Apollo.io vs Clay: Which AI agent is better?
Compare pricing, AI models, integrations, security posture, pros, cons, and buyer fit before choosing the right AI sales / crm agent for your workflow.
Verdict: Apollo.io vs Clay
Pick Apollo.io if you need b2b prospecting with massive contact database. Pick Clay if you need data enrichment and personalized outreach platform with 75+ data providers.
Apollo.io wins on price.
Clay integrates with 9 platforms.
Apollo.io
Apollo.io provides access to over 275 million contacts and 73 million companies, making it one of the largest B2B prospecting databases available with extensive coverage across industries and geograph...
- 275M+ contacts and 73M+ companies database
- AI-powered lead scoring with conversion prediction
- Multi-channel sequences: email, LinkedIn, phone
- AI email writer with personalization from prospect data
- Intent signals identifying active buyers
- Massive contact database reduces manual prospecting
- Intent signals provide perfect outreach timing
- Free tier offers substantial value for small teams
- Data accuracy varies across database segments
- Email credits can run out quickly on lower tiers
Clay
Clay is a powerful data enrichment and outbound personalization platform that aggregates data from 75+ providers—including Clearbit, LinkedIn, Apollo, Hunter, BuiltWith, and dozens more—into a single ...
- 75+ data provider integrations in single enrichment workspace
- Claygent AI research agent answering custom prospect questions
- Waterfall enrichment maximizing data coverage without duplicate spend
- AI email writer generating deeply personalized outreach from enriched data
- Spreadsheet-like interface with formulas and conditional logic
- 75+ data providers in one workflow eliminates the need to manage multiple tools
- Claygent answers custom research questions no static database can address
- Waterfall enrichment maximizes coverage while minimizing redundant data spend
- Credit-based pricing can escalate quickly at scale without careful management
- Steep learning curve for non-technical users—best suited for growth engineers
Who should buy this
Apollo.io
- SDR or BDR running outbound at scale needing contact + email + sequences in one tool
- Small startup wanting Apollo's 275M+ contact database without ZoomInfo's enterprise contract
- RevOps team consolidating prospecting + dialer + email + CRM enrichment
- Buyers needing only contact data (cheaper to use Apollo's data via API at Organization tier)
- Enterprises needing strict GDPR data residency (US-hosted only)
Free Starter forever (limited credits). Solo SDR: ~$59/seat/mo Basic. Pro SDR with intent signals: $79/seat/mo. Mid-market: $119/seat/mo Organization (min 3 seats, API access).
Verified 2026-05-03
Clay
- Growth / RevOps engineer building waterfall enrichment workflows
- Outbound sales team that needs CRM-clean enrichment + research at scale
- Mid-market or enterprise B2B org consolidating multiple data tools (Apollo + ZoomInfo + Clearbit) into one workflow
- Non-technical SDRs without an ops counterpart (steep learning curve)
- Buyers seeking transparent per-record pricing (credit math gets complex)
Solo / starter: free 500 actions/mo. Growth team: $167/mo Launch (15K actions). Sales eng team: $446/mo Growth (40K actions). Enterprise: custom annual.
Verified 2026-05-02
Capabilities at a glance
| Capability | Apollo.io | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| 275M+ contact database | Largest in the category | — |
| Email sequences + dialer | — | |
| Buying intent signals | Professional+ | — |
| Public API | Organization tier | — |
| CRM bidirectional sync (Salesforce, HubSpot) | — | |
| On-prem / self-hosted | ||
| 75+ data providers in one workflow | — | Apollo, Clearbit, LinkedIn, etc. |
| Claygent (LLM-powered research agent) | — | |
| Waterfall enrichment | — | Cascade providers by hit rate |
| API access | — | |
| CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot) | — |
Security & compliance
| Standard / control | Apollo.io | Clay |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | — | |
| GDPR | ||
| SSO / SAML | ||
| RBAC | ||
| Audit logs | ||
| Trains on customer data | — | No |
What users say
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io or Clay?+
Apollo.io's Basic plan is $49/user/month and Clay's Launch plan is $185/month. Apollo.io is the cheaper entry point.
What AI models do Apollo.io and Clay use?+
Apollo.io runs on Apollo AI, ML-based lead scoring, NLP for email generation. Clay runs on GPT-4o, Claygent web research AI, Custom enrichment models.
What is the main difference between Apollo.io and Clay?+
Apollo.io is positioned as best for b2b prospecting with massive contact database, while Clay is positioned as best data enrichment and personalized outreach platform with 75+ data providers. Pick the one whose strength aligns with your primary use case.
Which has better integrations, Apollo.io or Clay?+
Apollo.io integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Gmail and 2 more. Clay integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft and 5 more.
What are the main weaknesses of Apollo.io and Clay?+
Apollo.io's main drawback: data accuracy varies across database segments. Clay's main drawback: credit-based pricing can escalate quickly at scale without careful management.
Are Apollo.io and Clay worth it in 2026?+
Both remain competitive sales / crm options in 2026. Apollo.io stands out for massive contact database reduces manual prospecting. Clay stands out for 75+ data providers in one workflow eliminates the need to manage multiple tools. Choose based on which trade-offs fit your workflow and budget.