Clay vs Apollo: the honest comparison
The short answer
Edition v2026.Q3 · pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.
Choose Clay for founders and GTM engineers who want one spreadsheet-like canvas that waterfalls dozens of data providers, runs AI research agents on every row, and pushes the result anywhere. Choose Apollo for lean teams that want database, enrichment, and outreach in a single tool — the canon 'data + outreach in one' pick, with the most generous free tier in the category.
On the elems table, Clay holds seat #1 of the Enrichment element and Apollo holds #2 — this is the closest call in the category, and the honest answer depends on which trade-off you can live with.
The case for each
1ClayClay Labs
Free (100 credits/mo) · Launch from $167/mo · Growth from $446/mo · Enterprise custom, annualBest for Founders and GTM engineers who want one spreadsheet-like canvas that waterfalls dozens of data providers, runs AI research agents on every row, and pushes the result anywhere.
Watch The 'Clay tax' is real: you pay Clay credits on top of marked-up provider costs, and bills balloon quietly. It is a power tool — teams without a dedicated builder stall in table sprawl. Sequencer and CRM-sync ambitions are creeping into neighbors' territory (Sd, Cr).
2ApolloApollo.io
Free (unlimited email credits, fair-use) · Basic $49 · Professional $79 · Organization $119/user/mo (3-seat min)Best for Lean teams that want database, enrichment, and outreach in a single tool — the canon 'data + outreach in one' pick, with the most generous free tier in the category.
Watch Data quality is uneven outside US mid-market — mobiles trail Cognism in Europe. 'Unlimited' email credits are fair-use capped at 1M/year. Its AI-SDR ambitions blur focus, and there has been no priced round since the $1.6B Series D in 2023.
Clay vs Apollo: side by side
Edition v2026.Q3 · verified 2026-08-06.
| Clay | Apollo | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $167/mo | $49/user/mo |
| Own database | No — marketplace of providers | Yes — 250M contacts |
| Waterfall enrichment | Core feature | No (single source) |
| Mobile numbers | Via providers (credit-heavy) | Yes, credit-metered |
| Orchestration | Best-in-class (tables, signals, ads, sequencer) | Sequences + workflows built in |
| MCP / agent access | MCP for Reps + agent CLI | MCP in ChatGPT/Claude |
| Free tier | Yes, 100 credits/mo | Yes, generous |
What each side won't tell you
Clay: The 'Clay tax' is real: you pay Clay credits on top of marked-up provider costs, and bills balloon quietly. It is a power tool — teams without a dedicated builder stall in table sprawl. Sequencer and CRM-sync ambitions are creeping into neighbors' territory (Sd, Cr).
Apollo: Data quality is uneven outside US mid-market — mobiles trail Cognism in Europe. 'Unlimited' email credits are fair-use capped at 1M/year. Its AI-SDR ambitions blur focus, and there has been no priced round since the $1.6B Series D in 2023.
If it's neither
The rest of the top five: ZoomInfo (enterprise incumbent, going headless) · FullEnrich (waterfall contact hit-rates) · Ocean.io (lookalike account targeting). The complete field — 20 more tools including the graveyard — is on the element page.
This analysis is drawn from the Enrichment element dossier — the ranked top 5, the comparison matrix, and the complete field of 20 more tools live there, with every source. Data: en.json (CC BY 4.0).
Every claim above is dated and sourced from the elems dossiers — 1,421 tools tracked across 58 categories, verified 2026-08-06, including the 276 we found dead, renamed, acquired, or sunsetting. Rankings are editorial, never paid — the charter.
Build your stack in 5 questions →