Why do teams look for an Apollo.io alternative?
Teams look for an Apollo.io alternative when seats and credits start to add up. Apollo charges for every user, then meters the data each user reveals. Most teams also pay for a separate CRM and email tool. That is three bills for one sales process.
Apollo.io is a sales data platform. It pairs a large B2B contact database with sequences, a dialer and basic deal tracking. Its free plan makes it easy to start. The costs arrive as the team grows:
- Seats. Every rep needs a paid seat, and the top plan needs at least three.
- Credits. Each email you reveal costs a credit. Exports to CSV or a CRM use credits too.
- Extra tools. Most teams keep their records in Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive, and run newsletters in yet another tool.
Each extra tool also holds a copy of your contacts. Under the GDPR, you answer for every copy, and fines can reach 4% of yearly global turnover. Fewer copies means less to secure.
How much does Apollo.io cost?
Apollo.io costs $49 (Basic), $79 (Professional) or $119 (Organization) per seat per month on yearly billing, according to the Apollo.io pricing page. Monthly billing costs more: $65 for Basic and $99 for Professional. We compared every plan on 26 September 2026.
So a five-person team on Professional pays $395 a month. That is $4,740 a year, before any extra credits. We found that the free plan is tight for real outbound work. It allows two sequences and 250 email sends a day.
MagpieCRM charges for the work, not the headcount. On Magpie Cloud you pay £0.009 per prospect found, £0.002 per verified email reveal and £0.15 per 1,000 emails sent. Each plan includes £10 of usage:
- 500 prospects found, 500 verified email reveals and 10,000 emails sent a month comes to £10.00 on Magpie Cloud, for the whole team.
- 2,500 prospects found, 2,500 verified email reveals and 25,000 emails sent a month comes to £31.25 on Magpie Cloud, for the whole team.
Self-hosted MagpieCRM costs nothing in licence fees. You pay your data and email providers directly.
MagpieCRM vs Apollo.io: feature comparison
We built MagpieCRM to replace Apollo.io and the tools teams add around it. The table puts the two side by side. Apollo.io details come from the Apollo.io pricing page.
| MagpieCRM | Apollo.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Flat plan plus usage | Per seat, plus credits |
| Entry price | £10/month, or free self-hosted | $49 per seat per month |
| Prospect search | By role, industry, size and tech stack | Built-in database |
| Email checks | Verified live with the mail server | Yes |
| Phone numbers and dialer | Call steps in sequences | Mobile numbers and a dialer |
| Sequences | Email, call and task steps | Yes |
| Full CRM with custom objects | Yes | Deals and pipelines |
| Email and SMS marketing | Yes | No |
| Open source | Yes (AGPL-3.0) | No |
| AI | Your own API key or MCP | Built in |
The main difference is scope. Apollo.io is a data and outreach tool that feeds your CRM. MagpieCRM is the CRM, with prospecting and marketing built in. Replies, deals and campaigns all land in one database, so nothing needs to sync.
Where is Apollo.io stronger than MagpieCRM?
Apollo.io is stronger on raw data and calling. The Apollo.io pricing page lists over 240 million contacts and 30 million companies, with mobile numbers. It also has a parallel dialer, call recording and website visitor tracking.
Apollo.io may be the better fit if:
- Your team lives on cold calls to mobile numbers.
- You need a very large database inside the tool, with no setup.
- You already have a CRM you are happy with, and only need data and outreach.
MagpieCRM is built around verified work emails and multi-step sequences. It checks every email with the company's mail server before you use it, so you do not work from stale data. For teams that mostly email, that trade is usually worth it. Some teams also keep Apollo for data and use MagpieCRM for everything else.
How do you switch from Apollo.io to MagpieCRM?
You switch from Apollo.io by exporting your contacts and lists to CSV, then importing them into MagpieCRM. Your sequences are rebuilt by hand, which is a good time to tidy them up. Check each one against the FTC's CAN-SPAM guide while you are there. Most teams can move in a day and run both tools for a week.
- Export your contacts, accounts and lists from Apollo.io to CSV.
- Import them with the MagpieCRM import wizard, and map each column to a field.
- Connect your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailbox, so sequences send from your own address.
- Rebuild your sequences with email, call and task steps. Replies stop a sequence by themselves.
- Cancel the Apollo.io seats you no longer need at your next renewal.
Run your own numbers with the pricing estimator.