Apollo.io vs Cognism
 Apollo.io |  Cognism | |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | ||
| Score | 26/100 | 22/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 | #5 |
| Rated comments | 30 | 20 |
| Best for | Budget-conscious teams prospecting into the US; Small teams that want data and sequencing in one tool; Building large lists that will be verified separately | Teams prospecting into the UK and Europe; Cold callers who need European mobile numbers; Mid-market teams leaving ZoomInfo's contract terms |
| Skip it if | Teams that need reliable direct dials for cold calling; Senders who cannot run a separate verification step; Prospecting outside the US or in niche verticals | US-only prospecting; Small teams that need transparent self-serve pricing |
| Pricing (vendor-stated) | Free plan with 900 credits per seat per year. Paid plans billed annually: Basic $49, Professional $79 and Organization $119 (minimum 3 seats) per seat per month; monthly billing costs more (the page says annual saves 24%). 14-day trial on Basic and Professional. Inbound and Advanced Dialer are paid add-ons. | Sales-led pricing; no public prices. Standard and Pro plans each include 5 seats, with a credit allocation per seat (1 credit per revealed contact; re-viewing is free); extra credits are bought separately. CRM Enrichment is sold standalone or as an add-on. No free plan; the page offers a demo and a free data sample rather than a trial. |
Independent users treat Apollo as the budget default: far cheaper than ZoomInfo, with data and sequencing bundled in one place, and good enough for US prospecting if you accept extra cleanup. The recurring complaint is data freshness: users describe stale records, people who left years ago, wrong or switchboard phone numbers and bounce rates that stay high even after Apollo's own verification, plus renewals and credit changes that raised costs. About 40% of the Reddit mentions read as promotional, including a large, coordinated cluster of near-identical comments pitching Prospeo as the Apollo replacement, so this rests on roughly 30 independent opinions.
Users like
- Costs a fraction of ZoomInfo, and users who weigh price against quality call the data good enough for the money[1][2][3][4][5]
- Several users who had both Apollo and ZoomInfo preferred Apollo overall[1][2][3]
- Database, sequencing and dialing live in one tool, which users find simple for early-stage or low-volume outbound[1][2][3]
- Works without major issues for some users, particularly when targeting the US[1][2][3]
Users complain about
- Stale records: users find people who left months or years ago (one found a contact who died 20 years earlier still listed), with bounce rates around 9% even after running lists through a verifier[1][2][3][4][5]
- Phone numbers are a weak spot: inactive, wrong-person or HQ switchboard numbers returned instead of no result, and one user reports half the numbers were unreliable[1][2][3][4]
- Costs have crept up: a long-time customer's renewal tripled after a credit system change, and others say enrichment is expensive for what it returns[1][2][3]
- Coverage thins outside the US and in some niches: it lost to ZoomInfo and Cognism in one team's US and EMEA test, and a health tech team found it missed many people after leaving ZoomInfo[1][2][3]
Independent users who have used Cognism consistently point to European and UK data, and mobile numbers in particular, as its strength, with some finding it easier to deal with than ZoomInfo. The trade-offs are opaque pricing that some say rises after the first deal, thinner coverage outside Europe, and a minority who found its data poor or no better than cheaper tools. Nearly half of the Reddit mentions were promotional, including a large coordinated cluster praising Cognism for EU data as part of pitches for Crustdata and FullEnrich, a copy-pasted Cognism endorsement posted by two accounts, and plugs for ContactOut, Wiza and others, so this rests on about 20 independent opinions.
Users like
- Users who run several providers single it out for UK and European data, where one team found it beat ZoomInfo's international data[1][2][3][4][5]
- Mobile numbers are a highlight: users rate them above ZoomInfo and other tools, and one says it will source and phone-verify a missing number on request[1][2][3]
- Easier to do business with than ZoomInfo: users cite better support, cheaper pricing and less painful sales and retention practices[1][2]
Users complain about
- Pricing is opaque and can rise after signing: no prices on the site, a drastic change at renewal, and a low base price paired with a low export threshold that pushes buyers into extra credits[1][2]
- Weaker outside Europe: one user found Apollo plus Lusha beat it on email coverage in North America and Europe, another says it is weak in the public sector, and one recruiter claimed in 2025 that it had pulled back from the US[1][2][3]
- A minority found the data poor, rating it trash or worse than a cheaper tool, and a Dutch team found Lusha's database larger and more accurate[1][2][3][4]
- More manual and less feature-rich than ZoomInfo, with some integration issues reported[1][2]