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Alternatives · AI Cold Outreach & Sales / Vol. 05 /

Best Apollo.io alternatives (2026)

Switching from Apollo.io? 8 live, price-verified alternatives in AI Cold Outreach & Sales, ranked.

Apollo.io · Live8 alternativesVerified Sep 8, 2026Category · AI Cold Outreach & Sales
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Before you switch

Apollo.io: Sales intelligence and engagement platform. It is currently marked live (the dated, sourced details). The options below are all live and price-verified as of Sep 8, 2026.

What sets it apart Combines a native B2B contact database with built-in outreach sequences, a dialer, and CRM enrichment in a single workspace, rather than only supplying data or only automating sends

Best for SDRs, account executives, and B2B revenue teams that want prospecting data and outreach sequencing in one tool, spanning solo users through enterprise · Pricing model Freemium with per-user subscriptions. Free plan available; paid tiers are Basic $49/user/mo (annual) or $59 (monthly), Professional $79/$99, and Organization $119/$149. Usage is additionally metered by credits (email, mobile, export, data) that reset each billing cycle with no rollover.

The platform pairs a B2B contact database (Apollo cites 230M+ contacts and 30M+ companies) with the outreach tooling to act on it: prospecting filters, multi-step email and call sequences, a built-in dialer, and enrichment that syncs to Salesforce and HubSpot. What sets it apart from standalone data vendors or standalone sequencers is that both sit in one workspace, letting a rep move from finding a contact to messaging them without exporting elsewhere. Access to that data is metered by credits (email, mobile, export, and data pools) that reset each billing cycle, so export volume tends to drive cost more than seat count. It fits SDRs, account executives, and revenue teams from individual users to larger organizations, with a free plan and paid tiers starting at $49 per user per month billed annually.

Sources Apollo.io homepage · Apollo.io pricing page · Salesmotion - Apollo.io Pricing Breakdown 2026

The fine print on Apollo.io, checked
Free plan limits

The free plan costs $0 and includes 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly. It also includes 2 sequences per team, an AI Assistant capped at 5 chats with 10 messages per chat, 5,000 AI writing words per month, 250 daily email sends, and a record selection limit of 25. The cheapest paid plan is Basic at $49 per seat per month billed annually, with 30,000 credits per seat per year granted upfront.

Apollo.io pricing page · checked Aug 6, 2026

Data export

Customers export contacts to a CSV from Search > People by selecting records and clicking Export, with an optional Edit export CSV settings step to adjust which fields the CSV includes. Exporting saved contacts may require export credits, depending on the contacts and the team's plan. Export status is checked under Settings > Import & Exports > CSV Exports, and the finished file is downloaded there once the export completes.

Apollo knowledge base, Export Contacts to a CSV · checked Aug 6, 2026

Cancellation

Admins cancel self-serve in Admin Settings > Plan overview by clicking Cancel Plan at the bottom of the page, though only select paid teams see the self-serve option, and accounts opened through the Apollo sales team must contact Apollo support or their account manager instead. The account goes into pending cancellation status, the cancellation processes at the end of the current plan term, and the plan then switches to a free plan; no refund is mentioned.

Apollo knowledge base, Customize and Manage Your Apollo Plan · checked Aug 6, 2026

Pick by your reason
  • Leaving over price: Saleshandy ($25/mo), Smartlead ($39/mo), Instantly.ai ($47/mo).
  • Want a permanent free tier: Clay, Reply.io.
  • Same job, strongest overall: Instantly.ai - built for Solo founders, SDR teams, and lead-generation agencies running high-volume cold outbound across many sending accounts and domains.
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The alternatives

01EST. 2021
Top pick / relevance-first

Instantly.ai / solo & SMB

Cold email automation with inbox warmup

  • Lowest paid plan from $47/mo (price).
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: solo & SMB.

What sets it apart Prices by sending volume instead of per inbox or per seat, so all tiers include unlimited email accounts, unlimited warmup, and unlimited team seats, with volume rotated across those accounts to protect deliverability

Best for Solo founders, SDR teams, and lead-generation agencies running high-volume cold outbound across many sending accounts and domains · Pricing model Modular, volume-based subscription (not per-seat). The Outreach email module starts at $47/mo (Growth: 5,000 emails and 1,000 contacts; about $37.60/mo billed annually), with higher tiers Hypergrowth (~$97/mo) and Light Speed (~$358/mo) plus custom Enterprise. The leads database (Instantly Credits, formerly SuperSearch) and the CRM are billed as separate products.

Cold email automation is the core of Instantly.ai, which pairs multi-step sending sequences with automated inbox warmup to sustain outbound from many accounts at once. Pricing is volume-based rather than per-seat: the entry Growth plan is $47 per month (roughly $37.60 billed annually) and covers 5,000 emails to 1,000 contacts, and every tier includes unlimited sending accounts, unlimited warmup, and unlimited team seats. The product is sold in modules, so the Outreach sending tool, the Instantly Credits leads database, and the CRM each carry separate subscriptions. It fits solo founders, SDR teams, and lead-generation agencies focused on deliverability across many rotating sending domains.

Sources Instantly.ai - product homepage · Instantly.ai - pricing page · Woodpecker - Instantly.ai pricing review · Landbase - Instantly.ai pricing breakdown

$47/mo · lowest paid
Live
Visit Instantly.ai
02EST. 2021

Smartlead / solo & SMB & enterprise

Cold email at scale with unlimited inboxes

  • Lowest paid plan from $39/mo (price).
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: solo & SMB & enterprise.

What sets it apart Unlimited sending-mailbox connections with automatic inbox rotation are included on every plan, including the $39 entry tier, whereas many competing tools cap the number of connected mailboxes per plan

Best for Sales teams, SDRs, and lead-generation agencies running high-volume cold outreach across many sending mailboxes; agencies additionally benefit from the white-label client workspaces · Pricing model Subscription SaaS with tiered monthly plans: Base $39, Pro $94, Unlimited Smart $174, and Unlimited Prime $379 per month, with roughly 17% off on annual billing. Higher tiers raise or remove caps on active leads and monthly email sends. A free trial is available, but there is no permanent free plan.

Aimed at sales teams and agencies running outbound at volume, Smartlead is a cold email platform that connects an unlimited number of sending mailboxes on every plan and rotates sends across them. It pairs that with AI-driven mailbox warmup, a consolidated master inbox for replies, and multi-step sequencing. Agencies can also spin up white-label client workspaces, which fits lead-generation shops managing outreach across many accounts. Pricing starts at $39/month and climbs to $379 for uncapped lead and email volume; a free trial is offered, but there is no permanent free tier.

Sources Smartlead homepage · Smartlead pricing page

$39/mo · lowest paid
Live
Visit Smartlead
03EST. 2018

lemlist / solo & SMB

Multichannel cold outreach with personalization

  • Lowest paid plan from $69/mo (price).
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: solo & SMB.

What sets it apart Built-in email warm-up (lemwarm) and a deliverability hub integrated into the outreach sequencer, combined with conditional steps that move a non-responsive lead from email to LinkedIn, calls, or other channels within one campaign

Best for Founders, agencies, and SMB sales teams running multichannel outbound who want email warm-up and deliverability tooling built into the sequencer · Pricing model Per-user subscription. Email plan $69/user/mo ($55 billed annually); Multichannel $109/user/mo ($87 annually); Enterprise custom-quoted (5+ seats). No free plan; 14-day trial with no card required. Data enrichment and intent signals are sold separately as pay-per-credit add-ons (about $0.01/credit).

lemlist runs cold-outreach sequences across email, LinkedIn, phone, WhatsApp, and SMS from a single campaign, with conditional steps that reroute a lead to another channel when an email goes unanswered. It bundles its own email warm-up tool, lemwarm, plus a deliverability hub for monitoring mailbox and domain health, so senders do not have to bolt on a separate warm-up service. A lead database and contact enrichment are available as pay-per-credit add-ons on top of the seat subscription. The fit is founders, agencies, and SMB sales teams running their own outbound rather than large enterprises.

Sources lemlist - Pricing page · lemlist - Homepage · lemlist - Multichannel Prospecting product page

$69/mo · lowest paid
Live
Visit lemlist
04EST. 2011

Salesloft / SMB & enterprise

Sales engagement and revenue workflow platform

  • Custom / quote-based pricing.
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: SMB & enterprise.

What sets it apart Goes beyond a cold-outreach sequencer by combining multi-channel cadences with conversation intelligence, deal management, and forecasting in a single platform, anchored by bidirectional Salesforce sync and 180+ integrations

Best for Established B2B revenue teams - SDRs, account executives, and RevOps - running multi-channel outreach at scale and wanting engagement, conversation intelligence, and forecasting tied to their CRM in one platform · Pricing model No publicly listed prices; quote-based via the sales team. Sold as two main plans, Advanced and Premier, on annual contracts, with a dialer add-on. No free tier (the DB "starting_price=$0" is inaccurate - every published tier reads "Talk to Sales"). Third-party guides estimate list rates around $125-$180 per user per month before negotiation.

Built around multi-step "cadences," Salesloft sequences prospect touchpoints across email, phone, and social from one workspace, then adds conversation intelligence, deal management, and forecasting so a full revenue team can work from a single system rather than a standalone outreach tool. It syncs bidirectionally with Salesforce and lists more than 180 integrations. Pricing is quote-based through the sales team, packaged into Advanced and Premier plans with no free tier, which orients it toward established SMB-to-enterprise sales organizations rather than solo prospectors. The company completed a merger with Clari on December 3, 2025, combining its engagement stack with Clari's revenue forecasting under new CEO Steve Cox.

Sources Salesloft Platform Overview (vendor) · Salesloft Pricing page (vendor) · CloudTalk - Salesloft Plans & Pricing guide · Salesloft newsroom - Clari & Salesloft complete merger

Custom· see site
Live
Visit Salesloft
05EST. 2014

Outreach / enterprise

Enterprise sales engagement platform

  • Custom / quote-based pricing.
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: enterprise.

What sets it apart Combines sales-engagement sequences with conversation intelligence, deal management/health scoring, and forecasting in a single platform rather than being a standalone cold-email or sequencing tool; recent releases add configurable "agentic" workflow agents via an Agent Studio canvas

Best for Enterprise and upper-mid-market sales organizations that already run a CRM at scale and want prospecting sequences, conversation intelligence, deal management, and forecasting unified in one platform · Pricing model Quote-based (contact sales). The vendor pricing page lists no dollar amounts and no free tier or free trial; it names three tiers - Amplify Core, Amplify Plus, and Amplify Pro - combining per-seat licensing with consumption-based AI credits. Third-party pricing guides estimate entry seats around $100-$120 per user per month with roughly a 5-seat minimum, plus possible implementation/platform fees; these figures are not vendor-confirmed.

A sales engagement platform aimed at enterprise revenue teams, Outreach runs multi-channel prospecting across email, phone, and LinkedIn through automated sequences, then layers on conversation intelligence, deal management with health scoring, and forecasting, so the tool that drives a rep's daily activity also rolls pipeline up to leadership. As of 2026 the vendor has moved its primary site from outreach.io to outreach.ai and is repositioning around "agentic AI," adding configurable workflow agents built in an Agent Studio canvas for motions such as inbound follow-up and deal alerts. It publishes no rates and offers no free tier; pricing is quote-based across three Amplify plans, with third-party guides putting entry seats near $100 per user per month and metering AI usage as credits. It fits sales organizations already running a CRM at scale rather than small teams wanting a lightweight cold-email tool.

Sources Outreach - Agentic AI Platform for Revenue Teams (homepage) · Outreach - Sales Engagement Platform · Outreach - Pricing page · MarketBetter - Outreach.io Pricing 2026

Custom· see site
Live
Visit Outreach
06EST. 2017

Clay / SMB & enterprise

Data enrichment and outbound automation

  • Lowest paid plan from $185/mo (price).
  • Permanent free tier available.
  • Best fit: SMB & enterprise.

What sets it apart Waterfall enrichment across a marketplace of 150-plus data providers, querying sources in sequence to raise match and fill rates, combined with Claygent, an AI agent that researches companies and people from the web

Best for Technical go-to-market, RevOps, and sales-operations users who build enrichment and prospecting workflows in a table-and-logic environment, at company sizes from startup to enterprise · Pricing model Credit-based subscription with a free tier (100 data credits and 500 actions per month). Paid tiers on the vendor pricing page: Launch from $167/mo, Growth from $446/mo, and custom Enterprise. Two meters are billed separately: data credits (from $0.05 each) for records sourced from providers, and actions (under $0.01 each) for enrichment, workflow, and AI runs.

Clay is a data-enrichment and outbound platform built around a spreadsheet interface: teams assemble tables of accounts or people, then enrich each row by drawing from a marketplace of 150-plus data providers. Its defining mechanic is the waterfall, which queries providers in sequence until one returns a match and so lifts fill rates beyond what any single source gives. The product also runs an AI research agent, Claygent, to scan websites and summarize findings, and it suits technical GTM and RevOps operators comfortable with conditional logic rather than reps wanting a turnkey tool. Pricing is credit-based, splitting "data credits" for sourced records from "actions" for platform and workflow runs.

Sources Clay pricing page · Clay homepage · Clay blog: Data Enrichment · First Round Review: Clay's Path to Product-Market Fit

$185/mo · lowest paid
LiveFree tier
Visit Clay
07EST. 2014

Reply.io / SMB & enterprise

Multichannel sales engagement with AI SDR

  • Lowest paid plan from $49/mo (price).
  • Permanent free tier available.
  • Best fit: SMB & enterprise.

What sets it apart Jason, a built-in autonomous AI SDR agent that sources prospects, personalizes sequences, handles replies, and books meetings, offered as a separate product from the core sales engagement plans

Best for B2B sales and agency teams running high-volume multichannel outbound (email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, WhatsApp), from SMB up to enterprise · Pricing model Freemium plus tiered per-user subscriptions. A limited free plan is available (with a small monthly data-credit allotment); paid Sales Engagement plans are billed per user per month, with the entry email plan around $59 and the multichannel plan around $99 (annual billing). The autonomous Jason AI SDR is a separate product priced higher (roughly $299/month and up). Add-ons such as LinkedIn automation, calls/SMS, and data credits raise effective cost.

Launched in 2014, Reply.io is a sales engagement platform that runs outbound sequences across email, LinkedIn, calls, SMS, and WhatsApp from one workspace. Its distinguishing piece is Jason, an AI SDR agent that can source prospects, personalize messages, respond to inbound replies, and book meetings with limited human oversight; it is sold as a separate product rather than bundled into the core engagement plans. Pricing runs from a limited free plan up through tiered per-user subscriptions, with the entry email plan around $59 per user per month. It fits B2B sales and agency teams running volume outbound, from SMB up to larger organizations.

Sources Reply.io - homepage (product, channels, AI SDR) · Reply.io - Jason AI SDR product page · Woodpecker - Reply.io Pricing (2025) · Tekpon - Reply.io Pricing

$49/mo · lowest paid
LiveFree tier
Visit Reply.io
08EST. 2015

Saleshandy / solo & SMB

Cold email outreach with unlimited inboxes

  • Lowest paid plan from $25/mo (price).
  • No permanent free tier (trial only).
  • Best fit: solo & SMB.

What sets it apart Unlimited email account connections are included on all plans, rather than billed per inbox as is common in the category, and a native B2B Lead Finder database is bundled with the outreach tooling

Best for Solo senders, SMBs, and agencies running high-volume B2B cold email who want to add many sending inboxes without per-account fees and prospect from a built-in lead database · Pricing model Subscription, tiered by sending and active-prospect volume, billed monthly or annually. Cheapest paid plan (Outreach Starter) is $25/mo on annual billing (about $36/mo month-to-month); higher tiers (Outreach Pro/Scale/Scale Plus) raise email and prospect limits. All tiers include unlimited email accounts. No permanently free tier; a 7-day free trial (no card required) includes limited email, lead, and verification credits.

Saleshandy is a cold email outreach platform for B2B sales teams and agencies, pairing sequence automation, sender rotation, and inbox warm-up with a built-in prospect database. It connects an unlimited number of email accounts on every plan, a pricing choice that departs from the per-inbox charges common among competing senders. The included Lead Finder draws on a contact database the company markets at over 850 million records. Paid plans start at $25 per month on annual billing, with no free tier and a 7-day trial.

Sources Saleshandy - All-in-one Cold Outreach Platform (vendor home) · Saleshandy B2B Lead Finder (vendor) · Saleshandy Pricing 2026 - ColdEmailKit · Saleshandy Pricing in 2026 - Puzzle Inbox

$25/mo · lowest paid
Live
Visit Saleshandy
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At a glance

ToolFrom $/moFree tierFoundedBest for
Instantly.ai$47No2021solo & SMB
Smartlead$39No2021solo & SMB & enterprise
lemlist$69No2018solo & SMB
SalesloftCustomNo2011SMB & enterprise
OutreachCustomNo2014enterprise
Clay$185Yes2017SMB & enterprise
Reply.io$49Yes2014SMB & enterprise
Saleshandy$25No2015solo & SMB
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Questions of record

What is the best alternative to Apollo.io in 2026?
As of Sep 8, 2026, the strongest live options are Instantly.ai, Smartlead, lemlist. All are price-verified this cycle and reachable by our health checks.
What is the cheapest Apollo.io alternative?
Saleshandy, from $25/mo (verified Sep 8, 2026). Prices shown are the lowest paid monthly plan.
Which Apollo.io alternatives have a free tier?
Clay, Reply.io offer a permanent free plan, not just a trial.
Are these Apollo.io alternatives still maintained?
Yes. Only reachable, price-verified tools appear here, and a "dead" status is set by an editor, never automatically.
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