Apollo.io or Salesloft: which should you choose?
Apollo.io vs Salesloft compares a self-serve prospecting platform with an enterprise engagement and forecasting platform. Choose Apollo.io for built-in contact data and published per-user plans, from a free plan. Choose Salesloft for Cadence engagement with Clari forecasting and deal inspection, bought by quote.
Choose Apollo.io if…
- You want contact data and outreach in one tool: Apollo.io says it has "240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts", and its Basic plan "Includes email sequencing and core integrations".
- You want to start without a sales call: Apollo.io lists a Free plan, and its September 2026 plan guide puts Basic at $49 per user per month billed annually and Professional at $79 per user per month.
- You want an AI assistant included for now: Apollo.io's AI Assistant is "currently free as an introductory offer on Basic, Pro, and Org plans", and free plans get up to 5 chats.
- Your budget is smaller: Vendr's median Apollo.io contract is $19,000 a year (101 purchases, February 2026), against $30,740 for Salesloft.
Choose Salesloft if…
- You want Clari's forecasting: Clari Forecast adds an AI Forecast Agent and an AI projection beside plan and commit figures, and Inspect flags risky commit deals.
- You review deals by methodology: Deals shows MEDDPICC, BANT and SPICED tabs with AI deal insights, fills MEDDPICC and BANT fields from call transcripts, and adds a Deal Engagement Score.
- You use Highspot for content: a Highspot listing in the Salesloft Marketplace puts Highspot content into cadences and emails and sends pitch views to Rhythm.
- You buy software through AWS: Salesloft lists a 12-month "Salesloft Platform" contract on AWS Marketplace at $26,400, with no seat count stated.
Apollo.io vs Salesloft at a glance
| Apollo.io | Salesloft | |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning | Calls itself "the AI sales platform rebuilt as one connected AI GTM system", with data, intelligence and execution layers, under the headline "Grow revenue with one connected GTM system" (Apollo.io). | Its platform page is headed "Meet the Predictive Revenue System" and describes one unified platform for every step of the revenue cycle (Salesloft). |
| Core modules | Apollo Data Access, Workspace, Apollo Anywhere and Builder Studio, with waterfall enrichment, deliverability, a Chrome extension, Parallel Dialer, AI Assistant, Apollo MCP and integrations; email sequencing listed on Basic. | Cadence (sales engagement), Conversation Intelligence, Deals and Rhythm for account teams; Clari Forecast, Inspect and Analytics for revenue leaders; Signals and a unified revenue data layer; the site menu adds Revenue Cadences; website chat moved from Drift to partner 1mind; no content management or digital sales rooms listed. |
| AI and agents | AI Assistant, launched 4 March 2026, runs natural-language, full-funnel workflows with a human in the loop; free as an introductory offer on Basic, Pro and Org plans; free plans get up to 5 chats. | AI Agents including Account Research, Buyer Identification, Ask Salesloft, Deal Summaries and Sales Strategist; an AI Forecast Agent in Clari Forecast; and a Salesloft MCP Server listed in Claude's connector directory, with ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini connectors announced for late summer 2026. |
| Pricing model | Free, Basic, Professional and Custom plans with team-pooled credits; Apollo's 17 September 2026 plan guide lists Basic at $49/user/month billed annually and Professional at $79/user/month (pricing). | No prices or plans on its own site: salesloft.com/pricing opens a Talk to Sales page. Its AWS Marketplace listing shows one 12-month "Salesloft Platform" contract at $26,400, which it says is billed per user but with no seat count stated; it is a single Marketplace listing, not a list price. |
| Third-party price data | Vendr median $19,000 a year; range $4,284 to $45,000; 101 purchases; last updated February 2026 (the page header shows 87 deals handled). | Vendr median $30,740 a year; range $5,152 to $146,494; 710 purchases; February 2026 (a header on the same page shows 304 "Deals handled"; Vendr's Clari page: median $76,000, 291 purchases, same month). |
| Analyst recognition | No analyst evaluation found on the Apollo.io pages opened. | Salesloft says Clari was a Leader and Salesloft a Visionary in the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for Revenue Action Orchestration (2025), and that Salesloft was a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Revenue Orchestration Platforms for B2B, Q3 2024; Gartner's 2026 abstract lists Salesloft without showing placements. |
| Company status | Venture-backed: announced a $100M Series D led by Bain Capital Ventures at a $1.6B valuation on 29 August 2023, bringing total funding to about $250M (release). | Completed its merger with Clari on 3 December 2025, with Steve Cox as CEO (Salesloft); operates as Salesloft, with clari.com redirecting there; Vista Equity Partners invested in December 2021 (Salesloft). |
| Best for | Sales teams, from founders to full-time reps, that want contact data, enrichment, sequencing, a dialer and an AI assistant in one self-serve platform, starting free. | Revenue teams that want Cadence engagement with Clari forecasting and deal inspection, and will keep separate content and training tools. |
What is the difference between Apollo.io and Salesloft?
Apollo.io starts from data. It calls itself "the AI sales platform rebuilt as one connected AI GTM system" (Apollo.io), says it has "240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts with trusted B2B data", and names Apollo Data Access, Workspace, Apollo Anywhere and Builder Studio, plus waterfall enrichment, deliverability tools, a Chrome extension, a Parallel Dialer, AI Assistant and Apollo MCP. A rep can find a contact, reveal an email or phone number with credits and add them to a sequence in one place.
Salesloft starts from engagement and the forecast. Its platform page is headed "Meet the Predictive Revenue System" and splits its products into revenue execution for account teams (Cadence, Conversation Intelligence, Deals and Rhythm) and revenue intelligence for revenue leaders (Clari Forecast, Inspect and Analytics) (Salesloft). Much of the second half came from Clari: the two completed their merger on 3 December 2025, and the business operates as Salesloft (Salesloft).
So they often sit side by side: Salesloft does not list a contact database among its products, and its AI agents page lists a Buyer Identification agent "with ZoomInfo". Apollo.io's pitch is that one platform can cover data and outreach for teams that do not need Clari-style forecasting and deal inspection.
How do Apollo.io and Salesloft compare on cadences, calls and forecasting?
Both sell multi-channel outreach. Apollo.io's pricing page describes Basic as for "Individual sellers doing regular outbound" with email sequencing, and Professional as for "Full-time reps needing higher credit limits, AI features, call recording, and advanced CRM integrations"; its plan guide says Professional "adds workflow automation, AI research, and a dialer". Salesloft's Cadence covers multi-channel cadences, an email step builder, a sales dialer, a meeting scheduler, templates and snippets, and a mobile app whose tasks are prioritised by Conductor AI.
Salesloft goes further into calls and deals. Its Conversation Intelligence provides AI call summaries, follow-up emails, automated CRM updates, live call coaching and real-time battlecards, and its Deals product adds a Deal Engagement Score and MEDDPICC, BANT and SPICED views filled from call transcripts. Apollo.io lists call recording on Professional; the Apollo.io pages we checked do not list deal inspection.
Forecasting is Salesloft's alone here. Clari Forecast includes an AI Forecast Agent, an AI projection beside plan and commit figures, AI-scored opportunities and at-risk deal flags, and Inspect flags risky commit deals. Salesloft's site does not say which package includes forecasting. The Apollo.io pages we checked do not list forecasting.
Which AI features do Apollo.io and Salesloft offer?
Apollo.io launched AI Assistant on 4 March 2026. It runs natural-language workflows across the funnel with a human-in-the-loop approach, is "currently free as an introductory offer on Basic, Pro, and Org plans", and free plans get up to 5 chats. AI research jobs still draw on credits.
Salesloft's AI agents page groups agents by stage: Account Research, Person Research, Buyer Identification, Ask Salesloft, Rhythm Prioritizer and AI Email Steps for Cadence to create pipeline; Deal Summaries, Sales Methodology Extraction, Stalled Deals Insight and Objection Handling Insight to close; and Analytics Interpreter and Sales Strategist to grow and scale. It gives no pricing or availability details, and Salesloft says it uses private AI models so that a customer's data is never used to train models for other customers. Salesloft extended its MCP Server to the full Clari + Salesloft platform on 9 July 2026 (Salesloft); Apollo.io lists Apollo MCP on its homepage.
How does Apollo.io pricing compare to Salesloft pricing?
Apollo.io publishes its plans. Its pricing page names Free, Basic, Professional and Custom, and its plan guide, dated 17 September 2026, says "Free costs $0, Basic runs $49/user/month billed annually, Professional is $79/user/month" and lists an Organization plan at $119 per user per month "with a 3-user minimum"; the pricing page now shows Custom in its place. Credits are pooled across the team, granted at the start of each billing cycle and "do not roll over if unused".
Salesloft quotes. Its pricing URL opens a Talk to Sales page with no packages, prices or free trial. Its AWS Marketplace listing, sold by Salesloft, shows one "Salesloft Platform" dimension at $26,400 for a 12-month contract, billed per user, without saying how many users that covers.
The only dated contract data with sample sizes we found is Vendr's: a median Apollo.io contract of $19,000 a year, ranging from $4,284 to $45,000 (101 purchases, February 2026) (Vendr), and a median Salesloft contract of $30,740 a year, ranging from $5,152 to $146,494 (710 purchases, February 2026), with a typical minimum of 10 to 15 users (Vendr). Vendr keeps a separate Clari page, so its Salesloft figure may not include Clari products. These are Vendr estimates, not vendor prices. The Apollo.io pricing and Salesloft pricing guides go into more detail.
What do Apollo.io and Salesloft say about security and ownership?
Apollo.io's homepage cites "Enterprise-grade security and certifications, including SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001" and says its agents have "built-in support for consent and opt-out rules". Salesloft's security page lists annual SOC 2 Type 2 examinations, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701, GDPR and CCPA/CPRA compliance, and hosting on AWS and GCP in the US and EU. These are the vendors' statements; whether your own use of contact data is lawful is a question for your privacy counsel.
Apollo.io is venture-backed: it announced a $100 million Series D led by Bain Capital Ventures at a $1.6 billion valuation on 29 August 2023 (release). Vista Equity Partners invested in Salesloft in December 2021 at a $2.3 billion valuation (Salesloft), and Salesloft completed its merger with Clari on 3 December 2025 with Steve Cox as CEO; neither merger release mentions Vista.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, Apollo.io or Salesloft?
Neither is better in general. Apollo.io suits teams that want contact data, sequencing and a dialer in one self-serve platform with published per-user plans and a free plan. Salesloft suits revenue teams that want Cadence engagement with Clari forecasting, deal inspection and conversation intelligence, bought by quote. Many teams pair a data provider with an engagement platform instead.
How much do Apollo.io and Salesloft cost?
Apollo.io's September 2026 plan guide lists Free at $0, Basic at $49 per user per month billed annually and Professional at $79 per user per month. Salesloft shows no prices on its site; its AWS Marketplace listing shows one 12-month "Salesloft Platform" contract at $26,400 without a seat count. Vendr reports median contracts of $19,000 a year for Apollo.io (101 purchases) and $30,740 for Salesloft (710 purchases), both February 2026.
Does Salesloft have its own contact database?
Salesloft does not list a contact database among its products; its Buyer Identification agent works "with ZoomInfo". Apollo.io, by contrast, says it has 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts built in.
Did Salesloft merge with Clari?
Yes. Clari and Salesloft announced their merger on 7 August 2025 and completed it on 3 December 2025, with Steve Cox as CEO. The company operates as Salesloft, and Clari remains a product name in Clari Forecast, Clari Inspect and Clari Copilot.
Do Apollo.io and Salesloft have a free plan?
Apollo.io lists a Free plan for "Exploring Apollo or very light usage". Salesloft's pricing page is a Talk to Sales form with no free trial or free plan shown.
Sources
All 28 sources were opened and checked by 2026-10-21. Vendor statements are paraphrased; figures belong to the source that published them.
- Apollo.io. Apollo.io homepage (Grow revenue with one connected GTM system). Checked 2026-10-21.
- Apollo.io. Apollo.io pricing. Checked 2026-10-21.
- Apollo.io. Apollo plan details: what you're really paying for. 2026-09-17; checked 2026-10-21.
- Apollo.io Knowledge Base. Review credit usage in Apollo. Updated 2026-10-15; checked 2026-10-21.
- Apollo.io. Apollo launches AI Assistant, powering end-to-end agentic workflows in the first AI-native all-in-one GTM platform. 2026-03-04.
- Apollo.io via PR Newswire (CMSWire). Apollo.io secures $100 million Series D at $1.6B valuation to make world-class go-to-market accessible to all. 2023-08-29.
- Vendr. Apollo.io software pricing. Last updated February 2026; checked 2026-10-21.
- Salesloft. Salesloft platform overview (Predictive Revenue System). Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Salesloft /pricing URL (serves the Talk to Sales page, canonical /see-it-live). Checked 2026-10-20.
- AWS Marketplace (sold by Salesloft). Salesloft listing. Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Sales engagement software (Cadence). Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Conversation Intelligence software. Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Deal management software (Deals). Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Sales forecasting software (Clari Forecast). Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Pipeline inspection software (Inspect). Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Salesloft AI agents. Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Salesloft sets the pace on MCP, bringing live revenue data to every major AI ecosystem (press release). 2026-07-09.
- Salesloft. Salesloft security and compliance. Checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Clari and Salesloft announce agreement to merge (press release). 2025-08-07.
- Salesloft. Clari and Salesloft complete merger and appoint Steve Cox as CEO to build the first Predictive Revenue System (press release). 2025-12-03.
- Salesloft. Salesloft announces strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners achieving a $2.3 billion valuation (press release). 2021-12-23.
- Vendr. Salesloft software pricing. Last updated February 2026; checked 2026-10-20.
- Vendr. Clari software pricing. Last updated February 2026; checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Clari recognized as a Leader and Salesloft a Visionary in the first 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Revenue Action Orchestration (press release). 2025-12-16.
- Gartner. Magic Quadrant for Revenue Action Orchestration (abstract). Report dated 2026-10-13; checked 2026-10-20.
- Salesloft. Salesloft named a Leader in Revenue Orchestration Platforms for B2B, Q3 2024 analyst report (press release). 2024-09-03.
- G2. Salesloft pricing. Pricing information updated 2026-07-29; checked 2026-10-20.
- Revspire. Revspire pricing (per module, unlimited user licenses). Checked 2026-10-15.
Last updated: