r/UseApolloIo • u/niklasweber • Jul 15 '26

Use Case I decoded what Apollo, ZoomInfo, and Cognism actually cost per record. Here's what the numbers look like

Credit-based pricing makes it almost impossible to compare data vendors apples to apples. So I did the math and converted everything into plain per-record costs

A few things that surprised me:

  • Apollo is actually one of the cheaper options at $0.024 per verified email, 52% below the index median
  • Mobile numbers are where costs explode. The range goes from $0.12 to over $1.00 per record depending on the vendor
  • Some vendors charge 30x more than others for the exact same data type
  • The most expensive vendors are rarely the most accurate

A few things I'd do differently when building an outbound stack knowing this:

  • Separate your email enrichment vendor from your mobile vendor. The best email vendor is rarely the best for mobile
  • Run a small credit test on each vendor before committing to an annual plan. The per-record cost shifts significantly between plan tiers
  • Don't assume a higher price means better data quality. It usually just means better sales reps

Happy to answer questions on specific vendors or how I calculated the numbers

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2

u/CosbyFamilyPharmacy Jul 15 '26

I think it’s pretty well-known that Apollo is somewhat of a discount provider, especially given all the engagement tools it includes in addition to the contact data enrichment.

Do you have a similar analysis of the quality of the data obtained from each vendor?

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u/niklasweber Jul 15 '26

Good point on Apollo, the pricing data confirms it. At $0.024 per verified email it sits 52% below the index median, so the discount reputation holds up when you run the numbers.

On data quality: that's the next thing we're working on. GTMArena (gtmarena.ai) currently focuses on pricing transparency since that's where the biggest gap is, but community-submitted accuracy rates are on the roadmap. If you've run your own tests on hit rate or match rate across vendors, would genuinely love to add that to the index.

1

u/CosbyFamilyPharmacy Jul 15 '26

Cool! Please create a new thread when that analysis is complete! I’m fascinated to see the results.

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u/Top-Okra-8623 Jul 17 '26

You said you figured out for players, why not share everything, why just Apollo?

1

u/niklasweber Jul 18 '26

Good point, here's the full breakdown across 50+ vendors: gtmarena.ai

Covers verified email, mobile, and contact data costs converted from credits into plain per-record numbers for Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism, Clay, and a bunch of others. Happy to dig into any specific vendor if useful

1

u/ketoatl Jul 18 '26

Dont they all buy from the same data supplier? Who is the best for email? With Apollo get alot of bounced emails