The best Apollo alternatives depend on which job you replace. OXYGEN suits teams that want data from several providers and email and LinkedIn in one sequence: a timed series of messages. It adds a CRM, the shared record of contacts and deals, from $49 a month with no seat per user. ZoomInfo and Cognism suit phone-led teams, Lusha a free test, Hunter low-cost email finding, lemlist multichannel sequences and HubSpot Sales Hub a CRM.
By Tim Scheuer, Co-founder of Oxygen · Checked October 29, 2026
Apollo charges per seat, all seats share one plan, and Basic allows one mailbox per user and 250 email sends a day. In a sequence, only automatic emails send on their own: call and LinkedIn steps are tasks a rep completes. OXYGEN charges per workspace, your team's shared account, not per seat. Its inboxes cost $4 a month with warm-up, a slow rise in sends that builds trust. LinkedIn steps run in the same sequence as email.
| Tool | Where the data comes from | Mobile numbers | Channels in one sequence | CRM sync | How you pay | Free plan | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 OXYGENData, outreach and CRM in one workspace | No database of its own; waterfalls try one provider after another, or Apollo's database on your own key, the code that links your account | Phone waterfall across 13 providers; those on OXYGEN's credits charge only when they find a number | Email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp steps in one sequence; calls in beta | Built-in CRM with deals; two-way HubSpot sync; no Salesforce sync | One plan from $49 a month per workspace, monthly or yearly; no seat per user | Free workspace with 250 credits once; connecting a mailbox or LinkedIn account needs a paid plan | Free plan; paid from $49 a month per workspace |
 ZoomInfoContact and company data platform, by quote | Own database of 500M+ professional profiles | 120M+ direct dials (a person's own line) and 122M+ verified mobiles | Email and dialer sequences, which it calls cadences | Salesforce (two-way), HubSpot, Dynamics and more | By quote; the license terms say a contract is not cancellable | ZoomInfo Lite, a permanent free plan; 7-day trial | Sales packages by quote; GTM AI pay as you go from $20 |
 CognismContact data for phone-led sales | Own database of 400M+ contacts; Cognism says its data is best in Europe | 10M+ phone-verified contacts; verification on demand on Pro | A data layer: sends contacts to Outreach and Salesloft | Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and Dynamics | By quote; five seats per package; renews unless 60 days' notice | A free data sample on request; packages by quote | Standard and Pro by quote; five seats in each |
 LushaContact data with a free plan | Own database of 515M+ contacts; Data Waterfall on Pro and above | Direct dials and mobiles, each with its Do Not Call status | Email sequences with Lusha Engage | HubSpot and Salesforce on every plan, Free included | Credits per plan, monthly or yearly; Starter $49.90 a month | Yes: 40 credits a month, one seat, no card | Free: 40 credits a month; Starter $49.90 a month, or $37.45 billed yearly |
 HunterEmail finder and verifier with email sequences | Emails from public web sources; 150M professional addresses indexed | Phone numbers only for some contacts; results may be limited | Email sequences with up to 5 follow-ups; no LinkedIn | HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive and Zoho; leads sent from Hunter | Per account with unlimited team members; Starter $49 a month | Yes: 50 credits a month, unlimited team members, no card | Free: 50 credits a month; Starter $49 a month, or $34 billed yearly |
 lemlistMultichannel sequences with a lead database | Own leads database, 650M+ on its pricing page; email finder that checks several providers in turn | Phone finder across five databases; no charge when it finds no number | Email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp steps, plus call tasks | HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive, two-way, on every plan | Per user on Multichannel: $109 a month, or $87 billed yearly | 14-day trial with 200 credits and no card; no free sending after it | Email plan from $69 a month, or $55 billed yearly; Multichannel $109 a user a month, or $87 billed yearly |
 HubSpot Sales HubCRM with sequences, calling and deals | Your CRM records, filled in from a dataset of 200M+ profiles | Its prospecting agent sources contacts with phone numbers, on credits | Automated emails plus email, call and LinkedIn task reminders, from Professional | It is the CRM; Salesforce sync on Professional and Enterprise | Per seat; Professional $90 a month billed yearly, annual commitment | Free CRM for up to 2 users, with deals; 14-day trial | Free CRM; Professional $90 a seat a month billed yearly, or $100 monthly |
OXYGEN Data, outreach and CRM in one workspaceBest for: Teams that want data from several providers, email and LinkedIn in one sequence and a CRM, with no seat per user.
OXYGEN has no contact database of its own. It tries up to 17 email and 13 phone providers in turn, and not all of them run on OXYGEN's credits. Your own keys work from the $99 plan. Providers on OXYGEN's credits charge only for a found email or number; email checks bill even on a miss. One sequence runs email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp steps, and replies land in its CRM with a deals pipeline.
ZoomInfo Contact and company data platform, by quoteBest for: Larger sales teams that want deep contact data with direct dials and intent data, on a quoted contract.
ZoomInfo says it holds 500M+ professional profiles. Its sales packages are priced by quote, and each exported record costs one credit. ZoomInfo Sales runs sequences, which it calls cadences, with a direct phone dialer and an email tool.
Cognism Contact data for phone-led salesBest for: Calling teams that need phone-verified mobile numbers for buyers in Europe, and already run a CRM and a sequencer.
Cognism sells contact and company data in two quoted packages, Standard and Pro, each with five seats. It counts 400M+ verified business contacts, with deep European coverage. One credit reveals a contact, and the record stays usable through the contract unless the person changes jobs.
Lusha Contact data with a free planBest for: One rep or a small team that wants emails and mobile numbers on a free or monthly plan, kept apart from the sending tool.
Lusha holds 515M+ contacts and 29M+ companies, 132M+ of the contacts in the US. When it has no match, its Data Waterfall checks outside providers you turn on, charged only on a confirmed match. Lusha Engage sends email sequences from Gmail or Outlook.
Hunter Email finder and verifier with email sequencesBest for: Email-first teams that mostly need work emails found and verified, with simple email sequences and no charge per seat.
Hunter finds professional emails from public web sources and has indexed 150M of them, each run through a free check before Hunter returns it. One credit buys one email found, a verification costs half a credit, and an email Hunter cannot find is free. Its sequences send email with up to 5 follow-ups, and every plan includes unlimited team members.
lemlist Multichannel sequences with a lead databaseBest for: Teams that want email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and call steps in one sequence, with leads from the same tool, priced per user.
lemlist pairs its own leads database with sequences that mix email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp steps with call tasks. LinkedIn steps need the Multichannel plan and its Chrome extension. Its email finder checks several data providers in turn.
HubSpot Sales Hub CRM with sequences, calling and dealsBest for: Teams that want a full CRM with deals, sequences and calling in one place, priced per seat.
HubSpot Sales Hub is a CRM with deal pipelines, calling and, from Professional, sequences of automated emails and task reminders. It fills in missing contact details from a dataset of over 200 million profiles. Its prospecting agent finds contacts with emails and phone numbers, on HubSpot credits.
| If you need | Pick |
|---|---|
| Data from several providers, email and LinkedIn in one sequence, and a CRM | OXYGEN |
| A deep database with direct dials and intent data, on a quoted contract | ZoomInfo |
| Phone-verified mobile numbers for calling buyers in Europe | Cognism |
| A free test of emails and phone numbers, kept apart from your sequencer | Lusha |
| Low-cost email finding and checks for the whole team, with simple email sequences | Hunter |
| Email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and call steps in one sequence, with leads from the same tool | lemlist |
| A full CRM with deals, sequences and calling, priced per seat | HubSpot Sales Hub |
Keep the Apollo jobs no listed tool does better for you, and move the rest before your renewal date. Apollo's terms bar "using any API with LinkedIn automations", so this audit keeps Apollo data, by key or by export, out of automated LinkedIn steps. Connect your key elsewhere only for jobs with no such step. Check API access first: Apollo's pricing FAQ puts it on Custom plans, its plan chart on every plan.
The rule comes from a founder's framework, not a measured result. In August 2026, OXYGEN co-founder Tim Scheuer posted a 9-step framework for go-to-market (GTM) work: finding, reaching and winning buyers. Its data step says to bring your own data vendor subscriptions and let managed credits fill the gaps. In another post that month, he wrote that seat-based pricing is giving way to usage-based or flat fees.
The table audits a made-up team of four reps on Apollo Basic, billed monthly: $260 a month for 10,000 credits. Two reps call, and two run email and LinkedIn sequences. Volumes and decisions are illustrative; credit prices are Apollo's own. After the audit, the two callers keep their seats: $130 a month for 5,000 credits, enough for the 3,200 the kept jobs use.
The two sequence reps move to OXYGEN, with leads found there through providers other than Apollo. Plan credits pay for two LinkedIn accounts at $34 a month each, two mailboxes and about $0.085 per email found. That costs more than the two seats it replaces. So the move buys LinkedIn steps that run on their own and a CRM with no seat fee, not a smaller bill.
Write down each job, who does it and how often, as the table below does.
Apollo charges 1 credit for an email, 8 for a phone number and 1 per 30 seconds of a connected US call. Exporting saved contacts uses none. The Apollo pricing guide has the plan detail.
Count a tool for a job only when its own pages describe that job. For data, run the 100-contact switch test, or price the buying models with the data-buying worksheet.
Whichever tool finds an email, check it before a sequence sends to it. Bad emails hurt deliverability: how much of your mail reaches the inbox. In OXYGEN's public GTM Architecture Kit, only emails a verifier marked valid reach the sequence.
Apollo's renewal date stays the day you first paid. Its pricing FAQ says a seat cut lowers the price only from the next term. Its terms say seats may not be decreased during a term. They also say a term renews unless you give written notice at least 30 days before it ends. Keep a seat for each person who searches or reveals Apollo data: its terms bar seat-sharing.
| Apollo job | Team, a month | Apollo credits | Listed tools that also do it | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search for people Illustrative | 4 reps build lists | 0 to search | ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, lemlist, HubSpot, OXYGEN | Keep for the 2 callers |
| Work emails Illustrative | 2,000 revealed | 2,000, at 1 each | ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, Hunter, lemlist, HubSpot, OXYGEN | Keep 1,000 for the callers; move 1,000 |
| Mobile numbers Illustrative | 200 revealed | 1,600, at 8 each | ZoomInfo, Cognism, Lusha, lemlist, HubSpot, OXYGEN | Keep, then test a phone tool |
| Exports Illustrative | 1,000 saved contacts, once | 0 for saved contacts | OXYGEN, into a table or its CRM | Export for the CRM and email steps only |
| Email sequences Illustrative | 4 mailboxes, 1 per rep | Included | OXYGEN, ZoomInfo, lemlist, Hunter, Lusha, HubSpot | Move 2, with leads from another source |
| LinkedIn steps Illustrative | 600 tasks done by hand | Included | OXYGEN in the cloud; lemlist with its extension; HubSpot as reminders | Move, with leads from another source |
| Calls Illustrative | 300 connected calls of 1 minute | 600, at 1 per 30 seconds | ZoomInfo, HubSpot, lemlist; OXYGEN in beta | Keep for the 2 callers |
| Deals Illustrative | 1 pipeline | Included | OXYGEN, HubSpot | Move to OXYGEN's CRM, from the export |
It depends on which Apollo job you want to replace. For several data providers, email and LinkedIn in one sequence and a CRM on one plan, try OXYGEN. It starts at $49 a month per workspace. For phone-verified mobiles, test Cognism; for a free data test, Lusha; for email finding, Hunter. Keep Apollo for jobs it does well for you, such as its US dialer. The OXYGEN vs Apollo comparison goes row by row.
For some jobs, yes. Apollo's Basic plan costs $49 a seat a month billed yearly, or $65 monthly. Hunter charges per account, from $49 a month for the whole team. OXYGEN starts at $49 a month per workspace, with no seat per user. Its contact data costs more than Apollo's credits: about $0.085 per email found and $0.99 per phone number found.
It depends on your budget and how deep your data must go. ZoomInfo counts 120M+ direct dials and 122M+ verified mobiles, but its sales packages are priced by quote. Its license terms say a contract cannot be cancelled. Apollo publishes its prices and offers monthly billing. Read the ZoomInfo pricing guide and the ZoomInfo alternatives first.
No tool wins in every market: coverage changes by country, role and company size. Cognism has phone-verified 10M+ contacts by calling them, and says its data is best in Europe. ZoomInfo counts 122M+ verified mobiles. Test two tools on the same 100 contacts, and count wrong numbers apart from missing ones.
Apollo itself has a free plan with 75 credits a month. Lusha's free plan gives one seat 40 credits a month, Hunter's gives 50 with unlimited team members, and ZoomInfo Lite is a permanent free plan. OXYGEN's free workspace has 250 credits once, plus the CRM and tables; connecting a mailbox or LinkedIn account needs a paid plan.
Yes, for jobs whose contacts get no automated LinkedIn step. Export saved contacts, which uses no Apollo credits, into OXYGEN's tables or CRM. From the $99 plan, OXYGEN can also search Apollo's database on your own key, adding its own-key fee per successful call. Apollo's terms bar using its API with LinkedIn automations, so find LinkedIn leads through another source. Keep a seat for each person who searches or reveals Apollo data.
We have no survey, so here are the limits Apollo's own pages document. Every seat sits on the same plan, so one rep who needs Professional moves the whole team. Basic allows one mailbox per user and 250 email sends a day. In a sequence, call and LinkedIn steps are tasks a rep completes by hand.
ZoomInfo, Cognism and Lusha sell contact data from their own databases, and Hunter focuses on emails. On sequences, lemlist and HubSpot Sales Hub compete, and HubSpot on the CRM too. OXYGEN competes across those jobs without a database of its own: it runs email and phone waterfalls across many providers.
We make OXYGEN, so it comes first and you should read this as an interested list. We chose the other Apollo.io alternatives ourselves, and each entry says who it suits.
Facts and prices for every tool but OXYGEN come from its vendor's own pages, such as its website, pricing and docs. We checked them on the dates below. OXYGEN's facts and prices come from the product and its live price list.
Apollo.io and the other products named here are trademarks of their owners and are not affiliated with OXYGEN. Something out of date? Tell us.