Apollo.io vs Attio
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Editorial assessmentAttio compared with Apollo.io
Apollo leads with its contact database and outbound engagement engine, with a lightweight CRM attached; Attio leads with the CRM and system of record, with sequences attached. Teams whose bottleneck is finding and emailing new prospects at volume get more from Apollo, while teams whose bottleneck is managing and automating what happens after contact get more from Attio, and plenty of stacks run Apollo for sourcing into Attio as the system of record.
Choose Apollo.io if
Startups and SMB sales teams that want the largest self-serve contact database and outreach execution in one affordable product.
Choose Attio if
Startups and scale-ups (SaaS, VC, and other data-heavy B2B teams) that want a fast, flexible CRM with genuine automation and AI depth, have outgrown spreadsheet-plus-Notion setups, and would rather configure a modern data model than inherit Salesforce's.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Apollo.io | Attio |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Data | CRM |
| Starting price | Free plan; paid from $49/user/mo (free plan available) | $29/user/mo (Plus, billed annually; $36 monthly) (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Freemium with per-user monthly tiers; credits meter email reveals (generous) and phone/export credits (tighter). Self-serve through Organization tier; custom above. | Per-seat subscription across four tiers (Free, Plus, Pro, Enterprise) with roughly 20% off on annual billing, plus a separate workspace-credit meter for AI and enrichment usage; extra credit packs are sold monthly. |
| Free plan | Free forever: limited credits, 2 sequences, basic filters. | Free tier for up to 3 seats: 3 objects, 50,000 records, 200 emails/month, 3 reports, 50 GB storage, real-time sync and enrichment included. |
| Free trial | 14 days (of paid features) | Trial available on paid tiers; no credit card required to start |
| Best for | Startups and SMB sales teams that want the largest self-serve contact database and outreach execution in one affordable product. | Startups and scale-ups (SaaS, VC, and other data-heavy B2B teams) that want a fast, flexible CRM with genuine automation and AI depth, have outgrown spreadsheet-plus-Notion setups, and would rather configure a modern data model than inherit Salesforce's. |
| Setup time | Minutes to first list on free tier; a week to wire CRM enrichment rules and team sequences properly. | A working CRM within a day: connecting mailboxes auto-builds people and companies, and importing a CSV fills the gaps. Designing custom objects, workflows, and agents for a full revenue process is more like 1 to 3 weeks of iterative configuration. |
| Learning curve | Low for prospecting; moderate for admin surface (credit policies, enrichment rules, plays). | Low for reps (records and lists behave like a modern SaaS app), moderate for the admin designing the data model and automations; the flexibility that experts love is exactly what makes the first week feel open-ended. |
| Platforms | Web app, Chrome extension, iOS app, REST API | Web app, iOS and Android apps, REST API, App SDK, MCP server |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR program, CCPA | GDPR (UK/EU-headquartered operations), Public Trust Center at trust.attio.com; detailed certification reports are gated behind the portal rather than published openly |
| Founded | 2015 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, US | London, United Kingdom |
| Ownership | Venture-backed (private) | Venture-backed |
Strengths and limitations
Apollo.io
Strengths
- Unmatched self-serve coverage-per-dollar; the price floor of the entire category.
- Data + engagement in one product removes the export/import loop entirely.
- Free tier and transparent pricing make evaluation frictionless.
- Enrichment/dedupe layer quietly excellent for CRM hygiene.
Limitations
- Direct-dial accuracy trails phone specialists (Lusha, Cognism) in many segments.
- Engagement layer lacks enterprise governance, CI depth, and forecasting.
- Credit mechanics (phone/export) complicate the headline pricing.
- EU data compliance posture is workable but not the selling point Cognism makes it.
Attio
Strengths
- Best-in-class data model flexibility: custom objects, typed attributes, and multiplayer lists make it fit non-standard motions (PLG, VC, partnerships) that template CRMs mangle.
- Self-populating records from real-time email and calendar sync remove most of the data-entry tax that kills CRM adoption.
- The AI layer is integrated, not bolted on: agents, AI workflow steps, and Call Intelligence all operate on the same context layer and automation engine.
- Developer platform (API, SDK, webhooks, MCP) is unusually deep for a company this size, which shows in the reported 400M weekly API calls.
Limitations
- No native calling or SMS; inside sales teams built around the phone need a separate dialer or a different CRM entirely.
- Workspace credits make real costs opaque: the AI features in the marketing all draw from a metered pool that is easy to burn through and priced in add-on packs.
- Flexibility is a tax on setup: without an opinionated default process, someone on the team has to design objects, lists, and workflows, and small teams without an ops-minded person can stall.
- The agentic repositioning is young; buyers should separate the proven core (data model, sync, workflows) from newer agent claims and pilot the latter before depending on them.
Pricing compared
Apollo.io
Freemium with per-user monthly tiers; credits meter email reveals (generous) and phone/export credits (tighter). Self-serve through Organization tier; custom above.
- Free$0
- Basic$49
- Professional$79
- Organization$119
Nothing matches Apollo's coverage-per-dollar; it reset the category's price floor and forced legacy vendors into defensive bundling. The honest caveats: dial accuracy trails specialists, and heavy exporters discover credits are the true price. As a first data stack or a waterfall's volume layer, it remains the obvious call.
Attio
Per-seat subscription across four tiers (Free, Plus, Pro, Enterprise) with roughly 20% off on annual billing, plus a separate workspace-credit meter for AI and enrichment usage; extra credit packs are sold monthly.
- Free$0
- Plus$29
- Pro$69
- EnterpriseCustom
Per seat, Attio undercuts Salesforce Sales Cloud and sits close to HubSpot's mid tiers while shipping a more modern product than either, and the Free tier is genuinely usable rather than a demo. The honest total cost, though, is seats plus credits: a Pro workspace leaning on agents, enrichment, and AI workflow steps can add $120 to $410 a month in credit packs on top of per-user fees. For teams that mostly want the fast data model and light automation, Plus is excellent value; for teams buying the agentic pitch, model the credit burn before comparing prices with flat-fee rivals.
Editorial verdict on each
Apollo.io
Category LeaderApollo is the gravitational center of self-serve B2B data: coverage that reset the market's price floor, fused to an engagement layer that genuinely eliminates the export loop for SMBs. Its honest weaknesses, dial accuracy, credit fine print, mid-depth engagement, haven't slowed the flywheel because nothing else offers this much stack per dollar. Start here; add specialists only where measurement says Apollo falls short.
Read the full Apollo.io profileAttio
MomentumAttio is the strongest general-purpose CRM built this decade: the data model, real-time sync, and automation engine solve the problems that make teams hate legacy CRMs, and the developer platform is genuinely serious. The 2025-2026 agentic pivot is more promising than proven, and it comes with a credit meter that quietly reshapes the economics for AI-heavy users, so buy Attio first for the core platform and treat the agents as upside you pilot, not the reason you sign. Phone-first teams and marketing-led orgs should look elsewhere; nearly everyone else evaluating a modern CRM should have Attio on the shortlist.
Read the full Attio profileApollo.io profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Attio last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.