apollo.iocontributed by Samuele Ongaro
The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying.
A sales database with outreach attached: search a directory of companies and people, verify their email addresses, and run sequences at them from the same place.
Do not build this. The product is the database, and you cannot have it. Hundreds of millions of contact records, continually re-verified, is the entire thing. It is also worth knowing what that means: in the EU and the UK, buying and using a contact database of individuals without their consent is generally unlawful, and the fact that a product sells it does not make your use of it legal. That is a reason to be careful, not just a reason not to build. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD - If the data is why you pay, keep paying — and check the rules where your prospects live before using it - If you mostly send sequences to people you already know, that half is buildable and is covered under Lemlist elsewhere in this catalogue WHAT YOU CAN BUILD, AND SHOULD **A record of your own relationships**, which is more valuable than a purchased list and entirely yours: - Read-only mailbox and calendar sync recording one activity per message and meeting with a counterpart — address, direction, subject, timestamp, a short snippet. Never the body - People and companies created from what you actually corresponded with, with the company taken from the email domain - Last contacted, frequency, and who has gone quiet, all derived rather than typed - A browser extension to capture a person you are already dealing with, in one click, with a fixture and a test per host because these break **Email verification**, honestly: - Syntax, domain and MX checks are free and catch a real share of bad addresses - Catch-all detection tells you a domain accepts everything, so verification means nothing there - Beyond that, deliverability comes from list hygiene rather than verification: suppress hard bounces immediately, never import a list you did not build, and watch the complaint rate THE ONE-LINE VERSION Nobody can rebuild the database, and in much of Europe nobody should be using one. Build the record of people you actually know.
What you lose
- The database — hundreds of millions of contact records, continually re-verified, which is the entire product and cannot be built
- Email verification that keeps bounce rates low enough to protect a sending domain
- Intent and technology filters that make a list worth working
If you would rather not build
- Instantly or Lemlist for the sending half
- Hunter, for verification
- Your own CRM plus a bought list, if the list is properly sourced
What it costs
read from their page 15 Aug 2026
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | Last read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Plan | $49/mo | — | 15 Aug 2026 |
Their pricing page is where these came from. Seeing a different price? Tell us.
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Mautic
$0Self-hosted marketing automation with campaigns and lead scoring.
mautic/mauticfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
18/100
Verdict no at 18. You cannot build a contact database, and scraping one is a bad idea for reasons that are legal as well as technical.
History
tracked since 10 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Questions about Apollo.io
answered from the record above
Is Apollo.io free?
No — the plan we track is $49 a month. Basic at $49 per user per month billed monthly, around $39 annually.
Can you replace Apollo.io by building your own?
KEEP IT. The value is the network, the data or the infrastructure. Keep paying. Replacement score 18 out of 100, build time longer than it saves. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Apollo.io cost?
$49 a month on Basic — $588 a year. Recorded 10 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Apollo.io?
The database — hundreds of millions of contact records, continually re-verified, which is the entire product and cannot be built; Email verification that keeps bounce rates low enough to protect a sending domain; Intent and technology filters that make a list worth working. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Apollo.io?
Yes: Mautic, Listmonk. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
Related entries
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