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Apollo.io

Apollo.io

The AI-powered B2B sales platform that replaces your data provider, outreach tool, dialer, enrichment engine, and CRM — 210M+ contacts, smart sequences, and AI agents, all in one platform.

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Gist

Gist

Replace Intercom, ActiveCampaign, Calendly, and Zendesk with one $99/month platform — live chat, email marketing, automation, CRM, and help desk under one roof.

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Quick Comparison: Apollo.io vs Gist

A high-level overview of pricing, key strengths, and use cases to help you choose the right tool fast.

Features
Apollo.io
Gist
Quick View
Apollo.io is an AI-powered B2B sales intelligence and engagement platform co-founded in 2015 by Tim Zheng and Ray Li in San Francisco. It gives sales…
Gist (getgist.com), formerly known as Convertfox, is an all-in-one business communication platform founded in 2017 that combines live chat, chatbots, email marketing, marketing automation, a…
Pricing
Freemium: Starting at $49/mo
Freemium: Starting at $19/mo
Key Strength
• 210M+ Contact Database with 65+ Advanced Filters — Search the world's largest B2B contact database by job title, seniority…
• Visual Marketing Automation Builder — design multi-step lifecycle campaigns using a drag-and-drop canvas with pre-built funnel templates; trigger emails,…
Best For
Apollo.io serves a wider range of sales teams than any other tool in its category — from first-time SDRs on…
Gist is built for growing businesses and SaaS teams that want a unified marketing, sales, and support stack without stitching…

Detailed Feature Breakdown

Go deeper into the specific capabilities, pros, cons, and integrations of both platforms.

Features
Apollo.io
Gist
Overview

Apollo.io is an AI-powered B2B sales intelligence and engagement platform co-founded in 2015 by Tim Zheng and Ray Li in San Francisco. It gives sales teams access to 210M+ contacts and 30M+ companies with 65+ search filters, AI-powered multichannel outreach sequences, real-time data enrichment, inbound lead routing, conversation intelligence, and AI sales agents — all from one platform.

Backed by $251.3M in funding at a $1.6B valuation, trusted by 500,000+ companies from startups to Fortune 500s, and rated 4.7/5 from 9,015+ G2 reviews, it is the most widely used and reviewed all-in-one sales platform in the market.

Gist (getgist.com), formerly known as Convertfox, is an all-in-one business communication platform founded in 2017 that combines live chat, chatbots, email marketing, marketing automation, a knowledge base, a CRM, a meeting scheduler, forms, popups, surveys, product tours, and event tracking in a single workspace subscription.

Designed for SaaS companies, online businesses, and growth teams, it replaces 6+ separate tools at a flat $99/month and is trusted by 15,000+ businesses worldwide.

Key Features

• 210M+ Contact Database with 65+ Advanced Filters — Search the world's largest B2B contact database by job title, seniority level, company size, industry, location, technology stack, funding stage, hiring signals, and buyer intent data to build hyper-targeted prospect lists for any ICP.

• AI-Powered Multichannel Sequences — Build automated outreach campaigns combining email, LinkedIn touches, phone calls, and task reminders in one coordinated sequence; includes A/B testing, send-time optimization, email deliverability guardrails (SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks, spam word detection, bounce management), and reply detection that auto-pauses follow-ups.

• AI Sales Agents (SDR Agent, Research Agent, Deals Agent, GTM Agent) — Four specialized AI agents automate the most time-intensive GTM tasks: the AI SDR Agent builds and runs outbound campaigns autonomously; the Research Agent enriches lead records with real-time company data; the Deals Agent prepares reps for every conversation with meeting intelligence; the GTM Agent orchestrates cross-functional go-to-market workflows.

• Inbound Intelligence (Visitor ID + Form Enrichment + Lead Routing) — Identifies anonymous website visitors, enriches form submissions with Apollo's full contact and company data in real time, and instantly routes qualified leads to the right rep via built-in calendar scheduling and automated nurture sequences — preventing hot inbound leads from going cold.

• Data Enrichment & CRM Cleansing — Continuously enriches and cleanses contact and company records across your CRM with always-fresh data from Apollo's network; supports Salesforce, HubSpot, and custom CRM enrichment workflows with job change alerts and signal-based re-engagement triggers.

• Conversation Intelligence & Deal Execution — AI-powered call recording, transcription, call summaries, next-step generation, pipeline boards, real-time deal alerts, conversation coaching dashboards, and meeting prep briefs keep every deal moving and every rep developing.

• Built-In Dialer & Email Infrastructure — Native click-to-call dialer with local presence, call recording, and voicemail drop; dedicated email sending infrastructure with deliverability guardrails and custom tracking domains — no external dialer or email service required.

• Apollo Academy + 24/7 AI Help + Community — Always-on educational resources including Apollo Academy courses, tutorials, weekly webinars, a community forum, and 24/7 AI chat support; live personalized onboarding included on all paid plans.

• Visual Marketing Automation Builder — design multi-step lifecycle campaigns using a drag-and-drop canvas with pre-built funnel templates; trigger emails, in-app messages, and bot interactions based on user behavior, custom events, and contact attributes across any stage of the customer journey.

• Live Chat + Custom Chatbots — add a branded live chat widget to any website or app; build custom bots in minutes to triage support queries, qualify inbound leads, route hot conversations to sales, and book meetings automatically without a developer.

• Email Marketing Suite — send broadcast emails, drip campaigns, and behavioral email sequences using a drag-and-drop visual builder; personalize by contact fields, tags, and event data; deliver emails in the recipient's timezone and auto-resend to non-openers.

• Knowledge Base — create a searchable self-service help center with rich articles supporting images, videos, CTAs, and interactive guides; track article ratings and collect structured feedback to continuously improve content quality.

• Built-in CRM with Deal Pipeline — manage your sales pipeline with a visual drag-and-drop board, create deals, assign tasks, track stage progression, and add a meeting scheduler link to emails and your website to book appointments automatically.

• Forms, Popups & Surveys — build mobile-responsive lead capture forms, exit-intent popups, and survey widgets using a visual builder; personalize each form using previously collected contact data and trigger display based on page URL, visitor behavior, or site history.

• Meeting Scheduler — let prospects book meetings directly from a shared calendar link; syncs natively with Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar; integrates with Gistbot to pre-qualify prospects before they land on your calendar.

• Event Tracking & Customer Profiles — automatically captures every click, form submission, and page view; builds comprehensive customer profiles with full interaction history, tags, and behavioral segments for precision targeting across email, chat, and automation.

Pros
  • Permanently free plan with 100 credits, unlimited email sends (Gmail/Microsoft), and full database access — the most generous free tier in B2B sales intelligence, driving 500,000+ company signups
  • 4.7/5 from 9,015+ G2 reviews — the highest volume of verified reviews of any sales intelligence or outreach platform in the market
  • Replaces five separate tools (data provider, outreach platform, dialer, enrichment, CRM) — teams report 64% lower tech stack costs and 4x SDR efficiency improvement
  • Backed by $251.3M from Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Tribe Capital at $1.6B valuation — financial stability and R&D investment that smaller bootstrapped tools cannot match
  • Four specialized AI agents (SDR, Research, Deals, GTM) automate the most time-intensive parts of the sales workflow with no additional tool purchase
  • Full compliance stack: GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO/IEC 27001, CASA Tier 2, CPRA, EU-US DPF, PCI DSS — the broadest enterprise-grade compliance certifications of any tool in its category
  • Job change alerts and intent signals surface the highest-probability buyers before competitors reach them
  • Flat $99/month All-in-One plan replaces Intercom + ActiveCampaign + Calendly + Zendesk + OptinMonster + Typeform — saving most teams $200–$500/month
  • Free forever plan includes live chat, team inbox, forms, and 200 contacts with no time limit
  • 14-day free trial on all premium plans with no credit card required
  • Unlimited support seats on the Premium support plan — add your whole team without per-agent cost scaling
  • 100% no-risk money-back guarantee on all paid plans — no questions asked
  • Visual multi-step automation builder with pre-built funnel templates shortens campaign setup time significantly
  • 15,000+ businesses trust the platform with real published customer testimonials confirming engagement and retention improvements
Cons
  • Credit system complexity — phone credits cost 8x more than email credits, credits expire at the end of each billing cycle (no rollover on standard plans), and overage credits at $0.20 each with a 250-minimum purchase add unexpected costs at volume
  • Organization plan requires a minimum of 3 users ($357/month annual minimum) — teams smaller than 3 seats cannot access advanced features like AI agents and custom reporting without paying per-user pricing
  • Data accuracy is strong globally but mixed for mobile phone numbers outside the US and Western Europe — European teams specifically report lower phone coverage than Kaspr or Cognism
  • Customer support quality on lower tiers receives consistent criticism across G2 and independent reviews — free and Basic plan users report slow response times and bot-first support experiences
  • Feature depth in some areas (call intelligence, advanced deal management) lags behind dedicated point solutions like Gong, Chorus, or Outreach — teams with mature revenue operations may still need specialist tools alongside Apollo
  • Historical data breach in 2021 (240M records exposed) remains a reputational concern for enterprise procurement teams conducting security due diligence, despite subsequent SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification
  • Trustpilot score is 2.1/5 from 18 reviews — a notable trust gap that prospective buyers should investigate by reading specific complaint threads
  • Integration ecosystem is significantly smaller than Intercom or HubSpot — niche or enterprise tool connections often require Zapier workarounds
  • Individual modules (email marketing, ticketing) are less deep than dedicated specialists like Mailchimp or Zendesk for power users
  • Product tours, voice and video calls, and advanced reporting are locked to the Premium support tier at $99/month — unavailable on Professional ($29/month)
  • The platform can feel overwhelming for beginners who only need simple email marketing — the feature breadth requires a learning investment
  • Limited publicly available information on SOC 2, HIPAA, or enterprise security certifications — may be a barrier for regulated industries
Best For

Apollo.io serves a wider range of sales teams than any other tool in its category — from first-time SDRs on the free plan to Fortune 500 enterprise GTM teams on custom Organization plans.

• SDRs and outbound sales reps at growth-stage companies — use Apollo's 210M+ database with 65+ filters to build highly targeted prospect lists, launch automated multichannel sequences, and manage call tasks from one platform without juggling multiple tool subscriptions.

• Founders and solo sales operators doing outbound — start on the free plan with 100 credits and unlimited email sends to validate ICP fit before investing in paid prospecting; upgrade to Basic at $49/mo only when volume demands it.

• Revenue operations and sales managers — use Apollo's enrichment workflows to keep CRM data fresh, leverage AI agents to automate SDR-level tasks, and use conversation intelligence and coaching dashboards to identify performance gaps and replicate top-rep behaviors across the team.

• Enterprise GTM teams consolidating tech stacks — replace a 5-tool stack (ZoomInfo + Outreach/SalesLoft + Gong + Clearbit + Salesforce enrichment) with Apollo's Organization plan and AI agents to reduce per-rep tool costs while centralizing data, outreach, and deal intelligence in one governed platform.

Gist is built for growing businesses and SaaS teams that want a unified marketing, sales, and support stack without stitching together — and paying for — multiple specialized tools.

• SaaS founders and bootstrapped startups — replacing 6+ tools with one $99/month flat subscription is the fastest way to cut software spend while maintaining a professional customer experience across marketing, support, and sales.

• Marketing teams running lifecycle campaigns — the visual automation builder with behavioral email triggers, event tracking, in-app messaging, and pre-built templates handles the full customer journey from first visit to retention in one canvas.

• Customer success teams — unlimited support seats on the Premium plan mean every team member who touches a customer conversation can be inside the inbox without blowing the budget on per-agent licenses.

• Small businesses and solopreneurs starting out — the free plan's live chat, team inbox, unlimited conversation history, signup forms, and 200 contacts provide a complete starter communication stack at $0/month.

• Online businesses running e-commerce — WooCommerce and Stripe integrations (on Premium marketing plans) sync purchase data for post-purchase automation, cart abandonment campaigns, and customer segmentation without a custom integration.

Pricing Details

Free ($0/mo, unlimited users): 100 credits total (not per month), unlimited B2B email sends (Gmail and Microsoft only), basic sequence automation, access to full 210M+ contact database with limited filters, basic email open/click tracking, limited CSV export, HubSpot and Salesforce basic integrations, Apollo Academy access, 24/7 AI chat support.

Basic ($59/mo monthly, $49/user/mo billed annually): 5,000 credits/month, unlimited email sends (all email providers), full sequence automation with A/B testing, all 65+ database filters, email deliverability center, job change alerts, buy intent data (basic), advanced integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Outreach, SalesLoft), CSV export (unlimited), LinkedIn extension, click-to-call dialer, call recording, live onboarding, 24/7 AI chat + email support.

Professional ($99/mo monthly, $79/user/mo billed annually): 10,000 credits/month, everything in Basic plus AI-assisted email writing, advanced filters and intent signals, email reply tracking, conversations (call intelligence), deal management, advanced reporting, custom fields, sequence analytics, video prospecting, AI research assistant, LinkedIn automation steps in sequences, priority support.

Organization ($149/mo monthly, $119/user/mo billed annually, minimum 3 users): 15,000 credits/month, everything in Professional plus AI SDR Agent, AI Deals Agent, AI GTM Agent, inbound visitor identification, real-time form enrichment, lead routing and scheduling, advanced CRM enrichment and cleansing, custom roles and permissions, SSO (SAML), advanced security settings, data privacy controls, custom reporting, dedicated onboarding, phone support, CSM access.

Support Free ($0/mo forever): Live chat, team inbox, unlimited conversation history, 2 support seats, basic chat widget customization, mobile apps, developer API.

Support Professional ($29/mo): All Free features plus 5 support seats, email forwarding, social media integrations (Facebook, Twitter), in-app messages, public knowledge base, automated chat triggers, advanced widget customization.

Support Premium ($99/mo): All Professional features plus unlimited support seats, custom chatbots, voice and video calls, surveys, product tours, automated meeting scheduling, advanced reporting, priority support.

Marketing Free ($0/mo forever): 200 contacts, contact and company lists, website tracking, signup forms, broadcast emails.

Marketing Professional (from $19/mo for 1,000 contacts): All Marketing Free features plus visual email builder, automated emails, drip campaigns, single-step automations, email templates, contact segmentation — scales with contact count.

Marketing Premium (from $29/mo for 1,000 contacts): All Professional features plus multi-step visual automation builder, pre-built automation templates, WooCommerce and Stripe e-commerce integrations, advanced reporting, behavioral email triggers — scales with contact count.

All-in-One Bundle ($99/mo flat): All Support Premium and Marketing Premium features combined — live chat, chatbots, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, forms, popups, surveys, product tours, event tracking, meeting scheduler, unlimited support seats, and full contact database — fixed price regardless of team size.

High-Volume Plan (Custom pricing): For accounts with more than 50,000 contacts — contact Gist sales for custom pricing.

Unique Features

Apollo.io's competitive position rests on three structural advantages that no single competitor has simultaneously replicated: database scale, product breadth, and product-led growth velocity.

• 210M Contact + 30M Company Database With Continuously Refreshed Intent Data — Apollo's database is among the largest in B2B sales intelligence, and unlike static databases, Apollo refreshes contact and company data continuously using AI-driven verification. The addition of buyer intent signals — tracking which companies are actively researching topics relevant to your product — lets Apollo users prioritize outreach to the accounts most likely to convert right now, not just the accounts that fit the ICP. No tool at Apollo's price range offers both this scale and intent data natively.

• Four Specialized AI Agents Replacing Human Labor Across the GTM Funnel — Apollo's AI SDR Agent, Research Agent, Deals Agent, and GTM Agent are not generic chatbots — they are purpose-trained agents that automate specific GTM tasks: building and running outbound campaigns (SDR Agent), enriching and briefing reps before meetings (Research Agent and Deals Agent), and orchestrating cross-functional go-to-market workflows (GTM Agent). The depth of task automation across all four stages of the funnel — find, engage, meet, close — is matched only by custom AI-agent stacks costing 5x+ the price.

• Inbound + Outbound in One Platform (Visitor ID + Form Enrichment + Lead Routing) — Apollo is one of the only platforms in its price range that handles both outbound prospecting and inbound lead capture in a single workflow. Anonymous visitor identification surfaces the companies behind your website traffic, form enrichment completes lead records in real time, and instant lead routing with built-in scheduler ensures hot inbound leads are contacted within minutes. Most sales teams run a separate tool for each of these functions — Apollo's unification produces the 70% increase in lead conversion its customer base reports.

• Product-Led Growth at $1.6B Scale — Apollo's free plan is genuinely functional — not a feature-crippled demo — and it is the reason 500,000+ companies have adopted it without a sales call. This PLG flywheel funds continuous product investment: Apollo grew ARR 40% in 2024 and reported 500% growth on its AI platform in 2025, enabling R&D velocity that bootstrapped competitors simply cannot match.

Gist's strongest differentiator is its genuinely flat all-in-one pricing — a single $99/month subscription replaces the full stack of tools that growing businesses typically cobble together at $300–$600/month.

• True All-in-One at a Fixed Price — Gist does not charge per seat for support or per contact tier for the All-in-One bundle; $99/month covers unlimited support seats plus all marketing and automation features, meaning your bill stays flat as your team and contact list grow.

• Unified Customer Timeline — every chat, email open, form submission, page view, event trigger, deal update, and meeting booking is recorded on a single customer profile; agents and marketers share the same data without exporting, syncing, or building integrations across tools.

• Pre-Built Automation Funnel Templates — Gist lets you import fully-built marketing funnels with one click, so teams without a dedicated marketing automation specialist can launch proven lifecycle sequences in minutes rather than building from scratch.

• Behavioral Event Tracking Built In — unlike most all-in-one tools that treat event tracking as an advanced add-on, Gist automatically captures clicks, form submissions, and page views out of the box and makes that data immediately available for email triggers, chat targeting, and bot conditions.

• 100% No-Risk Money-Back Guarantee — Gist offers a full refund on any paid plan with no questions asked, an unusually strong commitment compared to competitors that offer only time-limited trials or partial credits.

Integrations

Apollo.io integrates with every major CRM, sales engagement platform, marketing automation tool, and communication platform used by modern B2B sales and marketing teams.

• Salesforce & HubSpot (Deep Bidirectional Native Sync) — Full two-way sync with Salesforce and HubSpot including contact creation, deal and opportunity management, activity logging, sequence enrollment triggers, custom field mapping, and advanced CRM data enrichment that continuously refreshes stale contact and company records; available from Basic plan with advanced features on Organization.

• Outreach, SalesLoft & Marketo (Sales Engagement + Marketing Automation) — Native integrations with Outreach and SalesLoft allow teams already on those platforms to use Apollo purely as a data layer, pushing enriched contacts into existing sequences; Marketo and Sendgrid integrations connect Apollo's data and intent signals to marketing automation and email delivery infrastructure.

• LinkedIn (Chrome Extension + Sequence Steps) — Apollo's LinkedIn Chrome extension enriches any LinkedIn profile with Apollo data in one click; Professional plan and above adds LinkedIn automation steps (connection requests, messages, InMail) directly inside Apollo sequences, enabling true multichannel outreach without a separate LinkedIn tool.

• Zapier, Webhooks & Full API (Organization and Custom Plans) — Zapier integration connects Apollo to 5,000+ external tools; real-time webhooks fire on lead events (new contact, email opened, reply received, job change detected) for custom GTM stack integration; the full REST API is available on Organization and Custom plans for engineering-led teams building Apollo's data and engagement layer into proprietary workflows.

Gist integrates with the core business tools most growing teams already use, with Zapier bridging gaps to the broader software ecosystem.

• Website and e-commerce platforms — WordPress plugin for one-click installation, WooCommerce for purchase-triggered automation and customer segmentation, Shopify via Zapier, and a universal JavaScript snippet for any custom-built website.

• Calendar and scheduling tools — native Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar sync powers the built-in meeting scheduler; Calendly can be connected via Zapier for teams already invested in Calendly workflows.

• Payments and e-commerce data — Stripe integration on the Premium marketing plan syncs payment events to trigger post-purchase email sequences, renewal reminders, and customer lifecycle automations.

• Automation and workflow platforms — Zapier and Make (Integromat) connect Gist to 3,000+ additional apps for custom lead routing, CRM syncing, notification workflows, and data pipelines not covered by native integrations.

• Analytics and feedback tools — Google Analytics integration tracks campaign-driven traffic and conversion events; Canny integration surfaces customer feedback requests and feature votes directly inside the Gist workflow for product-led teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Expert Verdict

Final Analysis: Which is better?

Apollo.io (Freemium: Starting at $49/mo) is the better choice for Apollo.io serves a wider range of sales teams than any other tool in its category.. Gist (Freemium: Starting at $19/mo) wins for Gist is built for growing businesses and SaaS teams that want a unified marketing, sales,.. Both are production-grade AI tool platforms in 2026, but they serve different priorities. Choose based on your specific workflow requirements, not marketing.

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