Apollo.io vs Autoklose in 2026: Transparent credits vs opaque enterprise pricing
Apollo.io publishes its pricing down to the credit and gives away a genuinely usable free tier. Autoklose, backed by VanillaSoft, makes you talk to sales before you see a number.
Apollo.io
Autoklose- Apollo.io publishes pricing from $0 (Free) to $119/seat/month (Organization); Autoklose publishes no pricing at all across its three tiers, requiring a sales conversation to get a quote.
- Apollo.io's database covers 275M+ contacts and 73M+ companies with 65+ search filters; Autoklose's built-in database exists but its size and filter depth are not detailed in its own materials.
- Apollo.io's free tier includes 900 credits a year and real access to sequences and the Chrome extension; Autoklose has no published free tier or self-serve trial confirmation.
- Autoklose is part of VanillaSoft, giving it integration with lead routing and call management for teams already on that platform; Apollo.io operates as an independent, standalone platform.
- Apollo.io includes AI lead scoring, AI research prompts, and a natural-language AI Assistant across its paid tiers; Autoklose's feature list does not mention AI capabilities in its current materials.
- Apollo.io's built-in US dialer is available on all paid plans; Autoklose's own feature list does not include a dialer at all.
Both tools promise the same basic value proposition: a built-in contact database plus email sequencing so you are not paying for a data provider and an outreach tool separately. Apollo.io backs that promise with a 275M-plus contact database, a free tier with 900 credits a year, and published pricing all the way up to its Organization tier. Autoklose, part of the VanillaSoft ecosystem, makes the same pitch but with no public pricing at any tier and a smaller database footprint, which pushes buyers toward a sales conversation before they can even compare costs. The difference in transparency alone shapes who each tool actually suits.
The tools at a glance
Apollo.io
Sales intelligence and outreach platform with 275M+ verified contacts, email sequences, dialer, and AI-powered prospecting.
Apollo.io's pitch is consolidation with the receipts to prove it. A 275 million-plus contact database, searchable across 65-plus filters including buyer intent signals, sits alongside unlimited email sequences, a phone dialer, and AI lead scoring, all under one credits-based pricing model you can see in full before signing up.
The free tier is the part that actually differentiates Apollo.io from most sales intelligence platforms: 900 credits a year is enough to validate data quality and run a real first sequence, not just a locked demo. Basic at $49/seat/month adds 30,000 credits, waterfall enrichment, and email warmup, while Professional at $79/seat/month unlocks A/Z testing and call recording with AI insights.
The catch that shows up after you start using it seriously is credit consumption. Exporting a contact, enriching a record, and dialing all draw from the same pool, so a team running daily prospecting will burn through Basic's 30,000 annual credits faster than the number suggests. Organization at $119/seat/month also requires a minimum of 3 seats, which raises the entry cost for small teams wanting the top tier's features.
| Feature | Free $0/mo | Basic $49/seat/mo | Professional $79/seat/mo | Organization $119/seat/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credits per seat per year | 900 | 30,000 | 48,000 | 72,000 |
| Email Sequences | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| AI Lead Scoring | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Waterfall Enrichment | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Minimum Seats | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Autoklose
Email automation platform with a built-in B2B lead database, letting sales teams reach thousands of prospects from a single tool.
Autoklose bundles a B2B lead database directly into its email automation platform, which is the same core idea Apollo.io runs on, but it arrives at that idea from a different lineage: it is now part of VanillaSoft, a sales engagement company that acquired Autoklose to round out its outbound capabilities.
The practical workflow is straightforward. Load prospects from the built-in database, filter by industry, company size, job title, and location, then configure email sequences that handle follow-up timing and pause automatically on reply. Campaign reporting shows open, reply, and click-through rates per sequence step, and sales managers get shared visibility across the team's active campaigns.
What Autoklose does not offer is a way to price-check itself against competitors without picking up the phone. All three tiers, Starter, Small Business, and Enterprise, list "Contact for pricing" with no published numbers, and the feature list itself is thinner on specifics than Apollo.io's, particularly around AI capabilities and API documentation. For teams already inside the VanillaSoft ecosystem, that trade-off may not matter; for anyone comparison shopping, it is a real friction point.
| Feature | Starter Contact for pricing | Small Business Contact for pricing | Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email sequence automation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in lead database | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Team collaboration | No | Yes | Yes |
| CRM integrations | No | Yes | Yes |
| VanillaSoft integration | No | Yes | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Apollo.io | Autoklose |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Yes, fully published from $0 to $119/seat/mo | No, all tiers require a sales conversation |
| Contact database size | 275M+ contacts, 73M+ companies | Not published |
| Free tier | Yes, 900 credits/year | Not confirmed in published materials |
| AI lead scoring | Yes, from Basic up | Not listed |
| Built-in dialer | Yes, included on paid plans | Not listed |
| Search filters | 65+ filters | Filter by industry, company size, title, location |
| CRM integrations | Yes, from Basic up | Yes, from Small Business up |
| Team collaboration reporting | Not a named feature | Yes, shared campaign visibility |
| Ecosystem integration | Standalone platform | VanillaSoft (lead routing, call management) |
| Starting price | $0/mo (Free tier) | Contact for pricing |
Which should you choose?
Apollo.ioAutokloseApollo.ioApollo.ioAutokloseApollo.ioAutoklose is not a weak product, it is a product that asks for more trust before it shows you the terms. That is a reasonable model if you are already inside VanillaSoft and value the integration, but for anyone evaluating cold, Apollo.io's transparency is a genuine competitive advantage, not just a marketing preference. A 900-credit free tier that actually works is worth more to a comparison-shopping buyer than a sales call promising features Apollo.io already lists on its pricing page.
Bottom line
Start with Apollo.io's free tier if you have not committed to either platform, since 900 credits is enough to test data quality on your actual target market before paying a cent. Choose Autoklose specifically if you are already running VanillaSoft for lead routing and call management and want the outbound layer to plug into that existing investment rather than run separately. Outside of that VanillaSoft case, Apollo.io's database size, published pricing, and AI features make it the safer default.
Frequently asked questions
Does Autoklose have a free trial like Apollo.io's free tier?
Autoklose's current materials do not confirm an active free tier or trial, and pricing across all three of its tiers is listed as "Contact for pricing." Apollo.io, by contrast, has a permanent free tier with 900 credits a year that gives real access to prospecting, sequences, and its Chrome extension.
Why doesn't Autoklose publish its pricing?
Autoklose does not publish pricing on its website for any of its three tiers, Starter, Small Business, or Enterprise, requiring a demo or sales conversation to get a quote. This is common for tools positioned around a broader sales engagement ecosystem like VanillaSoft, but it does add friction for buyers who want a quick cost comparison against Apollo.io's published rates.
Is Apollo.io's contact database bigger than Autoklose's?
Apollo.io publishes a database size of 275 million-plus contacts and 73 million-plus companies searchable across 65-plus filters, while Autoklose does not publish a comparable database size figure in its own materials. That gap in transparency makes a direct size comparison difficult, but it does mean Apollo.io is the only one of the two you can evaluate on this specific dimension before signing up.
Does Autoklose include AI features comparable to Apollo.io's AI lead scoring?
No, Autoklose's published feature list does not include AI lead scoring, AI research prompts, or a natural-language assistant, the three AI capabilities that are core to Apollo.io's Basic tier and above. If AI-assisted prioritization is a requirement, Apollo.io is the tool that currently supports it.
Is Autoklose a good fit if I am not using VanillaSoft?
It can still work, since Autoklose functions as a standalone product even outside the VanillaSoft ecosystem, but the value proposition weakens without that integration, and you lose Apollo.io's advantages of published pricing, a larger documented database, and built-in AI features. Teams outside VanillaSoft are generally better served starting with Apollo.io's free tier.
Which tool is better for a sales manager who needs visibility across multiple reps?
Both support team collaboration, but Autoklose's sales team collaboration feature is built specifically around shared campaign visibility and reporting for managers overseeing multiple SDRs, and is available from its Small Business tier up. Apollo.io does not name a dedicated manager-visibility feature in the same way, though its Organization tier's customizable reports and CRM integrations can cover similar ground for larger teams.