Prospecting data
Apollo vs Clay
Apollo is one database you search and export from; Clay is a spreadsheet that calls many databases in turn until it finds an answer. If you want lists fast and cheap, Apollo. If your list depends on a signal that no single database stores, Clay.
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- Public pricing only
- Updated by hand
People compare these two because both end with a CSV of prospects, but the workflow is completely different. Apollo answers 'who matches this filter'. Clay answers 'take these companies and go and find out X about each one'.
Cost follows the same split. Apollo is priced per seat with credit allowances; Clay is priced on credits you burn per enrichment, which gets expensive quickly if you run every row through every provider.
Side by side
Apollo and Clay in short.
Apollo
A large B2B contact database with filters, a Chrome extension and built-in sequencing.
- Free
- Free plan with limited monthly credits and basic sequencing.
- Paid from
- Paid plans from roughly $49 per user per month billed annually
Good at
- Search, buy and sequence in one product, which suits a first outbound motion
- Chrome extension pulls contacts while you browse LinkedIn
- Cheap per contact compared with buying enrichment credits
Weak at
- Data quality varies by region — European mobile numbers and small-company emails are patchy
- Everyone else is emailing the same records
Clay
A table-based enrichment tool that runs waterfall lookups across many data providers and AI research steps.
- Free
- Free plan with a small monthly credit allowance.
- Paid from
- Paid plans start around $149/month; credits drive the real cost
Good at
- Waterfall enrichment: if provider one has no email, it tries the next, so hit rates beat any single vendor
- Can run AI research prompts per row — job ads, tech stack, recent news — that no database sells as a filter
- Integrates outward into Instantly, Smartlead, HubSpot and webhooks
Weak at
- Genuinely a learning curve; the first useful table takes hours, not minutes
- Credit spend is easy to lose control of on large lists
The differences
Where they actually diverge.
Pick one
Which one fits you.
Choose Apollo if
- You need a list of 1,000 job-title matches this afternoon
- You want one subscription covering data and sending
- Nobody on the team wants to learn a new tool
Choose Clay if
- Your best prospects are defined by a signal — hiring, funding, a specific tool on their site
- You already send through Instantly, Smartlead or HubSpot
- You'd trade setup time for a much better hit rate
When neither is the answer
For local or consumer businesses, neither helps much. Google Maps scrapes and manual research beat B2B databases outside software and services.
Questions
Common questions.
Do people use Apollo inside Clay?
Yes, that's a common setup. Clay can call Apollo as one of the providers in a waterfall, so you keep Apollo's coverage and add fallbacks when it comes back empty.
Which is cheaper?
Apollo, almost always, on a per-contact basis. Clay costs more per row and earns it back only when the extra research changes what you say in the email.
Prices are list prices published by each vendor and change often — check the linked pricing pages before you buy. We take no affiliate commission and nobody pays to appear here.
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