Who this is for
Agency owners and first sales hires deciding how to build lead lists.
Side by side
| Compared on | Clay | Apollo.io |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Building lead lists in a table and filling in missing details from many data providers and AI steps. | Searching a built-in contact database and running outreach from the same place. |
| Starting price (checked 2026-10-09) | $167/mo (Launch); free plan with 100 data credits and 500 actions a month. | $49/month (Basic), $99/month (Professional) per the vendor page's structured data; free plan available. |
| Pricing model | Data credits plus actions; unused data credits roll over up to 2x the monthly amount. | Per user with monthly credits; credits reset each cycle with no rollover. |
| Where it breaks | Actions run out mid-month and cannot be topped up separately; CRM sync, HTTP API and webhooks need Growth or higher. | Mobile numbers cost 8 extra credits each; Trustpilot reviewers report wrong numbers and bounces. |
| Setup | Low-code. Expect a learning curve. | No-code. |
| Best for | A growth or RevOps person who wants custom, multi-source research. | A small sales team that wants one tool for contacts and sequences on a budget. |
| A custom build beats it when | The same enrichment recipe runs every day at volume and per-action costs exceed what a scripted pipeline against the data APIs would cost. | You need data from sources Apollo does not cover, or scoring logic tied to your own CRM history. |
The verdict
They do different jobs, so the real question is how much list building you want to engineer. Apollo is one tool for finding contacts in its own database and sending sequences, with a free plan and a lower entry price, which suits a small team that needs volume with little setup. Clay is a workbench that pulls from 150+ data providers and AI steps into one table. It finds people Apollo misses and lets you write custom research steps, but it takes time to learn, and actions cannot be topped up separately.
Many teams use both: Apollo for the contact base and outreach, Clay for the accounts where a researched first line matters. Decide on two things: how much your list quality depends on blending sources, and whether someone on the team will own Clay tables week to week.
Read the full take on each
Sources
- clay.com/pricing
- university.clay.com/docs/credits
- trustpilot.com/review/clay.com
- apollo.io/pricing
- docs.apollo.io/docs/api-pricing
- trustpilot.com/review/apollo.io
- uplead.com/clay-vs-apollo/
- salesforge.ai/blog/clay-vs-apollo
Spotted something out of date? Email indra@kratuva.com.