{
    "title": "Apollo.io Alternatives 2027: 13 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/apollo-io/",
    "summary": "The best Apollo.io alternatives in 2027 are ZoomInfo (best overall), Hunter (best free plan: 50 credits a month) and OpenOutreach (best open source, GPL-3.0). Apollo.io itself starts at $49/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 10 more are compared below, including 4 with a free plan and 3 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Apollo.io",
        "starting_price": "$49/mo",
        "free_plan": "Gmail connections only; pooled credits",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
        "pricing_url": "https://www.apollo.io/pricing"
    },
    "task": "B2B lead database / prospecting",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-13",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-13",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "ZoomInfo",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Sold by quote only; no public price on zoominfo.com.",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Enterprise sales, marketing and talent data",
            "difference": "Sells separate Sales, Marketing and Talent packages by quote only, with ABM Enterprise listing 150K included credits; the page publishes no dollar prices and shows no free plan.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.zoominfo.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.zoominfo.com",
            "zekai_score": 8.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/zoominfo/"
        },
        {
            "name": "UpLead",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$99/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Pay-by-credit contact data with a short trial",
            "difference": "Plans are fixed credit packs, 170 a month on Essentials and 400 on Plus, with extra credits at $0.60 and $0.50; the trial gives 5 credits over 7 days.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.uplead.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.uplead.com",
            "zekai_score": 8.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/uplead/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Lusha",
            "type": "Free",
            "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published",
            "free_plan_limit": "40 credits a month",
            "best_for": "Browser-extension contact lookups",
            "difference": "Free plan gives 40 credits a month, spending 1 per verified email and 5 per phone number; on monthly plans unused credits roll over up to twice the plan limit.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.lusha.com/pricing/",
            "website": "https://www.lusha.com",
            "zekai_score": 6.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/lusha/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Cognism",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Not checked",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Seat-based data with intent and mobile verification",
            "difference": "Sells Standard and Pro plans with 5 seats each by quote, where 1 credit reveals one contact; Pro adds intent data and on-demand mobile verification.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.cognism.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.cognism.com",
            "zekai_score": 8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/cognism/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Seamless.ai",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "Not checked",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Real-time contact search with a free trial",
            "difference": "Offers a free trial and one paid tier, Seamless Pro, per its pricing page description; plan details load only in the browser, so limits are not readable here.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.seamless.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://seamless.ai",
            "zekai_score": 6.4,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/seamless-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "LeadIQ",
            "type": "Free",
            "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published",
            "free_plan_limit": "1 user, 50 credits",
            "best_for": "Prospecting capture feeding your CRM",
            "difference": "Free plan is limited to 1 user and 50 credits; Pro is bought through a credit selector with a 25% annual discount and Enterprise lists up to 5 users.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.leadiq.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.leadiq.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/leadiq/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Hunter",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$34/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "50 credits, 1 email account a month",
            "best_for": "Email finder and verifier on a free plan",
            "difference": "Free plan gives 50 credits a month, 1 connected email account and 500 recipients per sequence; Starter raises credits to 2,000 a month.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://hunter.io/pricing",
            "website": "https://hunter.io",
            "zekai_score": 7.7,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/hunter-io/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Clay",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$185/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "100 data credits, 500 actions a month",
            "best_for": "Waterfall enrichment across many data providers",
            "difference": "Runs lookups through multiple data providers in sequence and lets you bring your own API keys; the free plan caps tables at 200 rows and has no phone enrichment.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.clay.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.clay.com",
            "zekai_score": 9.1,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/clay/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Snov.io",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$39/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "50 credits, 100 recipients a month",
            "best_for": "Email finder with outreach on a free tier",
            "difference": "Starter gives 1,000 credits and 5,000 recipients a month; the renewing Trial plan gives 50 credits and lacks bulk search, export and API access.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://snov.io/pricing",
            "website": "https://snov.io",
            "zekai_score": 7.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/snov-io/"
        },
        {
            "name": "OpenOutreach",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "GPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted lead discovery from a product description",
            "difference": "Builds a list from your product description and has an LLM judge each candidate against your ideal customer profile with written reasons; it holds no database and relies on BetterContact for lookups.",
            "website": "https://github.com/eracle/OpenOutreach",
            "repository": "https://github.com/eracle/OpenOutreach",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openoutreach/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; GPL-3.0 means sharing source if you distribute a modified version.",
            "runs_on": "Any machine that runs Python with uv; a Docker image exists for servers.",
            "setup": "moderate: Needs an LLM key, a BetterContact key and a mailbox app password.",
            "github_stars": 3685,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-13",
            "zekai_score": 7.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/openoutreach/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Prospex (business-leads-ai-automation)",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Local business leads scraped from Google Maps",
            "difference": "Scrapes Google Maps for local businesses, scores leads with an LLM and drafts outreach for email, WhatsApp, Instagram and LinkedIn, so it suits local-business lists rather than B2B job titles.",
            "website": "https://github.com/asiifdev/business-leads-ai-automation",
            "repository": "https://github.com/asiifdev/business-leads-ai-automation",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/business-leads-ai-automation/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.",
            "runs_on": "Docker host for PostgreSQL 16 and Redis 7; an OpenAI-compatible LLM.",
            "setup": "moderate: Docker Compose for the databases, Node.js 20 and pnpm 9 to develop.",
            "github_stars": 244,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-05",
            "zekai_score": 6.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/business-leads-ai-automation/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Sellbird (formerly Harvey)",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "AGPL-3.0",
            "best_for": "Agent that finds, verifies and emails prospects",
            "difference": "Finds local businesses free on OpenStreetMap, reads each company's own website for buying signals, verifies one email per contact and only sends to deliverable addresses after your approval.",
            "website": "https://sellbird.ai",
            "repository": "https://github.com/ethanplusai/sellbird",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/harvey/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes; AGPL-3.0 means sharing changes if you run it as a service.",
            "runs_on": "Your own computer with Python 3.11 or newer; no GPU needed.",
            "setup": "moderate: Python install, a signed-in Claude or Codex CLI, and a sending mailbox.",
            "github_stars": 5373,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-10",
            "last_release": "2026-11-06",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/harvey/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Google Maps Scraper",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Free Google Maps business data and emails",
            "difference": "Extracts name, address, phone, website, rating, reviews and emails for Google Maps places into CSV or JSON through a CLI, web UI or REST API; it is a scraper, not a contact database.",
            "website": "https://github.com/gosom/google-maps-scraper",
            "repository": "https://github.com/gosom/google-maps-scraper",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/google-maps-scraper/",
            "commercial_use": "Yes (MIT).",
            "runs_on": "Docker or a prebuilt binary on Windows, macOS or Linux.",
            "setup": "easy: One docker run command, or download the binary and run it.",
            "github_stars": 8014,
            "stars_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "last_commit": "2026-11-08",
            "last_release": "2026-11-08",
            "zekai_score": 8.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/google-maps-scraper/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Apollo.io in 2027?",
            "a": "ZoomInfo is the best overall Apollo.io alternative on this page (Sold by quote only; no public price on zoominfo.com.). For no cost, Hunter has a free plan (50 credits, 1 email account a month). To self-host, OpenOutreach is open source (GPL-3.0)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Apollo.io?",
            "a": "Yes. Apollo.io has a free plan: Gmail connections only; pooled credits. Paid plans start at $49/mo, checked on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Apollo.io?",
            "a": "Yes. OpenOutreach, Prospex (business-leads-ai-automation), Sellbird (formerly Harvey), Google Maps Scraper are open source and free to self-host. Lusha, LeadIQ, Hunter, Clay, Snov.io have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Apollo.io?",
            "a": "Snov.io starts at $39/mo, against $49/mo for Apollo.io, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Apollo.io alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 13 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Hunter $170/mo, Snov.io $195/mo, UpLead $495/mo, against Apollo.io $245/mo for Apollo.io. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, ZoomInfo or Apollo.io?",
            "a": "Sells separate Sales, Marketing and Talent packages by quote only, with ABM Enterprise listing 150K included credits; the page publishes no dollar prices and shows no free plan. Choose ZoomInfo if you need enterprise-scale intent and ABM data across sales and marketing and will buy by quote. Stay with Apollo.io if you want published self-serve prices and a free plan to start."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Apollo.io?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Apollo's pricing FAQ says credits are pooled across the team, granted at the start of each billing cycle and expire unused, including purchased add-on credits (11 Nov 2026); Apollo's plans carry record selection limits: without one you can export up to 10,000 leads in one click, while lower plans require smaller batches (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is better than Apollo.io?",
            "a": "ZoomInfo and Cognism go further on enterprise and mobile-verified data but are sold by quote. Hunter and Snov.io are simpler for email finding, and Clay suits chained enrichment. Apollo.io stays ahead when you want a database and sequences in one subscription."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/apollo-io/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}