Apollo alternatives in 2026: 9 tools compared on mobiles and price

The best Apollo alternatives in 2026 are Scalelist, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, Snov.io, Prospeo, Findymail, Hunter and Clay. The right one depends on the part of Apollo.io you actually use: the contact data, the phone numbers, or the sequences and dialer.

Prices checked on 27 September 2026 from each vendor’s own pricing page.

Every tool below gets the same eight fields, taken from its own pricing page on 27 September 2026: what it is, entry price, how pricing works, mobile numbers and their cost, whether a miss is charged, who it fits, where it falls short, and the evidence (the vendor’s own data claim, plus our benchmark result where we tested it). When a vendor does not publish something, we write “not published”.

Four tools on this page were in our own benchmark next to Apollo: Scalelist, Prospeo and Findymail for emails and phones, and Hunter for emails only, since it sells no phones. For them you get measured coverage by region, not just claims.

Why people look for Apollo alternatives

Most teams look for Apollo alternatives because of how Apollo prices seats and phone numbers, not because the product is weak. Apollo’s own pricing page and help center spell out the terms.

• Every user is a seat. Basic costs 49 USD per seat a month billed annually or 65 USD monthly, and Professional 79 or 99 USD. Organization is 119 USD per seat, annual only, with a 3-seat minimum. Five reps on Professional pay 495 USD a month on monthly billing.
• A phone costs 8 credits, an email 1. Basic’s 2,500 monthly credits cover at most 312 phone reveals per seat. And “Apollo doesn’t refund any credits for mobile numbers.”
• Multi-source enrichment can bill for misses. When Apollo’s own data has no answer, it can ask connected providers, and “Sources that return unverified data still charge credits.” Apollo’s API docs put a phone lookup this way at 8 to 25 credits, and some setups at 45 or more.
• International calling is an add-on. Basic includes a US dialer at 2 credits a minute. International, parallel and power dialing sit in the Advanced Dialer add-on, at 149 USD per team a month (119 USD billed annually).
• Terms run to the end of the period. “Cancellations take effect at the end of your current term,” and “Refunds will not be processed for downgrades mid-term.”
• You may already own half the bundle. Sequences, mailboxes, the dialer and deal tools are part of what each seat pays for. If you already send with lemlist, Instantly or HubSpot, you pay for sending twice.

To be fair to Apollo: the free plan gives 75 credits a month, and Apollo refunds credits when an email it verified bounces within 30 days of the request (for messages sent from Apollo). It is ISO 27001 certified, claims 240M contacts and 30M companies, and at 0.16 to 0.21 USD per phone number its phone credit is one of the cheapest on this page.

If your team uses Apollo’s data, sequences and dialer every day, staying is a sensible choice. This page is for teams that need one part of it, or need it in regions where Apollo has fewer numbers. Our Apollo pricing breakdown walks through each plan.

Apollo alternatives and competitors compared at a glance

The 9 Apollo.io alternatives differ most on four things that change your bill: the entry price, the billing model, what a mobile number costs and whether you pay when nothing is found. Apollo’s own row comes first for reference.

Tool	Best for	Entry price	Mobile numbers	Charged on a miss
Apollo.io (reference)	Data, sequences and dialer per seat	49 USD/seat/mo yearly, 65 monthly	Yes, 8 credits each	No, on Apollo’s own data
Scalelist	Teams that call and email	29 USD/mo for 500 credits	Yes, 20 credits each	No
ZoomInfo	Enterprise data plus intent	Not published (quote, annual)	Yes, inside each record	Not published
Cognism	Calling into Europe	Not published (quote, 5 seats)	Yes, in 1 credit per contact	Not published
Lusha	Individual reps, self-serve	37.45 USD/mo yearly, 49.90 monthly	Yes, 5 credits each	Partly
Snov.io	Low-cost bundle with sequences	29.25 USD/mo yearly, 39 monthly	Yes, in tokens (0.20 to 0.44 USD)	No
Prospeo	Database with low-cost mobiles	37 USD/user/mo yearly, 49 monthly	Yes, 10 credits each	No
Findymail	Email-first, non-EU phones	41 USD/mo yearly, 49 monthly	Yes, 10 credits, not in the EU	No
Hunter	Email only, plus sequences	34 USD/mo yearly, 49 monthly	No	No
Clay	Build-your-own workflows	167 USD/mo yearly, 185 monthly	Yes, via providers, price varies	No

Head-to-head comparisons: ZoomInfo vs Apollo, Apollo vs Clay and Apollo vs Lusha. For Apollo on its own, read our Apollo.io review.

What is the best alternative to Apollo?

The best alternative to Apollo depends on the job you bought it for. If your reps call as much as they email, Scalelist sells mobile numbers you pay for only when they are found, with no seats, and it found more phone numbers than Apollo in every region where both were tested.

For Apollo’s bundle of data and sequences at a lower price, Snov.io is the closest match, with unlimited seats. ZoomInfo and Cognism are the quote-only enterprise options, and Cognism is stronger for calling into Europe. Hunter is the cheapest per email but sells no phones, Prospeo pairs a database with low-cost mobile credits, and Clay suits teams building their own workflows.

How we picked and compared these tools

We picked tools in the four directions teams take when they leave Apollo: enterprise databases, self-serve contact data, low-cost bundles and email-first finders. Then we checked each one against the same criteria on its own website.

• Published price: the cheapest paid plan, with both billing options where the page shows them. Quote-only means “not published”.
• Billing model: seats, credits, tokens or usage meters, and whether monthly billing is allowed.
• Mobile numbers: sold or not, and what one costs in credits and in dollars at the entry plan.
• Misses: whether a lookup that finds nothing costs you anything, in the vendor’s own words.
• Evidence: coverage numbers only from our own published benchmark, and only for tools that were in it. Vendor claims are labeled as claims.
• Date: every pricing page was rendered in a US-locale browser on 27 September 2026. Prices change, so check before you sign.

The 9 best Apollo.io alternatives in 2026

Each tool below has the same eight fields in the same order, plus a link to read next, so you can compare them line by line.

1. Scalelist

• What it is: Scalelist is an AI Lead Finder. You describe the people you want in one sentence, see how many match for free, then get them with verified work emails and mobile numbers.
• Entry price: 29 USD a month for 500 credits (Scaler 500), or 290 USD a year. Plans go up to 649 USD a month for 20,000 credits, with custom plans above that (Scalelist plans and credits). Trial: 20 credits for new accounts, no credit card required.
• How pricing works: Credits, with no seats and no annual contract. 1 credit per lead found, 1 per email found, 20 per mobile found. Unused credits roll over, up to 2x the monthly allocation, while you stay subscribed.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 20 credits per mobile found. That is about 1.16 USD on the 500-credit plan, 0.80 USD at 5,000 credits and 0.65 USD at 20,000.
• Charged on a miss: No. Nothing is charged when nothing is found, and every email comes back labeled Valid or Risky.
• Best for: Teams that call as much as they email, prospect outside North America and already have a sequencer.
• Where it falls short: A phone credit costs more than on Apollo, Prospeo, Findymail or Lusha. No sequencer, dialer or intent data. HubSpot is the only native CRM; Salesforce and others connect through Zapier or the API.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: no database size published; Scalelist finds and verifies contact details on demand rather than serving a pre-compiled list. Our benchmark: found a phone number for 87% of the North America list, 73% in EMEA, 75% in APAC and 85% in Latin America, and an email for 92%, 89%, 76% and 86%.
• Read next: How Scalelist Lead Finder works

2. ZoomInfo

• What it is: ZoomInfo is an enterprise B2B data platform (contacts, companies and intent) sold on custom-quoted annual contracts, with a free ZoomInfo Lite tier.
• Entry price: Not published. Paid plans are quoted per contract. ZoomInfo Lite is free with 10 credits a month (25 with Community Edition). Vendr, a software buying marketplace, reports a median contract of 33,500 USD across 1,573 purchases.
• How pricing works: Quote only, annual and seat-based, with seat minimums. One credit per exported record. Monthly credits do not roll over, and bulk credits expire at the end of the contract.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, on paid plans, inside the exported record. Price per number: not published.
• Charged on a miss: Not published.
• Best for: Larger teams moving up from Apollo that want data, intent and engagement under one annual contract.
• Where it falls short: No public price, and “Monthly billing is not standard.” Two users exporting the same record pay two credits, intent and the dialer are add-ons, and “Renewal pricing can increase.”
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “135M+ Direct Dial Numbers”. Our benchmark: not tested.
• Read next: ZoomInfo competitors compared

3. Cognism

• What it is: Cognism is a B2B sales intelligence platform that sells contact data, including phone-verified mobile numbers, through quote-only Standard and Pro packages.
• Entry price: Not published. Both packages route to sales and include 5 seats (Cognism pricing page). Trial: not published; Cognism offers a data sample and demos.
• How pricing works: Quote only. Each seat includes a credit allocation, “1 credit = 1 revealed contact”, and extra credits can be bought at any time.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, inside the same credit per revealed contact. Phone-verified mobiles go “through additional layers of verification checks”, and on-demand mobile verification is a Pro feature. Price per credit: not published.
• Charged on a miss: Not published. A credit is used “each time a contact record is revealed”.
• Best for: Teams calling into Europe and other markets with Do Not Call rules. Cognism screens phones against registries including the UK TPS and CTPS, the US, Australia, Germany and France.
• Where it falls short: No public prices and no single-seat plan. Intent data is Pro only, and a contact costs a credit again after a job change.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “a 3x improvement in connect rates with phone-verified mobiles compared to industry average”. Our benchmark: not tested.
• Read next: Cognism alternatives

4. Lusha

• What it is: Lusha is a self-serve B2B contact data platform (web app, browser extension and API) that sells verified emails and phone numbers on credit plans.
• Entry price: 37.45 USD a month billed yearly (Starter, 4,800 credits a year), or 49.90 USD billed monthly (400 credits a month). Free plan: 40 credits a month (Lusha pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 5. Monthly Pro and Premium plans roll credits over up to 2x; annual credits reset at the end of the year.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 5 credits each: about 0.62 USD on Starter billed monthly and 0.47 USD billed yearly.
• Charged on a miss: Partly. CSV rows with no match are free, but every API request costs at least 1 credit, and bulk reveals charge for contacts with partial data.
• Best for: Individual reps and small teams that want month-to-month access from a browser extension.
• Where it falls short: Teams above 5 users must go through sales, CSV exports cost 1 credit per 25 rows, and per-user credit limits need the Scale plan.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “117M+ direct dials”. Our benchmark: not tested.
• Read next: Lusha alternatives

5. Snov.io

• What it is: Snov.io is a sales suite: email finder and verifier, a B2B prospect database, cold email sequences with warm-up, and a CRM. Phone numbers are sold separately in tokens.
• Entry price: 29.25 USD a month billed annually, or 39 USD monthly (Starter, 1,000 credits). Trial: 50 credits and 100 recipients, renewed every 30 days (Snov.io pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits, with unlimited team seats on every plan. One credit per prospect found with an email. Unused credits roll over while you stay subscribed.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, through phone enrichment paid in tokens outside the plan credits: 10 or 22 tokens per prospect depending on the data source, at 0.02 USD a token (0.20 or 0.44 USD). Tokens expire after 90 days.
• Charged on a miss: No. No credit is used when no email is found, and for phones “You’re not charged if we don’t find a result.”
• Best for: Small teams that want Apollo’s mix of finder, database and sequences on one bill, with unlimited seats.
• Where it falls short: Phones are a second purchase and are not available through the API. Snov.io itself says “In locations like South America or Asia, phone search might have limited results.” Starter includes only 3 email warm-ups.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: no database size or accuracy figure published. Our benchmark: not tested.
• Read next: Snov.io alternatives

6. Prospeo

• What it is: Prospeo is a B2B contact database and enrichment tool (search, CSV, CRM and API enrichment, Chrome extension) that returns verified work emails and mobile numbers.
• Entry price: 37 USD per user a month billed yearly, or 49 USD monthly (Starter, 2,000 credits a month). Free plan: 100 credits a month (Prospeo pricing page).
• How pricing works: Per user plus credits. An email costs 1 credit and a mobile 10, with the email included. Unused credits expire at renewal.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 10 credits each: about 0.25 USD on Starter billed monthly and 0.18 USD billed yearly.
• Charged on a miss: No. Exports cost “1 credit per email found (0 if no email is found)”.
• Best for: Teams that want a searchable database with mobiles at a low credit price and are fine paying per user.
• Where it falls short: Credits do not roll over, and native HubSpot and Salesforce sync start on Growth. It found the fewest emails of the tools we tested.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “only the best 300M+ pass all five verification steps”. Our benchmark: found a phone number for 75% of the North America list, 39% in EMEA, 44% in APAC and 24% in Latin America, and an email for 42%, 39%, 38% and 33%.
• Read next: Prospeo pricing

7. Findymail

• What it is: Findymail is an email and phone finder with built-in verification, an AI lead finder and CRM enrichment, built for outbound teams and agencies.
• Entry price: 41 USD a month billed annually, or 49 USD monthly (Basic, 1,000 finder plus 1,000 verifier credits). No free plan; the trial is 10 credits (Findymail pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits. An email costs 1 credit and a phone 10. Credits roll over up to 2x your plan.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, 10 credits each: about 0.49 USD on Basic monthly and 0.41 USD yearly. Not for contacts in the European Union: “Phone finding works for non-EU contacts only.”
• Charged on a miss: No. “You only pay for verified results. No charge if we can’t find it.”
• Best for: Email-first outbound teams. Its email coverage was close to Scalelist’s in our benchmark, and it refunds credits if your bounce rate goes above 5%.
• Where it falls short: No EU phones, and few phone numbers outside North America in our benchmark.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: a bounce rate under 5%, with credits refunded above it. Our benchmark: found an email for 87% of the North America list, 85% in EMEA, 75% in APAC and 86% in Latin America, and a phone number for 32%, 12%, none and 7%.
• Read next: Findymail alternatives

8. Hunter

• What it is: Hunter is an email finder, email verifier and cold email sequencing platform, plus an API-only Data Platform.
• Entry price: 34 USD a month billed yearly, or 49 USD monthly (Starter, 2,000 credits a month). Free plan: 50 credits a month (Hunter pricing page).
• How pricing works: Credits, with unlimited team members and no seat fee. 1 credit per email found; verifying an email costs 0.5 credits.
• Mobile numbers: Not sold. Phone numbers appear only on some personal-email results.
• Charged on a miss: No. “If the email address can’t be found, it’s free.”
• Best for: Email-only teams that want verified emails and sequences at a low entry price. Hunter costs about half Scalelist’s price per email credit.
• Where it falls short: No mobile numbers. Verification costs 0.5 credits whatever the result, and it found fewer emails than Scalelist or Findymail in our benchmark.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “a bounce rate lower than 1%” for recently verified valid addresses. Our benchmark: found an email for 57% of the North America list, 67% in EMEA, 41% in APAC and 39% in Latin America; no phone product to test.
• Read next: Hunter.io alternatives

9. Clay

• What it is: Clay is a GTM data and workflow platform that runs third-party data providers, AI research agents and signals in one table, then syncs results to your CRM or sequencer.
• Entry price: 167 USD a month billed yearly, or 185 USD monthly on Launch (15,000 actions plus 2,500 data credits a month). Free plan: 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, without phone enrichment (Clay pricing page).
• How pricing works: Two usage meters, Actions and Data Credits, with data credits from 0.05 USD each. The cost per contact depends on the providers you choose.
• Mobile numbers: Yes, through third-party providers, from Launch up. A fixed price is not published; Clay’s docs say “emails are cheap, phone numbers are expensive.”
• Charged on a miss: No. “If an enrichment returns no result, you’re not charged Data Credits or Actions.”
• Best for: GTM engineers who want to build multi-provider enrichment and signal workflows themselves.
• Where it falls short: Two meters to budget, CRM sync starts on Growth (495 USD a month billed monthly), and top-up credits cost a 30% premium.
• Evidence: Vendor claim: “Find and enrich data from 150+ providers”. Our benchmark: not tested.
• Read next: Clay alternatives

Why Scalelist is the better fit for teams that call and email

Scalelist fits teams whose reps pick up the phone, because it prices the mobile number as the product and charges only when it finds one. Here is the case, and where it stops.

Phone coverage outside North America, measured

We ran the same list of founders through 8 data providers in North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America, and published the raw data in our B2B data provider comparison. Five tools on this page, Apollo included, were in that test; Hunter only for emails, since it sells no phones.

Scalelist found a phone number for 87% of the North America list, 73% in EMEA, 75% in APAC and 85% in Latin America. Apollo found 50%, 63% and 8%, and was not tested in Latin America. If you sell into APAC, that is the gap to test first.

Emails are closer. Apollo found an email for 77% of the North America and EMEA lists and 74% in APAC, against 92%, 89% and 76% for Scalelist. It is our own test, not an independent study, so run 100 of your own contacts through your shortlist before you switch. Our data provider test method shows how.

Mobiles charged only when found, with no seats

A mobile costs 20 credits, an email 1 and a lead 1, and a miss costs nothing. There are no seats: one plan’s credits serve the whole team, so adding a rep does not add a line to the bill. You also see how many people match your description before you spend a credit.

One sentence instead of a search form

You describe the audience, for example “VPs of Sales at US logistics and trucking companies with 50 to 500 employees”. The Scalelist Lead Finder shows what it understood and how many people match. Then you export to CSV, push to HubSpot or send the leads to your sequencer: lemlist, Instantly, Smartlead, Woodpecker or Saleshandy.

Leaving Apollo with an export of names and companies? Upload the file to the Mobile Finder and pay 20 credits only for the mobiles it finds.

Where Scalelist is not the best choice

Scalelist is not the cheapest tool per phone credit, and it does not try to replace Apollo’s whole bundle.

• Cheapest phone credit: on paper, Apollo (0.16 to 0.21 USD), Prospeo (0.18 to 0.25 USD), Snov.io tokens (0.20 to 0.44 USD), Findymail (0.41 to 0.49 USD) and Lusha (0.47 to 0.62 USD) all cost less per number than Scalelist’s 0.65 to 1.16 USD. Compare the cost per number you actually get on your list, not per credit.
• Email-only volume: Hunter charges 49 USD for 2,000 email credits; the same 2,000 credits cost 89 USD on Scalelist.
• One tool for everything: Scalelist has no sequencer, dialer or deal tools. Apollo, Snov.io and Hunter include sequences.
• Intent data: Scalelist sells none. ZoomInfo, Cognism Pro and Apollo’s Organization plan do.
• Security reviews: Scalelist operates under the GDPR and Singapore’s PDPA, with a Data Processing Agreement, Standard Contractual Clauses and a published sub-processor list. It does not publish an audited certification such as the ISO 27001 that Apollo, ZoomInfo and Cognism hold.

How to choose an Apollo alternative

Choose an Apollo alternative by the one job you used Apollo for, then by how you want to pay for it.

1. List what your team used last quarter. Contacts, phone numbers, sequences, the dialer, deals. Most teams use two or three of these.
2. Count phones and emails separately. On these credit plans a phone costs 5 to 20 times an email (Lusha 5, Apollo 8, Prospeo and Findymail 10, Scalelist 20), so price your real mix.
3. Test in the regions you sell into. Run the same 100 contacts through your top two or three tools and count connected calls, not returned numbers.
4. Ask how a miss is billed. Get the answer in writing, in the vendor’s words, including any multi-source lookups.
5. Check seats, terms and expiry. Per-seat pricing, annual-only plans and credits that reset at renewal change the real price more than the list price.
6. Keep what already works. If you send from lemlist, Instantly or Smartlead, pick a data tool that pushes there directly and cancel only Apollo’s data seats.

For a side-by-side on cost per contact, read Scalelist vs Apollo.io. If a per-lookup tool is on your list, our RocketReach alternatives guide compares those.

FAQ

What are the best Apollo alternatives?

The best Apollo alternatives in 2026 are Scalelist, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, Snov.io, Prospeo, Findymail, Hunter and Clay. Scalelist fits teams that call and email and want mobiles charged only when found. ZoomInfo and Cognism are quote-only enterprise options. Lusha and Prospeo are self-serve databases, Snov.io is a low-cost bundle with sequences, Findymail and Hunter are email-first, and Clay is for building your own workflows.

What is a good Apollo alternative if I only need contact data, not a full sales platform?

Replace only the data part of Apollo and keep the sequencer and dialer you already use. Scalelist returns verified work emails and mobile numbers from a one-sentence description, charges only when something is found and has no seats. Lusha and Prospeo are self-serve contact databases with phone numbers at 5 and 10 credits. Findymail and Hunter are email-first: Hunter sells no phones, and Findymail finds no phones for EU contacts. Scalelist sends leads straight to lemlist, Instantly, Smartlead, Woodpecker, Saleshandy or HubSpot.

Who are Apollo’s main competitors?

Apollo’s main competitors are ZoomInfo and Cognism at the enterprise end, self-serve contact databases such as Lusha and Prospeo, and bundles such as Snov.io that combine data with email sequences. Email-first tools like Hunter and Findymail, and pay-per-result tools like Scalelist, compete for the data part of Apollo’s bundle. Most teams replace one part, not all of it.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Apollo?

It depends on what you buy. Per phone number, Apollo is among the cheapest at 0.16 to 0.21 USD at list price. Per team, several tools cost less because they charge no seat fee: Snov.io and Hunter include unlimited users, and Scalelist starts at 29 USD a month for 500 credits shared by the whole team. For email only, Hunter’s Starter plan gives 2,000 credits for 49 USD.

Which Apollo alternative has the best phone coverage outside the US?

In our own benchmark, Scalelist. It found phone numbers for 73% of an EMEA list, 75% in APAC and 85% in Latin America, against 63% and 8% for Apollo, which was not tested in Latin America. Prospeo found 39% and 44%. Cognism, known for phone-verified mobiles in Europe, was not in the test. Run 100 of your own contacts through a shortlist before you sign.

Does Apollo charge for phone numbers it cannot find?

No, not for its own data: Apollo says you aren’t charged if a source can’t find any data. There are two catches. Its multi-source enrichment can charge for unverified results returned by connected providers, and Apollo does not refund credits for mobile numbers. Scalelist, Prospeo, Findymail, Snov.io and Clay all publish that a lookup with no result costs nothing.

Can I cancel Apollo mid-term?

You can cancel, but it only takes effect at the end of the term. Apollo says “Cancellations take effect at the end of your current term” and “Refunds will not be processed for downgrades mid-term.” On annual billing you keep paying until the year ends, so plan a switch around your renewal date.

Can I keep my sequencer and replace only Apollo’s data?

Yes. Most data tools here export CSV or push to a CRM or sequencer. Scalelist sends leads directly to lemlist, Instantly, Smartlead, Woodpecker and Saleshandy, pushes selected leads to HubSpot, and reaches Salesforce through Zapier or its API. If you want to replace Apollo’s sending as well, Snov.io and Hunter include their own sequences.

Is Scalelist a good Apollo alternative?

For mobile numbers, especially outside North America, yes. Scalelist, an AI Lead Finder, returns verified work emails and mobile numbers from a one-sentence description, charges 20 credits per mobile and 1 per email only when found, and starts at 29 USD a month with no seats. It does not replace Apollo’s sequences, dialer or deal tools, and its phone credit costs more than Apollo’s.

Sources

• Apollo.io: Pricing
• Apollo.io: B2B data
• Apollo.io: Security
• Apollo.io: How data requests work
• Apollo.io: Access a prospect’s phone number
• Apollo.io: API pricing
• ZoomInfo: How much does ZoomInfo cost
• ZoomInfo help center: Overview of credits
• ZoomInfo: Data
• Vendr: ZoomInfo pricing data
• Cognism: Pricing
• Cognism: Compliance
• Cognism: Our data
• Lusha: Pricing
• Lusha: How credits are counted
• Snov.io: Pricing
• Snov.io: Phone number enrichment FAQ
• Snov.io: What is a credit
• Prospeo: Pricing
• Prospeo: How credits work
• Findymail: Pricing
• Findymail: Phone finder
• Hunter: Pricing
• Hunter: How are credits counted
• Clay: Pricing
• Clay University: Actions and data credits