Apollo.io vs Clay

A neutral comparison of Apollo.io and Clay — what each does, what they cost, and who each is for.

competitive-intel/competitors.csv (verified 2026-08-14)

Apollo.io vs Clay

Apollo.io: AI sales platform combining a large B2B contact database, engagement sequences, dialer and AI Assistant; free tier, used by 600K+ companies.

Clay: AI GTM data platform: unify first/third-party data, 200+ provider marketplace, enrichment, signals/intent, AI workflow builder for outbound.

At a glance

Apollo.io Clay
Category AI_LEAD_GENERATION AI_LEAD_GENERATION
Pricing Free plan; paid from ~$49/user/mo; custom enterprise From ~$54/mo (usage/credit-based; tiers to ~$446/mo)
Best for Founders, startups, SMBs and enterprise sales teams Growth, SDR and RevOps teams at startups through enterprises
Differentiator Free-tier data + engagement + AI in one stack; 600K+ companies and a replace-five-tools pitch. The go-to AI GTM data layer with best-in-class enrichment and a powerful agentic workflow builder.

What Apollo.io does

B2B database & search; enrichment; email/LinkedIn/call sequences; AI Assistant & AI research; Apollo MCP; workflow automation; Chrome extension; free plan

What Clay does

Audiences, 200+ data providers, signals and intent, AI agent workflows, enrichment, list building, outreach automation, Chrome extension.

How to choose

Choose Apollo.io if: Founders, startups, SMBs and enterprise sales teams.

Choose Clay if: Growth, SDR and RevOps teams at startups through enterprises.