Apollo.io vs Brevo in 2026: B2B sales prospecting vs all-in-one email marketing priced by sends
Apollo.io is a sales intelligence and outreach platform built around a 275 million contact database and a credit system. Brevo is a multichannel marketing platform that charges by emails sent, not contacts stored, with GDPR built into its architecture.
Apollo.io
Brevo- Apollo.io's 275M+ contact database and built-in dialer make it a prospecting tool first. Brevo has no contact database of its own; it is a channel for messaging contacts you already have.
- Brevo prices by monthly email volume with unlimited contact storage. Apollo.io uses a per-seat plan plus an annual credit pool that is consumed by exports, enrichment, and dialing.
- Apollo.io includes a US phone dialer with call recording and AI insights on Professional and Organization plans. Brevo has no dialer feature at all.
- Brevo is a French company with EU data residency and GDPR built into its architecture. Apollo.io's data model is not built around EU data-residency requirements.
- Apollo.io's free tier gives 900 credits per year with real prospecting access. Brevo's free tier gives unlimited contact storage with 300 emails per day.
- Brevo bundles SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, and a CRM pipeline into its paid tiers. Apollo.io offers none of those channels; it stays focused on email sequences and calling.
Apollo.io and Brevo both get filed under marketing automation, but they solve different problems for different teams. Apollo.io exists to help sales reps find new people to talk to: a 275M+ contact database, email sequences, a phone dialer, and AI lead scoring built for outbound prospecting. Brevo exists to help you message people you already have: an all-in-one email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM platform priced by how many emails you send rather than how many contacts you store. A B2B sales team building cold outbound lists and a retailer or SaaS company nurturing an existing customer base are asking two different questions, and this comparison is for anyone trying to work out which one actually matches their job.
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 is a sales intelligence and outreach platform built for B2B sales and growth teams. It combines a 275M+ contact database with built-in email sequencing, a phone dialer, LinkedIn automation, AI lead scoring, and workflow automation, replacing a stack of separate data, sequencing, and dialer vendors.
The credits-based system gives teams a measurable unit of consumption: every contact export, phone reveal, or enrichment action draws from a shared pool assigned per seat per year. Waterfall enrichment on paid plans chains multiple data sources to maximize match rates, and AI Research prompts let reps surface custom insights, like recent funding or hiring signals, without manual digging.
Apollo is built for finding and reaching new people, not for running ongoing broadcast campaigns to an existing list. There is no SMS, WhatsApp, or native CRM pipeline. It is the tool you reach for when the job is outbound, not lifecycle marketing.
| 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 |
| Contact database access | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email sequences | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Built-in dialer | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI lead scoring | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Call recordings and AI insights | No | No | 4,000 mins | 8,000 mins |
| Minimum seats | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Brevo
All-in-one email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM platform priced by emails sent, not contacts stored.
Brevo, formerly Sendinblue, is a French marketing platform covering email campaigns, transactional messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat, push notifications, and CRM from a single dashboard, serving over 600,000 customers worldwide.
The core pricing advantage is that Brevo charges by the number of emails you send per month, not by contact list size. A business with a large list but low send frequency pays far less than on platforms that price per contact stored. Automation, A/B testing, and AI send-time optimization arrive on the Standard plan and above, alongside a built-in CRM with deal pipelines and contact scoring on Professional.
Brevo is built for messaging people already in your database across whatever channel fits, not for finding new prospects. There is no contact database, no dialer, and no outbound prospecting layer; the entire product assumes you already have the list.
| Feature | Free $0 | Starter From $9/mo | Standard From $18/mo | Professional From $539/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly email sends | 300/day | From 20k | From 20k | From 150k |
| Contact storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Marketing automation | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| SMS and WhatsApp | No | SMS only | SMS only | Yes |
| Contact scoring | No | No | No | Yes |
| Phone support | No | No | No | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Apollo.io | Brevo |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | B2B sales prospecting, outreach, and dialing | Multichannel email, SMS, WhatsApp, and CRM marketing |
| Contact/lead database | 275M+ contacts, 73M+ companies | No external contact database; messages your own contacts |
| Pricing model | Per-seat plus annual credit pool | Priced by monthly email sends, unlimited contact storage |
| Starting paid price | $49/seat/mo (Basic) | $9/mo (Starter, 20k sends) |
| Free tier | Yes (900 credits/year) | Yes (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) |
| Built-in phone dialer | Yes (US dialer, Advanced Dialer add-on) | No |
| SMS and WhatsApp channels | No | Yes (SMS from Starter, WhatsApp on Professional) |
| CRM / deal pipeline | No native CRM (syncs to Salesforce and HubSpot) | Yes (deal pipelines, contact scoring on Professional) |
| AI features | AI Research prompts, AI lead scoring, AI Assistant | AI content generator, AI send-time optimization, Aura AI Sales Assistant |
| API access | Yes (enrichment and CRM sync API) | Yes (SMTP relay and REST API, all plans) |
| GDPR / EU data residency | No EU-native architecture documented | Yes (French company, EU data residency) |
Which should you choose?
Apollo.ioApollo.ioBrevoBrevoBrevoApollo.ioThese two platforms rarely compete for the same budget line because they solve different halves of the funnel. Apollo.io is about finding and reaching people you do not have yet. Brevo is about messaging people you already have, across whatever channel fits, without your bill scaling with list size. Plenty of teams end up running both: Apollo.io for outbound prospecting into a CRM, and Brevo for the lifecycle and transactional messaging that follows once a contact converts.
Bottom line
Pick Apollo.io if the job is outbound: building lists, running sequences, and getting reps on the phone with new prospects. Pick Brevo if the job is messaging an existing list across email, SMS, and WhatsApp without paying more as that list grows, especially if GDPR compliance needs to be architectural rather than a checkbox. If you need both motions, expect to run them as separate tools rather than looking for one platform to do both well.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apollo.io or Brevo better for a small B2B sales team?
Apollo.io is the better fit for a small B2B sales team because it is built around finding contacts and running outbound sequences, including a phone dialer, which Brevo does not have at all. Brevo has no contact database and is designed for messaging people already in your system.
Can Brevo replace Apollo.io for prospecting?
No. Brevo has no contact database, no lead scoring, and no dialer, so it cannot replace Apollo.io for finding new prospects. Brevo is built to send email, SMS, and WhatsApp messages to contacts you already have, not to source new ones.
Why does Brevo price by emails sent instead of contacts stored?
Brevo's pricing model charges for the emails you actually send each month and lets you store unlimited contacts at no extra cost, which favors businesses with large lists that they only email in filtered segments. Apollo.io's per-seat plus credit model is built around a different unit of value: contact exports, enrichment, and phone reveals used during active prospecting.
Does Apollo.io offer SMS or WhatsApp like Brevo does?
No, Apollo.io does not offer SMS or WhatsApp messaging on any plan. Its channels are limited to email sequences, LinkedIn steps, and phone calls through its built-in dialer. Brevo covers SMS on Starter plans and above and adds WhatsApp on the Professional tier.
Which tool is more GDPR-friendly, Apollo.io or Brevo?
Brevo is the more GDPR-friendly option because it is a French company subject to EU data protection law directly, with data residency available in Europe and built-in consent tools. Apollo.io's tool data does not document an EU-native data-residency architecture, so EU-based teams with strict compliance requirements should weigh that difference carefully.