So, you’ve been tasked with choosing the best prospecting tool for your outreach and lead enrichment.
You’re immediately imagining hours of testing, setting up new projects, filtering through data, and comparing data quality and completeness. Oh, what a joy.
What if we could save you the trouble? Well, we can.
Seamless.ai vs Apollo.io: Quick Comparison
Seamless.ai | Apollo.io | |
Database | Database of 1.9 billion business emails, 422 million phones, and 125 million companies | Database of 210 million contacts and 35 million companies |
Chrome extension | Chrome extension finds cell phones, emails, direct dials, and sales insights for any B2B professional on any website | Chrome extension finds prospect emails and phone numbers on LinkedIn and across the web |
Outreach | No built‑in outreach tools | Built‑in outreach tools for sequencing, follow‑ups, and templates across email, calls, and LinkedIn |
Data quality | Verified contact data with real‑time validation | Verified contact data via its constantly updated “living data network” |
AI features | Reasonable set of AI features: AI assistant for email copy, autopilot list builder, buying intent, job‑change alerts, pitch intelligence | Strong set of AI features: multiple AI assistants, sequence personalization, call‑recording insights, buying intent, prospecting filters |
Pricing | Free trial; Basic $147/mo; contact vendor for Pro/Enterprise | Free plan; Basic $59/user/mo; Pro $99/user/month; Org $149/user/month; Enterprise custom; you can buy more credits for each plan |
Ideal users | Ideal users are SDRs, AEs, and sales teams needing real‑time, verified contacts and AI‑enriched email copy | Ideal users are sales and RevOps teams wanting a full prospecting and engagement stack at tiered pricing |
Apollo.io Overview
At first glance, Apollo impresses with a dizzying number of prospect filtering opportunities. It also offers to set up your campaign on its own if you prompt its AI and describe your buyer personas. The result is prospecting on autopilot, at least on the surface.
We couldn’t resist but test out these features.
After we described our fictional business, Apollo did a great job identifying the right buyer persona. However, it missed important titles. When we expanded them manually, the number of leads became a reasonable 2,051.
Next, we put its buying intent feature to the test. Although Apollo boasts hundreds of intent buying signals, it couldn’t find a relevant one for “hiring a freelance writer.” The majority of intent signals are the tech stack your prospects currently use.
What impressed us is Apollo’s Sequence builder. It created a three-step outreach cadence with short emails, with the whole process powered by AI.
But alas, when you open those pre-made email templates, you can’t actually use them. They reek of AI, and every other email starts with the same sentences.
A quick verdict: Apollo has lots of features that are supposed to ease BDRs’ lives, but they work only for specific industries. AI features only seem to work when used for persona creation.
Key Features
Database of approximately 210 million contacts.
Multichannel campaigns—email, phone, LinkedIn through Chrome extension
Voice Dialer to answer, record, and transcribe calls
Advanced prospect filtering (200+ filters) and engagement tracking
Over 14,000 intent topics (intent signals categorized by vertical) from Bombora, and over 1,600 intent topics from LeadSift
LinkedIn auto-tasks—connection requests, direct message delivery, profile visits, post interactions
Apollo Conversations, which records and transcribes your video calls
CRM integrations for HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce
Data enrichment for HubSpot and Salesforce
Apollo.io Pricing and Structure
Free: 100 credits per user/month, 2 sequences, basic filters.
A 14-day trial period for the Basic plan; no card required.
Basic ($59/user/month): 1 mailbox, 2,500 credits per user/month, 2 sequences, advanced filters, meetings scheduler, 6 intent topics, and intent filters.
Professional ($99/user/month): 4,000 credits per user/month, unlimited sequences, US dialer, 5 mailboxes per user, automated workflows and AI research intelligence, call recordings and AI insights (4,000 mins).
Organization ($149/user/month): 6,000 credits per user/month with all features included, 15 mailboxes, min. 3 users, annual billing only.
You can also buy more credits to access emails, mobile numbers and enrichment data, AI-generated messages, and conversation minutes for recorded meetings. Note that costs can increase quickly with large volumes or SDR teams.
Pros and Cons
Pros: End-to-end outreach platform, versatile campaign management, deep search filters, ease of use, and helpful onboarding popups.
Cons: Expensive at scale, and many users complain (on Reddit and G2) about stale data and a small number of relevant leads.
Seamless.ai Overview
On first logging in, Seamless.ai’s interface feels limited compared to other tools. As the saying goes, however, you shouldn’t judge a SaaS tool by its interface.
The real question is whether or not it performs when it comes to functionality. As you’ll see, it’s a mixed bag.
The first inconvenience begins with the absence of AI buyer persona features—the setup must be manual.
The number of records is impressive—15,006, filtered by industry, compared to 2,051 found by Apollo.
As for intent buying data, it’s only available to paid users. And to obtain a trial, you must contact the sales team, which is inconvenient.
Nevertheless, Seamless promises buyer intent data across 10,000 topics with a wide range of triggers, like marketing ROI, content strategy, and dozens more for our fictional business. These triggers are integrated with Bombora and can be filtered by category, keyword, and phrase.
On G2, Seamless.ai’s intent data receives positive feedback from many current users, and it's a popular choice for intent-based marketing.
However, if you query Reddit for Seamless reviews (the ultimate and final source of truth for any software out there), you’ll discover tons of negative comments, from poor customer support to huge bounce rates and outdated data.
For lead enrichment, Seamless offers more data points than Apollo. However, we recommend contacting their sales team to request a trial period to see how the platform works for your particular niche.
Key Features
Database size of approximately 1.9 billion business emails and 422 million phone numbers
Ongoing in-platform and CRM lead enrichment
Chrome extension scrapes contact info from LinkedIn and company websites
Niche lead targeting with over 10,000 buyer intent signals
AI writing tools for any outreach copy
CRM integrations with Zoho, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce
Zapier integration
Seamless.io Pricing and Structure
Free: 1 user, 50 credits for email addresses and cell phones.
The Basic plan is only available within the app, not on the website (you need to set up a free account to access it). It’s $197/month when paid monthly ($147/month annually).
Pro (contact sales to get a quota): Pay per user, daily credit refresh, buyer intent data, free admin seat, AI assistant, data enrichment.
Enterprise (contact sales to get a quota): Unlimited users, custom credits, all Pro features with API access.
Seamless is rigid when it comes to pricing and the ease of product testing. There are no trial periods available for the higher-tier plans. Sales may offer a trial at their discretion.
Pros and Cons
Pros: A vast contact database for emails, real-time intent data scraping, and strong for EU/EMEA lead data.
Cons: No built-in outreach tools, bounce rate concerns in some niches, poor cell phone data as reported by many users, and no AI tools to simplify prospecting workflows.
Key Differences Between Apollo.io and Seamless.ai
A big fat truth is that users of prospecting tools are always ranting about data quality, data inaccuracy, lack of features, etc.
And when you search Reddit threads for “Apollo vs. Seamless,” you end up reading statements like “Stop wasting money on both, choose LinkedIn Sales Navigator or [throw-in-your-favorite-tool].”
But we’re skipping the drama and focusing on helpful core feature comparisons without the fluff (or bias).
Lead Generation and Enrichment
Apollo has a bulk database with reasonable enrichment processes. Apollo is stronger on scale and multichannel outreach campaigns with lots of advanced prospecting filters.
Seamless is stronger on mobile dials and real-time buyer intent data validation and scraping. It has a bigger database of verified emails and a cleaner UX.
AI and Automation
Apollo has built-in AI that enhances workflows with sequence assistants, personalization, call and meeting transcription insights, activity feeds, and analytics.
Seamless only uses AI for creating copy and interpreting buyer intent data. There’s no outreach automation.
Engagement Tools
Apollo is a full sales stack for lead generation: email cadences, dialer, scheduler, follow-ups, analytics, buyer personas’ lead search, LinkedIn outreach, and auto-engagement.
Seamless is a pure data provider that requires external tools and integrations for outreach and engagement.
Integrations and CRM Connectors
Apollo has 13 native integrations with CRMs alongside and sales engagement tools, email marketing tools, and Slack. You can also execute nearly any cross-platform automation with Zapier.
Seamless has 13 native integrations and 9 Zapier connectors.
Phone Numbers and Mobile Validation
Seamless prioritizes verified mobile numbers and direct dials. At least, this is what they claim. However, customers mostly say the opposite. One review said that “Most of the phone numbers listed are company lines,” and another that numbers “are disconnected or broken.”
Apollo is better at email enrichment and has more coverage across the US.
Data Freshness
Seamless scrapes in real-time and provides more up-to-date contact information. There is more positive feedback on the whole, and Seamless’s data quality is often noted.
Apollo updates in batches, which translates into more breadth, but a slower refresh cycle. You’re likely to find records with irrelevant job positions and old intent data.
Deliverability and Bounce Rates
Seamless claims 98–99% accuracy, but some users report 20–30% bounce rates.
Apollo uses a proprietary seven-step email verification system with a reported 91% accuracy, which matches people's reports of a bounce rate of around 10%. Apollo has deliverability optimization features.
Value trade-off
Apollo offers a lower entry price but higher costs at scale. You can control how many additional credits you buy.
Seamless comes with a complex pricing structure and a limit of 50 credits on the Free plan. For the Pro plan and its daily credit refresh, you must contact their sales to find out the details and compare them against Apollo.
When to Choose Seamless.ai or Apollo.io
Whew! That’s a lot of information. Let’s summarize the key points to help you make a decision about which platform is best for you.
Apollo Works Best When…
You need outbound sales campaign management on one platform. Apollo offers email outreach functionality blended with LinkedIn prospecting and dialing—all with an intuitive UX and an easy setup.
Your team already uses Salesforce, HubSpot, or Outreach, and they want a deep tool sync with a prospecting vendor.
Seamless.ai Works Best When…
You care more about verified cell contacts than built-in sequencing.
You’re a startup or small team doing manual outreach, but you need high-quality data (check your vertical is covered before making a decision).
What to Watch Out For: Why Neither Is Perfect
Apollo does too much and has high costs for add-ons (and there are lots of Apollo alternatives that don’t come with these issues); Seamless does too little.
Many teams still need Zapier, warm-up tools, and separate sales enablement platforms to build a functioning stack.
Both have outdated contact information and invalid buying intent data.
Why Artisan Is a Smarter Third Option
If you’re still uncertain about Apollo and Seamless, a newer, AI-first prospecting tool might be a better fit for your business.
Artisan is a leading example of such a tool. Let’s put it to the test, too.
Ava Is Your AI BDR
Artisan is an AI-first outbound platform that acts more like a full-time sales team than a tool. At its core is Ava, your AI business development representative (BDR), who handles lead research, email and LinkedIn outreach, personalization, and follow-ups.
But what sets Artisan apart is how it orchestrates the whole sales outreach process.
First, Ava collects data about your website, offerings, and customer pain points. She’ll even look at case studies. Then she creates your buyer persona, which you can refine, and begins prospecting from a database of over 300 million verified email contacts.
Once Ava has built and validated a prospect list, she generates personalized outreach messages via email and LinkedIn. She combines your product description, unique value propositions, and proof points with individual lead research.
Automation Meets Precision
Artisan combines data accuracy, real-time email validation and deliverability checks, and fresh intent data. This combination means fewer bounces and more replies for sales teams.
No Tool Stack Required
Artisan is more than a mere prospecting tool. Customers also benefit from built-in inbox warmup, website visitor tracking, automated follow-up sequences, deliverability monitoring, deep outreach analytics (like ICP performance), and data enrichment.
Startup-Friendly Pricing
What other tools can’t offer is Artisan’s flexible modular pricing, tailored to your feature needs and team size. Contact our sales team to get access to a customized plan with no per-seat fees or credit limits.
Final Verdict: Who Wins the Data Battle?
TL;DR comparison
Too long; didn’t read? Here’s our quickfire breakdown.
Apollo
Apollo is best for teams running outbound campaigns at scale who want to manage their entire workflow within a single app. It has great UX, deep filters, but pricier and bloated if you only want contact data.
It works great with the US market across different industries.
Seamless
Seamless is ideal for B2B teams chasing real-time contact data, especially emails. It has a larger database and solid buyer intent, but no outreach tools, spotty mobile number accuracy, and clunky pricing.
Artisan
Artisan is the only AI BDR platform that does everything from data scraping and finding buyer intent to AI template generation, sequencing, warmups, and outreach. There’s no stale data. It lacks some features, like LinkedIn post engagement, but Artisan’s team is very responsive to feedback and new feature rollouts.
Artisan’s advantage
Want to see how an AI-first sales platform can transform your outbound workflows? Artisan is built for speed and trusted by teams that want to close faster, not juggle tools.
