Apollo.io vs Pipedrive
Both are sales & crm tools. Here is what separates them.
What Apollo.io is
Apollo.io is a business-to-business sales platform that combines a contact database with the tools used to reach those contacts. Prospect records and outbound email sit in the same product, so a list built inside Apollo can be worked without exporting it to a separate sending tool first. The platform covers lead generation and sales enablement. Email automation runs prospecting sequences, and contacts are engaged from one place rather than from a spreadsheet plus a separate mailbox. A Chrome extension brings the same records into the browser while working elsewhere. Website visitor identification names the companies behind site visits, at up to 100 companies a month. Apollo integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft, Marketo and Sendgrid, and with more than 800 apps in total for automation. An API is available for data enrichment and other features, so records held elsewhere can be enriched without anyone opening the Apollo interface. The integration list is the main route for keeping Apollo and a CRM in step, since both hold records about the same companies and people. Paid access is sized in credits, granted per seat. The free plan includes 900 credits per seat per year, released monthly. Basic costs $49 per seat per month billed annually and includes 30,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront rather than in monthly instalments. Professional costs $79 per seat per month billed annually with 48,000 credits per seat per year, also granted upfront. Organization costs $119 per seat per month billed annually and requires a minimum of three seats. The practical difference between the tiers is therefore both how many credits arrive and how quickly they become available. Apollo.io was founded in 2015 and reports use by more than 500,000 companies. The product is closed source and runs as a hosted service. Because the database and the sending tools share one subscription, the same seat that finds a contact is the seat that emails them, and credit allowances rather than separate licences set the ceiling on how much prospecting a team can do.
What Pipedrive is
Pipedrive is a sales CRM built around a visual pipeline: deals sit as cards in stages, and the day's work is moving them along. It is aimed at small and medium-sized companies, and it pioneered the use of a kanban pipeline in customer relationship management. Leads, deals, contacts and calendar events live in one record set. A real-time sales feed shows follow-ups as they happen. Quotes and proposals are sent and tracked inside the platform rather than in a separate document tool, and email sync tracks opens and clicks in real time. Automation covers lead capture and routing, so enquiries reach the right person without anyone rekeying them, and email and follow-up automation is available from the Growth plan upwards. Scoring models can be built to match a particular sales process rather than a generic template. Required fields and automation are the levers for keeping data usable, and a sandbox account is available for testing setups and workflow changes before they touch live records. Pricing is per seat, billed annually: Lite at US$14, Growth at US$39, Premium at US$59 and Ultimate at US$79 per seat per month. A 14-day trial runs without a credit card. Phone support is available Monday to Friday, 7:00 am to 11:00 pm CET or CEST, which is worth checking against your own working hours. More than 100,000 companies use Pipedrive, and roughly 100 million deals are created in it each year. The marketplace holds over 500 integrations, and there is an API for anything built in-house. The product launched in 2010, is not open source and cannot be self-hosted. Third-party listings describe it as designed from the salesperson's point of view, which matches where the product puts its weight: the pipeline, the follow-up and the deal record. That cuts both ways. A team that wants marketing automation and service ticketing sitting in the same tool will find the scope here narrower than an all-in-one platform, and a team that wants a CRM their salespeople will actually update usually finds the opposite.
We are not affiliated with either product. Upvote counts come from the published formula and neither position was paid for.