Apollo.io vs Instantly
Apollo.io or Instantly? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sales prospecting database with email sequences, dialer and deal tracking | Cold email platform with unlimited sending accounts and warmup, priced by emails sent and contacts uploaded |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $49/seat/mo billed annually (Basic)Apollo.io pricing | $37.60/mo billed annually (Growth)Instantly pricing |
| What it covers | Monthly: 2,500 credits per seat per month; annual: 30,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront. | Outreach plan: 5,000 emails a month, 1,000 uploaded contacts, unlimited email accounts and warmup. Lead data and AI agents need a separate Instantly Credits plan; the cheapest, Nano, is $9 a month for 150 credits. |
| Free trial | 14-day trial of Basic or Professional (trial includes 50 credits and 5 mobile credits) | 14-day free trial, no card needed, with 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails |
| Platforms | Web, API | Web, API |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | Not stated | Not stated |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Apollo.io | Foo Monk, LLC |
Choose Apollo.io if…
- You want a free plan: Instantly does not have one.
- The job is finding contact details for prospects at target companies.
- The job is running automated email outreach sequences for a small sales team.
Choose Instantly if…
- The job is sending cold email from many mailboxes without per-inbox fees.
- The job is agencies running high-volume campaigns for several clients.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, Apollo.io and Instantly are also compared with their other rivals: Instantly vs Smartlead, Instantly vs lemlist and HubSpot vs Pipedrive.
What Apollo.io does
- Contact and account database with basic and advanced filters
- Email sequences, with A/Z testing on Professional and Organization
- AI research, AI lead scoring and AI writing
- Deal management, US dialer and call recording
- CRM integrations and CSV, CRM and API data enrichment from Basic
- Website visitor identification and real-time form enrichment
Watch out for
- Free plan: 900 credits per seat per year and 2 sequences
- Organization requires at least 3 seats and annual billing
- Record selection limit of 25 on Free and 1,000 on Basic
What Instantly does
- Unlimited sending accounts and automated warmup on every outreach plan
- Multi-step email sequences with scheduling, A/Z testing, a global block list and bounce detection
- Unibox: one inbox for replies from every connected account, with AI reply labels
- Warmup with a slow ramp, read emulation and a deliverability dashboard
- Lead Finder (formerly SuperSearch) database of 450M+ B2B contacts with waterfall work-email enrichment, on credits
- AI Sequence Writer, Copilot, AI Reply Agent and AI Sales Agent; the agents run on Instantly Credits
Watch out for
- Growth caps sending at 5,000 emails and 1,000 uploaded contacts a month; going over a plan's volume means upgrading, not paying overage
- Lead data and AI agents need a separate Instantly Credits subscription
- Webhooks and full in-app Unibox replies start on Hypergrowth
Questions
Is Apollo.io or Instantly cheaper?
They price different things, so neither is simply cheaper. Apollo.io's entry price, $49/seat/mo billed annually (Basic), is per user or seat; Instantly's, $37.60/mo billed annually (Growth), is for the whole plan. Price the number of people, channels or contacts you have on each.
Do Apollo.io and Instantly have free plans?
Apollo.io does; Instantly does not, though it offers a 14-day free trial, no card needed, with 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails.