AiSDR vs Apollo.io
By Frederik S. Christiansen · Updated 2026-07-05
AiSDR: AI SDR agent that finds prospects from buying signals, runs personalized email and LinkedIn outreach, and books meetings; plans from $250/month.
Apollo.io: Sales platform pairing a vendor-claimed 230M+ contact B2B database with email sequencing, dialing, and enrichment; self-serve plans from $49 per user/month.
Apollo.io is a self-serve, per-user database-plus-engagement platform with a free plan: you search its large B2B contact database and run sequences yourself, whereas AiSDR is a flat-fee autonomous agent (unlimited seats on mid/top tiers) with no free tier and quarterly contracts above $250/month.
AiSDR replaces the SDR workflow with an AI agent and prices by volume ($250/month Solo for 200 contacts with 1 user, up to $2,500/month Scale for 2,500 contacts with unlimited users), a fundamentally different model from Apollo's per-seat toolkit that human reps still operate day to day.
Verified differences
| Difference | AiSDR | Apollo.io |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | subscription | freemium |
| Starting price | from $250/mo | from $49/mo |
| Free trial | No | Yes |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Platforms | web | web, chrome-extension, api, android |
| Integrations (exclusive) | Aircall, Outlook, LinkedIn | Pipedrive, Outreach, Salesloft, SendGrid |
| Support | email, chat, dedicated-csm | email, chat |
| Focus | AI SDR agent | Sales database & engagement |
| Founded | 2023 | 2015 |
| Distinct focus | Signal-based prospecting and list building · AI-personalized email and LinkedIn outreach · AI Strategist campaign planning (Ami) | B2B contact and account database · Email sequences and multichannel outreach · Chrome extension for in-context prospecting |
| Built for | Small B2B teams and startups that want outbound running without hiring SDR headcount; Teams standardized on HubSpot that want CRM-synced, signal-triggered outreach | SMB and mid-market sales teams that want a contact database and outreach tooling in one per-seat subscription instead of separate data and sequencing vendors; Founders and early sales hires starting outbound on a small budget, using the free tier or Basic plan before committing |
Head-to-head notes
The core difference is who does the work. Apollo.io is a database-first platform: you pay per user, search its B2B contact database, build lists with filters, and run email sequences and dialer tasks yourself (with AI assists for writing). AiSDR inverts this — you define an ICP in plain English, and the agent researches contacts, writes personalized email and LinkedIn messages, answers replies within minutes, and books meetings, with humans optionally approving messages in co-pilot mode. Apollo gives more control (custom sequences, A/B testing, a native dialer); AiSDR gives fewer knobs but less operational load.
Commercially they are opposites too. Apollo has a free plan and cheap per-seat entry, so a rep can validate data quality before any spend; costs then scale with team size. AiSDR has no free trial, starts at $250/month for a single user (month-to-month), and jumps to $900/month on a quarterly contract for teams — but that price includes unlimited users, provisioned domains and mailboxes with warm-up, and LinkedIn seats. Salesforce-centric teams should note AiSDR gates two-way Salesforce sync behind its $2,500/month Scale tier, while Apollo supports Salesforce on much cheaper plans.
Apollo and AiSDR represent two theories of outbound automation. Apollo is tooling for humans: reps build lists from the database, write or AI-assist sequences, and work tasks and calls themselves, paying per seat. AiSDR sells the outcome of that workflow — an AI agent researches prospects, writes and sends email and LinkedIn outreach, and handles replies — priced by volume ($250/month Solo for 200 AI-researched contacts limited to 1 user, up to $2,500/month Scale for 2,500 contacts with unlimited users).
Apollo offers far more control and inspectability — every sequence, filter, and send is user-configured — plus a database and CRM enrichment AiSDR doesn't replicate at that depth. Teams that lack SDR headcount entirely lean toward the agent model; teams with reps who need better data and infrastructure lean toward Apollo. Apollo requires no commitment to test (free tier, 14-day trial), while AiSDR bills quarterly by default on its Explore and Scale tiers.
Pricing compared
AiSDR
- 200 AI-researched contacts/month, 1 user
- 1 domain, 3 mailboxes, 1 LinkedIn account with turnkey setup and warm-up
- Email (Gmail/Outlook) plus LinkedIn connection requests, DMs, and InMail
- Native two-way HubSpot CRM sync
Month-to-month, cancel anytime
- 800 AI-researched contacts/month, unlimited users
- 2 domains, 6 mailboxes, 5 LinkedIn accounts
- LinkedIn signals: post engagement, profile visits, keyword tracking
- Dedicated GTM engineer onboarding, 24/7 Slack support
Quarterly contract, payment in advance
- 2,500 AI-researched contacts/month, unlimited users
- 6 domains, 18 mailboxes, 20 LinkedIn accounts
- Native two-way Salesforce CRM sync plus HubSpot
- Website visitor tracking, enrichment, and outreach
- Priority support with bi-weekly performance reviews
Quarterly contract, payment in advance
Pricing verified 2026-07-05 — source: vendor pricing page. Always confirm at checkout.
Apollo.io
- 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly
- AI Assistant limited to 5 chats (10 messages each) and AI Research
- 2 sequences per team; 250 email sends per day; Gmail-only mailbox connection
Phone-number access is time-limited and seats may be limited after the initial period, per Apollo's pricing FAQ.
- 30,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront
- Unlimited sequences; deliverability suite and email warmup
- CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive); US dialer with credit usage
- Still capped at 250 email sends per day and 1 mailbox per user
- 48,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront; 14-day free trial available
- Unlimited daily email sends; unlimited Google/Microsoft mailboxes plus SMTP mailboxes per user
- Unlimited sequences with A/Z testing
- Call recordings and AI insights up to 4,000 minutes
Marked 'Most popular' on Apollo's pricing page.
- 72,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront; minimum 3 seats
- Single sign-on (SSO), advanced security configurations, bring-your-own LLM API key
- Call recordings and AI insights up to 8,000 minutes
3-seat minimum makes the effective entry price $357/month billed annually.
Free plan available. Free trial (14 days).Pricing verified 2026-07-05 — source: vendor pricing page. Always confirm at checkout.
Which one fits your team?
Choose AiSDR if…
- Small B2B teams and startups that want outbound running without hiring SDR headcount
- Teams standardized on HubSpot that want CRM-synced, signal-triggered outreach
- Founders or lean sales teams who don't want to assemble domains, mailboxes, and warm-up tooling themselves
- Companies that want a managed or semi-managed outbound motion with hands-on onboarding
Choose Apollo.io if…
- SMB and mid-market sales teams that want a contact database and outreach tooling in one per-seat subscription instead of separate data and sequencing vendors
- Founders and early sales hires starting outbound on a small budget, using the free tier or Basic plan before committing
- RevOps teams on Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive that need CRM enrichment and job-change tracking alongside prospecting
- Teams that value published, self-serve pricing and want to trial the product for 14 days without talking to sales
Full reviews: AiSDR · Apollo.io · AiSDR alternatives · Apollo.io alternatives · all ai sales & outreach tools