ZoomInfo vs Apollo.io
 ZoomInfo |  Apollo.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Sentiment | ||
| Score | 42/100 | 26/100 |
| Rank in category | #2 | #3 |
| Rated comments | 39 | 30 |
| Best for | Enterprise and US-focused prospecting; Teams that cold call mobile numbers at volume; Companies with budget for an annual contract | 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 |
| Skip it if | Small teams and early-stage startups on a budget; Teams that rely on intent data to source pipeline; Europe-first prospecting | 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 |
| Pricing (vendor-stated) | Sales-led pricing; no public prices. Sales plans (Professional, Copilot Advanced, Copilot Enterprise) and marketing plans are quoted based on features, number of licenses and credit usage, with payment terms negotiated. Free trial offered on sales plans; no free plan. | 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. |
Independent users mostly rank ZoomInfo as the most complete contact database, especially for US and enterprise prospecting and mobile numbers, and teams that moved over from cheaper tools such as Seamless report a clear difference. The trade-off is price, contract and cancellation terms that users find aggressive, and data that is still often wrong; several reps say emails, numbers and org charts miss badly and that its intent features rarely produce pipeline. Discussion is broad, with about 40 independent opinions; about a fifth of mentions were set aside as promotional, including comments from ZoomInfo staff, a Prospeo seeding cluster and an identical Cognism pitch posted by two accounts.
Users like
- Teams that moved from Seamless, Slintel or Apollo report noticeably more accurate and thorough data, and one team returned to ZoomInfo after trialing Seamless[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
- Strongest for US and enterprise accounts: users call it the best fit for Fortune 500 prospecting and say calling enterprises without it leaves you stuck[1][2][3]
- Mobile numbers are the main draw for callers; one rep gets a mobile about 75% of the time, while noting it is far from perfect[1][2][3][4]
- Integrations add value: CRM and call-recording tie-ins surface decision makers before calls, and reps connect it to Salesforce and AI assistants for account research[1][2]
Users complain about
- Expensive: users call it ridiculously or prohibitively priced, question the premium given its errors, advise negotiating hard, and say reps at some companies buy other tools because it is so enterprise-focused[1][2][3][4][5]
- Data is still often wrong: reps report bad emails, wrong phone numbers, off-base org charts, catch-all addresses and connect rates under 1% for one team[1][2][3][4][5][6]
- Intent and pickup-likelihood signals are seen as unreliable: users call intent smoke and mirrors and say a 'more likely to pick up' list was still mostly cold[1][2][3]
- Contract and sales practices draw complaints: sketchy legal language and a trigger-happy legal team at cancellation, plus persistent sales calls after prospects say no[1][2][3][4]
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]