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CRM · head to head

Apollo.io vs ConnectAndSell

Apollo.io logo

Apollo.io

CRM

Revenue intelligence platform

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
ConnectAndSell logo

ConnectAndSell

Sales Enablement

Live human agents navigate phone trees and gatekeepers, then bridge your rep to a decision maker

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Apollo.io has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Apollo.io everything is metered in credits, and the free Starter plan runs on them too, so prospecting volume is capped rather than the feature set; ConnectAndSell cost per seat sits an order of magnitude above self-serve parallel diallers, with third-party figures around $1,500 to $3,000 per rep per month, so the tool is unforgiving of a ramping rep, a holiday or a slow quarter.
  • They diverge on capability: Apollo.io covers Contact database, ConnectAndSell covers Agent-assisted parallel dialling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Apollo.io and ConnectAndSell actually diverge.

Attributes where Apollo.io and ConnectAndSell differ
AttributeApollo.ioConnectAndSell
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Free tierYesNo
CategoryCRMSales Enablement
Founded2020Unknown

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Apollo.io

  • Contact database
  • Email finder
  • Lead search
  • Automation
  • Engagement tracking
  • Reporting
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot

Only in ConnectAndSell

  • Agent-assisted parallel dialling
  • Gatekeeper and IVR navigation
  • Live answer detection
  • Call recording and monitoring
  • List and cadence management
  • Real-time AI coaching
  • AI call summaries
  • Conversation rate analytics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Apollo.io

  • Sales prospecting and lead generationnot ConnectAndSell
  • Contact database management for sales teamsnot ConnectAndSell
  • Email outreach and workflow automationnot ConnectAndSell

ConnectAndSell

  • An enterprise sales team where a single conversation with the right VP is worth five figures and the phone is the only channel that reaches them.not Apollo.io
  • An SDR organisation whose reps spend most of their day dialling voicemail and cannot raise conversation counts by working harder.not Apollo.io
  • A company selling into industries with switchboards and receptionists, where software diallers hit a wall no amount of parallelism fixes.not Apollo.io
  • A sales leader who wants to test whether the pipeline problem is list quality or activity volume, by holding the list constant and raising conversations tenfold.not Apollo.io

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Apollo.io

  • Everything is metered in credits, and the free Starter plan runs on them too, so prospecting volume is capped rather than the feature set
  • Plans described as unlimited are capped in the fair use policy at 10,000 credits a month for non-paying accounts
  • Connecting a mailbox that is not Gmail or Microsoft requires a paid plan
  • How many records can be selected at once varies by tier
  • Running out of credits means buying more rather than waiting for a reset

ConnectAndSell

  • Cost per seat sits an order of magnitude above self-serve parallel diallers, with third-party figures around $1,500 to $3,000 per rep per month, so the tool is unforgiving of a ramping rep, a holiday or a slow quarter.
  • Nothing is published and seats have minimums, so there is no way to benchmark or budget without entering a sales cycle, and small teams frequently find the entry seat count exceeds their headcount.
  • Reviewers report intermittent downtime and features not behaving as expected, and because the billable unit is effectively a dialling hour, an outage converts directly into quantifiable lost spend rather than mild annoyance.
  • Results are heavily list dependent: the platform accelerates dialling but does nothing about data quality, so reviewers feeding stale contacts report weak returns and you must budget separately for a data vendor.
  • The live agent model is built around US English outbound, with no evidence of meaningful multilingual agent coverage or EU data residency guarantees, which makes European and APAC dialling and GDPR-sensitive campaigns a poor fit.
  • Contract terms are described inconsistently across sources, twelve-month minimum in some and no minimum in others, indicating negotiated non-standard paper, unequal terms between buyers and legal review time on every deal.
  • High-volume parallel dialling attracts TCPA and STIR/SHAKEN scrutiny and carrier spam labelling, and the resulting damage to your number reputation is an operational cost the vendor does not price for.

Pricing, plan by plan

Apollo.io

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Basic contact search
    • Limited searches
  • Starter$49/month
    • Everything in Free
    • Advanced search
    • Email finder
  • Professional$149/month
    • Everything in Starter
    • Automation
    • Advanced analytics

ConnectAndSell

On request
  • Test Drive Experience$undefined/year
    • Free scoped trial session
    • Live agent dialling on your own list
    • Used as the sales qualification step
  • Flight School$undefined/year
    • Seat based
    • Coaching-oriented onboarding programme
    • Live agent dialling
  • Express Connect$undefined/year
    • Seat based
    • Higher dial throughput
    • Call recording and analytics
  • Precision Connect$undefined/year
    • Seat based
    • Highest dial throughput tier
    • AI coaching and call summaries

Which should you pick?

Choose Apollo.io if

  • You need contact database.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want email finder.
Apollo.io review

Choose ConnectAndSell if

  • You need agent-assisted parallel dialling.
  • You also want gatekeeper and ivr navigation.
ConnectAndSell review

Questions people ask

Is Apollo.io or ConnectAndSell better?
Neither clearly leads. Apollo.io starts at Free and ConnectAndSell at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Apollo.io or ConnectAndSell?
Apollo.io has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Apollo.io and On request for ConnectAndSell.
Does Apollo.io or ConnectAndSell run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Apollo.io for free?
Yes. Apollo.io has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ConnectAndSell starts at On request.
What is Apollo.io best used for?
Apollo.io is most often used for sales prospecting and lead generation, contact database management for sales teams, email outreach and workflow automation. Of those, sales prospecting and lead generation and contact database management for sales teams are not what ConnectAndSell is typically brought in for.
What can Apollo.io do that ConnectAndSell cannot?
Apollo.io covers Contact database, Email finder, Lead search, Automation. ConnectAndSell covers Agent-assisted parallel dialling, Gatekeeper and IVR navigation, Live answer detection, Call recording and monitoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Apollo.io: Does Apollo offer a free plan?

Yes, Apollo offers a Starter plan that is free forever and includes unlimited email addresses for contacts. Gmail and Microsoft email account linking are available on the free plan with limited third-party email account linking.

Source
ConnectAndSell: How is this different from Orum or Nooks?

Those are software diallers. ConnectAndSell puts live human agents between the dial and your rep to handle gatekeepers and phone trees. That is why it reaches people software cannot, and why it costs roughly ten times more.

Apollo.io: How does Apollo's credit system work?

Apollo uses a credit-based system for exporting contact data outside the platform. Free and non-paying accounts have a monthly credit limit of 10,000 credits. Paid accounts receive limits based on their plan pricing, calculated as the lesser of annual commit divided by $0.025 or 1 million credits annually.

Source
ConnectAndSell: What does it cost?

Nothing is published. Third-party reviewers cite roughly $1,500 to $3,000 per rep per month depending on dial rate. Treat that as unverified and get it in writing.

Apollo.io: How much do trial plans cost on Apollo?

Apollo trial plans include 50 credits and 5 mobile credits to test paid features at no charge. Trial versions do not support non-Gmail/Microsoft email account linking. Upgrades take effect immediately while downgrades take effect at the end of the billing cycle.

Source
ConnectAndSell: Is there a trial?

Yes, a free Test Drive session on your own list. It doubles as the sales qualification step.

ConnectAndSell: Does it work outside the United States?

It is built for US English outbound. There is no evidence of substantive multilingual agent coverage or EU data residency guarantees.

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Related pages

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