:

• You start by defining your ideal customer profile (ICP) using filters like job title, industry, company size, location, technologies, and buying intent.

• Apollo then lets you search its B2B database of over 210 million contacts and 35 million companies to find people that match your targeting.
  
  
• You can save contacts to lists or sequences, or sync them directly to your CRM such as Salesforce or HubSpot.

• Before outreach, Apollo enriches contact and company data, adding details like job titles, company info, signals, and engagement history.
  
  
• You connect your Gmail or Outlook mailbox to Apollo, which allows emails to be sent from your own domain instead of Apollo’s servers.
  
  
• Apollo protects deliverability by using email warmup, inbox ramp-up, sending limits, unsubscribe links, and domain authentication.
  
  
• You can run multichannel outreach using email, phone calls, LinkedIn tasks, and meeting scheduling inside Apollo.
  
  
• Apollo’s AI tools help research leads, personalize emails, score leads, and suggest next steps, reducing manual work for sales reps.

• Calls and meetings can be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed, with AI insights and automatic follow-up actions.
  
  
• Admins can monitor performance using the Deliverability Suite, which shows mailbox health, domain reputation, open rates, reply rates, and bounce rates.

All activity is tracked and synced, so emails, calls, meetings, and updates stay connected across Apollo and your CRM.

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Top Features of Apollo.io

Apollo.io includes many tools that help sales teams find leads, reach out to them, and close deals faster.

Instead of using multiple tools, Apollo brings everything together in one platform.

Here are the top Apollo.io features and what each one does.

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Apollo Pricing

Apollo offers four plans, Free, Basic, Professional, and Organization, built for individuals, growing sales teams, and large organizations.

I. Free – $0 per user/month, includes 100 credits per user per month, AI Assistant (beta), AI Research, 2 sequences per team, basic filters, Gmail and Salesforce extensions, and access to the Deliverability Suite with Email Warmup.

II. Basic – $59 per user/month, includes 2,500 credits per user per month, AI Research and AI Lead Scoring, unlimited sequences, advanced filters, CRM integrations, waterfall enrichment, CSV/CRM/API enrichment, 6 meeting events, and domain and mailbox purchasing.

III. Professional – $99 per user/month, includes 4,000 credits per user per month, unlimited sequences with A/Z testing, automated workflows, call recordings with AI insights (4,000 minutes), analytics and pre-built reports, US dialer, parallel and power dialer, and unlimited Gmail and Microsoft mailboxes.

IV. Organization – $149 per user/month (annual only, minimum 3 users), includes 6,000 credits per user per month, custom reports and dashboards, advanced security configurations, Single Sign-On (SSO), use of your own LLM API key, international dialing, and call recordings with AI insights (8,000 minutes).

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Pros and Cons of Apollo.io

Is Apollo the Right Fit for You?

Apollo is built for teams that want to find leads, reach out at scale, and manage sales activity in one place.

However, it may not be the best fit for everyone.

Below is a clear breakdown to help you decide.

I. Apollo Is Right for You If:

• You want an all-in-one platform for prospecting, outreach, calling, and analytics.
  
  
• You need access to a large B2B contact and company database.
  
  
• You run outbound sales using email, calls, LinkedIn tasks, and meetings.
  
  
• You want to send emails through your own Gmail or Outlook account.
  
  
• You want AI help for research, lead scoring, and message personalization.
  

II. Apollo May Not Be Right for You If:

• You only need a simple email finder or enrichment tool.
  
  
• You do not want to work with a credit-based pricing system.
  
  
• You do not plan to run outbound email or call campaigns.
  
  
• You are not willing to set up domain authentication and mailbox settings.
  
  
• You want advanced reporting without upgrading to higher plans.
  

Apollo is a strong choice if you want to find leads, contact them, and manage sales outreach in one platform.

If you need only one small feature or want a very lightweight tool, Apollo may feel more than you need.

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Best Apollo Alternative for Lead Generation – Leadsforge

If you like Apollo for sales outreach and engagement but want a tool that actually finds new leads for you, then Leadsforge is a strong alternative.

Apollo is powerful for prospecting, outreach, deliverability, and deal execution.

However, it still relies heavily on search filters, credits, and manual setup to build lead lists.

Leadsforge takes a different approach.

Leadsforge works like a chat-based search engine for B2B leads. Instead of applying filters, you simply describe the type of prospects you want.

For example, you can say: “Find SaaS CMOs in the US,” and Leadsforge instantly returns verified emails, phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles from a database of 500M+ contacts.

Leadsforge connects multiple data sources, enriches each lead using a waterfall method, adds intent signals, and can even find lookalike companies or competitor followers.

It verifies data instantly and lets you export leads directly to CSV or Salesforge for outreach.

Leadsforge starts at $49/month for 2,000 export credits, and unused credits never expire.

Apollo starts at $59/user/month, uses a monthly credit system, and focuses more on sales execution, outreach automation, and deliverability, rather than pure lead discovery.

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Apollo vs Leadsforge: Feature Comparison

If you mainly want a complete sales platform with outreach, calling, automation, and deliverability tools, Apollo is a strong choice.

But if your main goal is to discover the right prospects quickly, enrich them with emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and intent data, and avoid monthly credit pressure, Leadsforge offers more flexibility and long-term value for lead generation.

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Is Apollo Worth It?

Apollo is a solid choice if you want an all-in-one sales platform to manage prospecting, outreach, calling, and deal execution in one place. 

It works well for teams that already know their target accounts and need tools to run outbound at scale.

It offers strong features like sequences, calling, AI research, lead scoring, and deliverability tools, which make it a reliable option for sales execution and automation.

But if you feel limited by filter-based prospecting, and you want a tool that actually finds new leads for you, including emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and intent signals, Leadsforge is a better alternative.

Try Leadsforge now with 100 free credits!