Clay vs Apollo.io

by Gralio Feb 10, 2025

Clay and Apollo.io cater to different needs within sales organizations. Clay excels in data enrichment and personalized outreach, while Apollo.io offers a wider range of sales management tools and a larger contact database. Clay is best for teams prioritizing data quality and personalized messaging, while Apollo.io is better for teams seeking comprehensive sales management and prospecting capabilities.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 3177 reviews and 60 websites, saving 18 hours, 9 minutes of reading.

Clay

Website LinkedIn

Apollo.io

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Clay is a data enrichment and outreach tool that helps businesses improve sales outreach. It offers access to over 75 data providers, AI-powered research, and personalized messaging features, all within a user-friendly spreadsheet interface. Clay aims to streamline the lead generation process, improve data accuracy, and automate repetitive tasks, allowing sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals.

Apollo.io is a sales platform designed to help you find new customers and close deals faster. It provides access to a database of business contacts and companies, tools to manage sales outreach, and features like automated workflows and performance analytics. Apollo.io aims to be a central hub for sales teams to manage their entire sales process, from prospecting to closing.

Summary

Main difference

Clay is a spreadsheet-like interface tool that offers powerful data enrichment and outreach automation, ideal for sales teams prioritizing data quality and personalized messaging. Apollo.io provides a comprehensive sales platform with a vast database, lead routing, and workflow automation, best suited for teams needing robust prospecting and sales management capabilities.

Relative strengths of Clay (compared to Apollo.io)

Superior data enrichment with access to 75+ providers and AI-powered research.
User-friendly spreadsheet interface simplifies data manipulation and outreach.
Stronger focus on personalized messaging with AI-powered features like ChatGPT integration.

Relative weaknesses of Clay (compared to Apollo.io)

Limited sales management features compared to Apollo.io's broader platform.
Confusing credit system and potentially high costs for extensive usage.
Some integrations may require further refinement for seamless functionality.

Who is using Clay and Apollo.io?

Kyle Poyar

Co-Founder & Operating Partner | Growth Unhinged

Suprava Sabat

Co-Founder @AcquisitionX

Olesia Krilyshyn

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Co-Founder & Operating Partner | Growth Unhinged

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Aaron Reeves

Outbound OS Founder

Show all 10 stacks

Who should use Clay VS. Apollo.io

Clay is a powerful data enrichment and outreach tool ideal for sales teams in tech companies, especially software companies. Users praise Clay's intuitive spreadsheet interface, AI-powered research, and personalized messaging features. However, some users find the credit system confusing and expensive. With Clay, sales teams can streamline their workflow, improve data accuracy, and focus on closing deals.

Apollo.io is a sales platform that helps businesses find new customers and close deals faster. Users praise its comprehensive contact database and powerful search filters. However, some have noted data accuracy issues and a clunky interface. Apollo.io is ideal for sales teams seeking improved prospecting and outreach, especially those who value a large contact database and automation features.

Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, particularly in the tech industry, seeking enhanced sales outreach.
Best suited for software companies looking to streamline lead generation and improve data accuracy.

Ideal for small, medium, and enterprise businesses.
Strong fit for various industries, including Healthcare, Finance, E-commerce, Retail, Manufacturing, Education, Real Estate, Hospitality, Transportation, Media, Software, Marketing, and Professional Services.

Clay and Apollo.io features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Contact and Company Data

Supported

Clay provides enriched contact and company data for go-to-market strategies, especially in sales.

Supported

Apollo.io provides access to contact and company data.
AI-powered data research

Supported

Clay offers AI-powered research by combining premium data access with AI agents.

Not supported

Apollo.io uses AI for lead generation and sales engagement, not research.
Flexible workflow builder

Supported

Clay supports workflow automation for tasks like enrichment, research, and outreach.

Supported

Apollo.io supports flexible workflow building for enrichment, research, and outreach.
Email enrichment

Supported

Clay supports email enrichment by gathering email addresses from multiple sources, validating their accuracy, and integrating this data into various sales and marketing tools.

Supported

Apollo.io allows enriching data with verified email addresses from a large database and validates their accuracy using integrations with various tools. It also supports automated enrichment and integrates with CRMs for data freshness.
Lead routing

Not supported

Clay does not seem to have built-in automatic lead routing based on criteria like company size, industry, geography, or product interest. While it excels in lead generation, enrichment, and outreach automation, it doesn\'t explicitly mention lead routing in the provided sources.

Supported

Apollo.io allows for automatic lead routing based on various criteria like company size, industry, territory, etc. It integrates with CRMs to assign reps based on ownership and can prioritize leads based on specific criteria using its inbound router.
Account management

Partially supported

Clay supports key aspects of account management through data enrichment, AI-driven insights, and integration with CRM systems, but may not be a full-fledged account management system.

Supported

Apollo.io allows managing accounts and related contacts, deals, and activities through features such as account and contact search, filtering, segmentation, CRM integrations, and engagement tools.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

-0.35

Rather negative sentiment

-0.1

Neutral sentiment
Customer Service

+0.9

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.47

Rather positive sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.78

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.85

Strongly positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.69

Rather positive sentiment

+0.3

Rather positive sentiment
Ease of Implementation

-0.05

Neutral sentiment

+0.63

Rather positive sentiment
Scalability

+1

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.4

Rather positive sentiment

Clay and Apollo.io Pricing

No data

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.35

See full Pricing page

Apollo.io offers a tiered subscription pricing model based on features and usage. They have a free plan with limited credits and features. The paid plans offer more credits, advanced features, and higher limits.

Plans

User sentiment

Neutral

-0.1

See full Pricing page

Clay and Apollo.io review insights

3117 reviews analysed from and

Users love

Highly praised for its powerful and versatile data enrichment capabilities, consolidating access to numerous data providers.
Intuitive spreadsheet-like interface makes it user-friendly even for those without coding experience.
AI features, including ChatGPT integration, enable advanced personalization and automation for outreach campaigns.
Strong community support and responsive customer service via Slack contribute to a positive user experience.

Apollo.io boasts a robust and extensive database of contacts and companies, making it easy to find potential leads.
The platform offers powerful search filters and criteria, allowing users to narrow down their searches with precision.
The email automation and sequencing features streamline outreach efforts, saving users time and effort.
The free plan offers a generous amount of features and credits, making it a great starting point for small businesses or individuals.

Users dislike

The credit system can be confusing, especially for new users, leading to unintentional overspending.
Credit costs can be high, especially for AI features and extensive data enrichment.
Some integrations, while numerous, may require further refinement and polishing for seamless functionality.
Occasional glitches or slow performance can hinder workflow, especially when handling large datasets.

Data accuracy can be unreliable, with many users reporting incorrect or outdated contact information.
The LinkedIn integration can be glitchy and unreliable, sometimes failing to sync or pull accurate data.
The user interface, while generally functional, can feel clunky and overwhelming, especially for new users.
Customer support response times can be slow, especially for complex issues, and often requires multiple follow-ups.

Clay and Apollo.io Ratings

G2

4.9/5

(149)

G2

4.8/5

(2666)
Capterra

4.6/5

(319)
TrustPilot

2.6/5

(60)
Glassdoor

3.9/5

(150)

Company health

Employee growth

263% increase in the last year

21% increase in the last year

Web traffic

No data

5% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

July 2024 - $62M

May 2023 - $251M

How do Clay's spreadsheet interface and Apollo's platform approach impact user experience?

Clay's spreadsheet interface offers a familiar and potentially more intuitive experience for users comfortable with spreadsheet software, simplifying data manipulation and enrichment tasks. Apollo's platform approach, encompassing a broader range of sales tools from prospecting to closing, may offer a more comprehensive but potentially less user-friendly experience, requiring more time for users to learn and navigate the entire platform.

Which product better integrates AI for personalized outreach, Clay or Apollo?

Both Clay and Apollo.io offer AI-powered features for personalized outreach. However, Clay emphasizes AI-driven research and personalized messaging within a spreadsheet interface, while Apollo.io focuses on AI-powered email generation, personalization, and automation alongside its broader sales platform functionalities like lead routing and account management. Therefore, if the primary need is streamlined, AI-driven personalization within a familiar spreadsheet environment, Clay might be a better fit. If a comprehensive sales platform with integrated AI outreach tools is desired, Apollo.io might be preferred.

What are the advantages of Clay?

Clay's advantages include its user-friendly spreadsheet interface, combined with AI-powered research and access to over 75 data providers for enriched, accurate data. This focus on data quality and ease of use makes it particularly well-suited for sales outreach and lead generation. Clay also boasts strong community support and responsive customer service.

What are the disadvantages of Clay?

Clay's credit system can be confusing and potentially lead to unexpected costs, especially for new users unfamiliar with its structure. The cost of credits, particularly for AI-powered features and extensive data enrichment, can be high. While Clay offers numerous integrations, some users have reported that these integrations may require further refinement for optimal performance. Occasionally, users experience glitches or slow performance, especially when working with large datasets.

Alternatives to Clay and Apollo.io

amplemarket

Amplemarket is an AI-powered sales platform designed to help businesses find and close more deals. It offers tools for lead generation, personalized outreach across multiple channels (like email and LinkedIn), and sales performance management. Amplemarket's focus is on improving sales team efficiency and increasing revenue through AI-driven insights and automation. Its key features include data enrichment, intent signal identification, and automated email and LinkedIn engagement.

Regie.ai

Regie.ai is an AI-powered sales automation tool that helps businesses improve their prospecting efforts. It uses artificial intelligence to generate personalized emails and content for sales outreach, prioritizing leads based on engagement and automating follow-ups. Regie.ai integrates with existing sales technology stacks and aims to increase efficiency and effectiveness by allowing sales teams to focus on high-intent leads and reduce time spent on manual tasks like writing emails and researching prospects.

HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot Sales Hub is a sales software platform designed to help mid-sized and growing businesses streamline and automate their sales processes. It offers tools for managing contacts, tracking deals, sending emails, and analyzing sales performance. Its focus is on providing a user-friendly interface and a suite of integrated tools that work together seamlessly. HubSpot Sales Hub aims to improve sales efficiency, increase productivity, and drive revenue growth by providing a centralized system for managing all aspects of the sales pipeline.

Lyne.ai

Lyne.ai is an AI-powered tool that helps sales professionals personalize their cold outreach emails. It quickly generates unique compliments and insights about prospects by analyzing online data, saving users time on research. Lyne.ai aims to improve response rates and shorten sales cycles, ultimately increasing sales. Their website highlights positive feedback from users reporting increased efficiency and improved results in their cold email campaigns.

Woodpecker.co

Woodpecker.co is a software platform designed for businesses that want to send personalized cold emails at scale without ending up in spam folders. It offers tools to verify and warm up email addresses, automate follow-up emails, and personalize messages. Features include A/B testing, spam detection, and performance tracking. Woodpecker.co is suitable for individual businesses and agencies managing multiple client accounts.

Actively AI

Actively AI is an AI-powered tool designed to improve sales outreach. It analyzes data to identify and prioritize the best sales leads for your team, saving them research time and improving efficiency. Actively AI also suggests personalized messaging for these leads, further streamlining the sales process. This can lead to more qualified leads and ultimately, increased sales.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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