# Apollo.io B2B sales intelligence and engagement platform with 275M+ contact database ## About Apollo.io Apollo.io is a sales-specific data and outreach platform built around a massive 275M+ B2B contact database, email sequences, and a parallel dialer. It excels at prospecting and cold outreach but is limited to sales workflows. Sistava provides a full AI workforce platform where sales is one of many functions, with autonomous employees that handle end-to-end work using team hierarchy, memory, and durable execution. ## Platform details - Pricing: Free, then $49/user/mo (Basic), $79/user/mo (Pro), $119/user/mo (Org). Per-seat with credit limits. - Founded: 2015, San Francisco - Funding: $251M raised at $1.6B valuation (Series D, Bain Capital). ~$150M ARR. - Last reviewed: 2026-03-22 ## Official website - [Visit Apollo.io](https://apollo.io) ## What does Apollo.io actually do? Apollo.io is a sales intelligence and engagement platform combining a 210M+ contact database (with 30M+ companies) plus outreach automation, a cloud dialer, meeting intelligence and pipeline tools. The product is best understood as Apollo-as-a-stack: lead discovery, enrichment, sequencing and calling under one login. Sequences are the workhorse. Multi-step, multi-channel cadences across email, calls and tasks, with timing controls, throttling and deliverability features. Filters run across 65+ parameters (industry, title, company size, technologies) so reps can build precise lists fast. AI features sit on top: AI Lead Scoring predicts conversion likelihood from engagement and profile data, Meeting Intelligence records calls and generates AI summaries, and there is a Chrome extension that surfaces contact data inside LinkedIn. None of these replace the rep; they speed up the rep. Sistava is a different category. Apollo is a tool a human SDR uses; Sistava is an AI Employee that uses tools (including Apollo) on the founder's behalf. Both can be true at once: many Sistava customers pair an AI SDR Employee with an Apollo subscription as the underlying data layer. ## How much does Apollo cost and what do you get for the price? Apollo starts at $49/user/month (annual) on Basic, $79/user/month on Professional, and $119/user/month on Organization (minimum 3 seats). A free plan exists with full database access, 2 active sequences, the Chrome extension and limited monthly credits. The free tier is restrictive at any serious outbound volume. What scales with the plan: dialer (US-only at Professional, international at Organization), call recording, AI call summaries, advanced reporting, SSO and admin controls. The Organization tier is what most sales orgs land on once they are serious about a stack. The credit system is the recurring complaint. Email, phone reveal and export credits are pooled per seat and run out faster than buyers expect, especially when prospecting heavy lists. Phone number accuracy also varies, and many heavy cold-callers supplement Apollo with a dedicated dialer or extra enrichment. Sistava customers who hire an AI SDR often run them on top of Apollo's Basic or Professional tier. The AI Employee uses Apollo's data and sequencing while owning research, personalization and reply handling. Tool plus worker, not tool versus worker. ## When does Apollo beat the alternatives? Apollo wins on stack consolidation. Startups and mid-market sales teams cut tool sprawl by replacing ZoomInfo (data) + Salesloft (sequencing) + Aircall (dialer) + Gong-lite (meeting intel) with one subscription. For a small revenue org that is meaningful budget savings and one login instead of four. It also wins on time-to-value for a competent SDR. The Chrome extension drops contact data directly into LinkedIn workflows, lists build in minutes, sequences ship same-day. Reps with sales experience get productive the first afternoon. It loses when the buyer wanted an AI worker, not a tool. Apollo is excellent infrastructure but it still expects a human at the keyboard choosing lists, refining sequences and handling replies. Founders without a sales team end up paying for software they cannot fully operate. Sistava covers that gap by putting an AI Employee in the seat that drives Apollo. Decision rule: Apollo if you have or will hire a rep. Sistava if you wanted the rep to be AI from day one. ## Where does Apollo fall short for founders without a sales team? The biggest gap is that Apollo is a tool, not a worker. A founder buying Apollo with no rep on the team owns every step: list selection, sequence design, copy, send time, reply handling. Without sales muscle memory, most of that work either gets done badly or does not get done. Data accuracy and the credit system are real but secondary issues. Phone numbers are not reliable for heavy cold calling, multichannel does not include true LinkedIn automation (tasks are manual), and the credit system surprises buyers who exceed the per-seat pool. Sistava AI Employees are designed for the founder who does not want to learn outbound first. The AI SDR Employee picks targets, runs Apollo (or alternatives), personalizes, sequences, parses replies and reports back. The founder reviews and adjusts strategy rather than executing tactics. Net: Apollo is best-in-class infrastructure that wants a competent operator. If you do not have one, you either need to learn fast or hire the operator (human or AI). Otherwise the subscription burns without producing pipeline. ## How does Apollo handle integrations and the wider sales stack? Apollo integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Outreach, Salesloft, LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and the long tail of marketing and ops tools. Two-way CRM sync is the most-used integration and the most-complained-about: it works for most teams but has edge cases around custom fields and ownership rules. API access and Zapier coverage are solid for moving data in and out. Webhooks fire on key events (reply received, meeting booked, sequence finished) and can drive downstream automation. For ops teams building a sales stack, that flexibility is the difference between adopting Apollo as the hub vs. as a spoke. Where it falls short is real LinkedIn automation. LinkedIn tasks inside Apollo sequences require manual execution, which breaks the multichannel promise for many buyers. Genuine LinkedIn automation still requires a separate tool or browser extension layered on top. Sistava treats Apollo as one tool among many an AI Employee can call. The Employee decides when to enrich, when to send, when to call, when to wait. That separation (worker vs. tool) is what lets a founder get sales motion without learning to operate Apollo themselves. ## Comparison - [Compare Apollo.io with Sistava](/en/compare/ai-sales/apollo) — See the two platforms side by side when you are ready to evaluate them.