Head to head
Clay vs Apollo: a workflow builder and a contact database
Clay puts 150+ data partners behind a workflow you build. Apollo sells its own contact database with sequences and a dialer, priced per seat.
Published by
Oneprofile
Updated Oct 17, 2026
· 9 min read
Rewrote the Oneprofile section and its FAQ answer for this matchup; tool prices as checked on Oct 16.
We make Oneprofile.
Prices checked Oct 16, 2026
The short answer
Clay chains 150+ data partners from $185 a month and Apollo bundles its own database, sequences, and dialer from $65 a seat a month, both billed monthly, with lower annual prices. Neither names billing, support, or product tools as a source on its entry paid plan. Oneprofile reads them and writes results back to your CRM from $20 a month, billed monthly.
Clay
Table-based enrichment workflow builder
vs
Apollo.io
Sales platform on its own contact database
Entry paid plan
Launch: $185/mo billed monthly, or $167/mo billed annually
Basic: $65 per seat/mo billed monthly, or $49 per seat/mo billed annually
What the bill is based on
Two meters: Actions for platform work and Data Credits for data
Seats, each carrying credits pooled across the team
Unused credits
Actions reset monthly; Data Credits roll over up to 2x the monthly amount
Expire at the end of each billing cycle, add-on credits included
We make Oneprofile, the third option on this page.
Prices checked Oct 16, 2026
Clay vs Apollo, feature by feature
Side by side on where the data comes from, what it costs, and what it takes to get a record into your CRM.
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Compared on | ClayFrom $185/mo, billed monthly | Apollo.ioFrom $65/seat/mo, billed monthly |  OneprofileFrom $20/mo, billed monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | |||
| Entry paid plan | Launch: $185/mo billed monthly, or $167/mo billed annuallyPer workspace, unlimited seats; 15,000 actions and 2,500 data credits a month | Basic: $65 per seat/mo billed monthly, or $49 per seat/mo billed annuallyPer seat; 2,500 credits per seat a month | Team: $20/mo billed monthly, or $192 a year billed annuallyPer workspace, unlimited seats; 1,000 credits a month |
| What the bill is based on | Two meters: Actions for platform work and Data Credits for data | Seats, each carrying credits pooled across the team | One credit meter; no seat fees |
| Unused credits | Actions reset monthly; Data Credits roll over up to 2x the monthly amount | Expire at the end of each billing cycle, add-on credits included | Never expire |
| Free plan | 500 actions and 100 data credits a month, 200 rows per table | 75 credits per seat a month, 2 sequences, Gmail only | 200 credits a month, 3 integrations, 100 rows per table |
| Data | |||
| Where the data comes from | A marketplace of 150+ data partners | Its own database of more than 240 million contacts and 30 million companies | A waterfall of 75+ data sources, plus the tools you connect |
| When the first source has no answer | The next data partner in a waterfall you build | From Basic, 20+ data partners in the order you set, for emails and phones | The next data source in an order set for accuracy; a miss costs nothing |
| Records from your own tools | CRM and data warehouse auto-sync from Growth | Enriches your CRM records; lookups in other tools are not listed | Look up a record in a tool you already connected |
| CRM and API | |||
| Writing results back to your CRM | From Growth: $495/mo billed monthly, or $446/mo billed annuallyPer workspace; Free and Launch do not include CRM integrations | From Basic: $65 per seat/mo billed monthly, or $49 billed annuallyPer seat; Free lists CRM enrichment of 100 records a month | On every plan, Free includedFree allows 3 integrations; paid plans from $20/mo have no integration cap |
| API access | HTTP API integrations from Growth; the Clay API on Enterprise | API Access listed on Free; API for advanced or custom integrations on Custom plans | Read-only API keys on Free; read and write on paid plans |
| Outreach and AI | |||
| Outreach in the same tool | Clay's own email sequencer | Email sequences, plus a US dialer from Basic | Email and LinkedIn steps in one sequence; no dialer |
| Scoring accounts with AI | Claygent researches custom data points with AI | AI Scores; unlimited lead scoring from Professional | ICP scorer: a fit band, a 0-100 score, and its reasons, 3 credits a row |
Clay vs Apollo pricing: per workspace vs per seat
Clay prices the workspace, so Launch costs $185 a month billed monthly ($167 billed annually) however many people log in. Apollo's Basic is $65 per seat a month billed monthly or $49 billed annually, which means the bill grows with every rep you hire.
Clay
Per workspace, sized on two meters (Actions and Data Credits); unlimited seats on every plan
- Free$0500 actions and 100 data credits a month; up to 200 rows per table
- Launch$185/mo15,000 actions and 2,500 data credits a month (180,000 actions and 30,000 data credits a year on annual billing); up to 50,000 rows per table
- GrowthCRM sync from this plan$495/mo40,000 actions and 6,000 data credits a month (480,000 actions and 72,000 data credits a year on annual billing)
- EnterpriseCustom pricingCustom; the FAQ says 100,000+ data credits and 200,000+ actions a month
Prices checked Oct 16, 2026, clay.com/pricing
Apollo.io
Per seat per month; credits are granted per seat and pooled across the team
- Free$075 credits per seat per month (900 per seat per year, granted monthly, on the annual view)
- BasicCRM sync from this plan$65 per seat/mo2,500 credits per seat per month billed monthly; 30,000 per seat per year granted upfront billed annually
- Professional$99 per seat/mo4,000 credits per seat per month billed monthly; 48,000 per seat per year granted upfront billed annually
- Organization$119 per seat/mo72,000 credits per seat per year, granted upfront
- CustomCustom pricingCustom volumes
Prices checked Oct 16, 2026, apollo.io/pricing
Oneprofile
One credit meter at $0.02 a credit; unlimited seats on paid plans
- FreeCRM sync from this plan$0200 credits a month; up to 3 integrations, 3 tables, and 100 rows per table
- Team$20/mo1,000 credits a month that never expire; unlimited integrations and tables; up to 10,000 rows per table
- Pro$200/mo5,000 credits a month that never expire; unlimited integrations and tables; up to 250,000 rows per table
- EnterpriseCustom pricingCustom credit volume; unlimited seats, tables, rows, and integrations
Prices checked Oct 16, 2026, getoneprofile.ai/pricing
Pricing notes
Apollo's Organization plan is annual only with a three-seat minimum, so the smallest account is $357 a month billed annually.
Apollo credits expire at the end of each billing cycle, add-on credits included. Clay's Actions reset monthly, while Data Credits roll over up to 2x.
Clay starts CRM auto-sync on Growth at $495 a month billed monthly ($446 annually); Apollo's CRM integrations start on Basic.
Oneprofile's Team plan is $20 a month billed monthly for 1,000 credits and unlimited seats; Pro is a $100 platform fee plus credits at $0.02.
Clay vs Apollo: strengths and limitations
Clay
Best for: Teams with someone to build and own enrichment logic
Clay is a GTM data platform shaped like a spreadsheet. Each column can call a data source from its marketplace, cascade across several of them, or hand the row to an AI research agent. It sells to growth and GTM engineering teams who would rather design the enrichment logic themselves than accept a tool's fixed schema, and it has become the category's reference point.
Does well
150+ data partners behind one lookup
Claygent researches what nobody sells as a field
Falls short
Two meters make the bill hard to predict
CRM sync waits for the Growth plan
Entry price: $185/mo (Launch, billed monthly)
Source: clay.com/pricing
Apollo.io
Best for: Reps who want search, email, and calls in one login
Apollo.io is an all-in-one sales platform built on its own B2B database: more than 240 million contacts and 30 million companies by its own count. Reps search it by title, headcount, industry, and intent, then run email sequences and calls without leaving the tool. From Basic, a waterfall fills missing emails and phone numbers from 20+ data partners.
Does well
A Free plan to test the workflow
Find them, email them, and call them in one tool
Falls short
Credits expire every billing cycle
The bill tracks headcount, not data
Entry price: $65/seat/mo (Basic, billed monthly)
Source: apollo.io/pricing
Clay vs Apollo: which should you pick?
Clay
Best for: Teams with someone to build and own enrichment logic
Choose Clay if someone on your team enjoys building enrichment logic and wants 150+ data partners to build it with.
Apollo.io
Best for: Reps who want search, email, and calls in one login
Choose Apollo if your reps want one per-seat login for search, email sequences, and calls.
Oneprofile
Choose Oneprofile if the accounts are already in your CRM and you want them enriched, scored, and sequenced on email and LinkedIn, with unlimited seats from $20 a month billed monthly.
Free plan: 200 credits a month, 3 integrations, no card
What Clay vs Apollo both leave out of your CRM
Oneprofile sets the source order for you, adds what your own tools know about each account, and, unlike Apollo, bills the workspace instead of the seat.
What your own tools know joins the record
A contact database knows a title and a headcount. Your billing, support, and product tools know who downgraded last week and who filed four tickets. Look up your own data reads those records from Stripe, Zendesk, or Postgres, and puts them beside third-party data, so a rep sees both on the same row before the first call.
Your CRM is where the list starts and ends
Import accounts from HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Attio on a schedule, enrich them, and write the results to the fields you map. Reps get the answer in the CRM they already work in, not in another login. Free covers 3 integrations, and Team at $20 a month billed monthly has no integration cap.
A waterfall nobody has to build
Oneprofile asks data sources one at a time in an order chosen for accuracy and stops at the first answer, so nobody designs or maintains a chain. You pay for the data source that answered, a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing, and checking the address is its own step.
Unlike Apollo, no bill per seat
Seats are unlimited on every paid plan, so hiring a rep does not raise the bill. Lookups run on one meter at $0.02 a credit: a work email costs up to 10 credits and a phone number up to 39.4, shown before the run starts. Credits never expire, and extra credits cost the same $0.02 a credit.
Score the list, then sequence the best fits
The ICP scorer gives every account a fit band, a 0-100 score, and the facts behind it, for 3 credits a scored account. The best fits go into a sequence that mixes email and LinkedIn steps, and every reply lands in one inbox, so the list you scored is the list you work.
Clay vs Apollo: common questions
Clay vs Apollo: which is better for data enrichment?
It depends on who does the work. Clay is better when someone wants to build enrichment logic across 150+ data partners, and Apollo when reps want search, sequences, and calls in one login. If the accounts are already in your CRM, Oneprofile enriches and scores them from $20 a month billed monthly.
Clay vs Apollo pricing: which one costs more?
Apollo costs less for one rep and more as you hire. Basic is $65 per seat a month billed monthly ($49 billed annually), while Clay's Launch is $185 a month billed monthly ($167 annually) for the whole workspace, sized on Actions and Data Credits.
Apollo vs Clay: does either write enriched data back to my CRM?
Both do, on different plans. Apollo's CRM integrations start on Basic at $65 per seat a month billed monthly. Clay's CRM auto-sync starts on Growth at $495 a month billed monthly ($446 annually), and Free and Launch include no CRM integration.
Can I use Clay and Apollo together?
Yes. Apollo can handle search, sequences, and calls while Clay researches the accounts Apollo's data misses. The cost is two subscriptions, three meters between them, and two places your data sits before the CRM sees it.
Clay or Apollo for a five-person sales team?
For five reps, Apollo Basic costs $325 a month billed monthly ($245 annually), and Clay Launch costs $185 a month billed monthly for the workspace. Oneprofile's Team plan is $20 a month billed monthly with unlimited seats, and it enriches, scores, and sequences the same accounts.
Clay vs Apollo.io: what does Oneprofile do differently?
It sets the data source order for you and enriches from your own systems as well as bought data. Stripe, Zendesk, and Postgres records sit beside third-party data, and every integration is included from $20 a month billed monthly. Unlike Apollo, it bills the workspace instead of the seat.
About this article
Oneprofile
Publisher of this page
Oneprofile finds the right people, enriches them, and helps you reach them.
Drafted with AI from our product docs and code, and published by Oneprofile.