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Apollo.io vs Instantly: pricing, features and which to choose

Plans, prices, deployment options, strengths and limits for Apollo.io vs Instantly, taken from each company's pricing page, docs and changelog. Updated October 2026.

Apollo.ioInstantly
Apollo.io logo

Apollo.io

Sales AI Tools

Apollo.io is a sales intelligence and go-to-market platform for founders, sales teams, marketers, and revenue operations groups that need prospect data, enrichment, sequencing, calling, and AI-assisted workflows. A free plan costs $0, while paid plans start at $49 per seat monthly with annual billing, according to October 2026 coverage from ZoomInfo.

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Instantly logo

Instantly

Sales AI Tools

Instantly is a hosted sales platform for cold email outreach, lead discovery, enrichment, verification, deliverability testing, and CRM workflows. Paid access starts at $47 per month for Outbound Growth or Data Credits Growth, while bundled plans start at $94 monthly. The service also lists custom Enterprise and VIP arrangements.

Full reviewWebsite

Quick comparison

FeatureApollo.ioInstantly
CategorySales AI ToolsSales AI Tools
Main useSales prospectingCold email
Pricing modelFree plan + paid tiersPaid only
Free plan Yes No
Entry paid plan$49/seat/month, billed annually (Basic)$47/month monthly basis; $37.60/month annual basis (Outbound Growth)
PlatformsWeb & APIWeb and API
Open source No No
Self-hosted No No
Public API Yes No
Profile updatedOctober 2026October 2026

Pricing plans

Every public plan, as listed on each company's pricing page.

Apollo.io

  • Free$0/month

    Free access remains available without a time limit. It includes five AI Assistant chats per billing cycle, ten messages per chat, Gmail connections, and one seat after downgrade.

  • Basic$49/seat/month, billed annually

    October 2026 ZoomInfo coverage lists 30,000 credits per seat yearly, one mailbox, 250 daily emails, five team workflows, and 1,000 records per selection.

  • Professional$79/seat/month, billed annually

    October 2026 ZoomInfo coverage lists 48,000 credits per seat yearly, unlimited daily sends, AI features, call recording, 50 team workflows, and 2,500 records per selection.

  • Organization$119/seat/month, billed annually

    October 2026 ZoomInfo coverage lists 72,000 credits per seat yearly and a three-seat minimum. Apollo’s official plan page names Custom rather than Organization.

  • CustomCustom

    Apollo describes Custom for teams needing custom volumes, SSO, advanced security, dedicated support, or complex integration requirements.

Instantly

  • Outbound Growth$47/month monthly basis; $37.60/month annual basis

    Unlimited email accounts and warmup; 1,000 uploaded contacts; 5,000 emails monthly.

  • Outbound Hypergrowth$97/month monthly basis; $77.60/month annual basis

    Unlimited email accounts and warmup; 25,000 uploaded contacts; 125,000 emails monthly.

  • Outbound Light Speed$358/month monthly basis; $286.30/month annual basis

    Unlimited email accounts and warmup; 100,000 uploaded contacts; 500,000 emails monthly; SISR System.

  • Outbound EnterpriseCustom pricing

    500,000+ emails monthly, 100,000+ uploaded contacts, and private deliverability network.

  • Outbound Add-on$87/month

    Adds 25,000 uploaded contacts and 125,000 emails monthly to Hypergrowth or Light Speed.

  • Data Credits Nano$9/month monthly basis

    150 credits monthly.

  • Data Credits Growth$47/month monthly basis; $37.60/month annual basis

    1,500 credits monthly; annual display lists 18,000 credits.

  • Data Credits Supersonic$97/month monthly basis; $87.30/month annual basis

    5,000 credits monthly; annual display lists 5,000 to 7,500 credits.

  • Data Credits HyperFrom $197/month monthly basis; $177.30/month annual basis

    10,000 to 200,000 credits monthly; annual display lists the same range.

  • Data Credits Add-on$425/month per add-on

    Adds 50,000 credits monthly; available on Hyper credits and above.

  • CRM Growth$47/month

    CRM access with unlimited seats listed by the help center.

  • CRM Hyper$97/month

    CRM access with unlimited seats and expanded CRM capabilities.

  • Inbox Placement Growth$47/month

    Unlimited one-time tests.

  • Inbox Placement Hypergrowth$97/month

    Unlimited one-time and automated tests.

  • Starter Bundle$94/month monthly basis; $85/month annual basis

    5,000 emails monthly, 1,000 uploaded contacts, and 1,500 credits monthly.

  • Scale Bundle$194/month monthly basis; $175/month annual basis

    100,000 emails monthly, 25,000 uploaded contacts, and 5,000 credits monthly.

  • Agency Bundle$555/month monthly basis; $500/month annual basis

    500,000 emails monthly, 100,000 uploaded contacts, and 10,000 credits monthly.

  • VIPCustom pricing

    Setup for AI Sales Agent, inbox manager, domains, accounts, campaigns, support, account management, and GTM engineering.

Strengths and limits

Apollo.io

  • Apollo combines prospect data, enrichment, sequences, and pipeline tools.
  • The AI Assistant can turn natural-language requests into sales actions.
  • Free accounts remain available without a short trial deadline.
  • The API supports enrichment, organization search, and AI insight workflows.
  • Paid costs vary by seats, billing frequency, add-ons, and credit usage.
  • Credits expire at the end of each billing cycle.
  • Standard plans restrict external resale and customer-facing data products.

Instantly

  • Outbound plans include unlimited connected email accounts and unlimited warmup.
  • Separate credit plans cover lead discovery, enrichment, verification, and AI actions.
  • Inbox Placement checks authentication factors and 94 blacklists.
  • The published API covers campaigns, leads, accounts, analytics, webhooks, and workspaces.
  • The available product information provides no self-hosted deployment option.
  • Usage is divided across outbound limits, data credits, and separate product subscriptions.
  • The privacy policy describes collection and sharing of marketing information with customers and partners.

Which should you choose?

Choose Apollo.io if

  • Small teams building outbound prospecting programs.
  • Sales teams combining contact data with sequencing.
  • Revenue operations teams managing shared credits.
  • Teams wanting AI actions inside sales workflows.

Look elsewhere if

  • Teams needing fixed paid pricing without a calculator or checkout.
  • Organizations selling Apollo data through customer products.
  • Teams wanting an open-source or self-hosted database.

Choose Instantly if

  • Agencies managing multiple outbound campaigns across many sending accounts.
  • Sales teams needing lead data, enrichment, verification, and email sequencing together.
  • Operators wanting separate usage budgets for sending and data credits.
  • Teams requiring hosted deliverability testing and reply management.

Look elsewhere if

  • Organizations requiring self-hosted deployment or open source software.
  • Teams seeking a general purpose CRM unrelated to outbound prospecting.
  • Senders unable to manage consent, suppression, and applicable marketing regulations.

Apollo.io logo Apollo.io in brief

Apollo.io is a sales intelligence and go-to-market platform made by ZenLeads, Inc., doing business as Apollo.io. Founded in 2015, it released its first product in 2016 and says it reached $150 million in annual recurring revenue in May 2025. Apollo also reports more than 500,000 companies using the platform and more than 50,000 weekly active users in 2025. Its 2023 Series D raised $100 million at a reported $1.6 billion valuation. The product combines a business contact database with prospect search, enrichment, sequencing, calling, pipeline support, analytics, and AI features. That combination places Apollo closer to a sales operating system than a standalone lead database, serving founders, sales teams, marketers, and revenue operations groups.

Apollo’s workflow usually begins with finding people or companies through filters, then selecting records for enrichment, lists, sequences, or exports. Email campaigns are available on every account. Free users can connect Gmail, while paid users can connect Microsoft Office and other providers. Teams can create sequences, manage pipeline activity, record calls, prepare for conversations, and review AI-generated insights. The AI Assistant accepts natural-language requests, uses Apollo data and saved messaging context, and can find decision-makers, research accounts, build sequences, export lists, and report on performance. Scheduled agents can run some outbound tasks in the background. Permissions still govern available actions, and Apollo advises reviewing generated messages, matches, and credit estimates before execution.

Apollo’s main limitation is pricing and usage complexity: the final amount depends on seats, billing frequency, credits, add-ons, and selected features. Basic includes one mailbox, 250 daily emails, five team workflows, and 1,000 records per selection, while Professional raises several limits and adds AI and call features. Standard plans are for internal business use, so powering external products, sharing data with customers, or reselling it requires a separate agreement. Apollo competes with ZoomInfo, Cognism, Outreach, Salesloft, and HubSpot Sales Hub. It combines data and enrichment more closely than Outreach or Salesloft, and adds execution tools beyond ZoomInfo or Cognism. Choose Apollo if one team needs prospect intelligence, outbound execution, enrichment, and AI actions together.

Read the full Apollo.io review

Instantly logo Instantly in brief

Instantly is a hosted sales platform centered on outbound email campaigns. Its Outbound plans support unlimited connected email accounts and unlimited warmup, with contact and monthly email limits that rise from 1,000 contacts and 5,000 emails on Growth to 25,000 contacts and 125,000 emails on Hypergrowth, then 100,000 contacts and 500,000 emails on Light Speed. Campaign automation, scheduling, analytics, reputation protection, bounce detection, blocklists, A/Z testing, integrations, webhooks, and reply management are part of the product family. Instantly also sells lead data, verification, enrichment, website visitor identification, inbox placement testing, CRM, managed email accounts, and AI-assisted sales products. Customers access the service through hosted web software and an API rather than installing it on their own infrastructure.

Instantly began in 2021 after the founders of a lead generation agency built internal outreach software to address account-based costs they faced with other services. The founders later closed the agency and launched the software publicly. In an October 2022 interview, CEO and co-founder Raul Kaevand described four co-founders, including one developer and three founders with marketing or sales backgrounds. The interview reported an AppSumo launch, early agency customers, and growth through the founders’ outreach, content, and community activity. External company profiles describe Instantly as unfunded and bootstrapped, with no outside capital reported. The company operates through Foo Monk, LLC doing business as Instantly.ai, according to its privacy policy.

Instantly bills several product families separately and shows monthly and annual billing views for selected plans. Outbound monthly pricing lists Growth at $47 for 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails, Hypergrowth at $97 for 25,000 contacts and 125,000 emails, and Light Speed at $358 for 100,000 contacts and 500,000 emails. Annual billing displays $37.60, $77.60, and $286.30 monthly equivalents. Data Credits lists Nano at $9 for 150 credits, Growth at $47 for 1,500, Supersonic at $97 for 5,000, and Hyper from $197 for 10,000 to 200,000 credits monthly. CRM and Inbox Placement each list Growth at $47 and Hypergrowth at $97 monthly. Bundles range from Starter at $94 monthly to Agency at $555 monthly, with annual equivalents shown. Enterprise and VIP pricing is custom.

Read the full Instantly review

Frequently asked questions

How do Apollo.io vs Instantly compare on price?

Apollo.io has a free option, and its first paid plan (Basic) is listed at $49/seat/month, billed annually. Instantly has no free plan, and its first paid plan (Outbound Growth) is listed at $47/month monthly basis; $37.60/month annual basis. Prices are from each company's pricing page and can change, so check before you buy.

Which has a free plan, Apollo.io vs Instantly?

Apollo.io offers a free plan or free self-hosted use. Instantly requires a paid plan.

Can I self-host or integrate Apollo.io vs Instantly?

None of them is open source. All of them run as hosted services only. Apollo.io offers a public API.

How much does Apollo.io cost?

Apollo’s Free plan costs $0 per month. October 2026 coverage from ZoomInfo lists Basic at $49, Professional at $79, and Organization at $119 per seat monthly when billed annually, with three seats required for Organization. Apollo’s official page names Free, Basic, Professional, and Custom, while its calculator says final costs depend on seats, usage, add-ons, and billing frequency.

Does Apollo.io have a free plan?

Yes. Apollo offers a Free plan without a time limit after a trial. Free accounts include five AI Assistant chats per billing cycle, with ten messages per chat, and Gmail connections for campaigns. Apollo says downgrading limits the account to one seat. Credits are granted according to the account and expire at the end of each billing cycle.

How much does Instantly cost?

The lowest listed paid entry is $47 per month for Outbound Growth or Data Credits Growth. Outbound Growth includes 1,000 uploaded contacts and 5,000 emails monthly. Data Credits Growth includes 1,500 credits monthly. Instantly also lists a 100-credit data trial and an outbound trial with 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails, while paid API access requires an active paid plan.

Is Instantly free?

Instantly lists limited trials rather than a permanent free plan. The outbound trial includes 250 uploaded contacts and 1,000 emails, while the data trial includes 100 credits. CRM has a 14-day trial, and Inbox Placement provides two free one-time tests. Continued use of the paid product families requires subscriptions, with monthly and annual billing options shown for selected plans.

Related comparisons

Apollo.io vs Outreach

Sources